"Last Days of the Incas" Topic

So I just finished this book. The one thing that occurred to me was that the period is remarkably gamable. It has everything from sieges, to city fighting, to skirmishing, to ambushes to large pitched battles. You could easily do many of the Conquistador armies in 1:1 scale even with 28mm figs and then recycle the Inca units for large pitched battles.

The campaign possibilities are great too. If you have a few players you can created a map where there are a couple of Spanish conquistadors representing Pizzaro and Almagro and a few players representing various Inca factions during their civil war.

There were battles between the Inca factions as well as between the Conquistadors, never mind the fact that there are tons of pictures of Incan architecture to build terrain from given the popularity of Machu Pichu.

The book itself is a little biased here and there, but it was a good overview of a subject that I knew far too little about. The last few chapters cover the discovery of the ruins and how it was pieced together and that was interesting itself.

Pictors,

You'll like this then:

link

We have Inca on the brain these days, even hope of new figures!

CC

That's pretty coincidental…. I am currently re-reading my old copy of Prescott's "Conquest of Mexico", and looking at ordering some books on various Meso-American histories (Prescott is pleasantly easy to read, but written in a different era, different view of history….), and thinking about this era too. I think there is some definite gaming potential throughout…

I'll look at "Last Days of the Incas."

Are you familiar with the relatively new findings, of a completely lost (but large) civilization in the Amazon? With the "islands" and causeways in the flood plains, written about by the first Spanish, but scoffed at until recently? Just to add something else, different region and people, to look for:

link

I am not familiar with the link site, just the first link that I found, but I watched a documentary about this, found it utterly fascinating, this large society living where no one believed they could have existed (the methods they used for farming is what is critical… maybe a new way of farming, less destructive than the current slash and burn methods). The surmise, of course, is that the initial contact left disease that obliterated the people, then the physical remnants were covered and reclaimed by the Amazon forest.

Cacique, love that image on the yahoo group, terrific terrain.

Chalfant "Lame Jaguar" Conley

I'm actually reading this now. I don't know anything about the history, it's my first book on the subject. It is incredibly gamable.

As the cat's sort of out the bag now, and following on from the Tenochtitlan demo i have plans for 2009 to do cuzco/Sacsayhaman (sp?) seige, probably demo'd at Salute, similar "grand" style and if you google image the subject you'll see the fantastic fortress that i hope to recreate!
If you join the group you'll get a trickling of the Inca developments over the course of the year before anywhere else. If you are interested in 28mm Inca ranges the group is the best place to start. Of course the group is of all MesoAmerican interest not just Incas, we've even got one or two photos of aztecs :o)

Neil ( and Karl "lowtardog")

Anyone play/try that TSATF vatiant 'the sword and the gold' (or something like that) ? Have hordes of 15mm aztec from a couple o' decades ago and could use some of my renn figs for spanish. Game looked interestin' but like so many things, ah never got around to tryin' it :(

Paul

Ooops!

Sorry guys. :(

CC

Lol no worries Dan :0)

Is this a hardback book that just come out recently? I think I picked it up in the local chainstore the other day, but put it back down again when I saw the price ($65 for a mere few hundred pages, basically a regular novel sized book). Pity.

For completeness, let me recommend "The Conquest of the Incas" by the British historian John Hemming. It is a little more scholarly (over 100 pages of references!) but is still very readable. Unlike most writers, Hemming delves a little into Inca tactics and weaponry.

What's not to like about Inca wargaming?

-Incas led by Generals who fight on palanquins
-Variously armed allies of the Four Quarters
-Cannibalistic headhunters
-Rules for bolas
-Flaming slingshots
-Animosity between different Inca factions
-Conquistadors
-Pike phalanxes (Peruvian Civil War)
-Morale altering sacred stones and mummy totems

Did I miss anything?

Ralph

Ralph, you forgot the fantastic stone fortresses -lol-

Incidently how do you suppose the flaming slingshots worked in practise? I'm assuming they were heated slingshot rather than flaming, one guy loading with the inca version of asbestos gloves one guy slinging? heated in a fire, no brazier?

neil

Hi Neil,

The Incas would bring braziers and cook rocks in them. They would them wrap an oil based material around it and quickly flung it with the sling (the tendon sling pouch could withstand the heat). Half way through the rock's flight, the soaked material (sisal or cotton) would actually ignite, hence a flaming slingshot. These were mostly used against thatched roofs in sieges, and I believe they were used at Sacsayhuaman. And the poor rock-cook probably used a mitt made from wet leather. Better model some braziers for your scenario :^)

Ralph

Thanks Ralph, you know the next question…. do "we" have an idea of what an Inca brazier would look like? all building up to an interesting vignette :o)

Theres an Aztec one

picture

heres a nice book online for inca lands

link

Try this:

link

I think they burned dried llama dung. A poor man's peat.

Ralph

Oh ya, I forgot, Figure 61 is the Brazier. Now we just need a bigger one for each small group of skirmishing Inca slingers.

I would speculate that the brazier needed at least 2 men to operate. One to mind the fire and one to dress the heated stones and hand them out to the slingers. These braziers were portable and moved around in battle. Hence the handle.

Ralph

Ralph, its early over but figure 61?

over "here" – doh!

They changed the books in the link and I lost the beautiful picture of an Inca Brazier. Here's the description from the same book:

" Perhaps one of the most interesting and rarest forms of Inca pottery was a three-legged brazier with a band-shaped handle attached to its top, its mouth irregular in form, placed on one side. In the top are three openings or vent holes, the legs are solid and cylindrical and long enough to permit of a small fire-blackened within and without. The Incas metallurgists gave them such hard usage that the frail little braziers did not last long and no perfect specimens have been found.

The usual size of the three-legged brazier was about seven inches high, six inches wide and seven inches long. They appear to have intended for a charcoal fire in which metal could be kept hot while being worked. The vent holes on top would have admitted the insertion of blow pipes, a practice referred to in several of the early Spanish chronicles, and they were made thin enough to enable them to be rapidly heated. They were undoubtedly used in the manufacture of bronze knives, axes, chisels, and shawl-pins in which repeated heating and annealing were necessary."

Nothing like the value of a good photograph. I've been hunting the internet and can't track it down. We need Cachique Caribe's Google-Fu!

Ralph

Thanks Ralph, i know what to do, get someone to make one from the description and then a picture of a real one will turn up -lol- seriously any rough sketches will do for me, i NEED one now -lol-

"seriously any rough sketches will do for me, i NEED one now -lol-"

I uploaded a sketch in the Files section of The_Feathered_Serpent_Project. Hope it's OK.

Ralph

Thanks Ralph, good enough for starters, for anyone interested in 28mm incas the news wil be in the forum before anywhere else and it also provides a mechanism for discussion on potential figures.