Master list for a new Aztec range - Add your input!

[Leman]

See that sword and buckler man - we need some for the Italian Wars as well. And weren't most of the Spanish cavalry in early C16th America remarkably like genitors?

[John Cook]

I'm sure they will be excellent sculpts.  I don't know very much about the Aztecs.  Who did they fight, other than the Spanish?  Will there be a compatible range of Spanish and other opponents, or will they be like the Mongols, apparently opponentless?

[Leon]

Will there be a compatible range of Spanish and other opponents, or will they be like the Mongols, apparently opponentless?

I'm not an expert on the period but I think most of the Elizabethan range can be brought into service, but we might need a few extra options doing on that side.

[FierceKitty]

They fought the Tlaxcalans for a couple of centuries before the Europeans arrived; one reason why the Tlaxcalans readily joined the invaders, and usually formed the great majority of their forces. To this day there's bad blood between the two groups.

[Ithoriel]

I believe the Otomi were originally enemies who either became or gave their name to the elite Aztec Otomi warrior group.

The following summary is from aztec-history.net

AZTEC ENEMIES

Growth, power and fame came hand in hand with making enemies when it comes to the Aztecs. The Aztecs took a lot of people from the neighboring weaker tribes to be sacrificed to their gods and that alone made them hated by the other tribes. So there was at no time any shortage of Aztec enemies. But since the Aztecs were a powerful lot and when it comes to skill they were unmatched; the other groups couldn't take down the Aztecs.

Texlacans

The Texlacans or the Tlaxcalans were amongst the major enemies of the Aztecs. They looked similar to the Aztecs and their only difference was their weapons, particularly the shield was different and they had no ranks like the jaguar or eagle elite warriors. They were also fierce but somehow the Aztecs always came out as the victor during battles except for one particular fight when the Spanish conquerors sided with the Texlacans.

Huaxtec

The Huaxtec were another tribe that was enemies with the Aztecs. Instead of the elaborate headgears and costumes, the significant or noticeable feature among the Huaxtec was that they wore pointed hats whenever they went to battle.

Purempecha

The Purempecha or the Tarascans lived to the west of the Aztecs and they were powerful too. They successfully managed to keep the Aztecs from expanding to the west and they were highly skilled warriors too just like the Aztecs. The Purempecha are now known as P'urhépecha.

Mayans

Another enemy of the Aztecs was the Mayans. The Mayans were highly skilled and were advanced too. They had a system of writing, had religious beliefs and built very impressive structures and some of those can still be seen today.

But the most significant enemy of the Aztecs was not among those found in the surrounding area of the valley, nor did they live in the same continent. These people were highly skilled, had far superior weapons than the Aztecs. They were the Spaniards; the conquistadors or the conquerors. Not only did they defeat the Aztecs and destroyed their empire, but they also defeated the Mayans.

Spanish conquistadors

Near the end of Montezuma the Second's reign, at about 1520, thirty eight tributary provinces were already present and the Aztecs were flourishing. But with the help of the other tribes at the borders of the Aztec empire, (Texlacans, etc.) the Aztecs were easily defeated by the Spaniards. Spaniards not only wisely used other tribes for their war against Aztec but they also played the card of internal strife that was present among the Aztecs themselves.

With Hernan Cortes in the lead, the Aztecs were easily defeated, especially since the weapons of the Spaniards included superior swords, guns and even cannons. The Aztec weapons were all make by hand.

In addition to that, Montezuma II naively welcomed the Spaniards, thinking that Cortes was the fair-skinned god Quetzalcoatl (The Plumed Serpent). Even though the Aztecs gave the Spaniards lots of gold and other precious items, the Spaniards were set on conquering the Aztecs so in the end, Montezuma II was killed and most of the silver, gold and other such precious items of the Aztecs were shipped to Spain.

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

We've been using Mapuche this weekend, from Chile, used pike, hockey sticks, bows, cavalry, brilliant!
Fought off both Inca and Spanish.
Oh, and remained independent until the 1880s!!!

[FierceKitty]

There were a few striking differences in the Tlaxcalan way of doing things; most importantly, they relied, with pathetically little success, on massed archery. They certainly had plenty of warriors in distinctive fancy dress too. In fact, their duck warriors....

[Leman]

Using the Elizabethan range against Montezuma would be like using WWI British against the Zulus and saying, "Well they've got guns and a uniform, what more do you want?' Much better to use the Flodden figures against the 1520s Aztecs, but as yet there are no shielded light cavalry.

[Ithoriel]

Using the Elizabethan range against Montezuma would be like using WWI British against the Zulus and saying, "Well they've got guns and a uniform, what more do you want?'

Wait! That's wrong? OMG! I'm doing it all wrong! No more Eldar pretending to be Soviets and Space Marines masquerading as Wehrmacht in CoC for me and that cardboard box with PzIV L/70 written on the top and a drinking straw at the front is right out!

Nice to have accurate figures if they're available but frankly after decades of gaming with whatever we could cobble together the current,"I can't use that the pom-pom on that shako is the wrong shape!" leaves me bewildered.

Providing all the players know what things are, I'm happy.

[fsn]

Providing all the players know what things are, I'm happy.

Well said Sir!

[Leman]

  Badly said. Might as well boardgame in that case. For some of us the whole point is the figures, hence spending hours in my youth converting figures to achieve what I was after. If the figures weren't important there would not be a requests thread. In fact there'd be no threads, no Ospreys, and a lot of wargamers scouring pebbles from the beach or raiding sewing baskets for buttons.

[Lord Kermit of Birkenhead]

Cheaper that way.

Sometimes substitution is needed, but you have to make it clear.

IanS

[Ithoriel]

Badly said. Might as well boardgame in that case. For some of us the whole point is the figures, hence spending hours in my youth converting figures to achieve what I was after. If the figures weren't important there would not be a requests thread. In fact there'd be no threads, no Ospreys, and a lot of wargamers scouring pebbles from the beach or raiding sewing baskets for buttons.

I play boardgames at least ten times as often as I play tabletop miniatures games so maybe that explains it

I like figures that are easily identifiable as what they are intended to represent, the fine detail, especially in 3/6/10mm, is less important to me.

For me one of the advantages of those small scales is that many, possibly most, of the conversions I want can be done with a paintbrush. So much better than slicing my fingers with a craft knife or gluing my fingers to the table with superglue

[Techno]

So much better than slicing my fingers with a craft knife or gluing my fingers to the table with superglue

Absolutely......Leave that to the professionals ! 
Cheers - Phil

[FierceKitty]

The Cuachiqueh are the "shorn ones." Nutters who declined promotion because they were addicted to adrenaline.