From: Chris and Jeanne Salander To: "Alan Poulter" Game Review: Battles de los Gringos (BSO Games) by Christopher Salander _Las Battlas de los Gringos_ is a set of three battles from the Mexican-American War designed by Richard Berg using desktop publishing (DTP). There is one common set of rules, and special information for each of the three battles: Palo Alto, Resaca de Palma, and Rio Sacramento. I found out about these games from a flyer in another game. You can get one game (Resaca de Palma?) alone for about $11. You can pay some more for a second game, or get all three for $26. The first two battles occur on consecutive days and were the first two battles of the war, fought when Zachary Taylor led a small American army into the disputed southern tip of Texas. Rio Sacramento occurred in Chihuahua, when Missouri Volunteers (a detachment from the Kearney expedition), fought against Chihuahua militia. There is an excellent annotated bibliography. Each counter is 1/3 to 1/2 of a battalion or regiment with different shdes of blue for US forces, and a wide variety of colors for the Mexicans. Counters have a movement factor and a morale factor, with game design relying on the idea that all the units were about the same size. Artillery counters represent 1 or 2 guns and indicate the weight of the guns, whose range and effect is given in a table. The counters come on a paper sheet and have to be glued to poster board and cut out. A piece of board is thoughtfully included with the game. Rifle and musket fire takes place at 1, 2, or 3 hexes, with diminishing effectiveness. Typical results are 0 or 1 hit, with 2 hits possible. Units must enter an enemy unit's hex to conduct melee. Infantry can fire defensively, but simultaneous with offensive fire. Morale is crucial to this game. Units must pass morale to melee. Hits are subtracted from a unit's morale. So,instead of losing strength points, a unit gradually loses morale. Numbered counters are provided to keep track of the hits on each unit. The games include a lot of nice historical features, including cavalry charges, supply wagons, lancers, weapon type, and Mexican command problems. Much attention has been devoted to making the hand-colored maps accurate and interesting, with detailed terrain rules. There are leader units with command radii, and units out of command cannot melee and move at half speed. BdlG uses a turn/movement system similar to that used by the Great Battles of History series, where each commander has an initiative rating and players roll to try and beat that number and move that commander. Each player can activate one command for free to start, but after that, failure to make an activation roll gives the other side a chance to activate a command. Because of the emphasis on morale and command initiative to make the armies behave as they did historically, the battles favor the US. However, there are specific suggestions for creating balanced games. Play We played the first battle, Palo Alto. Both sides start in lines at the opposite ends of a large field of high grass. Because of his advantage in fire power and morale, the US player decided that he would sit back and pound the Mexicans with artillery and only advance after they were a mess. The Mexican player decided that because his advantages were greater numbers and lots of cavalry, he would advance immediately, to try and reduce the number of turns spent under fire, and try and overwhelm the US force in close combat The US had Twiggs on the right with 1 inf. reg., Garland in the center with two, and Belknap on the left with two. There were two strong independent dragoon units in reserve, whil the artillery and wagons started on the road. The guns were independent and could be used by any commander, but the US player decided to distribute one battery to each of the 3 commands. The US player brought up all his guns and started his bombardment. The Mexican player tried to advance, but was slowed down by the high grass and by his lack of command initiative. Canales moved wide left with a small cavalry force. Torrejon tried to advance up the road on the left with most of the Mexican cavalry. Garcia moved up the center with 4 line regiments. Vega advanced on the right with 4 smaller regiments. Soon the Mexican force was spattered with Disordered markers even though they had just begun their advance. There were many turns were the only Mexican move was the one free move at the beginning of his "turn." The rapid advance of the Mexican cavalry down the road attracted the fire of the US artillery, giving the Mexican infantry a break, but disordering almost all the cavalry units. But as the turns ticked by the Mexican infantry (with its guns) finally began to close the distance on the US line. The US player decided to advance his line to put it behind marshy areas in the field, to gain a defensive advantage. The US player later concluded that this was a mistake. It shortened the distance the Mexican infantry had to march, and silenced the US artillery while it moved up. Worse, the Mexican side finally got some good initiative rolls and Garcia crossed over the marshy area before the US units were in place. Still, this wasn't such a bad thing for Garland, since he had more units in the middle. A firefight broke out and lasted for a long time, wearing down both sides. Most of Vega's force was disordered, but he rushed them up to support Garcia, and engaged Belknap. Off in the chaparral, Canales and his small force of cavalry tried to sneak around the US right flank and threatened to charge Twiggs. One powerful US dragoon unit was dispatched to chase them off. A key development at this point was due to a gap in the US line between Twiggs and Garland. Garcia's command was spread out, 1 counter per hex, partly because they started the game that way and partly because it reduced their vulnerability to artillery fire. As a result, a Mexican regiment advanced into the gap. One counter flanked Garland's right hand unit, but another went running into the US rear, and attacked the wagons. It succeeded on the first try, eliminating a wagon for 3 VP. A third charged Churchhill's 18 pdr. battery and eliminated it. The US had to make its first withdrawal roll and passed. Twiggs turned two of his three counters and his battery of four 6 pdrs to attack Mexican units advancing into the gap. They engaged and started hurting two counters. The next time the Mexicans got to move another counter dashed at the wagons and eliminated another counter. The US dragoons attacked again and also drove back this unit. [I use the term "counter" instead of "unit" because it takes two to three counters to make up a regiment, and they are not tightly bound together.] The US had to roll for withdrawal, and rolled a very high number, which said it would have to withdraw and lose the battle. The players were very unhappy with the withdrawal rules and made modifications to them. First the rules call for a withdrawal roll with *every activation*. This is tedious and makes a withdrawal occur quickly with the slightest causualties. We changed the roll to occur only when a side loses a counter. Second, the withdrawal rules add the roll of a d10 to point losses. The US withdrawal is 15. The Mexican is 20. The number rolled varies wildly. The Mexican side was higher above its threshhold to roll (10) than the US was (5), due to the many disordered units on the Mexican side, and because Mexican infantry counters were starting to be eliminated in the shoot-out in the center. But the Mexican player had rolled 1 twice, whereas the US player went over the withdrawal number because he rolled a 9. We decided to add 5 (average roll of a d10) to the thresholds and use fixed for withdrawals. The Mexican player finally used his one certain move per turn to rally his cavalry. They were within one move of Twiggs and the Mexican player was ready to roar down the road and sweep Twiggs away, opening the hole in the US line wider. However, the US player spotted the threat and got the initiative before the Mexican cavalry could move again. Twiggs put his regiment into square. Torrejon charged anyway. First one stack of Lancers was stopped and driven back, then another. In the center almost all the infantry counters were carrying several hits, but the US had lost only one counter entirely, whereas the Mexican force had lost 5. Having the cavalry become disordered again pushed the Mexican withdrawal number back up, but one Mexican turn was used to withdraw Vega's force (from the right) and another turn to rally them, pushing the withdrawal number down. So the Americans lost, because 6 points for 2 wagons, plus 2 points for the two counters that made up Churchhill's battery, plus 2 points for the one infantry unit, = 10. Observations: Artillery can be charged and meleed, even by infantry. Disordered units cannot melee, so if the artillery gets to fire, it is usually safe, but the infantry can start outside of cannister range and move in and attack in the same activation, reducing the chances that it may be disordered. Apparently only small arms fire can occur in response to an enemy unit moving in front of a unit. (The rules are not completely clear.) Cavalry charges are not devastating. Even a single infantry unit not in square can be hit by powerful cavalry unit and stay around to take a few more attacks. And because of the great range of results from using a d10, sometimes the infantry will throw the cavalry back (even without a square). The big mistake the US player made was leave his units stacked or 3 high, and allowing the more spread out Mexican force to envelop his flanks. The one US infantry unit that was lost was one the end and shot at by multiple Mexican units. Once a unit at the tope of a stack suffers hits from musketry, its morale drops, and the chances of convincing it to charge into melee drop. And the rest of the units in the stack cannot charge through, even though they might be in perfect shape. And the US player opted not to melee, because the Mexicans are penalized for shooting but not for hand-to-hand combat. The other mistake the US player made was not combining his guns in the same hex with infantry to protect them. The main thing the Mexican player would improve on would be taking a turn to rally disordered troops before attacking. Many units on the Mexican side were disordered by artillery and went into the attack that way because their commander did not want to spend a hard-to-come by activation. The army leaders (Taylor and Arista) were almost worthless. They could not keep up with their troops, and the only effect they had was to slightly increase the chances that one command might activate. I think this game reflects the armies of the period very well and does a good job on the terrain and the leaders. Both players agreed that they had an opportunity to take a historically dull battle and turn in into a real smashing battle. Both sides want to do it again. But if the US protects its wagons and guns better and gets more of its infantry into the fight, it is not clear how the Mexicans can win. Then it is time for the play balance rules. Recommended.