War of the Pacific 1879 - 1884

Worth it for the title alone! Table top rules for the War in the Pacific 1879 to 1884 written by Graham Evans (aka Trebian). For a far more detailed summary of the book you could do no better than read Bob Cordery’s blog.

Three blog posts in a single day? I will have to check the last time I managed to do that but I reckon it was a good while ago!

The final part of my Christmas Amazon gift card from the offspring was a copy of the newly released set of rules you see above.

As mentioned above there is little I can add to what Bob has written as a summary of the book so I will throw in a couple of observations and general thoughts.

I really like the approach that the author has taken with these rules and indeed the book itself in that even if the war was completely unknown to you (and I suspect that may well be the case with many gamers) this book will give you the basics you need to build upon. There is a potted history of the war and information about the combatants and the assorted weaponry in use. All this is nicely wrapped up in the rules the author has developed which also include game related ratings of the principle commanders as well as a couple of historical battles to think about.

There are some flags and a quick reference sheet that you are able to copy for your own use, a modest bibliography and a really useful uniform guide that features rather a lot of kepi wearing types....

The author, whom I had the pleasure of meeting at COW 2019, has done a magnificent job with this book and it is, by his own admission, very much a labour of love and it definitely shows. He has taken a little known war and wrapped his arms around it and produced a set of theatre specific rules with enough extras to ensure that the table top action will have that all important flavour. It is quite simply a superb piece of work.

Where my thoughts are heading

Now what possibly could be my interest in this war given my recent championing of the merits of downsizing? Well, how about this for a bonkers idea? I have a couple of dozen or so kepi wearing 30mm ACW Spencer Smith figures that could be pressed into service as the armies are generally very small and whilst the rules suggest bases of three infantry I reckon I could use a single figure per base.  A four base infantry unit also coincides with the standard size used with the Portable Wargame and three such units would work with either Rebels and Patriots or The Men Who Would be Kings.

The period would make for a colourful ‘side hustle’ for me as I really like the idea of using these rules with 30mm ‘old school’ figures. I reckon that I have sufficient figures to do this so will endeavour to research the period in more detail. It will be a way off but could be something rather different and of course there is also the naval dimension to consider (and naturally I am!).

Once again many thanks to Graham for this wonderful piece of work that I highly recommend!