Greetings!
My friends & partners in miniature wargaming crime, "Last Stand" Dan Gurule and Shawn "CAPT SHANKS" Hutson and I are bringing our 28mm Camerone extravaganza out and about one last time to celebrate this year's 160th Anniversary of the Legion's iconic last stand that pitted 49 officers and men of the 3rd Company, 1st Battalion of the Foreign Regiment (the Legion had recently been reduced in size to a Regiment and was officially referred to as such at the time) defending the hastily fortified Hacienda de la Trinidad against approximately 2,000 Mexican Juaristas of all shapes and sizes -- Infantry and Cavalry Regulars, National Guard, local Militia and local Bandits -- attacking the same.
As before, our game will again use the popular The Men Who Would Be Kings colonial rules published by Osprey, with modifications to fit the scenario and to speed up convention play. It pits 49 French Foreign Legion vs. approx. 350 Mexicans, all nicely-painted Wargames Foundry figures, fighting over some pretty nice terrain, the standout feature of which is the Hacienda de la Trinidad built by the somewhat legendary Chris The Model Maker. This will probably be the last time I take this model out to be enjoyed by the public for the foreseeable future, in celebration of this year's 160th Anniversary of the 1863 battle. I may do so again in another 5 or 10 years, but who knows. So I encourage anyone and everyone in Southern California (and beyond?) who's interested in an intense fight to the finish game... the 1862-1867 French Intervention in Mexico... the French Foreign Legion's iconic last stand... and/or awesome-looking but also gaming-friendly 28mm scale buildings to join us on Saturday October 14th and take up the wooden hand of Capt. Danjou or the leather gauntlet of Colonel Milan!
The convention is set to run from 9am to Midnight on Saturday Oct 14th & from 9am to 7pm on Sunday Oct 15th at the DoubleTree by Hilton in Buena Park, located at 700 Beach Blvd, Buena Park, CA 90620.
Our Camerone game is set for 10am to 5pm with a brief lunch-break included, and last time I checked 4 of the 7 player slots were still open and available.
Here's a LINK to the HMGS-PSW Mini-Wars convention homepage:
https://tabletop.events/conventions/mini-wars-2023
...a LINK to the Event Registration page for our Camerone game:
https://tabletop.events/conventions/mini-wars-2023/schedule/6
...and last but not least a LINK to the hotel website:
https://www.hilton.com/en/hotels/laxbndt-doubletree-buena-park/
The Buena Park DoubleTree is located a short 10 mins. drive from Disney Land in Anaheim, a little longer but still short (at least in Southern California terms!) 1/2-HR drive to picturesque Huntington Beach Pier, and less than 1/2-HR drive from LAX Airport -- in case anyone is looking for a last-minute hobby destination prior to Halloween.
Last time we ran this game at the Sand Wars 2023 convention in Mesa, Arizona it was -- if I don't say so myself -- a big success. all the players and all of us GM's had a great time and despite the extremely unbalanced forces, much excitement, competition, suspense, and most important of all FUN was had by everyone involved. Obviously I am no objective judge but I heartily recommend coming out to join us next month if possible! There will be a wide variety of other awesome games ranging from Ancients to Moderns, plus Sci-Fi and Fantasy, as well as several Tournaments including Bolt Action and DBA. So even if you're not into Mexico or the French Foreign Legion or desperate last stands, if you're a miniature gamer you should be able to find something to your liking! So one way or another, if you're a fellow hobbyist in Southern California who doesn't already have something else scheduled for that weekend, I hope to see you there!
Finally I will leave you with some very nice pics taken by my good friend Matthew Rigdon who is a talented photographer with a very good camera and who also attended Sand Wars in Mesa this past Spring, and which I should have posted here on this "All Camerone all the time" blog months ago -- but better late than never:
And if you enjoyed looking at those here's a LINK to a bunch more:
