Tuesday, 9 May 2017

Camerone - 154th anniversary re-fight using BBB

It's a club tradition that we refight Camerone near the anniversary. We use the excellent scenario from Tim Tilson's Colonial Campaigns book Maximilian in Mexico. Although Tim's scenarios are geared towards using The Sword and the Flame rules they work well with other rule sets - in this case Bloody Big Battles. I've listed the rule tweaks at the end

The French Force

Captain Danjou
Sous-lieutenants Maudet and Vilain
4 units each of 4 bases of Legionaries - MLR, Elite (never go spent), Aggressive
Incidentally this means that the French figure:man ratio is virtually 1:1

The Legion prepares to defend La Trinidad Hacienda. 
The upper floor of the house is occupied by a 2 base Republican cavalry unit (dismounted of course!)
Captain Danjou stands in the middle of the courtyard where he "urged his men to take an oath to fight to the death rather than surrender...he made them swear their fealty on his wooden hand"

The walls of the Hacienda were too high to climb and the Republicans had no ladders so the only entrances are two at the north wall and one in the south-west corner.

Dismounted irregular cavalry 

The Republican Force

3 Commanders
Irregular Cavalry: 4 bases - MLR , Raw, Ragged Volley, Fragile, dismounted
Irregular Infantry: 4 bases - MLR , Raw, Ragged Volley
Regular Infantry: 4 bases - MLR , Trained

The Republicans attack in 3 Assault Phase. Each Phase is either 4, 6, 8 or 10 units of regular or irregular infantry or cavalry chosen by the Republican players. Each regular unit is worth 2 Victory Points (VP) to the French and each irregular unit  is 1 VP. The Republicans get 2 VPs for killing a French base. There are also VP awarded  to each side for other activities but I'm sure Tim would appreciate it if you bought his book to find those out.

An Assault Phase ends when the Republicans roll less than the number of units that are Spent.

For Phase 1 the Republicans selected 6 units of Irregular Cavalry

More dismounted irregular cavalry 
Rodge's finger points at his dismounted irregular cavalry
Having cleared the upper floor of the ranch the Legion defend it against repeated assaults

At the end of Phase 1 the French have 6 VPs and the Republicans have 2 VPs

For Phase 2 the Republicans selected 6 units of Regular Infantry.  A good choice as they have to lose 2 bases before doing spent. On the downside it means an extra 12 VPs to the French

The Mexican Regulars break into the courtyard from the north but are held at the  south-west corner by sous-lieutenant Maudet and his squad.

Phase 2 saw several assaults that were drawn which wore the Legion down and earned VPs for the Republicans.

Score at end of Phase 2 - French 18, Republicans 14

For Phase 3 the Republicans went in for the kill and selected 8 units of Regular Infantry giving the French another 16 VPs.

Sous-lieutenant Vilain valiantly holds the northern wall.
The final assault begins
The Republicans, led by Colonel Francisco de Paula Milán , storm the walls. 
Lieutenant Maudet forms a ragged line in the courtyard.
Meanwhile Captain Danjou, Lieutenant Vilain and a handful of Legionaries occupy the house
The Republicans overwhelm Maudet and his comrades. Only the house remains in French hands.
Finally the house is taken.
Viva Mexico!

A victory for the Republicans - or was it? The beauty of this scenario is the Victory Point chart which requires the Republicans to overwhelm the French with minimum force

So the final tally for points - French 34 to the Republican 38. So even though they took the Hacienda and destroyed the French it was only a Minor victory for the Republicans.

The BBB rules worked very well as always.

The following changes were made to the rules (with a nod to Pat for his ideas)
  • Units may not combine fire although they may individually target the same unit.
  • Units fight to the last base
  • No second ranking firing in Assault
  • Leaders have no Command range, only the unit they attach to gets the command benefit
  • Attached Leaders count as an extra Base
  • Attached Leaders can be killed on a roll of 2,3,11 & 12 if the unit is Disordered.
  • Legion units never go spent
  • The Hacienda is classed as a village
  • Low on ammo is permanent for Legion units

Thanks to Dave N, Mike, Rodge & Shaun for playing.

The Hacienda was lovingly handcrafted by Rodge

The figures are all QRF / Freikorps 15mm 


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