Battle Report! Cortes Causeway Escape Attempt – (Feudal Patrol) TotalCon 36, Chapter 3

This post covers the third game that I ran at TotalCon 36 in Marlboro, Massachusetts. It ran on the morning of Saturday, February 26th, 2022, with a snowstorm having dropped a good amount of snow on the night before.

The scenario has Hernan Cortes and his besieged Conquistadores trying to escape Tenochtitlan as the flyer describes below.

The rules used were Feudal Patrol™. These games for the Spanish Conquest in Mesoamerica (Aztecs vs. Conquistadores) are run using my supplement Civilizations Collide.

I did run this game before at Historicon. However, since then I have added even more – and I believe better – terrain. So much so that setting this bad boy up is a major effort. Thanks so much again to Bryan Clauss for his help in setting this up with me on Friday night.

Most of this post will be photos of the game. Thanks to Joerg, Mike, and Mal for letting me use some of their shots – it’s tough to GM and photograph a game at the same time! With the previous night’s snowstorm turnout was mixed and this game can easily handle a dozen players. I had to downsize it a bit to accommodate fewer Saturday morning players. Still, I got some walk on players, and in the end had 5-6 players for most of the game. It worked. One of the players, Mark, had seen the game at Historicon back in November and came from Maine just to play in it at TotalCon 36- what an honor and a compliment!

Down on the other end of the tabletop, there were three Elite Aztec Elements (one Elite Warband) attempting to hold off three Tlaxcalan Elements (one Regular Warband) on three different causeways.

The ensuing volley wounded almost every Aztec. The Aztecs returned fire in a massive single volley – unfortunately one poor Tlaxcalan was hit multiple times instead of several (I’m sure his buddies appreciated that!).

On another causeway, the Aztecs sent an Elite Jaguar Warrior Element against an Elite Tlaxcalan Warrior Element (the other two Tlaxcalan Elements were Regular).

The Jaguar Warriors successfully went berserk and charged the Tlaxcalans. The fight became a draw, with the Aztecs taking some prisoners, losing some warriors, and accumulating a boatload of Morale pips. In the game, going berserk is a way to fight better and avoid being stunned in combat, but Morale pips accumulate. Once a berserker kills another figure, he is stunned, and once a berserking leader is no longer berserking, Morale checks start.

The Spanish kept pushing their wagons forward, but one of them broke a wheel and became immobilized. Still, the Spanish made good progress towards the causeway.

The other causeway fight was between an Element of Aztec Eagle Warriors and a mixed Tlaxcalan Veteran/novice Element. The Eagle Warriors also successfully berserked into melee. Fighting here was also heavy, and the Aztecs and the Tlaxcalans took prisoners.

At the end of the game, the Spanish had nearly made it to the causeway. The Tlaxcalans and the Elite Aztecs were in heavy back-and-forth fighting on the other end. I added the score up – and it was Spanish/Tlaxcalans 22, Aztecs 20! One figure lost either way would have made a difference – so obviously it was a fair fight. The gamers were very happy, and the tabletop got a LOT of folks coming by to take photos, which was nice to see. As you might well imagine, this tabletop is the best I have ever done IMO.

Thanks again to Leif for all his help, and to the other gamers who were outstanding too.

I will be running this again for sure at HAVOC and HUZZAH!

Lastly, on a personal note, as I mentioned, I had to downsize the game a bit – removing some Elements so that the game could flow. One of the Elements I left off were my cuachicque Elite warriors – known as the “Shorn Ones”. They were the Aztecs toughest. I decided to enter them in the painting contest that was running coincident with the game as a unit – and they won! The post link has better pictures than below – it’s tough to photograph them in a case.

I have one more TotalCon 36 post remaining to share, the Battle of Otumba. You definitely want to see my post on that epic fight!

Thanks very much for looking.

Miscellaneous details and references for those interested in that sort of thing:

For all of my previous posts on games, units, and other projects for my 16th Century Spanish Conquest supplement for Feudal Patrol™ – “Civilizations Collide” – please see this page.