Adventures of the British & Irish Legions in South America review
After much anticipation John Fletcher of Grenadier Productions has released the third volume in his ongoing study of the South American Wars of Liberation
and worth the wait it was.
The information contained therein is clearly a labour of love and jam packed full of ‘good guff' on the British involvement in the ‘Liberator Wars'. It is presented in a very nice modern heavy duty stock that will take the ‘bashing' this title will receive as you go back to it, time and again.
From the Grenadier Production website the description
"Adventures of the British & Irish Legions" tells the tale of the approximately 6,000 men who joined the cause of South American Independence and fought under the banner of Simon Bolivar and Gran Colombia. Using memoirs and firsthand accounts from the legionnaires themselves, their South American allies and their Spanish and Royalist foes "Adventures of the British & Irish Legions" focuses on the combat record of each expedition and the regiments that composed them. It is a complete, concise account that serves as a springboard for other sources, such as Ben Hughes recent "Conquer or Die" from Osprey Publishing.
"Adventures of the British & Irish Legions" includes material that has never appeared in English as well as uniforms illustrations that are depicted for the first time ever anywhere. The scenarios offer the opportunity to recreate combats of a couple hundred men per side to battles with a couple thousand per side. They include town fights, fortress defenses, woods fights and open field battles. The bibliography and further reading section allows the reader to learn more about this fascinating topic."
John has done all of the above and then some by presenting information in a readily accessible format for the gamer/history buff.
In detail, the uniform section has numerous color illustrations for the units that are contained within, describing their historical strength, commander, organisation and service record. There are simply units here that have never been detailed as such in English before and certainly not in such a pleasing format as presented in British Adventures.
Units included are;
1st Venezuelan Hussars
1st Venezuelan Lancer regiment
2nd Venezuelan Hussars
2nd Venezuelan Lancer regiment
Gillmore's artillery
Campbell's Rifles/1st Venezuelan Rifles
Rooke's Hussars/ Dragoon Guards
1st Salabarrieta Light Infantry regiment
Hibernia regiment
Artillery, MacGregor's Expeditions
Hussars, MacGregor's Expeditions
Lancers, MacGregor's Expeditions
2nd Rifle regiment, MacGregor's Expeditions
2nd Rifles, Uslars Hannovarens, Elsom's Expeditions
2nd Hussars, Elsom's Expeditions
Ferriars Artillery
Beamish's infantry battalion
Blossett's Infantry battalion
Stopford's Hussar regiment
Tiradores Regiment
1st Rifle regiment, Irish Legion
2nd Rifles regiment, Irish Legion
1st Light Infantry regiment, Irish Legion
2ns Light Infantry regiment, Irish Legion
Hussar Guards, Irish Legion
Fusilier regiment, Irish Legion
1st Lancer regiment, Irish Legion
Congreve Rocket Battery, Irish Legion
Engineers, Irish Legion
Albion Battlion
Cazadores Britanicos
The list is exhaustive and detailed. The uniforms section includes details on ranks distinctions, flags and has other supporting illustrations.
The scenario section forms a core of the book. 20 pages with 14 scenarios! The scenario are categorized as either a ‘Skirmish battle' or ‘Tactical battle', sometimes both. Each scenario contains a Situation, Order of Battle (including leader and troop ratings for all troops – very useful!), Deployment Special rules, victory conditions and a lovely color map.
Very nicely detailed but not overly burdensome with oodles of special rules, etc – just the important ones. The games cover the following engagements ;
Storming Fort San Juan (1819)
Battle of Portobelo (1819)
Action at Riohacha (1819)
‘The Full MacGregor!' (1819)
Battle of Turbaco (1819)
Battle of Laguna Salada (1820)
Battle of Pantano de Vargas (1819)
Combat of La Plata (1820)
Battle of Pitayo (1820)
2nd Battle of Huachi (1821)
Battle of Gamarra (1819)
Storming of Agua Santa (1819)
Assault on Cumana (1819)
Battle of Bombona (1822)
There is an enormous amount of variety and information contained within these scenarios. As John has researched each engagement he rates troops and leaders according to that time such that it provides an instant snapshot of the troops as they were at that moment in the campaigns they fought. This is extremely useful particularly as he has accessed many Spanish language sources to derive this data. This information alone is gold to those who lack bi-lingual research skills. The battles will enable many rules systems to be used as the information is presented to cover troop numbers, etc.
The second half of the book contains 30 pages of great information on the history of the Legions. With his easy writing style that makes for pleasant reading, this section contains a number of maps and some actual pictures kindly supplied by Ben Hughes from his recently released book by Osprey publishing, which itself is a great modern narrative that complement the British Adventures title. We are truly blessed by the release of these two gems available in English.
Finally, John wraps it up with a suggested reading and extensive bibliography that he has acquired from many years of research. Fortunately for us, a huge amount of these titles are now available as free downloads from the internet archive so these information just keeps coming. This is an excellent compilation of further reading resources a number of which are in English.
No longer are the Liberator Wars a backwater subject restricted to Terry Hooker's, excellent, but short, Osprey title. We have access to some really high quality research and great information that is now more than enough to run with. This is 'wargaming info' at its best that is frankly beyond that in its detail
but for us, we are lucky as John has filtered the information down and given it to us in a such lovely book – very nice.
On the last page John lists his much expanded Liberator 18mm figure range sculpted by none other than Mike Broadbent – a great combination of researcher and sculptor that has produced the definitive range of figures for this period and it is still expanding with the support of the Liberator gaming community. The British Adventures book highlights the many uses for these minis, which are sculpted to match existing AB and Warmodelling figure styles of sculpting.
In summation, this is simply one title you want to have if you are even remotely interested in the subject matter. John is not a major publisher so grab a copy from what could be the only print run of this superb volume.
At 29.95 it's an absolute bargain.
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Happy Wanderer
PS
Doing a quick internet search revealed this interesting info bit on the War in Venezuela (which the British adventure book covers). The website has been translated to English using an online translator. It shows just how many battles were fought in the war in the north of the Liberator Wars. Off course there were many battles in the South but that is another story.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
During the War of Independence of Venezuela, between 1811 and 1823 he fought 80 battles (including some fought in present-day Colombia), with the result we all know. In the lists below are all that could be discerned as such.
Before, however, give some interesting facts:
o Of the 80 battles, 50 were won by the Patriots, 28 were realists and two tables.
o The average size of the patriot army was of 1,885 men, with a maximum of 5,000, collected by Francisco de Miranda in 1812 and Simón Bolívar in 1821 to the Battle of Carabobo. The minimum was used by Juan Bautista Arismendi (the husband of Luisa Cáceres) in the "battle" of John Greek, 50 men
o The royal army was larger average size, 2,830 men. The largest was 8,000 army commanded by José Tomás Boves in the battle of La Puerta, where he defeated Bolivar and Marino in 1814. The smallest was 200 men, used in a battle Güiria in 1813 against Marino.
o The biggest battle is to Urica which involved a total of 11,200 soldiers, 7,000 realistic command of Boves and Morales and 4,200 patriots, led by José Félix Ribas and José Francisco Bermúdez. This battle ended with the triumph of the realists, but with the death of Boves.
o The biggest difference occurs when José Antonio Páez faced with 150 to 6,000 prairie realists led by Morillo .. And defeat him!. This is the famous: "Go back faces."
o Patriot commander appears that more is, of course, Simon Bolivar 16 battle alone and one with Marino, one with Bermúdez and Paez. Of those lost six and won 13.
o Then comes Jose Francisco Bermudez with 6 battles alone (4 and 2), two with José Félix Ribas (0 and 2) and Bolivar (0 and 1)
o Paez continues with 6 battles alone, all earned, and a defeat in conjunction with Bolívar.
o Then comes Piar with 5 only (4 wins and a draw) and a company. Ribas (3 y1) and Marino (3 and 1).
o Among the realists, the most important was Jose Tomas Boves who fought 11 battles with 7 wins and 4 losses. Then Thomas Joseph Morales (4 and 3) and Domingo Monteverde, also with 4 wins and 3 losses.
o Of the 31 commanders patriots, 7 had the name of José: José Félix Ribas. Fco José Bermúdez, José Antonio Páez, José A. Padilla, Jose R. Guevara, Jose Sarda and Antonio José de Sucre . Besides the terrible José Tomás José Tomás Boves and Morales.
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