The British invasions of the Rio de la Plata were a series of unsuccessful attempts to seize control of the Spanish colonies located around the La Plata Basin in South America (today part of Argentina and Uruguay). The invasions took place between 1806 and 1807, as part of the Napoleonic Wars, when Spain was an ally of France.  The invasions occurred in two phases. A detachment from the British Army occupied Buenos Aires for 46 days in 1806 before being expelled. In 1807, a second force occupied Montevideo, remaining for several months, and a third force made a second attempt to take Buenos Aires. After several days of street-fighting against the local militia and Spanish colonial army, in which half of the British forces were killed or wounded, the British were forced to withdraw.

THE WATERS OF OBLIVION is an operational level wargame of the British attempt to conquer the River Plate area in 1806-1807.  There are two players in each game. One player controls Spanish and Platense forces, the other commands the British forces.  The game uses a simple, but realistic, system to model Napoleonic operations at this scale. Basically, each player's turn consists of the following components:

• Reinforcement: Place new units on the map.
• Siege: attempt to reduce enemy fortresses by using siege units.
• Movement: attempt to move friendly forces by using the March Table;
  (since command control in this area was limited at best, movement itself can be problamatic).
• Combat: friendly forces adjacent to enemy forces may attack them.
• Logistics: out of supply units may be removed from the map.

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