Enfilade ’24 is in the books. I pronounce it a success in a year when we had to up and move against a deadline of maybe nine weeks and we pulled it off. 360ish attendees, 115ish games including some really excellent ones. Lots of old friends and some new ones. It was a good convention.

It wasn’t perfect. The space is small and quite crowded. L-O-U-D. Food, as predicted, was a problem. The bar had no beer on tap. Really? There is no foreseeable additional space. Even so, I believe the venue is manageable and I expect we’ll return at least for the next couple of years.

Loved the staff. The rooms were nice. There is some fiddliness to the way we used the space, and we can do better. We aren’t locked into some negative doom loop. I’ll try to work closely with the hotel to resolve some of the food issues.

But that’s next year. For now I’m trying to catch up on the sleep I’ve missed since December and spend some extra time with my closest friends, Ringo and Owen.

Hey and I did run a couple of games. I filled in one of David Sullivan’s missing game slots with a Thunderboats race. It was fun. One of the fastest Thunderboats games I’ve ever seen. When I wrapped up and said I couldn’t run a second (though there was plenty of time,) Bill Vanderpool offered to take over so I could deal with some convention stuff. It was much appreciated and Bill did a super job.

But the big game, the one I prepared for the last nine months or so was Camerone: The Wooden Hand of Captain Danjou.

We play-tested the scenario twice during the winter and I’ve pretty much left it alone since then except for a couple of suggestions from David and Mark Waddington. The big change was to allow a Mexican infantry unit to set up in the hacienda. Thought it would prevent the French from utterly fortifying the hacienda and give the Mexicans a fighting chance. We’ll see.

I submitted the game almost immediately after submissions were opened. The game was almost immediately full.

Sunday was the anointed game period and the players rapidly divided themselves into French and Mexicans. The French were able to scavenge enough material to create obstructions for the two gates. They also occupied “Danjou’s Office” in the hacienda.

The trick for the Mexicans is to try to inflict some casualties with their troops in the hacienda. There was a unit in the third room of the building and six snipers in the upper floors. However with a massive expenditure of ammunition and some really good die rolling, four of the snipers were killed and the unit was driven out of the lower floor before they could even shoot.

However the Mexican players did a good job of applying persistent pressure. Mike Gonos used their mounted cavalry units mostly against the gates and threatening to attack. Though they were regularly repulsed by liberal expenditures of French ammo, they could easily recycle because they could move twice as far as infantry. The infantry moved up behind the horse and could provide limited fire, inflicting a few casualties along the way. But the French were firing off their limited ammo (20 rounds) like cheap firecrackers.

Mike Gonos uses his cavalry to absorb damage while his infantry creeps forward to engage the French at the gates.

At the end of the 4th turn, the Mexican mounted cavalry withdrew, leaving four units of dismounted irregular horse. But they were joined by six units of regular infantry and fighting became more intense. Bruce Harborne’s dismounted irregulars made persistent dashes and fired on the outside of the hacienda, and some of his fire was beginning to take a toll on Dale’s French command. Dean’s Mexican regulars began to scale the south wall as Christine’ and Nick’s French made their withdrawal toward the safety of the hacienda. William and Harmon’s French likewise made their way toward the cover of the hacienda. It was about to get very crowded.

The French casualties begin to accumulate

With the French trapped like rats in the hacienda, the Mexicans resort to basics and set fire to Danjou’s Office. While the fire flares up and later spreads, the hacienda is quickly surrounded. The French, having fired so promiscuously, and effectively, in the early turns, by turn eight have fired off their last cartridges. The fire is spreading. The casualties are mounting. The end is written in the smoke.

Trapped like rats!! Efforts to batter their way out of the hacienda and out the back window into the shed fail. The French prepare a final bayonet charge. Just as things begin to look terribly bleak, I get a phone call from my sister. Mom is in the hospital and we agree to wrap things up sparing the French the final indignity. Victory to the Mexicans.

Mom is okay.

I would be remiss to overlook the gift I received from Michael. He made the wooden box that houses a “Hand of Captain Danjou.” It is a treasure and I truly appreciate the gesture.