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Cinco de Mayo, The Battle of Puebla - 10 May 2025

We played one of our perrenial faves, The Battle of Puebla!

Classic start to the battle. The Mexican Army is manning forts Guadalupe and Hidalgo, with entrenched troops and low walls providing cover for those closest to the advancing French. They were battle weary from being pushed back from Veracruz at the east coast, almost all the way across the peninsula to Puebla. They were tired, undersupplied, and hadn't been paid in quite a while.

In the back, we have the secret weapon - rurales. The French had two Mexican defectors (generals, no less) who gave them intel on the position and status of forces. The French were told the Mexicans did not have any cavalry. Which they didn't. Rurales were volunteer farmers on farm horses with old style lances. To be fair, no one could have predicted that the rurales would sweep down the hill into the waiting rifles of Zouaves, the toughest mercenaries on the planet, and savage through them.

Not satisfied with just one secret weapon, the Mexican Army has the citizens of Puebla. Not conscripted. Not trained. But most importantly, since they remember living under Spanish rule, not going to let some Europeans take over their government, no matter how much they dislike thier government.

Here are the French lines, looking out to the forts. They sit perched on a hill that protects the only way through the mountains to turn north to Mexico City. North African Zouave mercs in the front, followed by regular French infantry (the best mercs matched with the best army). Flanked by artillery units, with cavalry in the rear, ready to surge forward.

Looking down from the fort, the French look very formidable. Maybe even more formidable than they did the previous three times the Mexicans were pushed back. But the French no longer had the British and Spanish with them. The other two had turned back at Orizaba. Maybe this could work? It had to, this was the last chance to stop them before the capital.

The French try a split approach, going around to the sides of the fort, and reenforcing each other firing into the center. The better French weapons are wearing down the Mexican forces. The commander is holding back the rurales.

Instead of abandoning the Army (that they hated) of the Mexican government (that they hated), the citizens of Mexico came out of their homes to help. Fetching supplies, carrying shot, and eventually firing what few hunting weapons they have and defending the line with pitchforks.

The French are heading up the hill, and the Mexicans are starting to have an effect of their own. The rurales have been released! Here they are riding straight into the Zouaves! The Mexicans have decided not to fall back, so they take heavy casualties, but also inflict significant ones.

Having dispatched the Zouaves, the rurales turn back to the center to support the failing front line. One unit of rurales are sent to dispatch the last French artillery unit. Early in the game (just as in the real event), the French artillery petered out. In this game, they still had one unit working mid-battle, which diverted a little effort away from the main engagement.

The French are almost gone on the right now, but the left flank is pushing up to the fort. Mexican losses have left citizens to defend this side against a few remaining infantry and Zouaves.

A lone Zouave unit has made it to the fort, but the Mexican citizens have dispatched it with concerted effort. I guess quantity does have a quality of its own. The French are routed, and the Mexicans win the day!

Well ... they won the year. This game came out with the same result as history - Mexican victory. It almost always does. The game went with a little different ebb and flow, and the French met their game victory conditions. They advanced farhter than the French did in real life. And, of course, in real life the French routed, retreated, went home, and came back a year later to conquor Mexico. It was a short-lived military victory. But more importantly, after decades of chaos and infighting following their liberation from Spain, the Mexican people and their government came together and asserted a commmon identity. Somos Mexicanos!