The Alcalde's Daughter

In January at Drumbeat, I chatted with old friend Darin Howard about getting together for a game. I mentioned my Maxmillian stuff, and Darin was interested. We made a date for the NHMGS game day in February. Unfortunately that was the week I started to come down with fluey, germiness, so we put off the game until the third weekend in March.

I dragged out a scenario I like. It doesn't use every figure I own, but it does allow me to play with a nice sampling of my toys. Each player basically has a company of French regulars or militia irregulars with varying victory conditions. So the players could all be working against one another and not for one's self. The scenario has a small unit of French trapped in a small Mexican village surrounded by militia. The French objective is to rescue the little unit of Contra Guerrillas, while inflicting maximum damage on the enemy. Each unit also had some minor goals to keep things interesting: sack the alcalde's hacienda, steal the sacramental wine, rescue the Alcalde's daughter. You name it.

Nice mix of guys, Darin and his brother George, Tom Bieker, Dale Mickel, Scott Abbott and Lawrence Bateman all played and I think everybody had a good time. Lots of death. The scenario is pretty unbalanced, but I think that's a pretty quick fix.

As I've stated before, this is my only completed project. That's a claim I hope I can match with other projects some day. All the French as well as my Mexican regulars are Wargames Foundry figures. I also have some Guernsey Foundry Mexicans (remember them?). Most of the Mexican militia figures I have are Old Glory from their Mexican American War range. The cavalry on both sides are the old Rich Houston range that are now homeless with the closure of London War Room (sigh)

On the photos-Mexican regulars march into San Hernandez to chase of the Frogs while militia man the walls of the old church. French regulars and Contra Guerrillas evacuate the large adobe just ahead of them. French Foreign Legionnaires face off against militia to their front and flank.

Maxmillian in Mexico: A project complete

I'm posting pictures of my Imperial Dragoon unit to show that it is indeed done. But, this unit also ostensibly ends this project. It's done ta da. As you can see there are a lot of figures. I like to play the Sword and the Flame expansion for this period.

How do I know I'm finished? Well, all my figures are painted. That's easy. They are also a combination of Wargames Foundry, Guernsey Foundry, and Richard Houston figures. They aren't available anymore. The Mexican militia is a combination of Old Glory and Guernsey Foundry, so theoretically I could get more, but why?

Alright, in truth I could see myself adding one more gun to each side, but the guns and gunners come from my pile of unpainted ACW figures, so that wouldn't be a big sacrifice.

One thing that is very cool about this project is it grew out of the many conversations we had at Escape Velocity in the late '70's. I originally painted them up for Camerone, and I've been picking at them since the late 90's.

At the top are pictures of the Republican forces, starting with militia on the left, with regular foot and their commander on the right. The two Republican cavalry units include lancers and frontier horse called Regulares.

Faithful blog follower Dean Motoyama pointed out that these are indeed singly mounted. I believe they are my first singly mounted project. I originally played the Warpaint rules with them, and have since gone on to TSATF variant I mentioned earlier. Just for the record, I don't think single figure games are bad, I just think the proliferation of them, especially at conventions, is curious.

At bottom are the French forces I have. The folks in white trousers are Foreign Legionnaires-the sacrifices at Camerone, and on the left are French regulars. I may actually repaint the latter a bit giving them darker complexions as Imperial foot. These would actually be Mexican troops. Finally, a picture of the Imperial dragoons are below. These are Richard Houston figures which used to be cast at The London War Room. Wargames Foundry never actually executed the cavalry for this range, and so I pressed Houston's guys into service. The were cheap and easy to paint. Alas, with the death of TLWR, the figures have passed away as well. The last batch of guys in skirmish order are the Contra-Guerrillas. I only have six, and they were nasty bastards. I'd love to locate at least four more.