The Mexican adventure of 1861 -1867 campaign game - skirmish battle in D8

Our Mexican adventure of 1861-1867 campaign game is run on a fictional map, and with fictional forces.  

More info in earlier posts.

This was a confrontation with one side less having then 5 units, and as written in the campain rules, resulting in a solo game played by the game master.

Descending from the hills of the Pico Perico 3 units of irregular Mexican forces stumbled on 5 French Zuave units looking for them with the aim to destroy the insurgents. 

Each French unit is veteran with each company having an officer. But lacking an high ranged officer present, the command dice our not centralized.

The Mexican force cosisted of 2 irregular skirmish units and one unit of poorly armed peasants, and only one lower ranged officer.

The French officers were all attached to their unit, resulted in no need for throwing for orders on the French side. 

The singel command die for the Mexicans was a problem. 

In the 6 turns played, only 2 orders (I or Flag) were thrown.

The skirmish units were deployed on the hill facing the 2 units closest and in front of them. The peasant units was facing the 3 units threathening the left flank. 2 Of these 3 units, 2 had skirmish capacity. But it took 3 turns before these flanking units came somewhat close to the rebels.

With one unit closing in to their front, a second Zouave unit tried to turned their right flank.

One order from the Mexicans made them pull back about 20cm.

Once within charging distance, the Zuaves went for it, but the skimishes did evade.

One of the zouave skirmish units closed in on the peasants. The Mexcan officer did throw a second order and urged the peasants to charge.  With surprising success. The Zouaves were thrown back with two losses without inflicting one.

The folowing turns, no command was thrown for the Mexicans, while the zouave skirmish units started to target the peasant unit, and having no cover took losses, but less than one might fear.

However, the losses kept comming and at a certain point, their unit was halved and the peasant unit had to fall back.

On the Mexican right, the pulled back skirmish maxicans had inflicted one loss firing on the flanking zouaves. A new charge by this zouave unit resulted in a fight, the Mexicans not evading this time. A bloody result, with 4 Mexican losses and a retreat.

The other unit, not having received an yother were now threatend in the flank.

The volley of the zouaves was also deadly with 3 losses.

As with he 6th turn, was played, according to the campaign rule, the Mexicans were allowed  to retrat and end the battle. The Mexican force had survived  the French attack, mainly thanks to the peasants attack, slowing down the veteran zouave skirmish units. The Mexicans  falling back to D5 away from de pursuing French.

Cycling game in 54mm with 3 stages: based on Cyclo the Game (and the Koers Tegen Kanker project)

 

We played a cycling race, based on the game I made : "Cyclo the Game" that was first publised in 1999 as a promotion item for Daikin Europe.

The reason for playing this game now again is because it has been reisued, as part of my "Koers Tegen Kanker" (Race against Cancer) project.  The site in english is ; "https://www.koerstegenkanker.be/english" but you can also read in in Dutch, French and German, the same languages of the game rules.

The game is available in the Bioracer webshop : 

https://shop.bioracer.com/nl/products/cyclo-the-game

I have the hope the game will have also versions for the fight against cancer in countries outside Belgium-Flanders. If you have ideas, please contact me at koerstegenkanker@telenet.be

Pics of the  board game via this link https://www.koerstegenkanker.be/fotos-film

Teams in our game:

Green : Jonathan

Red-Black : Alberik

Grey : Thomas

Yellow : Steven

Cyclo is a cycling game for playing track or road cycling races, including classics and Rounds like the Tour De France. Basics of the game (Cyclo Starter) : Flat road is 2 dice, up 1 die, descend 3 dice. The climber gets a +1 on his die result on a climb, the sprinter has 3 dice in the final KM.  cobbled road - 3 spaces if rider end up in a dark square.

Added to this are some extra rules: 

• each rides receives a token per 50 cases, and the team 1 token (the team token can be used for any rider of the team). A token can be used to advance 6 spaces extra. 1 token (accelerate) . In climbs, only the token for the climber (red) or the team token (yellow) can be used. On flat road, you can also attack (using 2 tokens at once). on a cobbeld road, you can only accelerate.
• taking the wheel : (only) on flat road or descends, a rider can take the wheel of another rider (also when the first rider accelerates! - so you favourite can follow the helper when this one uses his token)
• Holding back, you can move fewer spaces then thrown, except on cobbled roads.
• position change: (on flat road or descend) two rider following each other can swap position (mutual agreement), this way, riders could use their token  atlternating.

Time trail : each rider completes the course, and the number of turn are noted and multiplied by 10, mines the spaces past the finish. (example 3 turns and 6 spaces past the finish gives you 24')

Normal legs, start with the same time notation in the next turn, once at least one rider has crossed the finish line. 

In our game, we palyed a Leg race of one prologue, one short leg and ending with the main leg.

e also used the points of the green jersey in the normal legs as bonifications.

We started with the prologue time trial, of 26 squares. ("Proloog" columns) each rider and the team have 1 token.

Columns B is the number of each rider.

Column C is the time result of the time trail, ("uitslag rit", column F is the postion in the stage.

Number 89 of Jonathan was the first leader in the yellow jersey.

Number 93 of Aberik did win both stages. Well... the second one actually was won by Adrien, who had joined for the last leg, but as he had come in when our first leg was already finished, he did participate "unregistered" for the jerseys and the general classification.

By winning both leggs, Alberik had won the Yellow and Green jersey. 

See columns O to T

"Totaaltijd" is the final time result for the general classification, and the next columns is the ranking.

"groen" (=green "points"jersey)

"wit" (=white jersey with red dots - best climber) was for number 98 of Steven.

Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/koerstegenkanker/

facebook : https://www.facebook.com/groups/5071174218567

In the press

https://www.hln.be/roeselare/met-cyclo-the-game-wil-ik-terugvechten-tegen-kanker-vzw-lanceert-gezelschapsspel-ten-voordele-van-kom-op-tegen-kanker~a5124393/

https://www.nieuwsblad.be/regio/west-vlaanderen/midwest/roeselare/bordspel-cyclo-brengt-koers-tot-in-je-woonkamer-en-je-steunt-er-ook-strijd-tegen-kanker-mee/85642948.html

https://kw.be/nieuws/samenleving/zieke-renster-jilke-michielsen-ontvangt-als-eerste-nieuw-wielerbordspel-cyclo-opbrengst-gaat-naar-kom-op-tegen-kanker/

The Battle of Bunker Hill in 54mm on 2025/08/15

 The Battle of Bunker Hill

This Friday evening, a table in the TSA room in Hoevenen was transformed into a historical battlefield from the American Revolution.

At Bunker Hill, American forces have dug in to resist a British army that wants to crush the revolution. The British fleet is anchored nearby, but its cannons don't have enough range. This gives the American freedom fighters one major advantage: they do have a few cannons.

The British have a slight majority, but they must cover a considerable distance over open terrain, which is ideal for the Americans to fire upon them. The British must hope for a quick advance and a short, hand-to-hand bayonet fight. However, much will depend on the dice, which the course of the game proved.

When the British advance came within range of the American cannons, they opened fire. The first casualties fell. The advance on the left flank (as seen from Bunker Hill) was slower than on the right. Within a few turns, the British stormed Bunker Hill there. After a few futile attempts, they forced a breakthrough. This created a difficult situation for the Americans, but fortunately, the situation remained under control, albeit with many casualties on both sides.

Meanwhile, on the left flank, the British advanced slowly but surely. This led to a gradual loss of strength as they suffered losses. When the British finally managed to climb Bunker Hill on that left flank, their ranks were so thinned out that they were an easy target for the Americans, who had barely suffered any casualties. The situation became so precarious for the British that a part of the American militia left their cover to fire on the last British battalion on the flank. The British defended themselves but lost sight of their main objective: taking Bunker Hill.

After a short improvement in the American position on the right flank, British reinforcements (a large number of Highlanders) definitively turned the tide in favor of the British. Casualties fell on both sides until only most of the Highlanders remained. They then set a course for the left flank, where the British were almost completely defeated. They retreated to the right flank to serve as a reserve. This allowed the American left flank to turn against the approaching Highlanders with two cannons and what was left of the infantry. The death toll rose enormously as both sides tried to achieve victory.

In the end, it was the Americans who achieved a Pyrrhic victory. Both sides suffered such heavy losses that it is difficult to speak of a victory.

Reported by :

Peter Umans

The Mexican adventure of 1861 -1867 campaign game - second battle in L6

 Major De Brand, after his defeat at Cajuin De Alosta, retreated south.

Informed about possibel hostile activity in L6, he had ordered has leading units, the Dragons de L'Impératrice to storm the hill in square L6. 

There was a unit of American volonteers in ambush. Seeing they would be overrun by the drgoons, the voloneers alarmed the irregular cavalery waiting to. support.

The dragoons stopped their advance when the Mexican cavalry appeared on top of the hill.

The remainder of the Belgian-Austrian-Mexican force entered the battlefield.

Parick tried to stick to his orriginal plan, ignoring enemy troops, sending his infantry east and  slip down the road with the Mexican garrison troops and supply train.

The garrison troops, in march column charged the volonteeers, and were driven back with heavy losses.

The following volley of the volonteers almost whiped out the Mexican company, that started to drop back.

Patrick now charged the 4 units of Mexican cavalry on top of the hill with his 2 dragoons units.

One charge failed, the other succeeded. 

One of Siegfrieds Mexican cavalry units, was halved and left the battlefield, and the other who also had losses, was pulled back.  

Siegfried ordered his one veteran unit forward on the hill, supported with the one other unit remaining.

Patrick responded with his victorious unit to turn towards Siegfrieds Mexicans, and with his other dragoon unit restored order and moved a little forward.

Now, Siegfried did not stick to his plan to retreat in turn 6 ( a battle must last 6 turns before one side can start to retreat), but found it to tempting not to charge with his remaining cavalry.

It didn't work out well, the charged dragoons were forced to retreat but no more than that. But now the other dragoons charged in the flank resulting in both Mexican cavalry units destroyed! The battle was over, Patrick in possession of the battlefield, but his plans frustrated.

Demo game at TSOA on July 25th, 2025 - Battle of Pydna 168 BC in 54mm

 

At the request of our group member Steven, we did a demo at the weekly wargame evening of the TSA or TSOA club of Antwerp.

Steven did ask for an ancients battle with Romans and Macedons.

My choice was to redo the Pydna  168BC battle, which we presented at Crisis 2012 : https://youtu.be/JgtzVXCGLTg

The Romans advanced to the banks of the Elpeus river  to have a good defensive position.

The first real actions came from the flanks, the Roman cavalry on the Roman right, crossed the river and clashed with their Macedon counterparts and a falanx. The Macedons came out victorious and the falaxes of the Macedon left started to cross the river. They where charged by the elephants, one Macedon unit in big trouble and almost broke, but the general took the risk to support the unit and was able to restore order.  The situation stabelized. 

On the other flank, the Gaul allies of  Rome started to fight the Macedon light infantry and Thracians. The Macedon heavy cavalry had to rescue the situation, and units were broken on both sides. The Roman cavalry , also moved forward to stop the Macedon cavalry to cross the river. 

Here also the situation stabelized

Then it was to the centre, the falaxes against the Roman veteran legions. 

One or two falaxes were able to get a foothold on the other bank, against the medium hastatii, but were not able to push the principes aside.

Where needed, the triari came to help.

With no desisive result in view, and the late hour, we called it a draw.