Introduction

In the first three decades of the 19th century, a series of campaigns were fought in South America which ended Spain's empire there. Spain's control of its overseas provinces was total, in both political and mercantile matters, but the revolutions in America and France at the end of the 18th century showed the peoples of South America the possibilities of taking control of their own destinies. Spain's grip on its colonies began to slip as it became caught up in the schemes of Napoleon, and revolutionary juntas began to take control of some of the colonies, and plan the liberation of others. However, as the tide of war in Europe turned against Napoleon, Spain was able to devote more attention to its troubled colonies, and sent more troops to quell rebellion.

As the Napoleonic Wars came to an end, two figures rose to prominence in South America who were to be instrumental in the defeat of Spain; José de San Martín and Simón Bolívar. Through a series of campaigns between 1812 and 1826, they would liberate Venezuela, Colombia, Chile, Ecuador, and the bastion of Spanish South America, Peru.

These campaigns offer an interesting diversion for the wargamer. The forces are small, the setting different and it's a chance to use your Napoleonic figures for something else. The problem with gaming this period are that there seems to be little in the way of useful, English language sources that cover things in any detail. I hope that by setting up this page, what information there is can be centralised. I originally concieved this page as a guide to gaming the wars using 'Principles of War', but am happy for it to be used to cover any rules or types of gaming, as long as they are linked to the Wars of Liberation.

Wargaming Notes

Chris Johnson has provided these uniform notes. At present they only cover the Royalist armies.

Figures

As far as I know, no manufacturer makes figures specifically for this period. However, figures from any Napoleonic range can be used, as long as you are willing to live with compromised accuracy, especially in the larger scales.

Spanish troops should be pretty easy to do; any late period Napoleonic Spanish should work. The various liberation armies seem to be French in appearance, whilst their British allies are in pretty much the same uniforms you'd find at Waterloo. Ideally the troops should have the occasional poncho, straw hat or sombrero to create that authentic 'campaign look'. You'll have to try conversion for this. One possibility, which I haven't investigated, is to use Mexican troops for the Texan War or US/Mexican War as their uniforms and appearance seem to have been heavily modeled on the French.

My solution to the figure problem is to use 6mm, although I like this scale anyway for different reasons. I take issue with people who say that you can use any figures you want at this scale because they are just blobs, but with the right figure, a cunning paint job can hide a number of uniform anomalies. My figures are all Irregular Miniatures, and are mainly from their Napoleonics range, although I have used odd figures from other ranges for officers and some of the cavalry. The Napoleonic British general figure in his big cloak makes an excellent figure for San Martín, with the cloak masquerading as a poncho, whilst the Travis figure from the Alamo personality pack makes an excellent Bolívar figure, although you have to live with him being on foot.

At the end of the day, it all depends on how seriously you want to game these wars. If it's just as a diversion, then use any figures that look roughly OK from your collection, and get on with it. If you want to make more of a project of it, then you'll have to hunt around for figures that look right. Perhaps, one day, a manufacturer will produce some dedicated figures.

Pictures

As you can see, this project is still in its early stages, research has been sketchy, and information is scarce. If you would like to contribute any information, be it a reference, some uniform notes, orders of battle or full fledged scenarios, or if you have gamed these campaigns using other rules, then drop me a line at alan.catherine@btinternet.com. Any information will be welcome, and will receive full credit.

Contact me by clicking here Richard Holling