1600 – Something: Basque Country

The last game in the Summer 1606 campaign move brings us to the Iberian Peninsula. Here, you might recall, the Basques have rebelled against the central government. This was actually caused by the French, who used their ‘subvert’ card to cause a revolt. The French, you might recall, did a similar thing in Estonia and caused the Swedish army to defect to the Muscovites. Reputations for Machiavellian diplomacy are hard to lose, of course.

Still, Spanish government local forces moved in to crush the rebels. Both sides got randomly drawn Spanish-style armies, with added possibilities of militia. The government got four demi-lancer bases, four pike bases, three shot bases and a light horse. The Basques got two demi-lancers, five pike, two shot, a light horse and two militia bases. The new(-ish) system gave a start time of 09:15, with fair weather and a light wind (force 2) blowing north-east.

The set-up is above, the government to the left. The far side of the field is fairly open, and so the idea is to crush the rebel right and then sweep across from that flank, while the foot mask the Basque infantry. The Basque idea is to hold their right with the cavalry, while using their infantry advantage, especially on their left where the bulk of the pike are deployed on a hill. The militia are in reserve on the far left (near right of the picture), behind the hill.

The action started with a general government advance, as seen. The light cavalry of both sides clashed, to the advantage of the government.

In the centre and on the government right, the infantry have got into range, although not much has happened so far except smoke. On the government left, however, there have been developments. The Basque light horse has been chased off by demi-lancers, but the Basque demi-lancers have charged in. One base has been bounced, but the other is driving back its opponents. But the government still has a second line of cavalry, so there should not be a problem.

As the infantry get closer to exchanging fisticuffs, the cavalry combat continues. The government general has led his men into the bounced Basque demi-lancers, much to their detriment. The Basque general has continued the victorious charge into the second line of government demi-lancers.

The government general and his cavalry have seen off their opponents, and, not having charged into combat, are returning to the main cavalry fight. The Basque general and his cavalry have been bounced off some very shaken government demi-lancers and are now in trouble. The general has led them across behind government lines to try to get away from the returning government forces. In the meantime, in the centre, the government infantry has continued its advance. On the Basque left, however, the pike on the hill have got fed up of being shot at and have advanced. This was not part of the government plan, and their infantry have got a bit close to the hill.

With a bit of nifty hoof-work, the government general has switched demi-lancer bases and charged the second base into the rear of the Basque general and his demi-lancers (it was all in range, honest). This has led to the rout of the Basques, but the general has survived and is now adding his heft to the pikes coming down the hill. The rest of the government cavalry are, however, scattered and will take a while to sort out. In the centre, the infantry action is fairly close, but on the Basque left the pike are holding the government pike and driving off the musketeers.

The infantry combat then arrived at its crisis points. In the centre, the government foot was starting to be driven off with damage. The story was similar on the Basque left, where the musketeers had been routed and the pike, in spite of the presence of the general, were being driven back. It has to be admitted that the government tempo rolls were awful at this point, and they just could not get orders to the cavalry.

It did not go on much longer, in spite of the government trying to round up some support for the central foot. The central pike block was routed despite support from the shaken musketeers. The Basques shrugged off the flank attack as if it were rainwater. On the Basque left, the infantry had routed as well, taking the general with them. The demi-lancers, which were carefully lining up a flank attack on the Basque pikes is now obstructed by fleeing government forces.

At this point the government was 14 morale points down, and the dice roll did not improve matters, so the army routed. They really did have a set of bad dice rolls towards the end.

And so the campaign turn finishes after seven wargames. It was a nicely varied move, with action from Vietnam to Iberia. I suppose the headline news is the failure of the Spanish to take Paris, along with the revolt in the Basque Country which has not been quelled. The rout of the Ottomans in Bosnia is also noteworthy, along with, of course, the usual shenanigans in South-East Asia where countries just cannot seem to stop invading each other. The Muscovites have also suffered what we might call another strategic setback. They just cannot seem to break out of the net between them and the Baltic.

Next up, of course, is the Autumn 1606 move, which will again be in the Eurasian landmass. The addition of the African states and the Americas will occur in the Winter turn, although the term ‘winter’ does not apply quite so much to Africa and other equatorial entities. So that might change things slightly, although the fact has been ignored for India thus far. Still, in Europe there is all to play for between France and Spain, and the Balkans are wide open if the Austrians choose to exploit the fact. Even in South-East Asia things might quieten down as states run out of money. Mind you, in the far east, the Koreans are now trapped on Kyushu after the demise of their fleet, and the advent of the Japanese navy into the Sea of Japan. The game, as they say, is afoot...

Is Enough Ever Enough?

Last Wednesday’s post seems to have provoked a bit of a reaction, at least, as much of a reaction as this blog ever gets. To the comment that I am thinking about retiring my paintbrushes, there seem to have been two distinct reactions. Firstly, that this could never be. Stopping painting, and, I suppose, by extension buying new model soldiers, launching new projects, and so on, was simply unthinkable.

The other reaction was along the lines of ‘Good for you. I’m hoping to complete my armies soon as well’. This seems to be rather tied up with a decision to focus on a given period, or set of periods, and having sufficient resources to play whatever wargame the wargamer requires within the framework of period, time, size of game, and so on.

I have no doubt that my reader will be aware of which of these camps I fall into, but I thought it might be worthwhile to explore why that might be. Alternatively, those who cannot conceive of ever finishing their collections might find something in the mirror image of these musings. Or, maybe, not.

Firstly, I must confess to having rather changed camps in the last few years. This is partly imposed, of course, by the imminent threat of having to downsize, which really does focus the mind somewhat. I was also provoked by the Estimable Mrs P who, upon peering into one of the cupboards last year, inquired, ‘Do you actually know what is in some of these boxes?’ Actually, I probably did, or would have done upon opening them, but it was certainly true that some of the armies had barely been in action at all, particularly the ancients.

There was also a growing feeling that I did have a big project in me, and that project would be set in the early modern period. I will not now go into the gestation of the 1600 – Something campaign, but I did know in advance that it would be an all-encompassing wargame project. And so it has proved. I did try to gain some enthusiasm for a similar sort of ancients campaign, but it just was not there to be found. I suppose my first real wargame period was early modern, and thence I have returned.

I happen to be in possession of a very wide range of early modern period 6 mm armies. Indeed, I suspect that the project would be next door to impossible in any larger scale, or would, at least, cost large sums of money. Mind you, I suspect that what I have now would cost a fair bit, given inflation in the last 30 years or so, but I do not want to digress to wargaming economics just now. I have not counted how many actors there are in the campaign at present, but the last number was 28, I think, and I have added Africa and the Americas to that since, not to mention a number of smaller actors in Europe and Asia. While I do use many figures interchangeably, you do need a fair number. Not even I can shamelessly pass off an elephant as a unit of Ottoman cavalry.

The other side of this pondering is real life time and space. As those of you who have looked at any of the photographs will have seen, my playing space, while nearly in a dedicated room of its own (at least at present) is not particularly big, and the usual table is about thirty inches square. As I have discovered, this makes the maximum army size about 18 bases or so. This gives a maximum size for the armies, of course, although in the campaign it is not quite that simple, as the theoretical maximum is more like 40.

An army in the campaign is 12 bases (inspired by DBA, of course). However, the army can also have an artillery train of 6 bases (two of which are guns) and a siege train of another six (two of which are heavy guns). So a total so far of 24. A province may contain a garrison as well, which can support a field army for another 6 bases, so we are up to 30. There may also be units (fleets or armies) supporting from adjacent provinces (this is lifted from Machiavelli). The first support gives 6 bases, the second 3, the third 2, and any subsequent support gives one extra base. However, if a garrison is giving support, the first external support is 3 bases, and so on. So, if the support is maximised, there could be 36 bases in a force, depending on the number of provinces there are with friendly units in them. On the other hand, this is quite unlikely to happen, I suspect. The maximum so far has been 24 bases a side.

This, then, has guided my expansion in recent months. The Japanese can now deploy, if needed, two supported armies of 18 bases each. I have not counted the Chinese, but I think they could do at least 18 and probably 24 bases, or more if I borrow from the Southeast Asians. And so on around the world.

Given that I cannot really see the actors getting sufficiently organised to be able to put up such huge (relatively speaking) forces, I think I am now fairly safe from having to expand any more. And so I can focus a little bit on the ‘nice to haves’, such as turbaned singly mounted officers for order markers in Asia and Africa, creating a few more camps (just because I like them), rebasing yet more artillery (I know, I hardly use any, but I have them so why not) and, crucially, playing more wargames.

As for the campaign, it has no end point in sight, in case you were wondering. In that it is a bit like real history – it just keeps on going. I cannot imagine one actor really winning, whatever that might mean. I have thought that I might stop around 1650, as that is when uniforms started to change. As I am in 1607 at present (the write-ups are running behind), that is a fair way off, and anyway, I have already thought that I would simply rewind to either 1550 or 1500 and have another go. After all, the map would be more or less the same.

So, in my wargaming world, I do have, more or less, enough, in the sense of sufficient wargame figures (etc.) for my purposes. But my style will not suit everyone; many prefer multiple projects, many periods, and so on. And that is fine. After all, someone has to keep the figure makers in business.

1600 - Something: Paris in Summer

The next (and penultimate) game in the Summer 1606 move is the resumption of the Franco-Spanish action. This has been going on a while, as the reader may recall. Most recently, the Spanish and some French mutineers inflicted a couple of sharp defeats on the French, forcing them out of Burgundy.

This time, the Spanish have moved into the Ile de France with an army and an artillery train. Those 18 bases consist of 4 demi-lancer bases, 5 pike, 5 shot, 2 light horse bases, and 2 artillery bases, of course. They are facing a supported French army, also of 18 bases. The French have 6 cavalry bases, 6 shot, 4 pikes, and 2 light horse. They are, in fact, on the defensive strategically, but in my hands, for some reason, the French have never let that bother them tactically.

For some (other) reason, whenever I roll the terrain for Franco-Spanish conflict, I end up rolling a double six and placing a wood right in the centre of the field. This game was no exception, so both sides are now peering around the trees to see the enemy. The Spanish are to the right, with their cavalry on their right, together with the light horse. The guns are in the centre, on a handy hill, which gives them the ability to fire over the heads of their own troops to the left and right. The Spanish infantry was deployed by the field in the centre (and, in fact, in it), then blocking the gap between the woods and rough ground on their left.

The French inevitably decided not to hang around in their starting positions and get shot at, but to move on up and attack. I think this is mainly due to the preponderance of French cavalry, who, in general, need a bit of a run-up. So the bulk of the French horse were deployed on their left, the idea being to sweep around the flank and capture the guns. Well, we can dream, can’t we?

I have introduced some new rules regarding time and wind. The wind rules were implemented recently, and it is blowing from the bottom left of the pictures to the top right, or north-east, force 1, which is pretty feeble. The weather is fair. The time the action starts is 14:45. We’ll see how that goes as well.

The action opened inevitably, with an artillery bombardment by the Spanish. This did cause a little disruption initially to the French infantry but nothing serious. On the far side you can see the light horse of both sides in action against each other. Both have drawn the sub-generals in to try to manage the combat. On the French right, nearest the camera, the infantry are advancing to hold the Spanish in position. On the French centre left, led by the general, the other French infantry are approaching the hedge and in a firefight with the Spanish musketeers holding it.

The next move the French infantry pike got at the Spanish musketeers in the field and, rather unexpectedly, simply routed them. You can see them fleeing just to the right of the field. It has to be admitted that Spanish morale wobbled a bit at this, although the rest of the field was pretty much as it was.

The fighting became fairly general as the central French foot got into range, and came off second best in the firefight. On the French left, the light cavalry duel continues, while in the field by the wood the French general has taken control, put a sleeve of musketeers into the field and ordered the pike and rest of the shot to advance on the French foot there. He has also ordered up the reserve French cavalry from the centre (oddly, the French right wing reserve cavalry was left in place, probably due to it being in a good position on a hill).

Things started to come to a crisis after a couple of hours. Firstly, the wind dropped, which made it even more difficult for the musketeers and gunners to see what they were shooting at, and even harder to hit anything. Even so, the Spanish guns have administered a battering to the French infantry in the field by the wood, forcing the base out and behind a hedge. Meanwhile, in the centre, the Spanish infantry under the general is pushing back the French with good shooting and decent pike work. On the French left, behind all the smoke, a French cavalry base has charged the Spanish pike in flank and routed it, while one of the French light horse bases has seen off a Spanish counterpart. On the other hand, on the French right, their infantry there is busily losing the firefight even though they outnumber the Spanish foot.

Casualties were mounting on both sides. In the centre, the French foot fled, while on the French right their foot have been fought to a standstill by the Spanish. On the French left, however, their cavalry has been busy, pouring through gaps left by the defeated Spanish infantry. The French did get a bit lucky here as the Spanish put their lancers into a base of light horse which held out heroically for a couple of moves before fleeing. The Spanish sub-general is now in danger of being flanked by the cuirassiers of his French counterpart.

At this point both sides had to make morale rolls. They were both six bases down. The Spanish rolled withdraw, while the French rolled fall back. Looking at the situation, you can see the wisdom of the dice. The Spanish right is in tatters, and in a couple of moves they might well lose the guns. There are also marauding French cavalry behind their lines. While their reserve demi-lancers might well manage to intervene, there are still the French infantry to consider.

On the other hand, in the centre the French have fled, and their right is in no position to achieve anything much. But then, nor is the Spanish left. At 17:45 two sides drew apart, at least, as far as anyone could tell through all that smoke.

That was a lot of fun as a wargame, and the outcome was uncertain until the end. Even the destruction of the French centre could not stop them on the Spanish right, possibly because the French had two generals in action there to the Spanish one (who was in the centre).

Still, strategically, this means that the French have successfully defended Paris, although at considerable cost to an already denuded treasury. On the other hand, the Spanish are still firmly entrenched in Burgundy, but they cannot pursue further advances on Paris this year. A lot is still going on, and the last battle is between French-inspired Basque rebels and local Spanish forces. We will have to see how that goes.

Painting with a Purpose

 As you are probably bored of me writing, I am not trying to increase the footprint of my armies. By ‘footprint’ I mean the storage space the toys take up, which is basically one cupboard and about five extra boxes with the outsized terrain pieces in them. The idea is not to allow the space taken up by that to increase, as it will all eventually have to fit onto a much smaller space than at present.

That said, I have found myself painting a fair bit this year, perhaps unexpectedly. As I have already reported, the Japanese have had a significant augmentation in the recent past. Looking a bit further back, the Southeast Asians have also increased, and the Ottomans and Mughal Indians have added a few bases as well. Some of these, admittedly, have simply been using up odd strips of Irregular troops, which were left over by my decision to double the number of strips on a base, but some were done deliberately, as the demands of the 1600 – Something campaign have become clear.

The only European troops I can recall painting in the recent past are two bases of Polish Winged Hussars, after an unfortunate incident early in the campaign where I ran out. Since painting and basing them, of course, the Poles have not been engaged in any fighting. I dare say that they will come around again, just not in the last few turns.

I have also doubled the number of Mongols I have available. I discovered that my Central Asians were in a bit of a mess, and Mongols (along with Tibetans) are fairly useful sorts, able to be deployed as anything from Koreans and Jurchen to Circassians and Moguls. After all, ‘Mogul’ is a corruption of ‘Mongol’ in the first place, because that is where the Emperors came from (a long story).

The rest of the additions have mostly been infantry, due to the doubling referred to above. The cavalry were not doubled, and so remain at five or six figures to a base. Thus the number of infantry bases has had to increase, and, in some areas like South-East Asia, I still probably have too many cavalry bases for the number of infantry, given the constraints of a twelve-base army.

Still, before I digress too much further, I have been pondering my current painting and any future it might have. As I have noted before, I am not a skilful or particularly happy painter. Many wargamers are both, but it is not me, and mostly I prefer to keep my painting to limited numbers. On the other hand, the Estimable Mrs. P. is very firm in her ‘no grey armies’ rule, which is another caliper on simply buying stuff.

Recent painting has been of the bits and pieces variety. The picture shows four bases of Chinese bows and crossbows, which will be used in China and Southeast Asia. There is also a base of Chinese foot there, originally Boxers from Irregular’s colonial range, but since the Boxer ethos was to use traditional weapons, the early modern wargamer has a useful set of figures. The oddity is the base of Aztec ‘swordsmen’, which is a base to use up a spare strip. I do not actually need any more Aztec types.

On the other side I have two Indian command elephants, so my Asian armies do not have to have their generals integrated with a combat base. I have long thought about this, but not done anything about it. This has not (nearly) changed. There is also an extra base of Mongol light cavalry, which was caused by me looking at the wrong army list for the Mongols when I bought the doubling troops; I got six light horse (which is fine for Jurchens) rather than seven. The final strip is a bit of an oddity, an Aztec gun hauling crew. This has been hanging around, half painted, for years, and now has been (nearly) finished. It can sit in the guns and limbers box and, I suppose, could, in fact, be used to haul anything.

Left, for the moment, in my ‘due to be painted’ box are some Indian mounted officers, so I can have order markers (those annoying triangular bases you can see on the wargame photographs) which actually look in keeping with the Asian games. This is, of course, pure indulgence on my part. I do not ‘need’ them; they are for aesthetic purposes. I also have four trees to paint, to augment the number of woods I can deploy. Actually, the motivation behind this was to use up some odd trees I have accumulated. I also have some other strips of Western infantry officers and some cavalry who will be based as additional order markers.

After that lot, what next? Well, I am not aiming at anything major. I suppose that I could start on African armies, using Zulus for the east and Ashanti for the west, along with some colonial Abyssinian figures for the Horn of Africa. But I think I shall stick to Aztecs for them, to be honest. I think I would be around 36 bases for each, and while I do have an empty box or two, I think I do not want to paint that many figures whose accuracy could be questioned. I have also considered obtaining some Eastern Forest Amerindian types as well, and discounted them on the same grounds, although I can, of course, find suitable figures in Baccus’ French and Indian Wars range.

Aside from those non-projects, and a few odds and ends in my deeper storage box (mostly offcuts of strips) which might make it to the painting stage if I get really bored, I have not found anything else that I am really lacking. The most vulnerable are probably the Ottoman and Mughal armies, in the sense that it might be fairly easy to run out of troops if big armies are constituted. On the other hand, the maximum size of an army in the campaign is around 36 bases, which I can probably manage so long as the Ottomans and Mughals do not end up fighting each other.

And so, when those officers and trees are painted, I am thinking of retiring my paintbrushes. At least for the moment.

1600 – Something: Bosnia Confrontation

Some of you might recall, in the Spring 1606 turn, the Venetians were a bit irritated by an Austrian incursion into their territory and requested that the Ottomans do something about it. This was, shall we say, for diplomatic reasons, the Venetians having trading ties with the Ottomans and, perhaps more importantly, no army of their own. As the Austrians have been wandering around the Balkans at will for a while, the Ottomans agreed, but action was delayed while the Emperor recovered from illness.

The time has now come for the reckoning, and so an Ottoman army of five cavalry bases, three light horse, two janissaries and two militia took on an Austrian army of four shot, two pike, two light horse and four cavalry. While the diplomatic context might be complicated, the military one is a lot simpler than of late.

The terrain gods were kind to the defenders, in this case the Austrians. They got a stream dividing the field, a hill on their right (with cavalry on it, above), a field to hide musketeers in, and plenty of rough ground to divide up the enemy attacks. The Ottoman plan was to keep the Austrian infantry occupied in the centre, try to worm around the Austrian right with the light horse, and smash the Austrian left with the cavalry. The Austrians, noting their deficiency in light horse, pulled the baggage right up behind the infantry line.

The action proceeded rather slowly, due to a lack of will to move by the Austrians and a lack of tempo points for the Ottomans. Nevertheless, the Ottoman light horse on their left are in action, and suffering slightly from the Austrian musketeers in the field. The Ottoman infantry have moved up in the centre, but are nowhere near ready yet. The Ottoman right, under the general, is in position, slightly outside charge range of the Austrians. Given the situation, the Austrians are in the process of moving a cavalry base over from the hill on their right to the left flank.

I am giving the wind rules another go. In this action, the wind is light and blowing from the south-west, that is, the nearside left-hand corner. The smoke from the Austrian muskets has not dispersed but is drifting gently between the wings of the armies on that side. I am also trialling weather rules, again following my naval rules. In this case, the weather was ‘fair’. I am not quite sure of the time scale for the moves of the battle, but I am thinking about 15 minutes per move, so I will roll for the wind and weather to change every 8 moves, or 4 hours. That sounds like it might be about right. Mind you, it does mean that I have to count moves as well.

A few moves later and the Ottoman foot is nearly in position. On the Austrian right, the single base of light horse is taking on three bases of Ottoman lights and winning, albeit with some musket support. On the near side, the Ottoman general gambled and moved into charge range of the Austrians, hoping to be able to charge next move. Unfortunately, he lost the tempo and was counter-charged by the cuirassiers. The Ottomans are being driven back, and the general himself has been lost. Oops. That was not part of the plan.

The cavalry of the front line of the Ottoman right has been routed, and the Ottoman army has been forced to fall back. On the far side you can see that the Austrian light cavalry is still prevailing against the Ottoman light. Indeed, they have routed one base. In the centre, the infantry is in disarray. On the Austrian left, the general has managed to pull back both of his bases which charged. To protect them while they rally, the base transferred from the Austrian right has charged in, but it has been bounced and is now in deep trouble against a base of sipahis. On the other hand, the Austrian light cavalry on this flank, which hitherto has achieved very little, is not taking potshots at the Ottoman militia in the centre.

The end came in various guises. On the up-side for the Ottomans, they have stabilised their left by pummelling the Austrian light horse a bit. The Janissaries have come into action in the centre and are winning the firefight, at least at the moment. On the downside, Austrian firepower shook the militia, and the light horse finished the job (on a lucky dice roll), and now the militia are fleeing. On the Ottoman right, nearest the camera, the rallied cuirassiers have charged again and wrecked the Ottoman cavalry. The third base was too close to the front line and has been swept away.

With the general lost alongside eight bases, Ottoman morale went to -6. A good dice roll did not help an irrecoverable position, and the army routed.

So, the Austrian incursion into the Balkans has survived with fairly minimal losses. The Ottomans, however, have lost their main European army. The battle before last, of course, they were on the defensive against the Persians and won, at least relatively. Cavalry-based armies attacking defensive positions seem to be at a disadvantage, but the key factor here was the timing of the cavalry charge by the Austrian left. If the Ottomans had won the tempo, we could be looking at a very different outcome. But part of the issue was the terrain, which prevented the Ottomans from bringing their cavalry advantage to bear.

The other factor was some very good Austrian combat dice rolling, especially from the right wing light cavalry and the left wing cavalry when it was needed. The other factor was the Austrian reserve cavalry, which switched from the right to the left wing and then sacrificed itself to allow the rest of the cavalry to recover.

The wind and weather had only a minimal effect on the action, which was a good thing, but now I need to make a rather better move counter, wind and weather tracker thing. That should, I hope, be straightforward. The next action sees the Spanish attempt to take Paris, I think.

Return to East Africa

 My post on East Africa and the activities of the Ottomans and Portuguese around Mombasa in the 1580s generated some interesting responses. Firstly, JWH of the Heretical Gaming blog came up with a photocopy of an old Miniature Wargames article on the fighting around the island, by Andy Callan. This was interesting, especially in Mr Callan’s interpretation of the forces and how they could be represented. I’ll return to that in a bit.

The other response was by James and consisted of a few articles from JSTOR. Some were open access (hooray), but one was a subscriber-only paper (boo!) from 1987. I could pause to question why a paper from 1987 needs to be behind a paywall, but the mysteries of academic publishing really do elude me. Life being what it is at the moment, I have only managed to read the one James sent, not the other. I will get around to it.

Anyway, I have read Matthew Schoffeleers, ‘The Zimba and the Lundu State in the Late Sixteenth and Early Seventeenth Centuries’, The Journal of African History, 1987, Vol. 28, No. 3 (1987), pp. 337-355, and interesting it is too. I shall attempt to summarise it here, but this is only from a fairly swift first read.

The first thing to note is that the Zimba of this article might not be the same as the Zimba of the fighting around Mombasa. To a non-specialist, this is confusing. The paper focuses on the area further south, around the Zambezi River, and north from there to Lake Malawi. Now, there is a river from Lake Malawi which joins the Zambezi near a place called Sena, which was a Portuguese outpost and trading centre. It gets a little complex.

The Portuguese came as traders for the ivory, cloth, and gold and silver mines which were/are along the Zambezi and its environs. Initially they rubbed shoulders fairly happily with the Muslim traders of the same commodities, including slaves, who originated in the Swahili Coast ports. As the Portuguese presence increased, tensions also grew, leading to violence, raids, massacres and so on in the 1580s and beyond.

The question that arises and is addressed in the paper is the status of the polities in southern Malawi, the area between the Lake and the Zambezi, at this time. There appear to be two schools of thought. The first is that these states had been created roughly in the Sixteenth Century by local rulers grabbing each other’s kingdoms and thus the polities grew. The other possibility is that they grew as a result of pressure from the Portuguese themselves as they turned trading outposts into forts and started to look like permanent features and rulers, rather than fairly ephemeral traders after a quick buck.

How do the Zimba come into this? Well, it would seem that there were a fair number of runaway slaves from all these places, slavery being endemic among both Africans and Portuguese at the time. A lot of them seem to have gone south of the Zambezi and formed some sort of a grouping there, who were then hired by one of the rulers, the Lundu, against another, the Muzura, and, incidentally, against the Portuguese when they allied with the Muzura.

Confused? Yes, well, so am I. The documentary sources are sparse, the names are confusing, the timelines are obscure, and the outcomes are also partly unknown. Still, it is clear that the Portuguese stayed. The area being discussed is, after all, part of Mozambique and, therefore, was Portuguese-owned (as a colony) into the Twentieth Century. The account given does show, rather gratifyingly, that the African leaders were quite capable of taking initiative and invading places, either other African polities or Portuguese enclaves. The politics of allying with or attacking the Portuguese is a bit obscure, but, as with most colonial warfare, a lot of the fighting was done by Africans.

As a case in point, the Zimba in 1592 overran a local chiefdom allied to the Portuguese. He called for help from the captain of Sena, who marched out with Portuguese and African troops and discovered the Zimba in a palisaded camp. The captain of Sena called on help from the Portuguese of Tete, who marched out with Portuguese, African vassals and Portuguese African troops. These were ambushed and killed by the Zimba, unknown to the other Portuguese, who only found out when the Zimba sallied forth beating Portuguese drums. Upon this, the Portuguese retreated, only to be ambushed in turn. The next year the captain of Mozambique had a go with 200 Portuguese and 1500 African troops, and failed as well.

All of this is quite interesting, of course, and is an indication of early modern state formation among Africans, as well as the potential of very early colonial wargaming. The forces are small, the stakes are high, and the technological differences are not great. The Portuguese cannon in the second expedition could make no impact on the Zimba fortress, for example.

However, we do have the problem that no one seems to make suitable figures. As Nanducket commented on the original posts: Where do you even begin to find depictions of soldiers for armies that we know next to nothing about? It is a good question, but Andy Callan has some suggestions. Clearly, the Portuguese and Ottomans can be sources from Renaissance-style ranges, to the taste of the wargamer. The Africans are more difficult, but Mr Callan suggests Zulus. I had, in fact, considered this myself, but as I do not want to increase the footprint of my armies at present, I am going to use Aztecs. Mr Callan observes that the Zulus of the Nineteenth Century had been rearmed with assegi thrusting, rather than throwing, spears. But aside from that the figures would probably work well, especially at smaller scales, like my own 6 mm size. Or, as I said, I will substitute from my extensive Aztec collection if the South-East Africans ever get to blows.

That said, the above does not really explain the Zimba who turned up at Mombasa to embarrass the Ottomans. Unless Zimba means, somehow, an aggressive set of runaway slaves who turn up from time to time looking for action and loot. I am still not sure I know.

1600 – Something: When the Smoke Cleared

Back with the 1600 – Something campaign, you might recall that a defeated Muscovite army withdrew from Estonia to Latvia. The Latvians, given a failed Muscovite GOOS roll, were not too impressed with this and local forces rallied to see off the threat. You might wonder why the Muscovite army went that way, but this was because there was not really room inland from Estonia for another army, as a withdrawal to Novgorod would force the Muscovite army there into garrison. And anyway, the Muscovites still harboured ambitions for a port on the Baltic.

The Latvians, therefore, as a local force, drew randomly from the German Minor States list. They got four cavalry bases, four pike bases, three shot, and one light horse base. The Muscovites, given the casualties last time, had reverted to a wholly Muscovite list, consisting of six cavalry bases, two streltsi shot, two Cossack light horse bases, and an urban Cossack pike and shot base.

The terrain really did favour the Latvians, with a nice hill within their deployment area to put the infantry on, and plenty of terrain on their side of the table to make life difficult for the Muscovite cavalry. After some consideration, the latter decided to mask the Latvian right and centre with some cavalry and the infantry, and to try to overwhelm the Latvian left with light horse and cavalry.

Not much happened in the early part of the battle. The Latvians were reluctant to move off the relative safety of their hills, and so the Muscovites had to slog across the field to get at them. You can see in the foreground the Muscovite right hook getting into position. Lurking behind the trees on the left is the Muscovite general and some more of the cavalry, who are hoping to strike the Latvians centre-left when the Muscovite right has done its job.

As you can see above, an extensive firefight has started in the centre, and it is not proceeding to the Muscovite advantage. You can also see there is a fair bit of smoke drifting about, as I am using the rules piloted in the previous battle. The wind speed is 3, which is fairly light, and it is blowing from the camera side of the field. I am now thinking of adding some weather rules, but I’ll need some which are appropriate to different regions of the world.

The action proceeded with a lot more smoke hanging around. The firefight continued to go in favour of the Latvians. One base of Streltsi has already been routed, two more are shaken and stranded in front of the Latvian infantry. The Cossack pikes were left to their own devices and attacked the Latvians on the hill, only to be routed by the latter’s pike. In the foreground, the Muscovites are working on their cavalry traffic jam, hoping to get a charge in on the Latvian left.

Continued good shooting from the Latvians has seen off another base of streltsi, and the Cossack shot are rocking as well. In the foreground, the Muscovite general has charged with his cavalry up the hill. The Latvian shot have been driven back shaken, but, after initial success against the pike, the Muscovite cavalry has been driven back down the hill. The Muscovite general survived this (a first, I think, in the campaign), but the morale check caused by the fleeing foot has caused the Muscovite army to waver.

The end came fairly quickly. The Latvian shot, peering through the gun smoke, saw off another Muscovite foot. The Latvian pike on the hill, commanded by the general, advanced down the slope to rout the shaken Muscovite cavalry they had just recoiled, while the left wing Latvian cavalry advanced into the wavering Cossack light horse and routed them as well. A Muscovite success was routing the Latvian shot on the hill.

The constant stream of losses had sapped Muscovite morale, although a good roll (considering the initial score was minus 2) meant that they ‘only’ went to withdraw status. Conversely, a poor Latvian score meant that they wavered. The Muscovite general, incidentally, survived the rout of his cavalry base.

However intact, the Muscovites only have five bases left from the initial twelve, and so retreat is the only option. The Latvians managed to hold out, with the loss of a single base. I will have to work out what the Muscovite army does next. At present, I think disbanding it is favourite, as I do not think the Muscovites have the money to repair it, and there is not really anywhere to move it to to recuperate.

That was an interesting action, I think. The Latvian defensive position was always going to be a tough nut to crack for a cavalry army, and the Muscovites nearly made it work. A slightly better roll on the uphill cavalry attack on the Latvian main position could have given them the upper hand. On the other hand, their infantry was simply shot to pieces by the Latvians. This was just good dice rolling rather than anything else. As it turned out, the Latvians could have put their second pike block on the hill as well, and then the Muscovite attack would probably have failed more quickly. As it was, neither the Muscovite left, nor the Latvian right got into action.

So, in spite of their best efforts, and the help of dastardly French diplomacy, the Muscovites have, for the moment, failed to get to the Baltic coast. Mind you, they do have a fleet on the northern coast, but that is a bit hampered by lack of support, and being a Swedish unit that defected. It may have to disband, and Muscovite strategy might need reorienting away from the Baltic towards the south. We shall see.

Next along, I think, we have the Ottomans taking on the Austrians in Bosnia, at the behest of the Venetians. As I have just had two distinct defensive victories, some rooting for the offence might be needed. We shall see.