Next was the clincher.  Richard breached the NW wall!!  The bulk of two columns poured over – “they’re over the wall, boys!”  He captured artillery going over, and the Cazadores escaped from the fire on the powerful south wall and made an oblique movement to the SW wall.  On the turn after the breach I had taken out ten Mexican units—six away from victory, while I had only two Texan units left—the East Texas boys and the Tejanos of Bexar. 

(see photo below)

My men knew what they had to do: my two units quickly ran inside the buildings and made their last stand.  I took out one more Mexican unit, then I was blasted away—“No rendirse, muchachos, no rendirse!”  The tyrant, Trevino, was known for taking no prisoners, and the game was over.  What fun we had!  Great little game; easy to play, simple mechanics.  But what suspense in the early goings, a cat and mouse game of bluff and counter-move.  And one other thing made this game so special: we were playing it in Richard’s room in the Emily Morgan Hotel, with a great view of the Alamo grounds right out the window—across the street.  Historically, the hotel sits on the northeast corner of the original mission, due north of the Alamo Chapel.  Richard casually got up from the game table, strolled over to the window, stood with his hands behind his back as he looked out over the Alamo and muttered something about the “Napoleon of the West.”

Charge at the Alamo

On May 1, 2007, Richard Trevino and I had the first non-solitaire playtest of his new Alamo game.  His first design, a small solitaire Alamo game, was in 2002. This one has been expanded and is now a two-player game (but of course can be played solitaire).  Richard took the Mexicans and I had to try and hold on with the Texans.  There is no keeping track of turns, per se: The “Texians” win by eliminating 16 of the 29 Mexican units; the Mexican player wins by eliminating all 10 Texan units.

The game begins.  I had my units spread out to cover all vulnerable approaches, with extra weight to the north wall because of its weakness, but I was ready to reinforce the northeast and northwest sectors.  If he came into the cattle pen/corral sector, at least I had the artillery piece on the Chapel to help shred the Mexican advance.  My artillery pieces had designated positions and would add their firepower to my Texans on the walls. I kept Travis and one unit in the center of the plaza in order to react in any direction.

Richard brought in two columns, consisting of four battalions (12 units), right against the north wall. My defensive fire caused maximum casualties and he lost two units—his return fire caused one hit—the first hit must be taken from the Alamo wall itself—additional hits may be taken from wall, artillery units or Texan units. 

I seemed to absorb that initial assault ok, but I did move a unit from the central plaza to reinforce the north wall.  Richard elected not to reinforce his two columns quite yet and I inflicted two more hits, while Richard managed to take out one Texan unit.  Then the plot thickened—Richard next made an oblique movement with one column from the north wall to the northwest wall and then reinforced that northwest wall with one column coming from the west (from the area in the direction of the river—maximum of one column may enter from that direction toward the entire west wall).

Now disaster struck.  I failed to achieve any hits against Mexican attackers at the north or northwest wall.  Travis quickly headed to the NW wall while Crockett finally reached the north wall.  Richard then sent another column to the north wall.  I could not pull everyone else off the other walls or he could still hit me with his Cazadores (light infantry) anywhere on the board. 

Richard kept whittling me down to the north when he suddenly attacked the south wall with the Cazadores. By that time I was stripping men and sending them across the plaza to the north (with some failing their command roll to move).  He got a hit on the south wall but it’s a strong position with two guns raking him, so I got one hit as well.

The photo below shows the situation right before he pours over the northwest wall (labeled "West Wall a).  At this point I have six of my ten units left and I have destroyed only 8 Mexican units, out of 16 needed to win.