"CAMERONE" Topic

153 years ago today, 50-odd Legionnaires defended the Hacienda de la Trinidad for most of the day against what in the end amounted to a combined force of 2,000 Mexican regulars and guerrillas. When the battle was over virtually every member of the small force was dead or wounded, only the Bugler escaping capture. Their tenacous resistance agaisnt overwhelming odds enabled the gold convoy they'd been dispatched to escort, to escape ambush and being taken by the enemy.

Camerone Day snuck up on me this year, but if anyone is intrerested, please click on the link below to visit my sadly inactive blog dedicated to the battle, and check out the nice collection of photos from the 150th Anniversary game a bunch of gaming friends and I were lucky enough to play back on April 30th, 2013…

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The iconic Hand of Captain Danjou, commander of the 3rd Company, 2nd Foreign Regiment:

A splendid collection and gorgeous photography. I could almost hear the gunfire and smell the cordite.

Love it! One of my favorite actions!

Lovely battle. I recognized the Foundry Figures. What other manufacturers did you use?

Kevin

Thanks for the positive comments, dBerczerk, Stosstruppen, and Kevin C!

Kevin: in addition to the Perry sculpted Maximillian range and Mike Owen sculpted Old West Legionnaires, both from Foundry, many of the Legionnaires were from the Gringo40s Maximillian range.

The inevitable question:

I see your figures are individually based: what rules did you use?

@BillyFish:

We used the custom Camerone fast-play rule set designed for convention games, called. "NOT MEN, BUT DEMONS," by Michael Montemarano. The important info fits on 2 sides of a page. Not sure if Michael made them available to the public, but I think he did -- maybe on the Maximillian War Yahoo Group…?

Hmm, just visited there and couldn't find it as a file, though perhaps he put it up as an attachment to a regular post back in 2013, during the lead-up to the 150th Anniversary. Now you've got me wondering! I wil try to reach him and find out if they are available, and if so where. If I find out, I'll come back and post the info here.

Oh -- and needless to say, those relatively simple rules provided an enjoyable and dramatic game! I believe it took the Mexicans until the tail end of their 3rd wave assault on the compound before the Legion was finally overrun, much like the results of the real battle. Actually, the Legion was almost overrun much sooner in the game, but much later on towards what turned out to be the very end, nearly pulled it out. The rules treat each and every Legionnaire like a super-elite trooper, and the Mexicans like canon-fodder, but of course that's a good way to go if you want to give less than 60 figures (on one-to-one scale, which is how the rules represent the Legion's side on the tabletop) a real chance to hold out against several hundred figures representing two-thousand opponents.

I haven't played Mike's rules – I'm sure they are great – but I have presented mine at conventions, using a hacienda I built and Richard Houston's forces. So, why don't I pimp my rules – yours for $4.99 USD, yes indeed!

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