Streitax, you are correct sir! When I see them they all tell their story through pictures, but of course I was there when they were taken!
When I have some time I will go back and put in some words, but until then…
The short answer is: the Legion upheld their legendary stature, and held on nearly as long as they did in real life -- 14 of 15 possible game turns -- which was somewhat incredible. It came down to the remnants of Lt. Villain's command, a handful of wounded Legionnaires in the South-West corner shed, surrendering in the face of overwhelming odds, while the remnants of Lt. Maudet's command combined with Capt. Danjou's command group and Cpl. Maine's squad to defend the room at the Western end of the Hacienda's ground floor. Finally Maine charged out onto the road to the North, while Danjou led his last 4 men and charged out into the hacienda's courtyard. Danjou's men were all killed, Cpl. Maine got into hand-to-and combat and took out a few Mexicans, before being killed. Back in the courtyard, Capt Danjou fought on alone against literally 40 Mexicans, both regulars and guerillas, until he too was killed. Danjou was literally the last Legionnaire standing, and then the last Legionnaire to fall.
The French did a good job of holding out against the odds, while the various Mexican commanders struggled againt the very real sense of near-debilitating frustration that began to set in after a while, having tried again and again to clear out such a small number of enemy troops, but with such limited success. As the game progressed and the Legion's supreme fighting abilities began to be degraded little by little, the task of the Mexicans grew a little easier, but the frustration remained. This is not a dig at the many Mexican players, who did a great job staying on point and finally managing to accomplish their mission. It's just an observation, which I think points to something good in the rules. The challenge for the Mexican players is to maintain their focus, in the face of terrible losses and frustratingly slow progress at first, which builds slightly at first, but then at a certain point, once they overcome two or three gates and breeches, and/or start pouring up over a few of the walls, becomes a rising tide which the French will simply not be able to contain.
There was a telling moment in the middle of the game, where one of the brittle Mexican units had taken out all but one of the handful of Legionnaires they were battling at one of the gateways, but then the Mexicans rolled a morale test and broke, and the French were able to hold on, and assigned a couple more men to that gateway. But this can only work for so long, before there are simply no more Legionnaires to redeploy in the breech.
The French had to make some decisions early on regarding which strongpoints to occupy and defend, and which to let go. Even at the start, with 49 officers and men, they barely have enough troops to defend the compound.
Nick Stern and I played a run-through last year on the 149th Anniversary of the battle, with the same numbers of figures, but using a slightly smaller hacienda compound, 24" sq. as opposed to the 30" sq. version we used this year (a more historically accurate size using 28mm figure scale as ground scale). Last year it was not easy for the Legion to spread out their defenders, but this year it was even more difficult, as it should be.
The same rules were used by their author, Michael Montemerano, in his Camerone game "NOT MEN BUT DEMONS!" at last Summer's Historicon, which won an award for being one of the best games at the show.
The game began with 49 officers & Legionnaires -- the starting 65 minus the 16 men captured during the running fight with the Mexican lancers which precipitated the battle in the compound itself.
There were 34 Legion KIA, and 5 captured -- two of whom were lightly wounded, the other 3 of whom had severe wounds -- and the remaining 10 of the 49 Legionnaires were Severely Wounded in Action. No one was captured unharmed, and everyone else was either wounded or killed, which is not very far from the historic casualty roll on the Legion side, considering how many of the wounded Legionnaires who survived the battle succumbed to their wounds and died in captivity in the following days.
I'm not sure how many casualties the Mexicans suffered -- Nick Stern may be able to weigh in with a number -- but I'm certain it was in the hundreds. In the rules Mexican casualties are all removed, without regard to KIA, severe wounds, light wounds, etc.
In the game, the Legion earned their true-life eulogy from the Mexican commander, Colonel Milan: "Not men but demons." But, as in 1863, this did not change the fact that the entire Legion company was wiped out.
's brother-in-law has been able to leave the hospital after his cancer operation.
