Riachuelo 1865 Wargame: South America's Largest Naval Battle
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- Опубликовано: 20 фев 2023
- This week on Little Wars TV we set a course for South America in the summer of 1865! Paraguay is engaged in a bitter, bloody war of expansion against three regional rivals. Today we wargame the Battle of Riachuelo, the largest naval battle ever fought in South America, set during "The War of the Triple Alliance." Can the Paraguayan fleet pull off a surprise attack on the Panara River, or will the Empire of Brazil hold the river?
We're playing the game with 1/1200 miniature ships on a 6'x8' tabletop using Tom's homebrew naval rules for the age of steam and iron warships. It's a fantastic wargame played in an under-appreciated historical conflict. The War of the Triple Alliance last more than 5 years and would prove to be the deadliest war in South American history. Explore this fascinating chapter of history with us on the tabletop!
SPITHEAD MINIATURES (1/1200 ships)
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EAST COAST IRONCLADS (1/1200 3d prints)
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LONG FACE GAMES (3d prints)
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Are there other dark corners of military history you think we should explore on Little Wars TV? Tell us your ideas in the comments! We do read them all. And if you enjoy today's wargame, why not subscribe and join our army of historical wargaming nerds? We'd love to have you. 
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We, Brazilian wargamers, were very happy to see the Battle of Riachuelo so carefully portrayed. The War of the Triple Alliance is a fascinating and terrible conflict. May we always remember it at the game tables so that it never happens again in real life. Hugs from the Borders of Blood system team, a wargame rule developed in Brazil for the period. Keep up the good work.
Yo, i plan on moving to Brazil this year, do you happen to know any resources where i can find groups to join?
@@rustybuttshoe6312 Hello Rusty. I'm trying to answer your question, but for some reason my answer insists on not showing up in the timeline.
No worries man, I started scouring Facebook for groups based in Brazil, i hope i find something in São Paulo state that's where I'll live lol
Then is there a Paraguayan community that keeps discussing ways they could have won?
@@anathardayaldar yes.
South America is a very undercover and underrated part of history. Thanks for covering it, I'm excited to watch!
This is the first time in 20 years that we've gamed anything in South America. Can't believe it took us this long!
Indeed. The funny part. I'm from Uruguay, and had no idea of this battle. And just a very basic idea of the war of the triple aliance in general.
The War of the Triple Alliance is underrated for wargaming. Good choice.
All credit to Tom for painting up the fleets and making it happen! Always so cool to try new conflicts and learn about them on the tabletop.
There is very nice, simple boardgame War of the Tripple Alliance, already double-language (spanish and english).
Perry Miniatures have a great range of miniatures from this war.
For me the best part was the inclusion of the interaction among the players. It's great to see people being goofy with each other.
Grown men playing with toy soldiers kind of requires a certain level of goofiness, doesn't it?? At least, in our club.
Riachuelo! Such an underrated battle. I literally exclaimed out loud when I saw the notification.
Sort of in the same time period is the Naval Battle of Lissa (or Vis). Major naval sea battle involving ironclads and one of the last to feature ramming... would love to see that covered.
Great to see you guys back in action.
I never knew about this conflict, it isn't really of the UK radar I suppose. Our focus is always on Europe, Africa and Indian sub-continent.
Interesting subject and interesting game.
Thanks.
To be honest....most of us in the club hadn't even heard of this battle until Tom rolled it out on the table! There's a huge blind spot for South American history in US education. In our schools, we learn nothing at all about historical events in the region, which is kind of crazy given the proximity.
Perry's released a range for the war or triple alliance,
It is a bit niche in UK war gaming though
Fantastic! As an someone studying Byzantine history, it would be great to see you tackle something related to Byzantium - perhaps once Baccus's 6mm Byzantine line comes out? The Battle of Dyrrachium comes to mind, especially as you already have Normans from the Hastings game. Otherwise, perhaps Manzikert
You might just get your wish sooner than expected on one of those Byzantine battles…
@@LittleWarsTV Ooh fantastic to hear!!
The war of the Triple Alliance is such an insane conflict, reading about it is harrowing. Happy to see yall playing out such a great episode from that war!
Good choice perhaps look into some of the land campaigns of that war. Perhaps Spanish-American war in Cuba. Although l still say the Boxer Rebellion and seige of Peking would make a great muktiplayer game, but who will be Chuck Heston?
We've definitely talked about Boxer Rebellion in the club but haven't pulled the trigger on minis. There have been some STUNNING Boxer Rebellion games at the HMGS conventions over the years. Seems to be a popular convention game!
Thanks for doing this! It was a big surprise to see the War of the Triple Alliance (or, The Paraguay War, as it is known in Brazil) covered in your channel. The war was a nasty, brutal and complex affair that left Paraguay in ruins. Brazil fared better, but in order to fund the war it accumulated a huge foreign debt that plagued the Empire until its end. Also, it may have been one of the reasons behind the discontentment in the Brazilian Army with the Brazilian civilian government, a feeling that festered until the military coup that ended the monarchy in 1889.
Fantastic! Would love to see some games on the filibuster wars of the 1850s-William Walker in Nicaragua is pretty interesting. The First and Second Battles of Rivas are particularly noteworthy.
This is really good. Thank you very much for going beyond the traditional. The Paraguay war was a huge conflict that has a lot of the elements players enjoy. Nautical battles, many land battles, coordination of armies from 3 different countries, a conflict that started army based and ended in a Gorilla warfare, inspiring commanders, etc.
Amazing game! Greatings from Argentina! I will love see more battles from South America!!
The Seminole war is a lesser known war here in the states.
Mexico has tons of conflicts that are super interesting, the independence from Spain and the Maximilian adventures stand out to me.
I would love if you would do one in the great northern war. Or the swedish Danish war. The battle of Copenhagen is quite fantastic to read about. And the museum in Copenhagen makes it even better.
The return of glorious revolutionary Ed! I adore this character, keep doing more revolutionary battles, whether the Russian Civil War or the Vietnam War, so we can have more of our "Dear and Glorious Leader"!
Ed is indeed one of the finest gentleman & amateur scholar/historian you could ever meet .
This was an amazing naval war game! Greg’s rage was definitely a highlight. I would love more Latin American history videos! Keep the good work guys!
Great idea of South American battles!! One you might look into is the siege of Cusco (Pizarro vs the Incas 1536-1537)
Its amazing to see action in such an underrated period of south american history, the battle I would really like to see is the battle of Tuyutí, it is rarely known outside of south america but it is the bloodiest battle of the War of the Triple Alliance, another battle that would interesting to see is the battle of Avay, it was fought between the outnumbered and outgunned Paraguayan forces and the large Imperial Brazilian army led by the Marquis of Caxias, thank you so much for making this battle report and continue the good work!!!
As an Argentinian who lives 8 miles from the place where the naval battle took place I have to say that it is such an honor to see my favorite wargamers depict an historical event that happened in my home turf.
Living close to Paraguay and having Paraguayan relatives really helps in understanding both sides of the picture but I have to say that there is an animosity of Paraguayans against Argentinians reflected in the nickname they use for us "pig skins" -("kurepí" in the native Guaraní language), according to folklore , the Argentine soldiers used pig leather to protect the body from mosquitos and local fauna while crossing the marshes and jungles of both Paraguay and Argentina.
Curiously enough the War of the Triple Alliance was seen by a portion of the Argentine Army as a treason TO their Paraguayan brethren, mainly because in the 1850s Argentina was also marred in its own internal disputes -a long standing civil war between the "Federales"(who received aid from a contingent of Paraguayan soldiers in many battles) and the Unitarians of Buenos Aires. So having to destroy the country of their former was seen as despicable, even to this day there is a surplus of women in the country, particularly by the former Federales.
As recommendation you could look into the Cisplatine War (1825-1828) , a war between Argentina and Brazil, which had its share of naval battles and which also saw the foundation of the Argentine Navy by an Irish Captain, now regarded as a national hero: William "Guillermo" Brown -en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Brown_(admiral).
It would be cool to see some land battles of the Cisplatine War and the War of the Triple Alliance, I think you can get some 28mm models of the Argentine and Brazilian armies from that era, albeit at a steep price perhaps. Thanks for the video and for sharing the history of black powder era South America.
Tuyuti! Tuyuti! Tuyuti! Also great job guys, I'm glad you're dropping some knowledge on your audience.
That really is a conflict I didn't heard much about it (maybe on some youtube channels). Naval actions in the Caribbean such as the Spanish victory at Cartagena in the War of Jenkin's Ear - although you would have to chose a phase of the battle.
Excellent suggestion! Love hearing cool ideas for lesser known battles to explore.
@@LittleWarsTV I would love to see this battle in particular, since I may have suggested its victor for your Wall of Heroes...
Not exactly unknown but I’d love to see some 30 years war stuff on the channel, the battle for Lützen between Gustav II. Adolf and Albrecht von Wallenstein for example would be nice.
TWY is always a popular request it seems! Not a period we’ve done, but armies in two different scales are percolating in the club….
Ship-Hit-Sheets - Our group here uses similar "Hit-Sheets" with "Hull, Gun, and Mast" boxes which we use for Napoleonic Era sailing ship battles ! Each ship has so many "Hull" hit boxes which keep each ship afloat (above water/not sinking), so many "Gun Hit" boxes which we use to represent "Crew Strength" (when your CREW are gone your "ship surrenders"), and so many "Mast Hit" boxes which control your ship-movement ( no sails means no movement) ! We also allow each ship to "repair one hit-box per turn ( your choice) but not the first box of each hull/gun/mast ! Also the "wind" effects sailing-ship battles in the Napoleonic era - not so much in the machine era ! As ships progress into "steam/screw/paddle-wheel" movement you have to include " critical hit" type that effect things on the ships (steering, engine, fires, etc.) and also "armor effects" in the "age of ironclads" (wooden ships, cotton-clad, tin-clad, ironclad-steel plate, etc.) ! :-)
I'd definitely be down for some more South American historical battles. The Triple Alliance as well as that War in South America that happened during WWII would be interesting. Some more Victorian era colonial stuff would be cool, specifically the Boxer Rebellion. If you want to be really obscure, the WWI colonial fronts would be great! Tsintango, Papua New Guinea and the Battles in Africa would make great episodes
Epico! you guys should do the battle of Tuyutí
Very nice video like always! The flagship of war gaming videos
I always thought it would be cool to game the first pacific war, Chile vs Peru and Bolivia. I know they had iron clads though I'm not sure if they fought each other
Thank you for an interesting and different kind of game! A beautiful set up and the scale was very apparent from the beginning!
ED!!!!!! It’s great to see the GOAT once again. Make 2023 the year of the ED.
The Battle of Tuyutí is another battle from this war. It’s considered the bloodiest battle ever in South America.
A great game, with very nice terrain and minis! And really cool to see the foray into south american history, as well as riverine warfare. Thanks for the video and I certainly hope to see more actions of the War of the Triple Alliance.
Love these bit of obscure history, well done!
Really cool setting and a nice battle report. It is always lovely to see your videos. If you search a new historical setting i would recommend you the battle of Guinegate 1479. Where emperor Maximilian I. fought against the french in the war of burgundy Succesion.
Beautiful Set up! Cool Terrain and Miniatures. Thanks
Great content!!! Really nice
Fun and informative. Love watching you guys game. Might be good to see a campaign on the war with Mexico etc. We'll done and keep them coming fellas
That was a fun game to watch. Looks like it was a blast to play. Great job!
More South American conflicts! This was a lot of fun. Thank you
Keith sighting! Good to see Keith. Fun scenario, nice to see a conflict I'm not familiar with. Great job, Tom!
Let's keep it up with these naval war games. Always a treat. If you ever find a good rule set for carrier battles I would love to see it.
Great stuff as always and what a cracking looking game
Amazing Homebrew Rules was a solid and fun looking event 😀
Love to see more under appreciated battles like this one.
I feel I hadn't seen Kieth in a while good to see him again.
Also great video, I am currently trying to find research material on the War of the Triple Alliance to try and learn more! I love a little known conflict to try and study.
I'm really happy to see you guys covering South America! There is so much history here and also highly complex, which is usually left to the sidelines. Having it covered by English speaking channels and platforms is an important way to make it more known and pique people's interest!
Fascinating history and fun scenario!
A nice exotic and naval - itself exotic - battle. Well done. The card driven movement sounds well thought out.👍
The real story here is it appears Dave was constantly raiding the free snacks when not his turn.
I have embarked on the saltpetre war, using the ships from spithead and 10mm from pendrakon, having thoroughly enjoyed your game need to get them on the table! I would like to see you investigate the Swiss civil war of the 1840s.... I want to say November 1848.
Great video
I really enjoyed this naval game. As far as South American combat goes, I would love to see one of Simon Bolivar's battles.
BATTLE OF MOBILE BAY - Our Thursday night group did this "Civil War Ironclads" battle with "hand-craft" ships on a blue ping pong sized table with Mobile Bay protected by two forts ( Ft.Morgan & Ft. Gaines) and by "sunken poles" across the middle of the bay where the fort cannons could not reach ! Once in past the bay opening were lines of "torpedoes" which were electrically-operated from each fort as Union ships got close ( a D6 roll) ! If Union ships tried to cross the sunken-poles ( a D6 roll) - ALL gun-fire was D6 rolls too ! The Union fleet had 18 ships including 4 Ironclads while the Confeds had only 10 including the Ironclad Tennessee which was a "ram" ( a D6 roll) ! The south also had some paddle-wheel gun-boats and 3 steam-launches with "spar-torpedoes ( a D6 roll)) to ram/explode into Union ships - a few of the Confed ships were unarmed "blockade-runners" caught in the bay and trying to get out to open sea past the Union fleet ! The combat system was 3D6 die/shot - white to "hit" , green to "penetrate", red to "damage" (hull points, gun, critical hit = roll D6 again ! We've played this battle multiple times and also used the "rules" in doing your "Hampton Roades" battle too! :-)
Very good AAR. Years ago I made armies for this war using 10mm Old Glory mostly ACW figs. The Paraguayans usually lose the battles but their morale is like the WW2 Japanese. It is said by the end of the war with Lopez demise, 90% of Paraguay's male population was dead. Talk about heavy losses.
Nice looking ships too!
Great game and fascinating topic. If you want to keep broadly on topic, the Pacific War featured a couple of ironclad v ironclad battles off the coast of (then Bolivia / Peru) which were also decisive in allowing Chile to launch the amphibious assault that won the war. Keep up the good work
Great looking game. Rules system seems nice and straight forward.
Thank you for this, Several months ago, I went back to visit my family in Paraguay, I dragged my cousin take us to Vapor Cue, where the remnants of the Paraguayan fleet, I'll see if I can get the time to send you the photos of the paddle steamers I took
I love to see these lesser-known conflicts highlighted by the club.
You all lived up to your tagline... history! May we ever learn how much we don't know.
Would love to see more on the South American wars of independence...both land and sea. Great episode. Thanks
An excellent game, based on a battle I'd never heard of.
Education never stops.
I loved watching and learning.
Very underrated war that was very critical for South America you should think about doing a campaign about it or maybe doing a American Civil War Campaign
Great video! Love the naval topics. Still ho]ing you guys will try Pulp Alley 2nd edition. It's a lot of fun!
Great video! Absolutely gorgeous looking tabletop design. You asked for suggestions on new videos. May I suggest Buller's Folly. The battle of Colenso. Boer War battle where one could demonstrate missed chances, orders lost, cocky battle plans, plucky Boer sharpshooters, and a host of things that Greg, Ed, and the others...Thank you for all that you all have shared. Cheers!
The boardgame "Redver's Reverse " is an excellent source for units, leaders, terrain, orders, and so much more.
Great game guys!!
Thanks, Garett! This was a cool period for us to check out. Learned a ton about the history along the way
I really enjoyed your OK Corral and Hastings campaigns, and especially the Pyrrhic War series. The Napoleonic Italian campaign was also really great. I know I'd really love to see more of those wider-scope wargames, where things like scouting and logistics can start to come into play. A multi-faction game could also be really interesting, potentially, given how often you're having players assigned to specific leaders or components of a force.
There's clearly potential in the War of the Triple Alliance itself for something like this, given what you've said, but China also occurs to me as a rich and maybe untapped vein to mine for these larger scenarios. I think you could pick almost any late- or inter-dynastic period, but of course the obvious ones would be the Warring States or Three Kingdoms eras. That said, I think the Sixteen Kingdoms actually represents a wilder time in Chinese history than the Three Kingdoms, and it's almost certainly better documented than the Warring States. You've got half a dozen or more different kingdoms in northern and central China, all vying for power, with Eastern Jin down south stirring the pot every time one of them was able to absorb its rivals, but never actually managing to retake northern China for itself. There are a lot of comparisons to be made to the Heptarchy in England, I think.
The Warlord era and the Boxer Rebellion also stand out to me as having a lot of potential, if you want to go for something with a more modern feel but similar potential for a multifaction campaign.
Hey Guys thank you for opening up a new historic rabbit hole for me to look into. Never herd about that war.
Had no idea at all !!! On break and all the guys said, Brazil had a war??? Thanks for another great one guys loved it.
They fought in Italy in WW2.
Riachuelo mean something like "little river" in spanish. Ironic hehehe
Enjoy this. The Armchair Historian channel has a nice animated history of that war that will give you enough general coverage of why and how.
Yes! Saw that video and it was outstanding (as always for his stuff)
Congratulation for such an entertaining game.
One of the conflicts that you could look at, it is the Pacific War between Chile against Peru and Bolivia in 1879. It was one of the major war fought in South America. Another one could be the South American independence wars against Spain. Cheers and Saludos (Salutations)
I do enjoy seeing battles from the Sengoku period. The battle of Sekigahara was pretty evenly matched.
Ah, this is beautiful.
On a broader scale, like that of Pyrrhus, I would like to see something like The Great Northern War or something covering George Rogers Clark's campaign in the Revolutionary War.
Our group here did a similar naval battle " Battle of Mobile Bay " which was protected by two forts (Ft. Morgan & Ft. Gaines) - we used a small wooden HEX jewelry box (the base for one fort & the lid for the other fort) painted brown with black gun-ports on each wall ! While these forts looked good on the blue ping-pong table I've since seen a picture post-card of these two forts and both forts buried at ground-level with just the cannons above ground ! Wargaming is a simulation and not always historical !!! :-)
That´s an interesting Game. Never heard of the "War of the triple Alliance".
Brazil mentioned
FINALLY.
Leaving a like for the foray into very underrated 19th Century South American warfare!
Hello and great video... I was wondering if you could do a battle the battle of Carthage,Missouri on June 5,1861 between the U.S army and Missouri state Guard I think you would enjoy that battle.
Keep up the good videos.
Great work folks! Given your recent visit to the Perrys, I'm wondering just how crazy you might have gone for the War of the Triple Alliance ...
Right?? Their 28mm range for this conflict is stunning. Not sure how many of those figures they sold given the obscure nature of it, but they look incredible.
That was a fine presentation! I echo Klaas-Jan van den Berg's request for a copy of the rules!
Great stuff lads Mexican American war, and the various revolutions during the early 19th century are all worthy of a look
This was great to see from a fascinating period for naval gaming, and from a conflict little known outside of its participants. For another obscure conflict, how about flipping to the north side of the hemisphere and the post-ACW Fenian raids? The obvious choice being the Battle of Ridgeway, which can be proxied (more or less) with some ACW figures and some British Colonial ones.
Excellent 👍 Have some 28mm and 10mm figures for this conflict.
It would be fascinating to see you guys do something from a lesser-known war, like the Ragamuffin War, or the Congo Crisis, or maybe do a full scale campaign of something like the Chincha Islands War!
Another great naval battle in number of guns and ships in South America would be the naval battle of Juncal, it is an epic story.
Battles of Tuyutí and Curupayty next please!
Thanks for the video Little Wars. I have 2 questions, what are CP dice per the reference sheet? Secondly, could you post the homebrew rules you used for this scenario? Thanks again!
More napoleonic please! Would love a big campaign like the pyrrhus one
What material was used to make the river? I really like the overall coloring, light reflectivity and slight ripples on the surface.
Everybody thought they were Napoleon.
Should be a line in a song about power and hubris.
I’d love to see you do the land battles in 15 or 6 mm
Yessssssss next battle of tuyuti
As for other battles, the Battle of Tuyuti, in the same conflict, is the bloodiest in South American history iirc. It's an epic struggle, sometimes compared to Waterloo with the back and forth charge and counter charge. The Paraguayan losses were massive and its the last true attack of the war where they have a chance to turn the tide against the Alliance. Failing to push the Alliance back from the river fortress, and having lost their fleet in the battle here, the Paraguayans would be on the back foot the rest of the war. If one of their assaults on the Allied lines succeeded, could it have soured one of the Allies on the war? Could it have worsened the plague conditions that were about to strike the Allied "Tuyuti Black Lines" where so many succumbed to disease? Maybe! A big enough victory may have bought Paraguay the time it needed to rearm and regroup.
I'd love to see a scenario on The Chocolate War
Yall should do another campaign series like the Pyrrhic wars. Punic wars maybe?
I know you have probably covered this era but would like to see the Roman civil war. Other idea the slave revolts as we have seen in movies like Gladiator and tv shows like Spartacus. Maybe something with a little flare to the fantasy kind of with the myth of Arthur Pendragon.
Really excellent- Can I ask if the rules are available anywhere?
War of the Pacific! It would be very cool to see Chile vs Peru and Bolivia
It would be fun to see a battle from the 1808-1809 Swedish-Russian war over Finland. like the battle of Oravais. :)
NIce game and ships. What is the scale of the map?