I think I’ve written this before, but I love connections, the web of relationships between whatever. One of the things I love about rock music is the connections between music-covers of songs, the connections between band personnel, who influenced who. Eric Clapton. I’m not a huge Eric Clapton fan, but he is an amazing guitarist. Eric Clapton played with the Yardbirds. Then John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers. Then Cream. Then Blind Faith. Then he was a solo, before he traveled with Delaney and Bonnie Bramlett’s traveling road show (Delaney, Bonnie and Friends.) He formed Derek and the Dominoes with Duane Allman and others before he again was a solo. Amazing connections. While with Cream, he covered Willie Dixon’s amazing blues hit “Spoonful,” which was also covered by Howlin’ Wolf, who performed “Smokestack Lightnin’,” also covered by the Yardbirds, and one of my top five favorite songs of all time. Damn (which is the title of a Pulitzer-winning album by rapper Kendrick Lamar.)

Okay, that’s silly and ridiculous. But I do the same thing with a lot of my game projects.There are a bucket of related small conflicts that circled around the Spanish American War. I want ’em all dammit. It’s just becoming my thing. They are as follows:

1. The Cuban War (or Cuban Rebellion, or Cuban War of Independence) 1895-98
2. The Philippine or Katipunan Rebellion 1896-98
3. The Spanish American War 1898 (Land)
4. The Spanish-American War 1898 (Naval)
5. The Philippine-American War 1899-1902
6. The Moro War 1902-1913

It all started when 1898 Miniaturas sucked me in with their Spanish American War range. However, I think I had just read Max Boot’s book, Savage War of Peace, which begins with the massacre of an American company in Balanciga in the Philippines, so I invested heavily in the Philippine-American War (the Philippine Insurrection for we boomer barbarians.) Painted em’ all too, including many Philippine soldiers wearing the Spanish pin-striped rayadillo uniforms. Ouch. I play Daniel Mersey’s The Men Who Would Be King, which sort of works. However, with Americans armed with Krag magazine rifles (mostly) and most of the Philippine forces armed with Remingtons or captured Spanish Mausers, the modern weapons really test the limits of the rules. My Philippine-American War project is completed, with both Americans and Philippine figures doing double duty for other conflicts.

These are my Philippine figures for the Philippine American War. Some would be suitable for the earlier Katipunan Rebellion in Luzon against the Spanish. Those would not be the ones wearing the striped rayodillo uniform. All figures are the excellent range from 1898 Miniatures.

These are my Americans. A mix of figures. Some are the 1898 Miniatures regulars and dismounted cavalry. Some are Volunteers and cavalry by Old Glory. The Philippine Scouts are by Tiger miniatures. The regulars and volunteers could also be used for any Spanish American War scenario.

I would be remiss if I didn’t include my wonderful vessels by Last Stand Dan. Hey, if you’re gonna fight on islands you gotta have a way to get around. Gunboat and a pair of steam launches. I’d like to add a second small screw gunboat. Though Dan’s work isn’t free, it is very good.

During the Plague Years, so much happened. I started my 1/1250 ship collection beginning with the Spanish American War. We played our “Splendid Little War” campaign with those ships, and I’ve run a couple of one off games too. The project really launched me into pre-Dreadnought naval gaming, and honestly I’m thrilled. There are lots of the little ships. Some are the super-spendy Hai and Navis metal models that I persist in playing with despite their vulnerability to fat fingers and and the forces of gravity. Others are printed models from War Times Journal and Brown Water Navy. This week I reorganized both the Americans and the Spanish and made sure each had a name painted on their bases. This project is pretty my done. The much larger Americans cover the entire pre-dreadnought era except for the final excellent Connecticut class.

Kevin’s American ships weigh in at 83. From left-The American battleships from the Texas at top left to the Virginia class bottom right. Also includes the really big converted merchant liners to auxiliary cruisers. Middle photo includes the American protected cruisers from Atlanta to the Tennessee class monsters of 1907. Finally, the rightmost photo shows mostly destroyers, torpedo boats, monitors and the truly weird ram Katahdin and the dynamite ship Vesuvius.

The Spanish fleet is considerably smaller with 35 ships. Left includes the battleship Pelayo, Cervera’s armored cruisers and the plethora of really terrible Spanish protected cruisers. Middle shows smaller Spanish ships including torpedo boats and gunboats as well as the excellent War Times Journal fortifications. Finally the right shot is a close up of Cervera’s squadron at Santiago.

I began thinking about Cuba and Puerto Rico. It’s a difficult land war to do because actions are few and thus it means a lot of hypothetical battles. The Spanish were quite unpopular with the Puerto Ricans and reluctant to challenge the American invasion troops. The American campaign in Cuba had more to do with staying healthy than taking on the Spanish, with only a couple of major actions at Guasimas and the El fortifications. But it coulda been more. If you’re considering working this period-SPAW, Puerto Rico, the Philippines, it’s really hard to find quality information. But if you’re wondering how to play the period, you might visit the 1898 Miniaturas wargame page. They pick apart the campaign in Puerto Rico, the Cuban Rebellion, and 1896 Katipunan rebellion in the Philippines and give great suggestions for rating troops for TMWWBK and Black Powder. They are a Spanish company and it helps them dive into Spanish sources. Really great stuff. Is this done? Well, not quite. This is one of those double-duty opportunities for both the Americans and Spanish. Definitely more Spanish to paint, both regulars and uniformed militia. I’ll need to double check my American contingent.

But wait, there’s an appendage to the Spanish American War I haven’t mentioned and that is the Cuban War of Independence 1895-98. It’s the conflict that drew the USS Maine to Havana harbor and the explosion that destroyed it. Likely a coal dust explosion that ignited the magazine, but lets not let the facts get in the way of “Remember the Maine.”

I’ve bought and painted a fair number of Cuban rebels, but I need more. I have six units and I like to have enough figures for a six player game, so that’s 9-12 units. This is also a conflict I’d like to do with One Hour Skirmish War Games. I expect this will be my biggest bunch of work I’ll complete between now (July 4th) and the end of the year. After spending some time looking at potential scenarios for Puerto Rico, I see myself adding to my Spanish/Irregular/militia pile to allow enough variety. I recently joined the Old Glory Army just to grab some of their interesting and varied pile of figures for the period. The first order, all rebels, are on the way.

It seems unfair to leave out the Philippine war between Spain and the Katipunan Republic, the rebellion that mostly failed prior to the Spanish-American War 1896-98. It’s a vastly different insurgency than that waged against the Americans a few years later. The Philippine forces are not dressed in rayodillo or armed with Spanish rifles. It’s more a desperate struggle with some castoff muskets and lots of bolo wielding rebels fighting a true anti-imperial guerrilla insurgency. This is another double duty project where the Spanish could definitely be used from Cuba and Puerto Rico. I’d need to add more Philippine figures with hand weapons, but probably not a lot.

Finally, there is the matter of the Moro War that grew out of the Spanish-American War and the Philippine-American War. It’s a fascinating conflict, within a fascinating conflict within a fascinating conflict. There are some significant campaigns one could do with TMWWBK, but I went small for OHSW. I know this will sound snobby, but there just weren’t enough great figures to suck me in for something bigger. Tonight I will have painted the last American figures, a mountain howitzer and crew, and the project will be complete.

Lots to do and lots to think about. The hardest part is making the time to actually game with a batch of strange, carefully curated collections. But sometimes the joy is just in the painting and collecting, and learning.