Battle of San Lorenzo - 8th May 1863

 

After having deluged you in May and June last year with loads of posts on my Mexican Adventure figure collection, I entirely failed to add a post on their first appearance in an actual game!  So apologies for the delay but here it is.

For this first outing I decided to use the Zouave II rules by Bob Jones (the original author of Piquet) which incorporate a rondel mechanism (which is something I have seen in boardgames before but not in miniatures wargame rules).

Having carted almost everything up to the club I realised I had managed to leave my hills at home - and given they are are crucial element of the game some improvisation was needed (hence the slightly unusual shapes!).

Here are the briefs:

French Briefing

Your main forces are currently besieging Puebla but the Juaristas seem determined to relieve the garrison. General l’Hériller saw off the first attempt at San Pablo del Monte on the 6th and the Juaristas have fallen back. General Forey has decided to take the initiative and strike the enemy before they can mount a second attempt at lifting the siege. At one o’clock this morning General Bazaine led a column northwest up the road to Cuatlincingo before striking out across country towards San Lorenzo. He bluffed his way past a Republican outpost but encountering a second decided to neutralise it and then push rapidly across the remaining 2 kilometres to San Lorenzo and the enemy. 

French Objective

Force the Republican forces to withdraw.

French Order of Battle

General de Division Achilles Bazaine (CinC)

1-2/1st Guard Horse Artillery

General de Brigade Louis de Bertier 

3rd Zouaves

51st Regiment de Ligne 

81st Regiment de Ligne 

Tirailleurs Algeriens 

Colonel François Charles du Barail 

1st & 2nd Chasseurs d’Afrique 

12th Chasseurs à Cheval

Mexican Dragoons

Republican Briefing

Your main forces are currently attempting to lift the siege of Puebla. French General l’Hériller saw off the first attempt at San Pablo del Monte on the 6th and your forces have fallen back. General Comonfort has decided to split his force into three Divisions before regrouping in order to mount a second attempt at lifting the siege. Your’s is the first Division under General Echeagaray encamped in and around San Lorenzo. At five o’clock this morning your men report the approach of a French column.

Republican Objective

Force the French forces to withdraw.

Republican Order of Battle

General of Division Don Ignacio Echeagaray (San Lorenzo)

1-3/1 div. Line 

1st & 2nd Artillery 

General of Brigade Frias (Panzacola)

1-2/2 div. Infantry

General of Brigade Basilio Garza (Ocotlàn)

1-3/3 div. Militia 

Colonel Quiroga

3 x Squadron Lancers

2nd Squadron Lancers

3rd Squadron Lancers

And some photos from the game:

Whilst the Mexicans defended valiantly the French assaulted up the hill and took San Lorenzo itself.

The rules were both interesting and fun and will be coming back to the table again.

Their First and Last Patrol

 At our last club meeting I put on a 28mm Vietnam game using FNG from TwoHourWargames (a bit of a version mash up as I prefer elements from the different one).  Two US squads with experienced NCOs leading a bunch of FNGs on their first (and in some cases last!) patrol.  Here are a couple of photos:

Counterattack at Deir el Tarfa

I suddenly realised that I hadn't posted my first game of Rommel at the club.

We tried the sample scenario from the rules (which is also available for download from the Honor website).  The scenario is set in North Africa in the summer of 1942 and represents the attack of 21st Panzer and elements of the Littorio division on elements of the 22nd and 23rd armoured brigades.

Given the overall scale of the engagements Rommel is designed to cover I decided to do this in 3mm using the Oddzial Osmy miniatures available via Magister Militum.

Here are a couple of photos from the game:

With its use of a grid and the "Command Posts" I suspect Rommel isn't going to work for everyone; however, I think they give an interesting and challenging game.  So I will be expanding my collection to do more North Africa scenarios and am looking at the Eastern Front too.

Thunderball?

 A friend has been working on a scuba game based around the Bond movie, Thunderball.  We had a couple of playtest games of it up at the club.  The basic activation is as per the Fistful of Lead family of games but with a bespoke knife fighting card game added on along with a few other tweaks.  Lots of fun, here are a couple of photos of the game in progress and his excellent figures and terrain:

The Relief of Shah Wadi Wadi

I just realised I hadn’t posted anything on the blog regarding the game I put on at the club a few weeks ago.  It was a trial of the Sudan amendments and first scenario for Sharp Practice from the latest Lard Magazine.  Here are a few photos:

Whilst we all had a fun game I must admit I’m not sure the amendments quite deliver what I was hoping and I remain uncertain whether trying to use Sharp Practice for this period (as it’s not really intended to cover this late).  I do have several other sets of rules to try out so expect so see some of those turn up at some point.

Gudbrands Valley, Norway - 23rd April 1940

Here are a few photos from our Big Chain of Command game yesterday.  It saw two German infantry platoons (one of Gebirgsjaeger) with armoured support (including a Neubaufahrzeug prototype tank) advancing against a platoon each of Norwegian and British troops.

With two of the German players not having played the system before but supported by one veteran player and the Allies having had some experience of the system it promised to be an interesting game, and so it was.

The game ended in a German victory with the British morale cracking first followed quickly by the Norwegians.

The figures were a mix of Gorgon Studios, Crusader and Brigade Games.

Happy Hogswatch!

 

My compliments of the season to you all!  Thank you for stopping by, apologies for my absence of late and here's hoping you get some gaming goodness under the Christmas tree!

Crowdfunding - Why do it?

 Further my previous introductory post on Kickstarter, I thought it was worth setting out why you might consider crowdfunding a project given the financial risk and potential disappointment you could be exposed to.

(1) Without you it might not ever happen - although this is an ever reducing proportion of the projects being launched in the gaming space, there are still some less mainstream topics which would probably not be produced without both the finance and the secured level of interest crowdfunding provides.  Traditional wargame figure manufacture and boardgame production is an expensive exercise to commission and often involves minimum runs in order to cover its production costs.  

(2) It may never come to retail - some projects simply don't make commercial sense and so funding a production run via crowdfunding may be the only way to make it happen.  Some other projects are simply so expensive to produce that with retail markups (especially for boardgames) would simply result in a retail price that was eye watering and unlikely to sell.  But beware of FOMO (the fear of missing out) - just because something isn't going to come to retail doesn't mean it will be a great product indeed it might indicate the opposite. You need to take a cold hard look and make sure it's worth the money and you are not just backing because you might miss out!

(3) You might save some money - crowdfunding projects often offer products at a lower price that you may pay eventually at retail; however, you do need to factor in shipping costs (which are usually only estimated initially) and any VAT or customs duties you may be hit with later.  These days with the increasing costs of shipping and changes in VAT requirements etc. this has become an ever decreasing reason for backing.

(4) You might get it earlier - backers can receive their products before they reach retail but this is not always the case.  Check what commitments, if any, the project is making before relying on this to be the case.

(5) Exclusive extras - crowdfunded projects often include stretch goals should the funding levels reach particular milestones, they also may include "early bird" offers to help boost initial pledges.  Whilst both of these may help add value in the case of (3) above they are not necessarily "exclusive" to backers (ie you may be able to buy them later in retail for an additional cost).  Where items are stated to be "exclusive" it is usually necessary to read the wording very carefully to see whether it provides more flexibility for resale later than first appears.  In any event, the key question is what do these exclusive items add to the product - in particular with boardgames - are they worth it (ie if they were necessary why aren't they in the core offering - why make them "exclusive").

(6) Being part of a community - with some crowdfunding campaigns a community builds up of the backers (with some platforms restricting comments etc to backers only) and this can be fun but your mileage may vary (and like any community on the internet things are not always ideal with people's behaviours.  You may also get the chance to influence some aspect of the product (although the more you can influence the less mature it is likely to be and thus more risky!)

Have I missed any?

In any case, it should be apparent now that few of these are entirely compelling reasons and you need balance these with the risks (ie that you end up getting nothing!).

Mexican Adventure: Imperial Commanders

And last, but not least, for the Imperial forces - some command stands:

The figures are from the Freikorps range (available from QRF, painted by Roger and based by me.

Mexican Adventure: Imperial Artillery

Some limbered artillery for my Imperial forces (I have rather a lot more unlimbered batteries but thought these were more interesting!)

The figures are from the Freikorps range (available from QRF), painted by Roger and based by me.

Mexican Adventure: Empress Lancers

Some more mounted troops in the form of the lovely Empress Lancers:

The figures are from the Freikorps range (available from QRF), painted by Roger, based by me and with their flag from Warflag.

Mexican Adventure: Imperial Cavalry

Some more mounted support for the Imperial forces:

The figures are from the Freikorps range (available from QRF), painted by Roger, based by me and with their flag from Warflag.

Mexican Adventure: Contra-Guerilla Cavalry

And now some mounted Contra-Guerillas:

The figures are from the Freikorps range (available from QRF), based by me and with a flag from Warflag.

Mexican Adventure: Contra-Guerilla Infantry

And now two units of Contra-Guerilla infantry for the Imperials:

The figures are from the Freikorps range (available from QRF), painted by Roger, based by me and with a flag from Warflag.

Mexican Adventure: Consecrated Company

And now for something slightly different - a unit in the uniform of the Consecrated Company - more for interest and the fact that Freikorps produce the figures!

The figures are from the Freikorps range (available from QRF), painted by Roger, based by me and with their flag from Warflag.