New World: Conquistadors vs Aztecs

Gave my modifications to the P&S Rules a road test today. They worked great
although in future Spanish v Native games I'll give the indigenous population
more units to make it a bit less one-sided.

The Spanish under their rather rash conquistador general had an impressive
line-up of four sword and buckler units, a unit of arquebusiers, one of
crossbowmen, artillery and the glamour unit of lancers.

Facing them was a massed Aztec army of four clan warriors units(hordes under my
modifications - behave much like medieval peasants in close combat), a couple of
suit wearer warrior units, some slingers and a unit of Cuachic shock troops
(warband classification).

I fully deployed my solo and command / control rules and they worked well giving
me an interesting twist to the initial confrontation which I assumed to be an
Aztec rush but instead the Spanish gained the initative and mounted their own
charge along the line.

The special rules added a lot of period colour and made things distinctly
awkward for the Aztecs.

Superior technology (iron weapons and armour), Spanish ferocity and native
dislike of horses all conspired to scythe through engaged units. The only units
that put up a credible resistance were the suit wearers and shock troops. Used
with overlaps and in volume is the way the Aztecs can tackle the Spanish. On a
one to one they are hopeless and the clan warriors melted under the sword and
buckler onslaught.

That said there were a few times that the Aztecs did eliminate some stands and
they expertly swamped the exposed arquebusier unit on their right flank but by
then it was too late and the Spanish held the field largely intact.

Overall I really enjoyed it but it was rather one-sided. Taught me plenty of
lessons for future games and native v native games might be interesting. The
lists I've drafted have a lot of variation between the combatants.

The Aztec have swordsmen, warband and hordes, the Tlaxcalan rely on archers, the
Mixtec on atlatl dart throwers, while I can also employ mass warbands with a
fair compliment of missile troops for the Mayans.

All in all a fascinating sub-period. Looked good aswell. The Spanish only
fielded four bases to their infantry units, while I allowed the Aztecs six. This
gave a realistic representation with the lean Spanish line facing a massed
native opposition. Looked big in figure terms but regarding units I think I need
to have a ratio of 1:1.5 to get a fairer fight.