@JTam posted a series on Magellan in the Conquistador inspiration thread. How about some other adversaries that could verse the Conquistadors. Indonesia is made up of many different tribes with many different customs and languages. I have a book that details some. It shows their traditional weapons and clothes. I think this could be a cool set (or sets). As a bonus, my Keris (kris) is pictured after. I named it Pendawa. :)
I agree, it is a great ideia to get more opponents for my Portuguese.
It would have to be sets and for some of them I would pick other dates than Renaissance to get started (Filipinos and Moro in the late 19th to early-mid 20th would do really well for example).
I am pretty sure the Javanese had a gunpowder empire for a while thanks to a failed expedition by Kublai Khan meanwhile the Filipinos and Malay had a completely different culture costumes, etc. that archipelago really is its own continent in many respects, its rather tragic that the Anglo Sphere knows so little about it.
@Brian Van De Walker yeah which is probably why it wouldn't make a great set as no one would know enough to buy it. I mean I certainly would.
When you ask most people about Indonesia, you get blank faces. People tend to know Bali, or Krakatoa, or even Sumatra... but most don't know that those are all parts of Indonesia. Even Java... people may know about... but have no idea where Indonesia is.
More people are probably familiar with the Civet, or cat poop coffee than they are with it.
@William Redford except if you are Portuguese, the occupation and liberation of East Timor from Indonesia was a big thing here.
But you are, of course, right, most people draw a blank in this matter. Unfortunatly.
I would certainly buy a couple of sets.
@Vitor Soares
Actually I would say it’s mostly just an Anglo Sphere people problem. Particularly Americans and British whose only real window into foreign cultures is Hollywood and whose main war games are WH40k and Western Theater Boltaction cause its COD the table top game (tragically that does seem to be a lot of wargamers🤣).
@William Redford
I say Java, but that is a geographic generalization. In truth it was actually the main Empire in that area for a time and I doubt the Spanish and Portuguese would have missed it or it remnants (not too sure it was still standing, had divided, or had some other problem before Europeans factor in). I get the feeling that if they were done as minis a lot more people would learn about them; of course it might be better to have movies about them first.🤷♂️
That aside, I get the feeling Moro for 19th century to WW2 would be the better place to start (people know about them, third party armies in global conflicts always garner at least a passing interest, they should be pretty dang useful for a good block of time and they would work pretty close to perfect for Fantasy: Genric and exotic/industrial).
@Brian Van De Walker got you a couple of videos, somewhat on the subject.
An example of how the small Portuguese army and fleet conquered such an empire.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtrSqo0Giqg&t=467s
Similarities between Indonesian and Portuguese languages. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_QZ7L3QbOs
Basicly, the portuguese conquered through quick battles, control of trade centers, and integration. They didn't have enough men to conquer like the spanish, the british or the french, so they had to integrate with the locals.
That is way you have so many portuguese words in Asian languages.
Almost al of the examples you gave of troops could be used as adversares or auxiliaries in this age.
@Vitor Soares The fall of Malacca looks like it would be awesome wargame fodder.
@Brian Van De Walker I totally agree. Portuguse history is filled with underdig victories. Malacca isn't even in the top five.
The biggest ones would be the battle of Aljubarrota, were we broke every law of chivalry in the books and defeated the Spanish army, that at the moment of their retreat was eight times larger than the Portuguese army.
https://youtu.be/jowtiKZ2Qnw
And the naval battle of Diu, one of the biggest naval battles in history, where the Portuguese small navy destroyed the Ottoman navy.
https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batalha_de_Diu
There is a Kickstarter currently running for a 5th edition fantasy Philippines setting.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/luciaversprille/tales-from-sina-una/rewards
It’s a bit spendy. $50 for the one hardbound. $80 for the box set. Or $120 for the boxed set and 2 hardbound books
"The Islands of Sina Una is a campaign setting for the 5th Edition of everyone’s favorite dragon game, based on pre-colonial Philippine mythology and culture, created by a team of Filipino writers and artists from around the world headed by Lucia Versprille. Across its 300+ pages you will find a world of seven islands filled with spirits, monsters, and mortals, with new selections for races, two new base classes, twelve new subclasses, new backgrounds, equipment, spells, and magic items. And additionally, there is an appendix explaining how the book deviates from the real world mythology and culture of the Philippines in its pre colonial eras."
have to say, I am tempted. I don't play 5th D&D but converting to pathfinder 1st shouldn't be that hard.
@William Redford Not as tempted personally, pre-colonial seems okay mythology wise but for me D&D setting type books are mostly about the monsters and weapons and a lot of the fun fantasy monsters from the Philippines that I know about seem to be colonial/post colonial and influnced by Catholicism. That said it is good see its doing well.
@William Redford being a D&D DM I think it is a great ideia, but in my case, I homebrew my own settings. Still, a very nice ideia.
@Brian Van De Walker About Philippines' monsters, there's on Netflix a fantasy/horror serie, "Trese", it's set in modern times, but its roots are on ancient folklore.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trese_(TV_series)
Some ideas from it could be useful, given the huge numbers of legends and horror stories have Far East's people.
@Alessio De Carolis Yeah I saw the trailer for it, have not watched it yet.
