From: Chris and Jeanne Salander <salander@batnet.com>
To: "Alan Poulter" <admin@grognard.com>

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.