And the new Perry Miniatures range is...

[Cat]

“Great Paraguayan War” sounds to me like something an English speaking scholar relying primarily on Paraguayan sources would use.

It sounds like a good marketing choice to make the conflict sound more puffed up for gaming.

[italwars]

Just my thought ...but what a waste of geniality , creativity, resources and energy in such a poor appealing subject  :'( :'( :'(
Only hope that, maybe the Argentines, for what i see, the only slightly interesting uniforms and subjects also from an historical point of view, could be used maybe as French Republicans for 1871 Franco-Prussian continuation war..or, as a last resort or better just to settle, as General Rojas Army in the Conquest of the Desert War against mounted Indios of the Pampas...just cause i like colonial or assymetrical wars...but for the rest i cannot understand why , as they were looking for exotic, not to do a full NWF range, some more French Colonial..even US Colonial Banana Wars...

[Macunaima]

It sounds like a good marketing choice to make the conflict sound more puffed up for gaming.

It may not be your cup of tea, granted, but the war needs no puffing up for gaming: it has everything from skirmishes to pitched large battles using ACW level technology on new and different terrain with cavalry being much more important than in North America.

It was a very large war by this hemisphere’s standards — larger than anything the U.S. fought, outside of the ACW, up to WWI.

Hey, I am not interested in the Cape Wars or the Boxer Rebellion, but I can see the appeal: they are both interesting conflicts. Not my cuppa, but no need to “puff them up” or this one either.

Just my thought ...but what a waste of geniality , creativity, resources and energy in such a poor appealing subject  :'( :'( :'(

Just my thought, but what’s  appearing here is a general lack of knowledge and interest in South American history, and again, fine. Cool. But I wouldn’t make it more than that. As for this being a niche or “poorly appealing” subject, there are two obvious rejoinders:

1) The Perrys are rich enough and famous enough (at least in our little hobby) that they can do whatever the hell they like. I am not interested in the Carlist Wars, nor are most gamers, but hey, they did an entire range for that, didn’t they? To use a metaphor from music, this is Dolly Parton doing a bluegrass album. It ain’t no “9-to-5”, but that’s not the point: Dolly can do whatever she wants and those of us who like bluegrass and Dolly are absolutely thrilled she did, even if the album didn’t make her a boatload of cash.

2) Look around: there are literally tons of lead locked up in “appealing” lines, which would be the ACW, WWII, fantasy, Napoleonics, etc. If I were the Perrys, I’d be heartily bored doing that stuff and, given my druthers, I’d do pretty much anything else, just for a change of pace.

The Argentineans are the only interesting subjects...? Yeah, maybe  they are: for Argentineans. One would think an Italian would at least appreciate Garibaldi’s role in the history of Southern Brazil and note that many of the miniatures in this line will be able to be used in the asymmetric civil wars of that region, which bled into this war.

Argentina wasn’t even around for half the war, by the way. The Paraguayans out did them, by far, in terms of valor, and the Brazilians and Uruguayans, by far, in terms of color and (by not so far) professionalism.

[Westfalia Chris]

In accordance with the no politics rule, I removed a couple of postings that, while tangentially related, veered off from the topic in question and were devolving into known slugging-match territory.

Kindly concern yourselves with the topic at hand, and for reference, italwars, we've had this talk before. We don't really want to go through all that again.

[Antonio J Carrasco]

What I hope is that they produce models in more dynamic poses, particularly charging/advancing and skirmishing. I am not that familiar with the topic to know if other poses -at trail and at the double, for instance- are historically accurate, i.e. were included in their field manuals by the belligerents. Does anyone know if the belligerents used field manuals adapted from foreign manuals, or were developed locally?

I agree with other that South America Wars are a topic sadly underrepresented in the wargaming community. I would really, really like to see the Perrys expanding their Napoleonic ranges into the wars of independence of South America, and, of course, the War of the Pacific. I, for one, wouldn't feel it a waste of talent and imagination. Quite the opposite.

[Cubs]

A bunch of good stuff.

Very nicely put sir.

Yup, it's not anything that appeals to me, but if I'm honest that covers the majority of subjects these days. The Perry's do what they like to do and if that's a niche subject, then perhaps their sculpting attention (and thus the roused curiosity of others) is all the more welcome by those who are already interested.

[Macunaima]

I am pretty sure that the Brazilians, at least, used French drill manuals or their own manuals, which would have been heavily based on French drill manuals.

“But wait a minute!”, I hear you saying. “Wasn’t Portugal a British ally in the Napoleonic Wars?”

Yes, but this was the height of Francophilia in Rio de Janeiro and Brazil had just had an almost war with Britain. Diplomatic relations were rocky over slavery and any number of things, so — while I can’t say for certain without digging up the Voluntários da Pátria books (currently boxed for our upcoming move) — I’d lay a good solid bet that the drill books were French or French-inspired.

The Brazilians formed square numerous times in the war and you can see them doing by-the-book skirmish lines and assault columns in Lopez’ paintings and the photos. Looks very French to me.

Dynamic poses would be cool, because as I said above, there’s a lot of skirmishing and raiding and guerrilha style warfare going on in the Plata  Basin during this period. The Gaucho cavalry, at least, should be very useful for that sort of thing!

[Shahbahraz]

It seems to me the kind of conflict that would be ideal for Sharp Practice - especially as a campaign you could fight over ironclads, fortifications etc, and with some real characters.

[Armstrong47]

I'm definitely going to start with "Sharp Practice",and see how the range developes before building more substantial forces.

[carlos marighela]

I'm definitely going to start with "Sharp Practice",and see how the range developes before building more substantial forces.

That’s my intention as well and I’ll mount them on sabots to use for V&B.

[Shahbahraz]

Get thee behind me Santa.. errr.. Satan.

[Easy E]

I am very glad they are looking into this period.  Bolivar and the various South American Wars are really interesting in that they were using European styles with native geography and tactics.

I believe the Podcast Revolutions covers the Liberator and his campaigns in some detail.  Good stuff.

[Volleyfire!]

So long as they keep drip-feeding us with figures to pad out their other ranges, especially WW2 I'm happy. Otherwise, I think this is just a period my group I game with won't have any passing interest in I'm afraid, we already cover a multitude of eras, genres and scales, so many that we are spoilt for choice, in fact probably too many to be perfectly honest. I'm sure it'll be a hit, and no doubt we'll soon see the first game using these figures later in the year at Partizan or something.

[italwars]

Maybe I m, as always , against the tide..but from my feeling I m almost sure they ll sell a number close to nothing for those first sets of the range..and that s will be a good new for me as, as a consequence, they ll stop the project and come back again to fill the gaps of their other interesting ranges ...practically all their production except Carlist War..I read that they even failed to sell many of the beautiful boxes of Plastic Dervishes..which i m sorry about that cause they were , for me, a greatly appreciated surprise ..but that s the market..on the other hand they continued to issue Napoleonics minis ..which is, for me, also extremely boring, possibly not to study as period , but  to paint and game..but the market asked for that

[Captain Blood]

I m almost sure they ll sell a number close to nothing for those first sets of the range..and that s a good new for me as, as a consequence, they ll stop the project and come back again to fill the gaps of their other interesting ranges ...practically all their production except Carlist War..

We shall see. As I ventured right at the top of the thread, this is a niche subject relative to the wargames market as a whole. But Alan and Michael have a long track record of making things that please them - even if they know they're not going to be commercial. So I wouldn't bet on them stopping the project. They're incredibly prolific. They'll just carry on with it for their own amusement - and carry on expanding their other, perhaps more commercially rewarding ranges, at the same time

There's always a groundswell of enthusiasm for any innovative new setting or conflict, with plenty of people enthusiastically swearing they're going all in for it. Fairly sure that doesn't always translate into sales though. There was much enthusiasm for one or two of the previous, more esoteric Perry outings. Yet how many games do you see around set in the Carlist Wars or the 'British Intervention Force'? Not many.
But... The figures from those ranges do get picked up and used by many wargamers for many other purposes: Imaginations, VSF and so on. So they'll certainly sell enough I'm sure.