Camerone Wargame
Last Stands have a romance that sometimes makes us forget the misery involved. Nevertheless the battle of Camerone in 1863 is rightully celebrated in the French Foreign Legion for the amazing heroism displayed by the Legionaires who fought against impossible odds and charged rather than surrendered when their bullets ran out.
The wargame was my usual 54mm scale. I originally thought that the pueblo at Camerone was just a collection of buildings. Ater some research I found out that there was a wall around it. By this time I had only a couple of days before the game startedI grabbed some poystyrene boxes and hacked at them until I had some vague resemblance to the historical place. I coated the walls with white glue mixed with sand coloured acrylic paint and sprinkled beach sand on them. Then I dry brushed with off white.
There were no battlements or walkways so the Legionaires stood on what adjacent buildings were available. There was also a large building with a courtyard. My model building was some two story plaster ruins from Verlinden.
The Legionaires were given generous cover saves and a basic save to ensure their survivability. The Legionaire player ellected to abandon the walls and await the enemy in the building. The exceptions were some Legionaires who gave their lives closing off the gateway. ( I did not have time to make a gate so the wagon and boxes had to do. A breech in the walls was also closed off with a wagon.
The Juaristas had to push the wagons away before they could enter the courtyard. When they finally poured in they suffered massive casuaties before they could get into position.
Meanwhile a French and Imperial Mexican relief force was on its way, unlike in the historical case. Many of the Republican militia forces had to make a reception for them as they arrived from the other table. In effect, two battles were fought simultaneously.
Juarista reserves were diced for and came on fairly early. Their cannon came somewhat later but began to take its toll on the Legionnaires in the building. The Imperial relief force received heavy fire and never reached the fort.
The Legionnaires had to hold on for eight moves for a small victory and ten moves or a major victory. At the end of ten moves the Legionnaires in the open were all dead but the rest still held two buildings. At this point the game was declared over and Matt and Ryan (as the Legionnaires) went home victorious. I continued the game solo. It took at least another five moves to wipe out the Legionnaires. This was done when the Juaristas reduced the Legionnaires cover saves by going up to the building and shooting through the windows. The relief force was wiped out but not before it had silenced the enemy cannon. In turn, the relief force's cannon was captured by cavalry. (The artillerymen's cover saves of six had previously saved all four when they all threw sixes!) The Juaristas had four regiments left after a very bloody toy soldier battle
One game mechanism I used was that militia re-rolled any sixes but the veterans re-rolled any ones. This increased the probablity of a favouarable veteran or unfavourable militia result but not invaraiably so. The low morale factor of Mexican militia led to many failing their morale when they got down to fifty percent; they were removed from the board.
The wargame was my usual 54mm scale. I originally thought that the pueblo at Camerone was just a collection of buildings. Ater some research I found out that there was a wall around it. By this time I had only a couple of days before the game startedI grabbed some poystyrene boxes and hacked at them until I had some vague resemblance to the historical place. I coated the walls with white glue mixed with sand coloured acrylic paint and sprinkled beach sand on them. Then I dry brushed with off white.
There were no battlements or walkways so the Legionaires stood on what adjacent buildings were available. There was also a large building with a courtyard. My model building was some two story plaster ruins from Verlinden.
The Legionaires were given generous cover saves and a basic save to ensure their survivability. The Legionaire player ellected to abandon the walls and await the enemy in the building. The exceptions were some Legionaires who gave their lives closing off the gateway. ( I did not have time to make a gate so the wagon and boxes had to do. A breech in the walls was also closed off with a wagon.
The Juaristas had to push the wagons away before they could enter the courtyard. When they finally poured in they suffered massive casuaties before they could get into position.
Meanwhile a French and Imperial Mexican relief force was on its way, unlike in the historical case. Many of the Republican militia forces had to make a reception for them as they arrived from the other table. In effect, two battles were fought simultaneously.
Juarista reserves were diced for and came on fairly early. Their cannon came somewhat later but began to take its toll on the Legionnaires in the building. The Imperial relief force received heavy fire and never reached the fort.
The Legionnaires had to hold on for eight moves for a small victory and ten moves or a major victory. At the end of ten moves the Legionnaires in the open were all dead but the rest still held two buildings. At this point the game was declared over and Matt and Ryan (as the Legionnaires) went home victorious. I continued the game solo. It took at least another five moves to wipe out the Legionnaires. This was done when the Juaristas reduced the Legionnaires cover saves by going up to the building and shooting through the windows. The relief force was wiped out but not before it had silenced the enemy cannon. In turn, the relief force's cannon was captured by cavalry. (The artillerymen's cover saves of six had previously saved all four when they all threw sixes!) The Juaristas had four regiments left after a very bloody toy soldier battle
One game mechanism I used was that militia re-rolled any sixes but the veterans re-rolled any ones. This increased the probablity of a favouarable veteran or unfavourable militia result but not invaraiably so. The low morale factor of Mexican militia led to many failing their morale when they got down to fifty percent; they were removed from the board.
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