Still, My Beating Heart! Missilery

 

I continue enthused about my Aztec Game. Today we look at Missilery. Let’s first consider what was flying at the combatants. Above, note 3 Atl-Atl top right, arrows and thrown stones heading into the centre.

Lombards- Initially the cannon used by Cortez were light ships swivel guns (Lombards) mounted upon wheels. The Lombard was loaded with a primed and shotted detachable breach. Shoot once, whip out the breach and lock in a new one.

The Meso-Americans disliked these light cannon and there were occasions when massed formations moved sharply to get out of the line of fire. We need to reflect that. All the same compared to steel clad horsemen and deadly swords the Lombard was a lesser horror.

I’m minded to limit Lombard shot to two firings a game. I could rationalise this by comparing the amount of precious gunpowder needed compared to that used by an arquebus. There is truth in that. There is also the need not to unbalance the game. 

There is no armour defence against Lombard shot.

Arquebus and Crossbows- I’ve decided to group these together. Crossbows were the predominate weapon. Both weapons readily outranged and defeated any armour and weapons the Meso-Americans possessed. I’m opting for 6 shots for soldiers thus armed. 

Note that Spanish practice was for one loader, one firer enabling constant fire. This of course means only half of the shooters shoot but they do so in every turn. 

Players who don’t want to emulate this may fire with all shooters every other turn. 

During close combat shooters support their unit comrades by continuing to shoot.  

Meso-American armour offers no protection against arquebus shot or Crossbow quarrel.

The “Bang” factor is currently on the long finger for me. These shooters will cause enough havoc.

Atl-Atl – An elite weapon not to be found in the hands of rank and file warriors. It could defeat Meso-American armour and might with luck punch through mail. Against plate it accomplished little. Nor did it have a great range. On the plus side its users were expert and could place a dart where armour was not. It could also seriously wound a horse. Mexica and Tlaxcala nobles and Cuachic can shoot Atl-Atl twice.

Meso-American armour whether worn by Mexica, Tlaxcala or Spanish fighters is reduced by 1 when shot at with Atl-Atl.

Bows – the Tlaxcala made great use of the bow. The Mexica much less so. I’m going with 6 shots per game by those bow armed. 

The Meso-American bow did better at close range. All bow men can shoot in each turn.

For the moment I’m ignoring sling stones and hand thrown stones although both occurred. That won’t do for the Inca or City Fighting but we are not there yet.

What does this all mean? Consider this Tlaxcala unit. It contains a base of nobles, they can shoot Atl-Atl twice. It has 6 bow men, they can shoot in every turn. The remaining 6 warriors are close fighters who never shoot.

For convenience I'm minded to use red dice for close combat and Green dice for shooting. Our unit above would get 10 Green dice down to 6 post 2 turns of Atl-Atl shooting. 

For close combat it would have 10 red dice, 4 for the nobles and 6 for the warriors.  Not over complex I hope.

All the same I might complicate it further with 4 distinctive white dice for the nobles. Why? Because they are the superior warriors likely to inflict more damage. The ones the Spanish liked to kill first. Once they are gone their superior abilities are gone too. We will see.

The same unit with stage 1 of the basing done. More sand and the odd tuft to be added.

Conceptually, the above appeals. Instead of removing figures you remove dice. Once removed those dice give a visual on how much fight is left in there Army. 

What of the Mexica? A different proposition. Look at the unit below. 

It is from a wealthy neighbourhood. Lots of nobles and veteran warriors. Twice in a game they can lose a fierce barrage of Atl-Atl. Nine missile dice at a time. After that it is close combat only. Except, they are accompanied by six lesser fellows with bows who skirmish. 

These skirmishers never willingly engage in close combat. They will hang about the main body, or precede it, seeking to provoke the enemy. Only half of them will shoot in any one turn. They are not massed archers.

The figures are all old Minifigs. I'm rather fond of them. That said, as we will shortly see, the the bulk of my collection are from Gladiator.

Here are the (Khurasan) Spanish missilemen. These happen to have arquebus rather than crossbows. They are more properly intended for the Inca campaigns. There are only 6 in this unit and they normally fire at half effect. However their missile can penetrate any armour.

Tucked away safely behind Spanish close fighters they will cause a steady stream of kills. They can also chose their targets.

Next time on Still, My Beating Heart! Close Combat.