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UsE EssEx FoR YouR ARMIES BECAUSE
THEY ARE THE BEST Tactica Armies Are designed to match Tactica Rules (W ith a few extra figures where possible).
For Add On Units Call. For 25MM Prices Call.
NEW ARMIES Egyptian $149.95 Sumarian $139.99 Early Japanese $109.99 Middle Japanese $159.99 Lale Japanese $149.99 Vandal $99.99
15 MM TACTICA ARMIES Roman Caesar $119.95 Roman Trajan $131.13 Roman Republican $131.13 Greek Confederate $125.65 Greek Spartan $114.39 Greek Alliance $111.60 Greek Thebes $114.39 Persian Achem $128.38 Persian Persian $106.23 Persian Sassanid $97.65
Indian $152.81 Carthagin $131.13 Macedon $131.13 Byzantine $97.65 Gauls $159.03 British $175.77 Arabs $117.18 Germans $153.45
l SMM Tactica Armies (continued) lSi\1~1 Tactica Armies (continued)
Tactica Supplement I
Tactica Medieval
RULES $20.00 $12.00 $22.50
CaLaloguc Free with Order if Requested.
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NEW LESS COMPLEX ANCIENTS RULES • De Bellis Antiquitatis (D.B.A.) $7.99 • Tactica ($20.00)
• Tactica Supplement ($12.00) • Tactica Medieval ($22.50) Coming Soon WE RECOMMEND THESE R uLES FoR THEIR SIMPLICITY
CHOOSE D.B.A. IF You PREFER A QmcK GAME (ABOUT 45 MIN.) WITH SMALL ARMIES. CHoosE T ACTICA AND SuPPLEMENT IF You ENJOY LARGER ARMIES.
MoRE D.B.A. ARMIES D.B.A. Armies are designed to match D.B.A. Rules
(with some extra figures where possible).
lSMM D.B.A. ARMIES
25mm AV2 • AC9 • DA6
15mm MPA66
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15MM: D.B.A. ARMIES (CONTINUED)
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rrtm:be ~ ~·J)UM~r
NORTH AMERICA'S FOREMOST MIN lA TURE GAMING MAGAZINE
ARTICLES MORGAN~SACKOFPANAMA z. B. SMITH with a complete set of campaign rules ............................................................................................................. 5
THE SPANISH ARMY ON THE EVE OF NAPOLEONIZATION JIM BIRDSEYE describes the uniforms and organization of the Spanish troops ................................................................. 19
NAPOLEON IN GERMANY JIM ARNOLD describes his visit to the newly visitable East German Napoleonic batttlefields ............................................. 21
ZAMA GREG PITTS presents a scenario of the famous battle for ANCIENT EMPIRES ................................................................ 25
HOSPITALS FOR YOUR 18TH CENTURY WARGAME ARMY LUKE J MULDER presents a little gamed apect of the battlefield ...................................................................................... 29
IS IT A GAME OR A SIMULATION BOB JONES offers some thought provoking ideas .............................................................................................................. 43
OVER THERE MINIATURE R\ULES FOR 1900- 1929 FRED ELLSESSER playtests the rules in preparation for a series of articles ..................................................................... ..4'.5
HANAU GEORGE NAFZIGER with an account of the famous battle ............................................................................................... 57
DEPARTMENTS THE REVIEWING STAND Figures, Rules and Reference Works ........................................................................................ 33
THE COURIER DISPATCH News of the Hobby ....................................... ........................................................................... 51
DISPATCHES FROM THE FIELD Letters to(or at) The Editor ............................................................................................ 63
VOLLEY FIRE What you do or do not like about this issue .................................................................................................. 64
ERRATA. Check this for errors in past articles ..................................................................................................................... 64
COVER:Greenfield Garrison ships (now manufactured and sold by Mini figs). Highly modified by the photographer, Orv Banasik {The Raven on the right) and by Mark Cosgrove (the Mermaid on the left). The crews are a mixture of Minifigs and Frontier (now available through Modeler's Mart)
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MANAGING EDITOR: Richard L. Bryant
BUSINESS MANAGER: teo Cronin
ART DIRECTOR: Joseph Miceli
ADVERTISING MANAGER: Tom Desmond
CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Jim Arnold: Ken Bunger; Robert Beattie; Jim Birdseye; John Boehm; Rodman Burr. Steve Carpenter; Pat Condray; Todd Fisher: Bill Greenwald; Jay Had ley; Paul Koch; Bob Marshall; Tom McMillen; Greg Rice; Bill Rutherford; Walter Simon.
STAFF CARTOONISTS Jim Birdseye Brian Lum Jose Niera Vic Gregoire
STAFF PHOTOGRAPHERS Bill Greenwald Orv Banasik Pat Condray
THE COURIER DISPATCH: Greg Alee
STAFF ILLUSTRATORS Alan Archambault. AJ Katasa, Joe Matthews, Larry Schuman, John Thull, Mike Tyson. Terry Manton, Bill Greenwald
TYPESETTING A~O PUBLICAT10N: Xerox Venlllra Publisher
' RI:'-IT!NG: Quantum Printing
THE COURt::R PUBLISHING COMPANY, INC. Richard L. Bryant, President
DIRECTORS Richard L Bryant, Leo Cronin, Joseph Miceli
THE COURIER is published quarterly (approximately December, March, June, September) at W. Bridgewater MA 02379.
SUBSCRIPTIONS USA--$15; CANADA & S. AMERICA. Surface Rate---$24 for 4 issues. FOREIGN (Airmail Only)-$40. AUSTRALIA Write to: Essex Miniatures Pty.,Ltd .• 9 Lowana Pl., Hornsby, NSW 20n.
BACK ISSUES Current lssue(until next Issue is out) is $5.50 USA; Back issues are $7.00 ea. USA; Canada & S. America add $2 ea., Foreign Airmail add $4 ea. See last page or write for list of available back issues Olst alternates). Monies in US funds drawn on US banks or lntematlonaJ Postal Money Order.
No responsibility is assumed for statements off act or opinion made by the authors. No responsibility is assumed for unsolicited manuscripts. but all submissions are welcome. no query necessary. All submissions should contain a self-addressed STAMPED envelope large enough to retum the submission. Please write for the AUTHOR'S GUIDELINES.
This Magazine and other publications of The Courier Publishing Company are sold with the understanding that every reasonable attempt is made to deliver them safely through the malls. The Courier Publishing Company is not responsible lor items lost in the malls. Replacements will be provided at their usual cost.
ADDRESS CHANGES 60 days notice of address change is requires. The Post Office DOES NOT FORWARD THIRD CLASS MAIL. You will be charged for replacement issues missed due to untimely notice of address change. If issue is returned you will be charged our cost for returning it lo the correct address.
ALL DOMESTIC DEALER INQUIRIES, ADVERTISING COPY. AND INQUIRIES, SUBSCRIP TIONS (except as mentloned above) AND ARTICLES to THE COURIER, PO Box 1878, Brock· ton. MA 02403.
N0. 58 Entire Contents copyright 1992 by
The CourierPublishing Company. Inc.
THE VANGUARD
EDITO R'S NOTES
RE -EVALUATION
In the last issue, I "waned ineloquently" on the vi rtues or lack thereof of the new trend to full color illustrated rules books packaged in boxes, etc. I was responding to a chord struck in me by Phil Barker's lament on "rules padded out witlh color photos and pretty boxes .. .". As happens, more often than I care to admit, my mouth (pen. typewriter, computor?) ran away with with me and my message was lost in my rhetoric . This was brougought home to me by the largest number of letters The Courier has ever received about a subject - including its stand on Fantasy/Science fiction gaming subjects being printed In these pages - a selection of them will be found in the Dispatches From The Field column on page 63 of this issue.
These letters brought home to me that my "throw away" comments in answer to a letter to the editor was being construed as an attack on individuals (Arty Conliffe, Frank Chadwick. Rich Hasenauer. Todd Fisher of Emporer's Headquarters. Scott Bowden, and Dave Waxtel of Quantum Printing, Johnson Hood of Wargames. Bob Boyle of Geenfield Distributors) all of whom I consider as amoung my best friends both in and out of the hobby. I was frankly appalled at how my response could have been misconstrued- but on a second reading I saw how it didn't take much misconstruing. I apologise to all who I hurt by these ill-considered remarks. None of the above named, while tring to make an honest profit, are out to rip off the hobbyist. they are all miniature Historical garners themselves. For instance Dave Waxtel or Quantum Printing is offering a free consultation service to anyone who wants to publish a set of rules or a reference book. The culprits may be those who print cheaply produced rule books with zeroxed photos and sell them for $18. I have seen a few of these around lately.
I wanted to express my fear that the trend to expensive color and boxing was raising the cost to historical garners to meet the needs of other parts of the gaming market and perhaps limiting the new rules sets that were made available because of the inflation necessary in publication cost to meet the color competition. Without exception everyone I spoke to or who wrote in exp ressed an appreciation for the new color and professional presentation of these publications. They all felt inspired by the photos of beautifully painted figures that many now used as painting guides. The major surprise to me was that all were convinced that these new publications were furthering the hobby out of all proportion to their cost Many used them to get non-garners interested. The professional production values stood up against any other hobby and were no longer an embarrasment. OK! The bandwagon door is still open, and The Courier is jumping on. We will review these new publications as honestly as we can (as we have always done) remembering that the most important thing is the ru les themselves- that the production values are important but secondary to the value of the publication.
While all these respondents rightfully took me to task on the color issue, many agreed that they would like to see every effort made to keep the cost down by not including non-essentials i.e. are dice necessary in a rules set geared to miniatures garners? Can not a gamer who builds his own terrain and buildings be trusted to come up with movement and order chips following directions in the rules and thus save the cost of die-cut color movement chits? If we do away with these, are color boxes necessary? Lets at least try to give the buyer the biggest bang for his buck!
FANTASY/SCIENCE FICTION GAMING AT HISTORICAL CONVENTIONS
Many convention organizers felt that my comments in last issue's editorial discriminated against their small reg ional conventions. They are held in areas where the Historical Gaming population is not large enough to support a reasonably sized convention so they open their doors to all areas of gaming. I have no argument with them. Holding a convention where Historical gaming gets at least equal billing and space is what's important. I am talking about the large Historical Conventions and was trying to point out the futility of the argument that putting Fantasy/Science Fiction games on at Major Historical Conventions will! draw Fantasy/Science Fiction garners to the convention to be converted. That will not work. Rather the energy should be put into putting on Historical games at Fantasy/Science Fiction cons ..
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Morgan attacks a Spanish ship. Models are from Mini Figs heavily detailed by their owner, Orv Banasik who took the photos.
MORGAN'S SACK OF PANAMA by Z. B. Smith
Long before drug running precipitated the United States invasion, Panama attracted scoundrels Interested in making easy fortunes.
During the heyday of the Spanish empire, Panama was the transshipment point for the silver of Peru on Its way to Spain. The vulnerability of the overland tra1lthrough Panama lured many pirates wishing to milk the wealth of Spain.
English corsairs used the cover of constant wars between Spain and England to p1llage the Spa1nish Ma1n. When Charles It made peace with Spam 1n 1667. pnvateers in h1s colony of Jamaica ignored the treaty and continued their depredations. Charles didn't impede them, for Prize Law granted h1m and h1s brother one sixth of their booty. So long as they filled his coffers, he overlooked thetr treaty v1olat1ons. A notorious treaty violation occurred 1n 1671 . when Henry Morgan, the most successful corsair, descended on Panama w1th 2000 sea dogs packed in 38 vessels. Because England and Spain were at peace, h1s ra1d had to be profitable to the crown 1f he w1shecl to keep h1s head.
The President of the Aud1enc1a de Panama, Don Juan Perez de Guzman. expected the pnvateers. Their noisy preparations had spread alarm throughout the audiencia. Oon Juan had few assets for resisting them. He had a few hundred Spanish regulars and a couple thousand militia. Many of them had never fired a gun. but that hardly mattered, for their equipment was often inoperable In the tropical humidi ty. The Indians, free blacks, and half castes in Panama did provide an excellent scouting service for him.
The geography of the isthmus was the one factor which seemed to favor Don Juan (Fig. 1). Most of the isthmus was wild, hilly jungle, perfect for the guerilla lighting at which his Indian allies excelled. One land trail crossed the isthmus from Panama City to Portobelo. and Portobelo was protected
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by three stone fortresses (fig. 2). Further up the coast, the Chagres A1ver cut two thirds ol the way across the isthmus. It's outlet to the Canbbean was guarded by the Castle of San Lorenzo (Fig. 3).
Don Juan planned to repel Morgan on the Caribbean coast. He placed 140 militia and 360 regulars in Portobelo, and he threw 310 militia and the remaining regulars into San Lorenzo. Lest Morgan bypass San Lorenzo. he strengthened the defenses of the Chagres by erecting stockades at Sarro Colorado, Tornomarcos, Cano Quebrada, and Barbacoas and garnsomng them w1th 450 men.
Portobelowas too strongly fortified to attack. so Morgan sent Joseph Bradley and 470 men to capture the harbor at the mouth of the Chagres Guarded by two six gun artillery platforms and an eight gun tower at sea level. and dominated by the Castle of San Lorenzo de Chagres perched on a cliff above. the harbor was too strong to be taken by Bradley's three small sh1ps If he could take the castle. the harbor would tall into his hands.
Bradley's men landed down the coast from San Lorenzo, marched up the beach. and scaled the heights of San Lorenzo. The castle was a strong stockade with four landward and two seaward bastions. It's walls were formed by double palisades w1th earth packed between them, and an overhead palm canopy shaded the defenders. In front of the walls. a 30 foot deep ravine made a natural moat. It was spanned by one drawbridge. The field in front of the walls had been cleared of brush.
The spanish were alerted and well armed. Bradley had a low opinion of the Spanish, so he ordered frontal assaults on the castle. The first two assaults were easily repelled; the third was more successful. A grenade ignited the stockade's palm canopy, and a Spanish cannon exploded, blowing a breach
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