Grant Whitley  - Oct 16, 2005 6:57 pm (#10980 Total: 11030)  
Greenville,NC Currently playing: Tercios(Alea#30), Gringo!, 
Libertadores, Bittereinder(ATO)
 	 
OTT: Otumba 1520

On the Table is the Otumba 1520 scenario for Alea's new "Los Tercios"
game. 

The battle takes place on an open plain with cornfields on the flanks.
The Spanish are outnumbered, but have artillery and cavalry, both of
which the Aztec army lacks. The Aztecs have some good heavy infantry,
but perhaps an overabundance of archers and slingmen. They also have a
lot of poor quality porters and rear area troops. 

The Spanish had the initiative, and began by moving their three powerful
cavalry units(one each of Gennets, Black Cassocks, and Reiters) towards
the Aztec right wing. As the Aztec, I feared the Spanish artillery, and
so sought to avoid constructing large stacks which would make opportune
targets for the Spanish culverins. Instead, I screened my infantry with
my archers and slingmen, hoping to inflict adverse results on the
Spanish and their Tlaxcalteca allies from a distance, and subsequently
closing with my infantry. 

Unfortunately for the Aztecs, their ranged fire(Sprinking of Shot) rolls
were incredibly poor, and the Spanish simply formed into squadrons of
Switzers(infantry) and Sleeves and closed with them. Although some of
the Aztec sleeves(ranged fire units) were able to retreat safely, many
were either disordered or left exposed to the Spanish advance and
subsequently destroyed during shock combat. Things went worst for the
Aztecs on their left wing initially; on the right wing, some Aztec heavy
infantry was able to form squadron and hold off attacks by Spanish heavy
infantry and cavalry coming from multiple directions. Unfortunately,
their own attacks were largely unsuccessful and did little to affect the
Spanish morale. After nine turns, the Aztecs were still in the game,
having passed several Spanish victory rolls, but I reckoned that they
had lost too many units to be able to win the game(despite a spectacular
turn 8 ). 

In retrospect, I should have gone ahead and formed the Aztecs into
squadrons and risked the Spanish bombardments. The guns have to roll a
10 or higher on 2D6 to hit, so they are not terribly accurate. The
problem for the Aztecs is that a hit can be very destructive, as I found
out when I played the Nieuport scenario. But all in all, the Aztecs
enjoyed their greatest successes when using stacked units. I am going to
give this scenario another go to test out this alternate Aztec strategy.
It's also a lot of fun as the Spanish- you get several powerful cavalry
units(successful attacks from them result in morale checks for many
Aztec units) to play around with, some very colorful enemies to go up
against, and Cortés leading the way.