A demo game aimed at t’Other Partizan 2017 utilising Boothill Miniatures Texan Revolution models. I knew nothing about this little kerfuffle before I got attracted by the figures but a bit of reading suggested that it would be great fun - not too many wars absolutely require rules for drunken troops and some of the actions are almost possible at 1:1 ratios.
The engagement planned is Concepcion, the first real shooting engagement of the war, and the rules will be Sharp Practice. The Mexicans have numbers (and artillery and bayonets) but poor generals and lousy gunpowder. The Texans have better range and cover, but need to move out of the cover to avoid being trapped against the river bank come nightfall, so they must attack at some point to win.
Mexican forces up first
There’s two units of Cazadore skirmishers:
A cannon:
Five units of line infantry in summer uniforms (and thank you for not mentioning the mistake I made with these):[
Four units of line infantry in the winter blues:
Mexican big men:
and the much put-upon Col. Ugartechea:
The Boards are three 6x2 sections containing a riverbank and treeline which gives the Texans their initial cover, a open area and a board with the Concepcion Mission, from behind which the Mexicans approach:
The Concepcion Mission proved a little difficult at first as I tried to scratchbuild the whole of the original. But it soon became clear that it was too big and as it played no real part in the battle other than as a mildly inconvenient obstacle and I settled for a few bits and pieces from Sarissa and Warbases plus a little mucking around and something that is reminiscent of the Mission without being exact:
Build stage:
and plastered and undercoated:
Photos of the Texans to follow once I’ve finished the display material!
The Texans.
As the result of a significant birthday I treated myself to putting two of my favourite painters to work - Roy Duffy and Dags.
To show their true glory, Duff's original photos of the models are here:
http://www.lead-adventure.de/index.php?topic=97852.0
And Dags' originals are here:
http://www.lead-adventure.de/index.php?topic=86467.0
By chance my other favourite painter, RedZed, kindly did 3 figures not
as a direct commission but in exchange for a bottle of floor polish (but very
special floor polish!). I don't have original photos of Redzed's contribution and can’t see them on his site, but they are mixed in with the following force photos along with the ones I did myself:
Three Texan skirmish 6 man units:
Four volunteer 8 man units:
and the Texan command structure - Fannin, Colman, Bowie and Briscoe:
Just a few odds and sods to follow tomorrow.
And on the day itself:
Morning has broken over the Concepcion Mission
The local supply chain emerges to meet the advancing Mexican army:
which emerges from behind the Mission, to complaints from the Mexican player that he can’t possibly cover all that ground and survive:
The Texans wake up and immediately abandon the hard cover river bank, but decide to hold fire until the Mexicans get closer because using their massive range advantage would be so unfair:
The artillery bangs away to no effect (so far, so historical) and Mexican player suddenly discovers how the movement system works in Sharp Practice, what the Command Cards allow him to do and how formations work. Consequently one formation advances rapidly down the right flank and delivers a couple of critical volleys:
This breaks one Texan unit that never manages to work out how to pull the trigger and wounds Fannin, who lies on the ground moaning for the rest of the game. However another Texan unit gets suddenly inspired by a Random Event (Drunk by God! Advance 3xD6 and engage with Aggression) and duffs up the formation despite it being three times bigger. An engagement so exciting God forgot to take pictures!
Their left flank may be saved but the Texan right flank collapses as another Mexican formation breaks one unit and kills Briscoe. Frantically, the Texan player wheels a volunteer unit to face the Mexican formation and orders Fire! Apparently forgetting that Coleman (now 50% of the Texan command) is standing in front of them.
God rules that Coleman must take the first hit scored but fortunately the volunteers aim is as poor as their fire discipline and they entirely miss. Mr Coleman’s comments, fortunately for the sensibilities of innocent bystanders, are not recorded for posterity.
Both flanks collapsing, the Texan centre is then assaulted by the last Mexican formation, which breaks one Texan unit and wounds Bowie:
Apparently he is a screamer.
In near perfect timing the game ended (allowing for frequent pauses to talk to those innocent bystanders) close to the end of the show with Bowie’s command dead, wounded or running into the river, Stephen Austin’s relief column now redundant and the revolution beginning to collapse.
Post mortem:
I thought it looked ok, first time I’d actually put it all together was Sunday morning of the show, It’s a very flat and featureless landscape, perhaps not spectacular enough for a demo game?
Sharp Practice worked well. We need more practice to get fluent in it and like all the Lardies rules, it might be simple but there’s a lot of complex tactics players need to think about. The Mexican player had a sudden ‘eureka’ moment that definitely proved the value of thinking about what you are doing.
Is the scenario unbalanced, ie can the Texans actually win? In both playtests and on the day, the Texans lost quite convincingly. I think the Texan tactics on the day were wrong but I may strengthen their force a little - I also may have penalised them a little too much in Fisticuffs and need to have a think about the army list. On the other hand, the Mexicans got lucky both in the cards and the die rolls, such is life in this harsh environment. I suspect I need to play this a little more before it’s next outing at SELWG.
Overall though, great fun.Looking forward to playing through a few more scenarios from the Texan Kefuffle.
I have a soft spot for the unfortunate Mexican commander, Lt Castaneda. He had an impossible job at the start of the war which he performed sensibly (by withdrawing after a brief defensive fire) and at the end of the war when all the senior officers had been captured or fled, he had to hand over the formal surrender of the Mexican army. Just a professional civil servant given the shitty end of the stick 