Don’t have a lot of ground-breaking news to report on. Still some post-Enfilade breath catching. I can report with certainty Enfilade will return to the Tacoma LaQuinta for 2025-26. I’m happy about it.
It’s summer and folks get busy during the summer so getting together is harder, even for we retirees. Our Silver Kings group meets each Wednesday and generally reserve two of those weeks for SAGA and the other weeks for not-SAGA. Today was one of those non-SAGA days, but knowing folks weren’t going to be available I decided to pack a game to play with whomever.
I sat down this morning and put together a quick two player scenario using The Men Who Would Be Kings. I have Cuban rebels and Spanish from the 1895-98 rebellion. I’ve always been intrigued by the Escario re-supply of Santiago after the American blockade and thought I could build something around a barely historical idea. I put a Spanish Civil Guard unit in a building with four rebel units at long rifle range, with understanding Spanish units would arrive shortly.
Keith French was the only other attendee at Silver Kings today, so I set the game up and gave him his choice of sides. He chose the Cubans. The Cubans are irregular infantry. Three of the units had obsolete rifles, range 18″. One had modern rifles and a +1 morale bonus, plus commander. The Civil Guards also had a +1 and a commander. All the Spanish regulars had modern rifles. I limited them to 0 morale, and the sailors I actually made a -1. The Spanish had more points, though just in general I hate using points in Daniel Mersey games. I gave each side varying victory conditions. The rebels had to drive off the Civil Guard. The Spanish had to drive off the rebels.
Keith set up his Cubans in the wood that faced the Civil Guards on two sides. He opened fire at long range with two units. It’s hard to hit a unit at long range in hard cover, but he did. Both sides exchanged shots and casualties in the first turn. Both passed morale. Turn two, the rebels fired again, inflicting another casualty but the Guardia rolled snake eyes and were pinned. No return fire. Things went rapidly downhill for the Spanish. The next several turns saw the Guardia take additional casualties and additional pin markers. Keith launched one of his rebel units in a storming attack. The Guardia should have won, but it was just not a good die rolling day for Spanish. The Guardia were ejected from their safe space, and the following rally roll saw another snake eyes. Civil Guards gone. The rebels achieved their victory conditions.
Meanwhile, Spanish regulars began arriving and shooting at the rebels at long range. Though they inflicted a few casualties, they suffered even more. First unit–suffered four casualties, a pin marker and then a snake eyes for the rally phase. Second unit–suffered four casualties, a pin marker, hung around, but much reduced. Third unit arrived, and continued to gnaw a bit on the rebels, but there was no way unit and half were going to take down four rebels without an act of God, so we called it a day.
It was fun!!!! I got to use my troops. I got to play a fun set of rules. Got to play with Keith. A great day, all in all.
A Gamer's Tales 
Good day out for you! Always a pleasure seeing Old Glory’s SAW figures out on the table.
Nice looking minis and game, but not a good day luck-wise for the Spanish! 🙂