Phil Eklund is the creator of Lords of the Sierra Madre a game which produces two reactions - great enthusiasm for the historical and geographical atmosphere, and great irritation at the spotty drafting and testing. Pancho Villa will not change those reactions. The good news is that if Mr Eklund tried he could improve the rules, the atmosphere is less easy to learn. Eklund's games are like Italian cooking, from sparse material he creates heady aromas.
Phil is a true believer in making people play the game on its own terms. (If you have ever played one of my medieval games you will know what I mean - you read Norman French or you die - gringo!). So here we are in the Mexican State of Chihuahua. You can tell it is not the soggy Mexico of your average design (taken off a modern map or the map in the book the designer skipped through in design) because it is loaded with detail, much of which you will never touch. But much Eklund cares, he knows it, he shows it.
Nine Settlements
There are nine kinds of settlement from Fort Bliss to cities like Juarez, and from Indian camps (helpfully Phil supplies which tribe for you Carlos Castaneda fans) to Mormon colonies. Each of these is colour-coded as to whether it supports the Americans (Mormons and Hearst owned haciendas), the Carranza government or the Villistas. The rivers, roads, trails and railways cross the map in obvious defiance of hex-grids imposed by designers. The terrain ranges from the scrub of the llanos to the badlands (and of course I have forgotten ferries, fords and cliffs). The map represents a geographical and political entity that is not only accurate but, I am led to believe, accurate.
The situation for those of us of good blood is the naughty Villistas have raided Columbus, New Mexico and the Americanos are in hot pursuit of the four bands of Villistas. Sort of like Border Reivers with Repeaters. The game is written by someone who knows about column warfare (and this system - properly written up - could stand sentry-go in India, the Sudan or French West Africa, anyone who has watched Saraounia knows the plot).
Commands
Let's look at Colonel Brown's command (1st and 10th US Cavalry) we have the Colonel's counter and two units of soldiers whose only factor is a 2 (march speed) and with this it will take many many turns to cross the map (the Villistas will ride safely at a speed of 5 a turn). So the Colonel will need horses (move of 4) and to increase combat value rifles for each unit. The rifles count as combat units (as well as the units carrying them) and prevent surrender in certain combats. So the Colonel's command can now move 4MPs (8 if he double-marches and depletes his horses) and has four combat units. General Pershing's boys out at Fort Bliss are different.
They are three regiments of US regular Infantry armed with rifles and in trucks. So that is six combat units (man and weapon) with vehicles that move five times a die-roll AFTER you declared your route. [And oh how realistic this is, as a child I knew the water holes of the North York Moors necessary to deal with an Austin overheating radiator - then we would go at watch the Zeppelins over Hartlepool]. This movement flexibility can leave you terrible exposed to running out of petrol, but with a move of 5 to 30 you can hum round the road-net, though off-road it becomes much slower (costing ten times foot speed). Other US units are one counter specials.
The Apache Scouts carry no rifles and need no horses (so do not ask me how they deplete for double-moving, see below) but can keep up with the bandidos. There are machine-gun and artillery units whose main function is to pin the enemy (very important as we shall see) and Lieutenant "Bonkers" Patton in a Dodge with a machine-gun who can also interdict. [This sort of flavour inclines one to immediately seeing the Freddie Burnaby counter for a Sudan version, armed with a shotgun and with the Tissot portrait scanned].
There is also an airplane that seldom does what you want, but can interdict. The Villistas are well mounted and rifle armed but not particularly good at combat. The Carannza forces are poorly mounted (often on mules) with rifles, though the Rurales are more dangerous.
Early on the Carannza forces are moved by the US player until a couple of international incidents turn them over to the Villista player. There is no turn track because Villa just needs to get one or two bands of the map, and once the randomly generated incidents have occurred the US player may as well resign. Seasonal change (eventually one finds that one starts in Spring) is handled by the incidents so I guess we can only get through Spring and Summer but Phil gives all the other detail as well (hell why not?).
Movement
Movement is simple count-em, move-em with the observation that you need to end on a watersource (a settlement or river) unless you are to deplete. At least it would be simple were it not for the second wave of detail in the Event Table That Ate Richard Berg. I send Colonel Brown off into the plains to avoid the town held by mosey Caranza Policia units which would slow me down.
At the end of the move I throw two dice. Depending on the score, the Colonel's command may lose (that is deplete or eliminate depleted units) its horses to prairie dog holes, diamondbacks (snakes I assume), rattlesnakes, blue bottle flies (but only in the Summer), range fires or locoweed. He may lose men to Malaria (but keep out of the swamps it is much worse there), attacks from Rurales, Federales, Red-flaggers, Bandidos and Indians. He can have suffered an international incident that may turn all Mexicans against our US chums. But if he is a lucky old Colonel Brown he may have undepleted his horses by reason of the Mesquite, Bunch Grass or Amaranth foliage. The troops benefit (?) from these and from finding Horse, Pronghorn, Venado, Cattle and Tepary Beans (Yo, Tepary Bean Burger and Fries to go!).
In certain circumstances he may also have his vehicles (had he any) damaged in flash floods. Most commonly he will have got lost. There are eight categories on the Event Table to handle the destination hex and the aircraft. The latter crashes, misses hostiles, refuses to take off and generally tools around just like the early aircraft did. Whatever else Mr Eklund knows his Chihuahua.
Great eh!? Well yes and no. It is a very detailed table and it identifies very very clearly that a column commander has many enemies other than his human enemies. It is vital every so often to call in at friendly settlements (or "liberate" from unfriendly ones) replacement horses and rifles, but start losing troops and you have a real problem. I thought its joys palled after a while but the real problem I had was with the "lost" result that could send a hard riding formation in an entirely wrong direction over a very large number of geographical features without spotting the hills were on the wrong flank and (good golly Miss Molly) is that the US border! [In my view they might go in circles for a while but not that far off course].
I think this needs some work, but its purpose is to encourage the US formations to use the roads which means they will be stopped by the aforesaid nosey Policia ("Eh Senor Gringo can I see your passport"). This point aside the single page table moved the accuracy level up a whole load, and if it was a category of disaster it hit all parties equally. This is unequivocally Mexico, it is not cookie-cutter land.
The Turn
A Turn consists of the Villista moving, removing PINNED counters, firing artillery, doing assaults and raids and checking they have water. Then over to our US chums (who add the airplane to the artillery segment). I had some difficulty with the PINNED counters which were imposed by the event Table and immediately removed by the next segment. Of course it could mean they apply to reverse the move so the flash flood that would have caught us in the river bed actually prevents us reaching the river (er...... run that past me again Charles).
Combat consists of the attacker throwing 1D6 per combat unit and if the score is equal to or less than "leadership" (US 4; Carranza 3: Villa 2 - except for the Boy hisself) you hit that number of times (a hit depletes). The defender must then chose whether he mounts up and rides away (if he is a Villista he certainly does) in which case the leadership of the attackers reduce by two (you did keep all those die-rolls did not you, well you will next time); OR dismounts in which case his counter-attack leadership depends on terrain (4 in a city, 6 if defending a pass and so on).
But (horror of horrors) if he is pinned by artillery fire then he cannot ride off or counter-attack. He just lies there and dies there. Overall this is a system that has a lot to commend it with the usually rifle armed units experiencing the quantum superiority of machine-gun and cannon.
How Does It Play?
Well, how does it play? It should play quickly (two hours) but this can be slowed down by rules which do not comply with industry norms (or any real system). Essentially the Villistas must ride until their horses drop (and then get more from their friendly settlements). They cannot win against the US weaponry so the real disaster for them is to be slowed down avoiding Carranzist forces or to get lost and move towards the US forces. The Villistas have the speed advantage (and a start) over all but the Rangers led by Colonel Dodd.
The US needs to feed units round by railway if possible to get a second shot at Villistas and be ready to pounce on any who lose their way. This is going to mean heavy losses in horses and men, but that is that. [Hardened Mahgribists will remember Douglas Porch's description of the pursuit of a Moroccan harka across the Hammada of the Guir when they play this game]. I thought it could have been tightened up and the "lost" result improved, but it is very very evocative.
There were a number of odd rules. Despite saying you could not stack with other units (the Villistas counters should be green but are red and the Carranzists orange so be prepared for fun) and showing this in an example the rules admit the US can stack with Orange Policia (the B Specials) and must do so to get across the border at Juarez (where the stack includes a Mexican machine gun team). I never grasped the double-movement losses for the Apaches.
Production is game kit level with a poor tone ink-jet map used which though difficult does the business. The counters are backprinted on very thin card, so cutting them out is quick but they do get under your fingers. Wisely most counters will be kept on off-field rosters. It cost me about £12.80. I thought it very interesting in the initial stages but some of its exotica fell away as play went on, but that may have been irritation at the poor rules. Mr Eklund is an original talent, he deserves support. Now when will someone do something on the relief of Chitral?
Answers
And now some answers from Phil : "I am quoting from Pancho Villa Rules, REV March 5, 1996. The revision is found under the title on Page 1. If you are not up to date, I will send you an update. The March 5 rules are more concise than earlier versions, and rules more drawn into one place.
-
Anyway, here is sequence of play:
4.1.1 Movement Segment, Villista Player
4.1.2 Remove All Pinned Markers Acquired Last Turn, Villista Player
4.1.3 Artillery Segment, Villista Player
4.1.4 Assault & Night Raid Segment, Villista Player
4.1.5 Water Supply Segment, Villista Player
4.1.6 Movement Segment, U.S. Player
4.1.7 Remove All Pinned Markers Acquired Last Turn, U.S. Player
4.1.8 Artillery & Aeroplane Segment, U.S. Player
4.1.9 Assault & Night Raid Segment, U.S. Player
4.1.10 Water Supply Segment, U.S. Player
And here is the paragraph on event rolls:
-
5.1.14 EVENT ROLL Immediately after the move of each stack, two die are rolled on the Event Table (see last page) to see if any trouble arises along the way. Roll once for each stack moving together. There is a separate column consulted depending upon if the move was a double move or not. Do not roll for counters that did not move.
- After the die is rolled, start with the leftmost results column (labelled "Aeroplane") of the event table. If this is not an appropriate column (i.e.: aeroplanes are not involved), go to the next column to the right. Use the first appropriate column to read the results. The intended destination hex of the stack is used for the event table column, not its starting hex. - P results put a "pinned" marker on the stack, which is not removed until next turn's pin removal segment. See 5.3.6.
Back to Perfidious Albion #93 Table of Contents
Back to Perfidious Albion List of Issues
Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List
© Copyright 1996 by Charles and Teresa Vasey.
This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web.
Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com