"Fannin the Blue moon Alamo" Topic

Doc here: I'm re-doing my BLODDY DAWN rules to fit the splendid new Alamo from BM/OG. One of the options will be the "what if" Fannin gets there. He briefly considered marching to Bexar in mid-February (90 miles) which would have put him at San Antonio a day or three before Santa Anna's arrival. I further assume, in that case, that SA has at least another 1000 men for the assault, and that SA delays the attack until his 12 pounders arrive and he can breach the wall in a couple of places. (Remember that the Alamo was fortified by the Mexicans under Cos in 1835, and the engineers who did it were with SA; they knew exactly where the weak points were. The OG model has several small wall pieces that can easily be removed and replaced with rubble to represent breaches. I'd guess one in the west and one in the north walls.)

I assume the garrison retains Fannin's regimental organization (two battalions) and that Travis' command comprises, in effect, a third battalion. Fannin might have brought an additional gun or two, but otoh the mexican bombardment might well have destroyed a few Texian pieces.

I'd essentially double the Mexican assault columns.

Daylight or still the night assault?

Off hand, I don't know whether Travis or Fannin was senior?

Thinking a more active siege on SA's part:

He constructed plenty of batteries during the 12 days. I'm thinking that he might well have built some during darkness at shorter range, where even his 6 pounders could have degraded the thinner walls. He also had companies of cazadores, some of whom had Baker rifles. Presumably they could have been put into trenches during a night, within rifle range of the walls. And I don't know of any reason why saps could have not been made, with parallels within an easy assault distance of breaches.

Otoh, the texians could certainly have constructed interior barricades to bring breaches under effective fire. And OG makes useful barricades pieces.

In short, a very different game.

I prefer 1:1 scale, but one could do the Fannin scenario with the standard armies (assuming 240 defenders instead of 185) simply by switching to a 2:1 scale. If I base the Texians in single rank, then I'd allow double ranks (i.e a rear stand) at 1:1 scale and only single rank/single stand at 2:1 scale, as each figure represents two men, one behind the other.

Sounds good so far. I'll be looking for this one at a convention near me in the future! Possibly CincyCon next year?

Would you keep the Mexicans at a 1:1 scale also? You'll be blind an arthritic long before you get to play.

Despite my sarcasm, I do really like this idea as it seems very plausible to me. Did SA have enough men to field a larger campaigning force, or are you going to create a scenario for it.

Keep up the good work.

Even with the smaller force, it is 1:1 "sort of" for the Mexicans: I represent the front of each assault column, with about 100-150 figures. Overall I have 600+ Mexicans, which is 1:2. But I don't remove Mexican casualties except for specials like standards. Instead, I have 500 or 600 casualty figures (art printed onto full sheet labels and then stuck onto mattboard, cut out -- in singles but also groups of three or two). When a mexican column takes 20 casualties, I put down that many casualty markers, but don't take off any minis. (I do remove officers and such, as they are the mechanism for keeping track of a column's morale.)

And the casualty markers determine victory in the game. If the mexicans lose 500 or 600 (depending on whether the garrison is 185 or 240) before the Alamo falls, then they have lost the game regardless of how the battle comes out.

So I "only" need to paint 600 or so Mexicans.

Nasty, there was a column of about 1000 men operating against Goliad. I assume if Fannin had gone to San Antonio, they'd have joined santa Anna there as well.

David,

What figures are you using? OG 28's or something else?

It will be 15mm with OG/BMs new Alamo. I have done 28mm using the Hudson and Allen Alamo for many years. The new model is MUCH different and more accurate, and will affect the game play a lot. TMP link

Btw, if anyone is interested, I have the H & A Alamo with additional buildings, and roughly 1000 painted minis, which I would sell for $5,000. USD

David,

The other side of the coin, which I've been looking at based on the reading I've been doing. With the addition of Fanin, and possibly some other local volunteers the Texicans could have taken some offensive actions against SA's column as they arrived in Bexar. The Alamo defended by 500+ defenders does make for a very interesting what-if type of game!!

The problem with engaging SA outside the walls would be the Mexican cavalry advantage.

Note that Houston retreated into east Texas where piney woods largely replace plains. Of course that also put him closer to re-enforcements, but asking militia or green regulars to stand against lancers would have been a giant risk.