Scenario 2: Skirmish as Picacho Pass. February 8, 1911

 

Scenario 2: Skirmish as Picacho Pass. February 8, 1911

Set up: 

Arrange the table, west to east, as a vast desert with a range of mountains coming down the center (north and south) and a long dirt path running west to east through a single mountain pass.

Conditions:

Torrential Rain - low visibility.

Objectives: Just 1 - the mountain pass.

*PLM Forces:

Picacho Pass Garrison:

-22 Cocopah Indian revolutionaries

*Government forces:

-HQ: Colonel Vega, 4 staff, plus MG team in truck

-5 platoons, each as follows : 1 officer, 9 men

-1 platoon “volunteers”.

Potential reinforcements at turn 5:

*PLM Forces:

- 15 IWW reinforcements from the US Border

*Government Forces:

-15 “volunteers”

Gameplay:

Before the game, PLM may set up all defending forces in the mountains, excluding the potential reinforcements.

At turn 1, Government forces may all enter the table on the west end. The “volunteer” platoon will lead, the HQ will take up the rear.

At first contact, roll a D6. If <5, the government’s  “volunteers” will flee.

At turn 5, each side will roll a D6. For the PLM - 4 or more means the IWW contingent reaches the table on the northern edge. For the Government, 4 or more means a group of “volunteers” who had previously deserted (and not necessarily the same platoon from the start of the scenario -ie there can be 2 “volunteer” platoons) regain their loyalty and enter the table on the western edge. 

Victory Conditions: PLM must hold the pass. If they are forced to retreat, the pass is lost and the government wins. Fleeing rebels must reach the east edge of the table to carry on into the next turn.

Aftermath:  

Any surviving PLM forces may be added to the forces in the next scenario.    

Historic Note:

After the victory in Mexicali, the PLM leadership in the field mobilized the entire force to march on Ensenada. Leaving behind only three guards to hold Mexicali, Leyva led 125 fighters, two wagons of food and supplies and a third of ammunition and dynamite, 10 miles south of Mexicali to the Packard railway station, at Little’s Ranch. Most of these forces set up camp, while a small group of Cocopah warriors went on ahead to secure the Pichado Pass, running west through the mountains. 

Meanwhile, Colonel Vega’s column marched straight at Mexicali. His men numbered 115, with somewhere between 15 and 60 horses (depending on the source). Though many of his “volunteers” deserted, Vega easily pushed the Magónistas out of the way. This author could not find any references to PLM numbers in the skirmish, but Blaisdell wrote, “Though there were reports of numerous casualties, the Vega men took no prisoners in this or any other fight” (Blaisdell 51). We may infer that some of the revolutionaries survived and made it back to Leyva’s camp, as the main PLM contingent was well prepared for the following encounter the next week

On that same day, another Federal Column, marching east from Ensenada, engaged with rebels further south in Tres Pozos. Here, too, the Federales easily defeated the PLMistas, killing two men including José Espinoza, of Douglas, Arizona. (Bartra and Barrera 152). Diaz’s forces now had little standing in their way on the march to Mexicali.