Colonial Portuguese

I've always fancied a Colonial Portuguese army, approximately 1500-1550, when they were 'exploring' Africa and fighting the Arabs up the east coast and in India.
I've already got the Arabs who with very little effort (Like painting a few skirmishers with firearms) will be suitable for an opponent.

I've even got the figures and I'm finally painting them.
But

Effectively it seems in the Colonial theatre the infantry were largely armed with firearms and I think it's Phil Barker in the DBR army list who comments that "They're saved from being classed as Warband because they have firearms." Effectively their tactic consisted of fire off a few rounds then charge in.

I was wondering about giving them Harquebus A and giving them a VBU of 4 and an Impetus of 2.

Anybody know much about the army or got any thoughts?
Effectively they didn't really use pikes and cavalry were few and far between

Jim

Maybe they could try like Spanish "conquistadores". Some muskets, a few crossbows, some mounted men, one or two very light artillery pieces and most armed with sword and buckler men.

That's the problem, they seem to be a lot higher proportion of firearms earlier than the Spanish and seem to have stuck with it. More research needed

Jim

Went back and found the old DBR army lists   

They were my starting point years ago and I worked out from there. I've never found dates to go with those quoted, but they sort of agree with what I've come up with. In 1500 the army was a bit like the Conquistadors, but by 1550 all the Portuguese infantry would be Arquebusers.
I've been thinking about it, given that I'm going to use them against figures I've already got but which are based for Impetus, I might just stick with Impetus basing for these and try them as T with Arquebus A at 4/0.

There´s a rather long and sometimes heated discussion on the FOGr forum about colonial portuguese. Among the many posts there are also links and information on sources (many in portuguese).


The link is:

http://www.slitherine.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=70&t=23294&hilit=portuguese

Thanks for that, it's fascinating. A lot of useful sources.

It also makes the point that 'colonial' armies are different to the European ones and cannot really be used in a 'European' battles

Jim

I have been working on these for quite a while now and have come up with a few items of interest:

  1.  In Africa the the Portuguese used slave and mixed racial troops in units armed with Pikes, arquebusiers as well as sword and bucklers and native weapons.
   2. Actual Portuguese were in the minority.  Those that were there were Fidalgos (very few),  arquebusiers, pikes, sword and buckler men and crossbows.  men
   3.  In India they used Indian warriors, archers.

The exact mixture would depend on where and when.  For example in the expedition to Abyssinia there were only about 400 actual Portuguese there the rest of the forces fighting the Muslims were the Abyssinian Emperors troops.

If you want to pursue this further I would recommend the following:  "The Portuguese Expedition in Abyssinia" by R. S. Whiteway,  "The Rise of the Portuguese Power in India" by Susil Gupta, "Kandy Fights the Portuguese"" by C. Gaston Perera, Bringers of War" by John LaBond and "A World on the Move-Portuguese in Africa, Asia and America" by A. J. R. Russell-Ward.  Also during the Period you are interested the Portuguese also fought the Dutch in South America and Asia.

The best set of rules I have found for this period is "Irregular Wars - Conflict at the World's End".  The rules include lists for approximately 894 armies.  I am presently in the process of painting Portuguese, Rajputs, the Vijayanagra Empire, Moghuls and Eastern Sultanates.

The problem researching this period is most of archival information was destroyed in the earthquake and tidal wave after in 1755.

Hope this has been helpful.

Dave

Anyone want to put here a possible beta list?
Once sent Warbook 2 the printers (and waiting for the book to be printed) I want to dedicate some time Baroque and release few more lists.