03-13-2007, 12:42 AM
YOU PEOPLE ARE SICK! WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU? YOUR DAMN GAME IS JUST WRONG AND IS A CLEAR SIGN OF THE DISCRIMINATION IN AMERICA NOW A DAYS. YOU GUYS SHOULD TAKE THE TIME TO ACTUALLY FIGURE OUT WHAT HAPPEN DURING THE EXPEDITION. ALL THE CRAP IN THE HISTORY BOOKS HERE IS ALL A BUNCH OF BULLSHIT. THE NEVER EVEN CAUGHT FRANCISCO VILLA (DOROTEO ARANGO) AND THEY CALLED THE MISSION SUCCESFUL!!!! WHAT IS UP WITH THAT? I'M GLAD THAT HE ATTACKED COLUMBUS, I'M BEGINNING TO SEE WHAT KIND OF SICK ASS PEOPLE WE HAVE HERE IN THE U.S.
P.S. "WHEN THE TRUE HISTORY OF THIS EXPEDITION IS WRITTEN, IT WILL NOT BE A VERY INSPIRING CHAPTER FOR SCHOOL CHILDREN, OF EVEN GROWN-UPS, TO
CONTEMPLATE." -U.S. GENERAL JOHN JOSEPH "BLACK JACK" PERSHING.
************
Just to second this post, I have this game and it has provided my group of gamers with lots of enjoyment (and laughs as well). My grandfather was with the US Army for this little soiree, so I took a personal interest in it. David Bolt
***********
I just got this great, must-have game, and I very rarely say that -- it's a real period piece, by Sierra Madre Games, on the manhunt for Pancho Villa by the US Punitive Expedition into Mexico in 1916 -- anybody play it -- I'd be interested in others' impressions. The components are pretty primitive, and the rules not for those who like them tightly edited -- but it is truly playable solitaire and by 2 and 3 players -- setup in about 10 minutes and a little over 2 hours to play... I ran through this great little game solitaire last evening. What a hoot! Took me about 2 and 1/2 hours from opening to bag to "closure."
As I've noted before, this game covers the US Punitive Expedition going after
Pancho Villa after his raid on Columbus, NM in 1916. There are four Villa Leaders -- and a neat optional rule that keeps you guessing about which one is Pancho -- so in true historical fashion, you race after the bandits not really knowing who is who. To win, Pancho must exit the bottom of the map with a varying number of friendly units or conversely, he must kill 2 policia units in one of the two cities on the map that causes the local collapse of the central govt.
The Villistas start off the game together with about a 60-mile head start on their headlong run to the south on the Americans. The American cavalry units dogged stayed on their trail. Col. Tompkins flew off his aviation detachment to try to interdict (pin) the bandits. Unfortunately, the
Jennys came down in the scrub way short of their goal. Tompkins, reluctant to abandon his wagon train of supplies & all-important water, would spend most of the game retrieving the near-useless airplanes in
the vain hope of getting them airborne again.
After halting briefly at a Mormon colony, Villa split his forces w/ 2 stacks of 2 Leaders (and their accompanying rifles, horses and bandits) a hex apart as they followed a river line (Rio Casa Grande) south. This proved
a good stratagem, as the Americans double-marched, depleting their horses but catching the "rear-guard." In the ensuing battle, the Villa combat units were all depleted, but the all-important horses were not, allowing the bandits to break successfully away. Although their transport was depleted, the American cav. were unhurt and doggedly continued south. Col. Allen's forces were forced to halt in the small pueblo of San Buenaventura as their horses were destroyed by the hard-going.
Meanwhile, the central govt. forces, ostensibly allied w/ the Americans, moved
up the rail-line from Ciudad Chihuahua to block Villa. Pershing, with Patton, and the bulk of the American (truck-borne) forces had crossed from El Paso into Juarez, suffering some casualties to riots and embarked down the rail-line to Chihuahua.
Villa split his forces in two directions to attempt to split the following troops and beat past the blocking forces. One stack headed off on a tangent into the brush to a small friendly hacienda (Rubio) where it was ambushed by the Amer. Apache Scouts unit. The other stack was caught by the Rangers and 7th Cav. but attacked unsuccessfully. The central govt. forces moved north to launch another attack on this stack near a small pueblo (Bachiniva) and both sides bloodied each other. Villa successfully scrounged some extra horses.
The rest of the Amer. Cav. moved slowly toward the pinned Rubio
bandits, several units got lost on the way and ended up in Namiquipa
w.out any horses.
Meanwhile Pershing was slowly moving from Chihuahua down the rail
line to near Bachiniva. Villa moved north up the line to try to side
step these units and escape down the only road into the high mountains at the
town of Temosachic. Here he was again caught and pinned by the
central govt. forces. In the ensuing battle, he lost all his troops save
one but kept the extra horses. Having finally retrieved the planes and
leaving his slow-moving wagons, Tompkins was attempting to move down the
rail line from the other direction.
Just as the door appeared to be closing on Villa, he successfully
retreated into the high mountains and I ended the game. Pershing's
mech. forces would find it nearly impossible to chase after Villa now --
especially if he double marched twice, he would lose most of his horses
but get deep enough into the montane hexes to either hole up at a
friendly Indian camp or finally exit south. Viva Villa!
I may try this again tonight -- what great chrome -- you roll on an
events table every time you move a stack and all kinds of interesting things can
happen...
Doug Murphy
*********
Played this again last evening -- trying to come up with different stratagems -- the Villistas start the game in two small pueblos just beyond "normal" marching range of the border. The two forces joined up in a small hacienda just over a river, depleting a horse due to thieves but successfully night-raiding for a mule. But this time the Americans from Culberson's ranch double-marched furiously after them and everything went absolutely perfectly -- First, Col. Tompkins flew off the airplane from Columbus, successfully rolled for range, interdicted (and Pinned) the bandidos and landed safely in a Mormon colony in the next hex. Tompkins left his wagons and machine guns behind and double-marched to join up with the other American forces. At the same time, two Carrancista leaders and their troops moved down the rail-line to wait to the south of the battle. Pershing crossed over from El Paso into Juarez without incident and entrained for the south as well. Catching up with Villa, a total of 13 American combat units assaulted the bandits who, due to the aeroplane, could only choose Pinned as a defensive tactic. The Villistas were slaughtered, leaving a few combat units but nearly all the transport to retreat into the llanos. Since Pins are removed after the movement phase, the Villistas were also caught in the bush without water and all their horses and mules were depleted. The Americans moved up, this time joined by the Carranista forces who swung out behind the bandits and also by Pershing's main force who railed down to a blocking hex and were able to join in the last battle. The train gun "El Nino" was unsuccessful in pinning the enemy, but Patton succeeded. Interestingly, this absolutely overwhelming force suffered from high rolls and Villa, a depleted horse and bodyguard still survived at turn end. The Carranista horses were depleted due to lack of water.
Forced to retreat north, the end was in sight for Villa. The Americans deployed and surrounded him. The Carrancistas retreated back to the rail line. Even Col. Tompkins Machine Guns caught up. Villa was popped in the first few rolls. Hail Columbia. Next time, we're going to start the bandits with a double-march and see if they can get successfully away from the border, then raid enough horses/mules to keep ahead of the Americans.
Doug Murphy
***********
First impressions: it's a low-budget, DTP wargame. I think it costs $12 or something. Counters are card stock, and must be cut out beforehand. (Since they're double-sided, you cannot easily mount them on to thicker stock, either.) All are white cardstock, with colored ink. Americans are blue, Mexican government (carrancistas) are red, and Villa's rebels are orange. Yes, orange and red, which are almost interchangeable. I used a green highlighter pen to give Villa's counters a green background (which matches the color of Villa-friendly settlements on the map anyway). Once you get past the Spartan presentation, however, you're in for a treat. Know your history? 1916...Villa was one of at least two prominent Mexicans vying for the government of Mexico. The Woodrow Wilson administration ended up recognizing Villa's opponent, Carranza, and even allowed Carranza's troops to use rail transport through the southwestern US to make strategic movements around Villa's troops, dealing them a severe blow. Some time later, Villista forces raided across the American border, shooting up the town of Columbus, New Mexico. Why? No one is sure. But now Villa was hunted by Carranza's government forces, mostly coming up from the south, and the US Army, streaming across the border from the north. This is where the game starts! Villa must survive to exit the southern edge of the map to affect a draw, and he wins if he can do so with at least one troop counter. (Or he can conquer one of the few large cities on the map, shifting the political allegiance of the Chihuahua state--that looked a lot more difficult to me, though you never know.) The Americans or Carrancistas win by riding Villa down. The number of counters is low, accentuated even more by the off-map displays: only the leaders (or leaderless, stationary garrisons) are actually on the hexmap. Movement is made hazardous, to represent the dangers of travel over this high desert. Supply mostly means water in this game--you must end your stack's movement in a water-supplying hex (stream, settlement, etc.), or else your units takes a step loss. Force-marching, often necessary to travel far enough to reach water in a turn, also requires a step loss to your transport (usually horses, though sometimes mules or your own marching troops). In short order you begin to see how you can drive your mounts to destruction, leaving you stranded. But, of course, the game is essentially a race, so you can't take it easy! There's also rail transport available to all, most effective to the Carrancistas and Americans. The Americans led by Pershing have trucks, but between the unreliability of these early vehicles and the dearth of roads on the map, it's not as dominating as it sounds. George S. Patton can be detached in a Dodge truck, as he really did! And never mind the Americans' airplane. You can't help but use it, but it takes a good string of die rolls for its forays to give Villa much trouble. It's fun trying, though. Even fun watching, or jeering.
And if that weren't enough, there's self-described "lurid table" of events. You roll after each counter stack moves, with results read depending on the type of terrain in the final hex. (Separate column for the airplane.) Some of the results are good, generally finding extra forage or supplies of some sort that restore step losses to your weary troops. Many are bad, though. Getting lost was a frequent event, especially if your force-march. Time is marked in seasons (variable number of turns per), and some events vary with season. It all adds up to an astonishingly compelling and historically accurate narrative. I plan on solo'ing the game a couple more times before I flesh this out into a review for Strategist, and in one of those games I'll build that narrative from each event rolled throughout the game. Sounds like a lot of die rolling, doesn't it? Well, I guess it is, but considering how stripped down the rest of the game is (as Villa's forces, I was generally moving only one or two stacks per turn, and combat is a quick add-em-up-and-roll-once affair), it moves along well. Villa has only a handful of troops. The Carrancistas don't have even that many, once you discount the Policia garrisons in towns, though the action is necessarily driven toward them in the south. Most of the game has to do with the numerous Americans, who come roaring down out of New Mexico and El Paso, renewing their chase after stopping at American-friendly settlements along the way. I had no idea there were so many Mormon colonies and American-interest mines down there. Of course, Villa made use of those Mormon colonies, too. Only to get his fresh horses, he had to steal them! As I mentioned before, don't believe the 10-minute setup, 2-hour game length it says on the cover. Okay, it might take just 10 minutes if you already know the rules, and have already cut out the counters. But 2 hours isn't likely, not unless Villa is captured early. I drug it out to the bitter end, with Villa dying of thirst a couple hexes from victory in the southwest mountains. The Americans were on my tail, but largely decimated by the strain of the chase (even with little combat), and couldn't follow Villa into the desert without a similar fate. The Carrancistas got in the way of the Americans, and lost. Curiously, that meant our game ended in limbo: neither the Americans nor Carrancista forces captured/killed Villa, so they can't claim victory. But Villa didn't get away, either, and his troops were all gone. So he failed to achieve a draw, though that's what we called it. Maybe the Americans could then take enough time to bring water down for a desert expedition using their wagons, to claim Villa's body. Maybe.
Mark.E.Johnson & Greg J. Schloesser
***********
Pancho Villa-Dead or Alive! Fun like Mark said but it seems like the 1/6 chance of getting lost was a bit high for units unled by scouts in this game. Or were the Americans and Federales that incompetent in the chase? Anyhow, I'm wondering if Pancho Villa, instead of dying of thirst on the last turn, could have sat by some water, and rolled on the movement table anyway every turn to try to regain a step? ...Fen Yan 12:49pm Feb 13, 2001
*******
Berg’s Review of Games, Christmas 1992
We chose the 1916 American expedition to punish Pancho Villa, and a good choice it was. The Villa player gets four “regiments†of bandidos and some vicious Yaquis to the south. The American gets a bunch of repeater armed cavalry, 3 troops of volunteers in flimsy trucks, a couple of machine guns, some mule-drawn cannon, a wackily unreliable aeroplane, and George Patton in a Dodge. He also starts with the help of some Carrancista federales, buts that’s liable to change the instant the gringos overstay their welcome (about three minutes, as far as most of Mexico is concerned). I mention how these folks are transported, because transport is almost as- if not more- important as what kind of firepower you have, as we shall see.
…The heart of the game is that every time you move a unit or stack, you consult what is easily the most deliciously detailed and wackily-event filled Random Events Table yet devised! After two turns we immediately dubbed it the Yellow Brick Road Table, because of all the lions and tigers and bears it contained (literally). Travel in Northern Mexico is no easy task, believe me. Villa’s Yaquis were doing fine until they tried to cut through the Sierra Madre range only to have half their horses eaten by grizzlies. Pershing’s potentially devastating biplane – the best way to bring Villa to ground – takes off on a whim, can’t find much and then, to my dismay, ran out of gas and pitched into the prairie ten miles from Villa, himself, who promptly dispatched it. Two cavalry regiments got totally lost (which happens to almost anyone who wanders off the road and trails), wandering around for a few turns, dehydrated, until I mercifully refused to move them. Patton spent most of the game trying to catch up with his own forces in a Dodge that broke down almost as much as … well, as a Dodge. He did catch up to Pablo Lopez and hammer him into oblivion, and then Villa got a little too feisty and lost a third of his men to a well timed American assault… one of the few times I ventured away from water and survived! But then the Carrancistas got the word from Mexico City and transferred allegiance, throwing those two federales troops into the path of the dirt-weary Yankees. Gringo firepower was far too much, but its use diverted half of Pershing attack column. And when the truck-driven troopers ran out of gas, literally, just north of Ciudad Chihuahua, Villa, who had been flitting in and out of the dangerous Sierra Madre, just escaping a rurales lynch mob (I ain’t kidding!!), grabbed the open road south and just barely managed to escape off the board. This all took, maybe, tow hours of play, and it was Major Fun. I was also exceptionally historical in both feel and result.
Richard Berg, BROG
***************
This one ranks as the strangest game I ever played in my gaming life and
it's definitely even one of the more fun!! This peculiar game tries to
capture at a very tactical level (almost an RPG for certain details, and
similar to a random exercise in wilderness survival for other aspects)
the US expedition to capture Pancho Villa during the spring of 1916. As
it stands, the game is a three players game masqued as a two player one:
in fact, in a two players game the American player move also part of the
Mexican forces, but it's severely hindered in his movements by the
Mexican policia units, so that it probably better to have them as
enemies anyway (and this may in effect be the case, if for a random
event Mexico and the United States go to war one against the other).
The game is really peculiar in all its aspects: from movement
(differentiated in mechanized and no mechanized, but both are severely
limited by the rules for water/gasoline, that almost any movement is
forced from one settlement (and there are really several different
settlements from city to pueblos to Mormon missions to a few others) to
another or along rivers or railroads or the moving force suffers
depletion and possibly starvation. But the real innovative system in the
movement phase is the forced random event die roll that may give to the
units involved any kind of result, perhaps positive (like recovering
from depletion), more probably negative if the movement is too daring.
This mechanism makes such in theory unbalanced game really fun to play
also solitaire.
Even the combat system is particular: each combat unit is armed with a
rifle counter (that may be depleted too) and each such unit (plus other
particular ones like machine gun, artillery and airplane) rolls a die
and confronts the result to the command factor of its leader (4 for the
Americans, 3 for the Mexicans and 2 for the Villistas - bar Villa
himself that is worth 3): if the result is equal or less than that
number an enemy unit is depleted (or eliminated if already depleted).
There are also rules for tactics (mounted, dismounted or pinned) and for
defensive counterattacks.
Victory is based on the capture of Villa for the American/Mexican and
Villa exiting the south border of the map for the Villista.
After a few turns, necessary to take confidence with such a peculiar
system, play moves fast, based almost totally on manouver and daring
attempts for the Villista, while the American/Mexican player may force
march and risk more to get the damned revolutionary!!
All in all I rate this game 7 in a 1-10 scale, and the only negative
aspect may be perhaps the really poor graphics.
Roberto Chiavini
P.S. "WHEN THE TRUE HISTORY OF THIS EXPEDITION IS WRITTEN, IT WILL NOT BE A VERY INSPIRING CHAPTER FOR SCHOOL CHILDREN, OF EVEN GROWN-UPS, TO
CONTEMPLATE." -U.S. GENERAL JOHN JOSEPH "BLACK JACK" PERSHING.
************
Just to second this post, I have this game and it has provided my group of gamers with lots of enjoyment (and laughs as well). My grandfather was with the US Army for this little soiree, so I took a personal interest in it. David Bolt
***********
I just got this great, must-have game, and I very rarely say that -- it's a real period piece, by Sierra Madre Games, on the manhunt for Pancho Villa by the US Punitive Expedition into Mexico in 1916 -- anybody play it -- I'd be interested in others' impressions. The components are pretty primitive, and the rules not for those who like them tightly edited -- but it is truly playable solitaire and by 2 and 3 players -- setup in about 10 minutes and a little over 2 hours to play... I ran through this great little game solitaire last evening. What a hoot! Took me about 2 and 1/2 hours from opening to bag to "closure."
As I've noted before, this game covers the US Punitive Expedition going after
Pancho Villa after his raid on Columbus, NM in 1916. There are four Villa Leaders -- and a neat optional rule that keeps you guessing about which one is Pancho -- so in true historical fashion, you race after the bandits not really knowing who is who. To win, Pancho must exit the bottom of the map with a varying number of friendly units or conversely, he must kill 2 policia units in one of the two cities on the map that causes the local collapse of the central govt.
The Villistas start off the game together with about a 60-mile head start on their headlong run to the south on the Americans. The American cavalry units dogged stayed on their trail. Col. Tompkins flew off his aviation detachment to try to interdict (pin) the bandits. Unfortunately, the
Jennys came down in the scrub way short of their goal. Tompkins, reluctant to abandon his wagon train of supplies & all-important water, would spend most of the game retrieving the near-useless airplanes in
the vain hope of getting them airborne again.
After halting briefly at a Mormon colony, Villa split his forces w/ 2 stacks of 2 Leaders (and their accompanying rifles, horses and bandits) a hex apart as they followed a river line (Rio Casa Grande) south. This proved
a good stratagem, as the Americans double-marched, depleting their horses but catching the "rear-guard." In the ensuing battle, the Villa combat units were all depleted, but the all-important horses were not, allowing the bandits to break successfully away. Although their transport was depleted, the American cav. were unhurt and doggedly continued south. Col. Allen's forces were forced to halt in the small pueblo of San Buenaventura as their horses were destroyed by the hard-going.
Meanwhile, the central govt. forces, ostensibly allied w/ the Americans, moved
up the rail-line from Ciudad Chihuahua to block Villa. Pershing, with Patton, and the bulk of the American (truck-borne) forces had crossed from El Paso into Juarez, suffering some casualties to riots and embarked down the rail-line to Chihuahua.
Villa split his forces in two directions to attempt to split the following troops and beat past the blocking forces. One stack headed off on a tangent into the brush to a small friendly hacienda (Rubio) where it was ambushed by the Amer. Apache Scouts unit. The other stack was caught by the Rangers and 7th Cav. but attacked unsuccessfully. The central govt. forces moved north to launch another attack on this stack near a small pueblo (Bachiniva) and both sides bloodied each other. Villa successfully scrounged some extra horses.
The rest of the Amer. Cav. moved slowly toward the pinned Rubio
bandits, several units got lost on the way and ended up in Namiquipa
w.out any horses.
Meanwhile Pershing was slowly moving from Chihuahua down the rail
line to near Bachiniva. Villa moved north up the line to try to side
step these units and escape down the only road into the high mountains at the
town of Temosachic. Here he was again caught and pinned by the
central govt. forces. In the ensuing battle, he lost all his troops save
one but kept the extra horses. Having finally retrieved the planes and
leaving his slow-moving wagons, Tompkins was attempting to move down the
rail line from the other direction.
Just as the door appeared to be closing on Villa, he successfully
retreated into the high mountains and I ended the game. Pershing's
mech. forces would find it nearly impossible to chase after Villa now --
especially if he double marched twice, he would lose most of his horses
but get deep enough into the montane hexes to either hole up at a
friendly Indian camp or finally exit south. Viva Villa!
I may try this again tonight -- what great chrome -- you roll on an
events table every time you move a stack and all kinds of interesting things can
happen...
Doug Murphy
*********
Played this again last evening -- trying to come up with different stratagems -- the Villistas start the game in two small pueblos just beyond "normal" marching range of the border. The two forces joined up in a small hacienda just over a river, depleting a horse due to thieves but successfully night-raiding for a mule. But this time the Americans from Culberson's ranch double-marched furiously after them and everything went absolutely perfectly -- First, Col. Tompkins flew off the airplane from Columbus, successfully rolled for range, interdicted (and Pinned) the bandidos and landed safely in a Mormon colony in the next hex. Tompkins left his wagons and machine guns behind and double-marched to join up with the other American forces. At the same time, two Carrancista leaders and their troops moved down the rail-line to wait to the south of the battle. Pershing crossed over from El Paso into Juarez without incident and entrained for the south as well. Catching up with Villa, a total of 13 American combat units assaulted the bandits who, due to the aeroplane, could only choose Pinned as a defensive tactic. The Villistas were slaughtered, leaving a few combat units but nearly all the transport to retreat into the llanos. Since Pins are removed after the movement phase, the Villistas were also caught in the bush without water and all their horses and mules were depleted. The Americans moved up, this time joined by the Carranista forces who swung out behind the bandits and also by Pershing's main force who railed down to a blocking hex and were able to join in the last battle. The train gun "El Nino" was unsuccessful in pinning the enemy, but Patton succeeded. Interestingly, this absolutely overwhelming force suffered from high rolls and Villa, a depleted horse and bodyguard still survived at turn end. The Carranista horses were depleted due to lack of water.
Forced to retreat north, the end was in sight for Villa. The Americans deployed and surrounded him. The Carrancistas retreated back to the rail line. Even Col. Tompkins Machine Guns caught up. Villa was popped in the first few rolls. Hail Columbia. Next time, we're going to start the bandits with a double-march and see if they can get successfully away from the border, then raid enough horses/mules to keep ahead of the Americans.
Doug Murphy
***********
First impressions: it's a low-budget, DTP wargame. I think it costs $12 or something. Counters are card stock, and must be cut out beforehand. (Since they're double-sided, you cannot easily mount them on to thicker stock, either.) All are white cardstock, with colored ink. Americans are blue, Mexican government (carrancistas) are red, and Villa's rebels are orange. Yes, orange and red, which are almost interchangeable. I used a green highlighter pen to give Villa's counters a green background (which matches the color of Villa-friendly settlements on the map anyway). Once you get past the Spartan presentation, however, you're in for a treat. Know your history? 1916...Villa was one of at least two prominent Mexicans vying for the government of Mexico. The Woodrow Wilson administration ended up recognizing Villa's opponent, Carranza, and even allowed Carranza's troops to use rail transport through the southwestern US to make strategic movements around Villa's troops, dealing them a severe blow. Some time later, Villista forces raided across the American border, shooting up the town of Columbus, New Mexico. Why? No one is sure. But now Villa was hunted by Carranza's government forces, mostly coming up from the south, and the US Army, streaming across the border from the north. This is where the game starts! Villa must survive to exit the southern edge of the map to affect a draw, and he wins if he can do so with at least one troop counter. (Or he can conquer one of the few large cities on the map, shifting the political allegiance of the Chihuahua state--that looked a lot more difficult to me, though you never know.) The Americans or Carrancistas win by riding Villa down. The number of counters is low, accentuated even more by the off-map displays: only the leaders (or leaderless, stationary garrisons) are actually on the hexmap. Movement is made hazardous, to represent the dangers of travel over this high desert. Supply mostly means water in this game--you must end your stack's movement in a water-supplying hex (stream, settlement, etc.), or else your units takes a step loss. Force-marching, often necessary to travel far enough to reach water in a turn, also requires a step loss to your transport (usually horses, though sometimes mules or your own marching troops). In short order you begin to see how you can drive your mounts to destruction, leaving you stranded. But, of course, the game is essentially a race, so you can't take it easy! There's also rail transport available to all, most effective to the Carrancistas and Americans. The Americans led by Pershing have trucks, but between the unreliability of these early vehicles and the dearth of roads on the map, it's not as dominating as it sounds. George S. Patton can be detached in a Dodge truck, as he really did! And never mind the Americans' airplane. You can't help but use it, but it takes a good string of die rolls for its forays to give Villa much trouble. It's fun trying, though. Even fun watching, or jeering.
And if that weren't enough, there's self-described "lurid table" of events. You roll after each counter stack moves, with results read depending on the type of terrain in the final hex. (Separate column for the airplane.) Some of the results are good, generally finding extra forage or supplies of some sort that restore step losses to your weary troops. Many are bad, though. Getting lost was a frequent event, especially if your force-march. Time is marked in seasons (variable number of turns per), and some events vary with season. It all adds up to an astonishingly compelling and historically accurate narrative. I plan on solo'ing the game a couple more times before I flesh this out into a review for Strategist, and in one of those games I'll build that narrative from each event rolled throughout the game. Sounds like a lot of die rolling, doesn't it? Well, I guess it is, but considering how stripped down the rest of the game is (as Villa's forces, I was generally moving only one or two stacks per turn, and combat is a quick add-em-up-and-roll-once affair), it moves along well. Villa has only a handful of troops. The Carrancistas don't have even that many, once you discount the Policia garrisons in towns, though the action is necessarily driven toward them in the south. Most of the game has to do with the numerous Americans, who come roaring down out of New Mexico and El Paso, renewing their chase after stopping at American-friendly settlements along the way. I had no idea there were so many Mormon colonies and American-interest mines down there. Of course, Villa made use of those Mormon colonies, too. Only to get his fresh horses, he had to steal them! As I mentioned before, don't believe the 10-minute setup, 2-hour game length it says on the cover. Okay, it might take just 10 minutes if you already know the rules, and have already cut out the counters. But 2 hours isn't likely, not unless Villa is captured early. I drug it out to the bitter end, with Villa dying of thirst a couple hexes from victory in the southwest mountains. The Americans were on my tail, but largely decimated by the strain of the chase (even with little combat), and couldn't follow Villa into the desert without a similar fate. The Carrancistas got in the way of the Americans, and lost. Curiously, that meant our game ended in limbo: neither the Americans nor Carrancista forces captured/killed Villa, so they can't claim victory. But Villa didn't get away, either, and his troops were all gone. So he failed to achieve a draw, though that's what we called it. Maybe the Americans could then take enough time to bring water down for a desert expedition using their wagons, to claim Villa's body. Maybe. Mark.E.Johnson & Greg J. Schloesser
***********
Pancho Villa-Dead or Alive! Fun like Mark said but it seems like the 1/6 chance of getting lost was a bit high for units unled by scouts in this game. Or were the Americans and Federales that incompetent in the chase? Anyhow, I'm wondering if Pancho Villa, instead of dying of thirst on the last turn, could have sat by some water, and rolled on the movement table anyway every turn to try to regain a step? ...Fen Yan 12:49pm Feb 13, 2001
*******
Berg’s Review of Games, Christmas 1992
We chose the 1916 American expedition to punish Pancho Villa, and a good choice it was. The Villa player gets four “regiments†of bandidos and some vicious Yaquis to the south. The American gets a bunch of repeater armed cavalry, 3 troops of volunteers in flimsy trucks, a couple of machine guns, some mule-drawn cannon, a wackily unreliable aeroplane, and George Patton in a Dodge. He also starts with the help of some Carrancista federales, buts that’s liable to change the instant the gringos overstay their welcome (about three minutes, as far as most of Mexico is concerned). I mention how these folks are transported, because transport is almost as- if not more- important as what kind of firepower you have, as we shall see.
…The heart of the game is that every time you move a unit or stack, you consult what is easily the most deliciously detailed and wackily-event filled Random Events Table yet devised! After two turns we immediately dubbed it the Yellow Brick Road Table, because of all the lions and tigers and bears it contained (literally). Travel in Northern Mexico is no easy task, believe me. Villa’s Yaquis were doing fine until they tried to cut through the Sierra Madre range only to have half their horses eaten by grizzlies. Pershing’s potentially devastating biplane – the best way to bring Villa to ground – takes off on a whim, can’t find much and then, to my dismay, ran out of gas and pitched into the prairie ten miles from Villa, himself, who promptly dispatched it. Two cavalry regiments got totally lost (which happens to almost anyone who wanders off the road and trails), wandering around for a few turns, dehydrated, until I mercifully refused to move them. Patton spent most of the game trying to catch up with his own forces in a Dodge that broke down almost as much as … well, as a Dodge. He did catch up to Pablo Lopez and hammer him into oblivion, and then Villa got a little too feisty and lost a third of his men to a well timed American assault… one of the few times I ventured away from water and survived! But then the Carrancistas got the word from Mexico City and transferred allegiance, throwing those two federales troops into the path of the dirt-weary Yankees. Gringo firepower was far too much, but its use diverted half of Pershing attack column. And when the truck-driven troopers ran out of gas, literally, just north of Ciudad Chihuahua, Villa, who had been flitting in and out of the dangerous Sierra Madre, just escaping a rurales lynch mob (I ain’t kidding!!), grabbed the open road south and just barely managed to escape off the board. This all took, maybe, tow hours of play, and it was Major Fun. I was also exceptionally historical in both feel and result.
Richard Berg, BROG
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This one ranks as the strangest game I ever played in my gaming life and
it's definitely even one of the more fun!! This peculiar game tries to
capture at a very tactical level (almost an RPG for certain details, and
similar to a random exercise in wilderness survival for other aspects)
the US expedition to capture Pancho Villa during the spring of 1916. As
it stands, the game is a three players game masqued as a two player one:
in fact, in a two players game the American player move also part of the
Mexican forces, but it's severely hindered in his movements by the
Mexican policia units, so that it probably better to have them as
enemies anyway (and this may in effect be the case, if for a random
event Mexico and the United States go to war one against the other).
The game is really peculiar in all its aspects: from movement
(differentiated in mechanized and no mechanized, but both are severely
limited by the rules for water/gasoline, that almost any movement is
forced from one settlement (and there are really several different
settlements from city to pueblos to Mormon missions to a few others) to
another or along rivers or railroads or the moving force suffers
depletion and possibly starvation. But the real innovative system in the
movement phase is the forced random event die roll that may give to the
units involved any kind of result, perhaps positive (like recovering
from depletion), more probably negative if the movement is too daring.
This mechanism makes such in theory unbalanced game really fun to play
also solitaire.
Even the combat system is particular: each combat unit is armed with a
rifle counter (that may be depleted too) and each such unit (plus other
particular ones like machine gun, artillery and airplane) rolls a die
and confronts the result to the command factor of its leader (4 for the
Americans, 3 for the Mexicans and 2 for the Villistas - bar Villa
himself that is worth 3): if the result is equal or less than that
number an enemy unit is depleted (or eliminated if already depleted).
There are also rules for tactics (mounted, dismounted or pinned) and for
defensive counterattacks.
Victory is based on the capture of Villa for the American/Mexican and
Villa exiting the south border of the map for the Villista.
After a few turns, necessary to take confidence with such a peculiar
system, play moves fast, based almost totally on manouver and daring
attempts for the Villista, while the American/Mexican player may force
march and risk more to get the damned revolutionary!!
All in all I rate this game 7 in a 1-10 scale, and the only negative
aspect may be perhaps the really poor graphics.
Roberto Chiavini