Monday, March 26, 2012

Historicon Maximilian Games!

Hi,

As I finish up several more Maximilian French, Republican, and Imperialist troops, I wanted to let you know about two games I plan on running at Historicon in July. I hope  you will join me for some very fun games! Click on the Maximilian label in this blog to see other posts on this subject.

Morelia Battalion of the Republican National Guard:

Battle of Puebla - May 5, 1862 - Theme Game
The 150th anniversary of "Cinco de Mayo" celebrated victory of the Republican Mexican army vs. the Imperial French Army sent by Napoleon III to collect against the debt Mexico owned to European nations. Marching to the interior the French forces encountered the Republicans defending the city of Puebla halfway between Vera Cruz and Mexico City. Come refight history and
see if you can change the outcome.

Rules: Piquet - Din of Battle 2nd Edition

Scale: 15mm

Number of Players: 5 (2 French, 3 Republicans)

Time: 1pm Thursday


Scenario Special Rules:
This game will be using the Rule of 1/3 impetus rules, which gives impetus to both sides during each initiative roll. This way, both armies remain active throughout the game. Because the French were aggressive with their artillery fire at long range, they are low on ammo when the battle truly begins. Hence, they will have 2 Artillery Reload cards instead of the normal three.

French Chasseur a Pied and the Imperial Guard artillery battery arrive in Vera Cruz to help at the Battle of Puebla:





Battle of Santa Isabel- June 1866 - Theme Game
The Imperial Mexican army, led by Major General Thun, has maneuvered in a way to finally draw the Republican Mexican Army into a stand-up fight. The Imperial Mexican Army is bolstered by the Austrian Legion and Belgian Legion, but the Republicans are in a good defensive position. This is an
ahistorical battle between historical foes. Come join in the fun!

Rules: Piquet - Din of Battle 2nd Edition

Scale: 15mm

Number of Players: 4

Time: 7pm Thursday

Scenario Rules:
This game will be using the Rule of 1/3 impetus rules, which gives impetus to both sides during each initiative roll. This way, both armies remain active throughout the game. tbd

Two more Imperial infantry battalions arrive as reinforcements to my collection. The Imperialist never met a uniform that was too gaudy!




Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Maximilian Project Progress Report

Hi,

As many of you know I'm going to be running two Maximilian Adventure games at Historicon in July: Puebla 1862 (Cinco de Mayo) and an ahistorical battle between the Imperial Mexican Army and the Republicans using my Din of Battle 2nd Edition rules from Piquet.



As I continue to paint 10 more infantry units I have also bought a Vae Victis (issue #79) game that covers the entire Maximilian campaign.


Boardgame Geek URL:
http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/35046/l-aventure-mexicaine-1862-1867
Vae Victis Order Location:
http://vaevictis.histoireetcollections.com/en/publication/2070/vaevictis-79-march-2008.html
The game looks great and should allow me to fight the entire campaign and move some of the battles to the table-top to fight in with my 15mm collection of figures. You can find Engish translation of the rules on the internet, but if you do want a copy of the English rules with my edits for clarification, just send me an email.

Things I like about the game:
1) The map, although small, really looks great and gives me the campaign map I need.
2) The rules are both simple and crafted for the period. I absolutely love the 66 special events in the game. They should really make the campaign POP!

The things I don't like about the game:
1) The map is just too small (This is not Vae Victis fault as it is a magazine game). I'm going to enlarge the map to at least double size.

2) Counter art is good in quality, but has the incorrect images for the units on them. It sames the artwork is from European armies rather than the Mexican theatre, so the Austrians, Belgians, Egyptians are all incorrect on the counters. The worst is the Imperial Mexicans as they took the images of the Mexcian American war and stuck them on the counters! Uggh!

I can look past the counter art for the moment, but I'm pretty anal about these types of things so I may create some new counters at some point in time. I'm mounting the counters on extra wooden blocks I have from Europe Engulfed board game. I'll take some photos later of this project when it is done.

The events in the game look fantastic and I really like the rules overall. I'm not sure about the combat system yet, as I need to play the game a couple times to see if I like it.

Anyway, onward and upward!
Eric

Sunday, March 4, 2012

Rating Leaders for the Maximilian Adventure

Hi,

Thought I would share me ratings for generals during the Maximilian Adventure. They are rated for the Piquet wargaming rules. Click for larger versions.

French Leaders









Imperial Mexican Leaders








Republican Mexican Leaders













My project is making steady progress with Historicon as the completion date! I will be using Din of Battle 2nd edition to fight the wargames.

Eric