Like many of my fellow-TMPers, I love the esoteric and obscure. One of the most obscure, considering its scale and duration, is the War of the Pacific (1879-1883). I speak as a Brit, obviously – it may be less so to readers TMP-ers from the nations concerned, i.e., Chile and its opponents, Peru and Bolivia.
There is only one action in the WotP that is really on BBB scale. Tacna isn't it! There were only 10-15,000 men a side, so it's a divisional action rather than an army-sized battle. Still, we thought we'd try it as an appetizer before the main event. Besides, it's your one and only chance to field the Bolivian army, with its three battalions of Presidential Guard, one battalion in red uniforms, a second in yellow, and a third in green – the colours of the Bolivian flag!
OK, I confess, I didn't paint up any Bolivians. But we did fight the game. It's a fairly short and sweet straightforward assault on a defensive position. The interest comes less from the tactical situation than from the aforementioned local colour, and a little from the unusual terrain effects of the desert sand. And it does have the virtues of being quick and easy to set up and quick to play.
Quite possibly you don't own any Latin American armies. Don't worry: the Chileans look very much like French Second Empire infantry in kepis, blue coats, and red trousers. The Allies are likewise mostly in kepis and blue coats plus a selection of other motley.
Scenario map:
PAC1 War of the Pacific Tacna 1880 battle map by
bbbchrisp, on Flickr
The full scenario is in the files section of the BBB_wargames Yahoo group:
link
