"15mm Huaxtec Army added to Eurekas "300" Club Page" Topic

When I recently was informed that the new revised Army Lists for "Medieval Warfare" by Terry Gore were being worked on I got excited. I asked and found out that this time around the books would include Central and South American traditional armies. This usually would mean Aztecs, Maya and Inca to fight Conquistadores.

Since I have an Aztec army in 15mm and have no interest in wargaming w/ Conquistadores I asked if any "traditional" Aztec enemies would be included. To my pleasant surprise I found out that not only were the traditional Tlaxcallans, Tarascans, Zapotec and Mixtec armies included in the list but also "Huaxtec" Armies were to be included (to my knowledge, for the first time in a miniature gaming system, but dont quote me!).

If you are not familiar with the Huaxteca, here is a wikipedia link:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huastec_civilization

In short, they were a group of Maya related tribes that left the Yucatan Peninsula long before the Aztecs arrived in the Mexico Basin.

They practised phallic worship, body tattooing, peirced both ears and noses, and shaved the front, top and sides of their heads! To add to this, they practised the art of head elongation and they often filed their teeth into razor like blades and painted them black. This naturally, gave them an alltogether alien like appearance!

Once the expanding Aztec Empire came into contact with them they were constantly at a state of war with them. Newly crowned Aztec Emperors often made a point of launching an attack against the Huaxteca as soon as they were coronated.

The Aztecs fought the Huaxteca tribes for 30 years before they gained control over the southern part of their lands. The Huaxteca then paid tribute to the Aztecs but were a constant threat of rebellion and general thorn in the side of the Aztecs.

Although it took less than 3 years for the Conquistadores to dismantle the mighty Aztec Empire, the Huaxtecs managed to hold out for another 6 years after the fall of the Aztecs. They even managed to defeat Cortes and Gonzalo de Sandoval in 1525-26.

Although the Aztecs considered the Huaxteca to be barbarians and uncivilized, they respected them enough as warriors that they imitated their style of Warrior Suit know as "Eagle Scratch" or "Eagle Claw" suits. If you are familiar with the Aztecs, these are the suits with horizontal stripes (usually red, green or blue suits w/ black stripes in pairs) accompanied by a tall pointy hat. All Aztec Warriors who had captured two live enemy prisoners would have been awarded this suit.

Aside from this style of war suit and some Nobles who wore padded cotton armor, the Huaxteca were known for fighting naked!

Huaxtec warriors wood have been similarily armed to Aztecs with Obsidian bladed swords, spears, bows, and even wooden maces (war clubs).

In conclusion, I commend the writers of the Medieval Warfare Army Books for choosing to include this little known but fierce race of warriors to their Aztec Enemies list.

As there are currently no makers of these figures in 15mm (just Outpost Wargame Services does them in 28mm), I have decided to add the entire army range to the Eureka "300 Club" page (which I am a huge fan of).

If you are not familiar w/ the club, please read more here:
eurekamin.com.au/custom.php

Basically, Eureka allows you to custom order and design any single figure or complete army that you want. It is then placed on the pre-orders page and once it has reached 600 pre-orders (for 15mm) the range is put into production. No one making a pre-order is charged until the line is about to be produced and you may cancel your pre-order at any time.

This range will contain all the figures needed to represent a beautiful and terrifying Huaxtec Army, with a few special character figures thrown in! You could do far worse than to choose these lads to take on the mighty Azxteca Empire!

To read more on the Huaxtecan Armies, see these 3 books:
"Aztec Warrior: AD 1325-1521" (Osprey)
by John Pohl

"Aztec Warfare: Imperial Expansion and Political Control"
by Ross Hassig

and the highly recommended:
"ARMIES OF THE AZTEC AND INCA EMPIRES, OTHER NATIVE PEOPLES OF THE AMERICAS, AND THE CONQUISTADORES" (Armies of the Sixteenth Century) (Hardcover)
by Ian Heath (Author) (currently $25 USD to $35 USD on Amazon).

Here are some links to pics of 28mm Huaxteca to get you in the mood! Enjoy, and get your pre-orders in!

picture

picture

link

To pre-order 15mm Huaxtec figures, go here:
eurekamin.com.au/index.php?cPath=87_194_197&sort=3a&page=2

Ahah, we are working pon more Huaxtec in 28mm to accompany the ones already released by Outpost (that is Jeff, Martin Baker, ably badgered by Neil Burt, myself and out technical specialist Ralph Krebs and Chronfus)

Ralph has produced a Huaxtec army list for WAB which I will post onto the WAB forum once I can get the danged thing to upload :0)

A very subtle variant to Aztecs which though less classy (not so many feathers) are a force to be reckoned with

They sound like a strange but interesting bunch.

or these painted 28mm Huaxtec for inspiration maybe:

link

Very nice figs! I like th red hair touch!

Hi Uesugi Kenshin,

While 15mm figures are not my thing, I'm always happy when someone shows some passion about Mesoamerican warfare.

A few points:

Your link to the TAG figures do not actually show Huaxtecs, rather Aztecs wearing Cuextec uniforms. In a pinch one can proxy these as Huaxtec suit wearers until suitable figures are made. But they are not the same.

Secondly, Ian Heaths speculation that the Aztecs were awarded Cuextec suits because the Huaxtecs were considered exemplary warriors, is just that, speculation. In contrast, other writers surmise that the Aztecs copied the Huaxtec suits to commemorate their overwhelming victories over an inferior, barbarian tribe. Mr. Heath's criticism of this scenario, frankly, holds no water.

The sad fact is that we have no idea about the reasons Aztecs chose to copy the outfits of their enemies.

Unfortunately, the original writings on the Conquest are filled with distortions and self-aggrandizement. Also the newer writers are not above speculation, especially when the facts are lacking.

Apart from that welcome aboard and best of luck with the Eureka 300 club. I own a bunch of their 28mm Mesoamericans and Conquistadors.

Ralph (touring the Big Apple)

Thanks Ralph;

"Your link to the TAG figures do not actually show Huaxtecs, rather Aztecs wearing Cuextec uniforms"

yep, aware…just didnt have many Huaxtec pics to show as samples so figured an Aztec in a Huaxtec suit (as the picture is labled) was the next best thing.

I hope this line gains enough interest to move forward as these will be some fun boys to have slautering aztecs…even in 15mm.

Cheers for the info. Any more on Huaxtecs is surely welcomed.
Danny

Here is the proposed list of figures so far. If any other types are requested please throw out suggestions:

Description: "Huaxtec" Central American Army.
1) Chief in Cotton Padded Armor, loin cloth, wooden sword, ponited cap,
peirced nose, shield, javelins in shield hand,
2) Archer, loin cloth, shielded left arm, jaguar skin quiver, headband (2
kneeling firing, 1 standing firing, 1 standing reloading)
3) Warriors, naked, peirced nose, 2 with war club (unspiked mace) and
shield, 2 with wodden sword and shield, javelins in shielded hand,
4) Warriors, loin cloth, obsidian tipped spear, 4 poses, shield
5) Huaxtec "Eagle Scratch" suited warriors (feather suits), large pointy
hats, 3 with wooden sword and shield, javelins, 1 with spear and shield,
6) slinger, naked, shield.
7) Huaxtec "Eagle Scratch" suited warriors (feather suits), same as #5 but
no pointy hats.
8) Officer/War Party Leader, Nobles, as per Osprey Aztec Warrior Book Plate
"H" (see refernces), decrotive hat, padded armor, loin cloth, war club,
shield, javelins,
9) naked warriors throwing javelins, shield and wooden sword in left hand, 4
various poses.
10) Single figure, naked warrior in pointy hat, spear and shield in left
hand, right hand holding human heart up to sky.

I have now added this suggestion (in 15mm) to the Wargames Factory page.

And here they are:
link

New pictures added today:
link

Thanks to those who have pre-ordered any Huaxtecs from Eureka. I was told today by Nic that our pre-orders are past 600, the magic number! The only problem is only 7 people have pre-ordered and Nic requires at least 10 before production.

So, if you have even the slightest interest in these, even 4 or 8 sample figures (or Aztec allies if you dont want an entire army!) then please consider ordering a few to help gte this range produced. If and when (!) it gets produced, it will be the first ever range of Huaxtecs in 15mm

Thanks again for any help Lads!

link

I'm one of those with a pre-order----does anyone know if we any closer to seeing these figures sometime soon?

Nope. Nada. Its over 600 orders but not over 10 buyers which Nic at Eureka requires.

I know hes getting set to release Modern Russians & Chechens. Maybe after he gets those done.

Id still love to see these get made. A really interesting and fierce race.

I find it hard to believe that there aren't 5 more gamers out there that don't need a unit of nude, heavily tatooed warriors with red, yellow or blue mohawks and black teeth filed to points.

Right?!

Yes! And I forgot to mention the pointy hats and bells/rattles tied to their ankles, wrists and waists.

I find it hard to believe that there aren't 5 more gamers out there that don't need a unit of nude, heavily tatooed warriors with red, yellow or blue mohawks and black teeth filed to points.

Wow, you're painting pointy, filed, black teeth on 15mm figures? I couldn't manage the tattoos on 28mm figures.

It's the gold stars on the chief's front teeth that are the real challenge….but worth the effort.

Maybe Kickstarter would be better than the 300 Club? By using KS you could see how many would be interested in the project (and how much money they want to spend). Many KS project offers discounts, but I dont think you must do it. The major reward could be that the army would be sculpted. :-)
The different pledge levels could be for a DBA army, for a DBMM army and stuff like that. Stretch goals? More different poses maybe? And allies?
This way you could maybe finance both sculpting and moulding.

Got some great news on these. Nic from Eureka is contacting everyone who has placed a pre-order for these over the last 6 years. If there is still sufficient interest in these then they will indeed go into production.

Good news indeed. These would be the first time this army has been done in 15mm. Thanks to those who showed support over the years.

Cheers.

What ever happened to these? I said I was in for 120+ but was never contacted. Are we then to be….Huaxtecless forever?

Eureka terminated the 100 and 300 clubs a couple of years ago on the basis that they'd been superseded by crowd funding schemes.