The Inner Magpie Strikes

Late last year I read that the Perrys were planning a major new release. Being self focused I immediate got excited and thought  “wouldn’t this be great if it was for the Franco-Austrian War of 1859” even though the release of such a range would be seriously injurious to my bank balance. But alas my illusions (or is it delusions) were shattered when in early January they announced the first releases in their War of the Triple Alliance range. My immediate thought was “no this is not for me”. Then the inner magpie began to stir.

In truth this conflict has always piqued my interest because it sits slap bang in the middle of my preferred era of play – mid 19th Century. The forces are relatively small and the terrain is different. Perhaps the most interesting aspect is that I have never gamed a South American conflict (discounting the armies we used in a Falkland’s game we played way back in the early ’90s on the basis that it wasn’t a continental conflict).

So I “umm’ed” and “ah’ed” for a while – well for no more than a couple of hours really - before I started looking at a few web articles and some back issues of Wargames Illustrated. However, when I saw that much of the war was fought in and around the swamps among the Paraguayan and Parana Rivers I became a little less interested and the magpie folded its wings. Then on 17 January the Perry’s Facebook page showed painted samples and the magpie saw shiny objects and became very restless. Still uncommitted I purchased the Osprey Campaign book on the subject and it seemed on a quick glance that apart from all the swamp fighting much of the conflict was about the storming of fixed positions which could make for a difficult wargame and the magpie settled down again. But then as my next order to the Perrys was being prepared the magpie swept in, tossed out the nine packs of French AWI infantry and inserted six of Argentinian and three Paraguayan infantry packs. Seven days later and the first of two boxes arrived, and the second box three days later.

Since the Paraguayans arrived in the first box they were the first to get the brush. Their incredibly simple uniforms came up superbly. This is not a full unit, but rather two thirds of one and one third of another because the magpie got so excited about the shiny objects that it failed to get the figure mix right. These chaps will have to wait to be based until more figures arrive.

The two Argentine units below are presented in the regulation uniform of  blue jacket and red trousers,  with havelocks. The smaller establishment of the Argentine infantry battalions sees them with their field strength set at 12 figures (the Paraguayan and Uruguayan units will have 18 figures and the Brazilians 24 to take account of the variable establishments). I actually have another 12 Argentine figures, without command (again thanks to the magpie’s impetuosity) and they will be given a mix of uniforms.

This force will expand over the course of the year to include:

Paraguayan

• 10 infantry battalions
• 5 cavalry units
• 3 gun sets 

Brazilian

• 6 infantry battalions 
• 2 cavalry units
• 2 gun sets

Argentinian

• 6 line infantry battalions
• 4 militia infantry battalions
• 2 cavalry units
• 1 gun set

Uruguayan

• 4 infantry battalions
• 1 cavalry unit

No doubt the Perrys will dangle some other temptations in front of the magpie will be impossible to resist.