Conquistators
The Aztecs' last great foe was the Spanish, and a conquistador force seemed
like an interesting one to model. Cortez and the others usually had
small cores of Spaniards and hordes of allied Americans -- the Aztecs were
not loved by their subjects.
My conquistador army is less than 12 elements because the various Native
American figures can stand in for their allies.
All of these figures are Revell 30 years war figures.
I thought they should have some swordsmen (Blades) and made two elements:
The two fellows on the left end are from the Artillery set. The one
in the rear was walking with a staff which I lengthened to make into a large
cross; the guy in front of him had a sword added to his empty hand.
There were also a fair number of pikemen amongst the Conquistadors, although
they would not be terribly useful against a foe with no horses and losts
of archers, slingers, and dart throwers (Bw, Ps, & Aux in the lists).
I suppose the Blades and Warband would have to think twice befroe charging
them, though.
The first picture is almost entirely converted gunners:
Only the guy with his pike straight up is out of the box; the rest were reloading
their muskets. I removed the guns and "12 apostles" from their sashes
and drilled their hands for the wire pikes.
The next element is mostly unconverted but the two holding their pikes over
their heads were originally clubbing with thier guns.
Of course the most terrifying weapon to the natives were the guns and crossbows
which so badly outranged their bows.
For aquebusiers, I used unconverted soldiers with guns set on rests. The
crossbowmen (which originally outnumbered the arquebusiers) I made from figures
holding their guns diagonally:
Like with the Military order crossbowmen , I melted the barrels of the guns,
pinched the blob flat before it cooled, and drilled a hole for a bent peice
of wire. I also cut off the powder vials from their sashes.
The general can be a blade or, while he had horses, a Knight. I'm not
sure if Cortez fought on foot when horses were available but I could see
him doing it to encourage the men. Anyway, this is not a conversion:
In reality, the first conquistadotrs probably did NOT wear morion helmets,
but just like Romans with square shields it's what we expect to see and I
was satisfied to use them as-is.
The conquistador army has:
1 x Kn
2 x Bd
2 x Pk
1 x Cb
2 x Bw (Arquebusiers)
1 x Art (crude trebuchet as they built inside Mexico City or else a cannon)
I have not used them yet but would give the ma list that looks like:
Ag4. Arable.
1 x Kn or Bd (gen), 1 x Art or Bd, 2 x Pk or Bw, 1 x Cb, + (7 x Ps or Aux
or Hd)
The enemies would be Aztecs, Incas, Amazonians, Chimu, Chanca, Tupi,, and
other Conquistadors.