Day 2
Last weekend, we picked up the Second Battle of Mexicali where we had left off on Day 1. Chris's rebels had just abandoned the original front line--the bed of the Rio Nuevo--and fallen back to defensive positions closer to the town of Mexicali.
Before we began, we debated a little about which turn sequence to use, and decided to go back to rolling at the start of each round to decide who moved first (as opposed to the offensive player always moving first). Chris won the roll, and started reorganizing his defenses.
Chris reinforced his rebels in the trenches on the hill, and moved other units into buildings in the area and other good cover.
Two rebels, who had been left behind when the cavalry abandoned Little's ranch, entered one of the farm buildings on the Federals south flank.
Lastly, Chris attempted to bring on his reserve group for the fourth time, and finally rolled a 3. These 25 volunteers, however, were unarmed, as the young revolutionary army hadn't the equipment to spare. Chris had them make a break for the riverbed, where they could collect guns from fallen comrades. They made it about half way there on their movement allowance for the turn.
This mission to retrieve weapons led to more discussions on what was lacking from the rules. How do units pick up weapons? How many can they pick up? We decided that perhaps a figure, designated as a scavenger or runner, could carry a total of 8 rifles (four on each arm). Below, the reinforcements run toward the river, behind their IWW flag.
When Chris's turn to move was complete, John moved his government forces forward across the whole front line. John's Third Company made the deepest push, crossing the canal into the desert of the south-eastern sector, which Chris has vacated. The bulk of the Federal Army, however, prepared to charge the strong-point on the hill.
When he was finished, Chris, who had won the general initiative for the turn, began selecting local skirmishes to fight. He elected to begin at the north bridge, which had recently succumbed to fire, where a lone dynamiter stood, facing off against the Federal company of conscripted citizens. Though Chris won the local initiative roll, he failed to light the dynamite he'd hoped to throw.
He wisely used his movement allotment to pull the lone dynamiter out of danger and back toward the town before the government's Fourth Company could fire on him.
Chris won initiative for the skirmish area on the south flank, where John's forces had turned the corner on his overwhelmed defenders. Again, Chris chose to shoot and run.
He shot a couple soldiers with his rifles, but again failed to light his stick of dynamite. The four rebels fled the area, reaching the group of reserves on the edge of town.
John won the next local initiative roll, preventing Chris from running down the survivors of the government's First Company in his truck. Instead, the Federal unit, which had been pinned by dynamite blasts earlier, poured bullets into the truck, killing the brave, if reckless, rebel.
Chris had more dynamite in store for the poor First Company. With a perfect throw, a dynamiter lobbed his projectile over the truck and into the soldiers, killing four and pinning the company officer.
Next, Chris attempted to fire on the Federals from behind at Little's Ranch. John won the initiative, and chose to send one soldier to charge the house with his bayonet. Due to melee rules John probably didn't like at the time, his low roll meant the soldier died in route.
Chris's strategic withdrawal had been going well, but the weight of the Federal division came down on the north section of the river. John won the initiative and charged across the canal.
The front of the spearpoint reached within range of the fleeing dynamiter and gunned him down. To their north, the companies of conscripts and soldiers attacked the hill from two sides.
Four rebels were caught behind the retreat, and fell in a stand of trees when the conscripts fired on them at point blank range.
Federal forces fired up the hill, killing two of the rebels crouching in their trenches. Soon, it was Chris's turn to return fire. The burning timbers of the old bridge illuminated much of the Fourth Company, and Chris's rifles killed four of the "volunteers." Next, they fired on the soldiers in the canal further north, killing another three.
Lastly, Chris's rebels tossed another stick of dynamite, which landed in the thick of the Fourth Company, causing much carnage and disorganizing the company. Just behind them, John's headquarter sections ran down the hill.
On the north end of the line, the Federal Second Company in the riverbed lined up in a deadly formation and obliterated Chris's remaining rebels in the trenches on the hill.
The Second Company advanced up the hill, and killed one of Chris's horsemen behind the hill. The other cavalry riders fired and killed two soldiers, then retreated into town.
Round Four came to a close with John's forces pushing back the rebels and skillfully encircling Mexicali. With much of his First and Fourth companies killed, however, the Federal Forces were nearing half the strength they entered the battle with. Victory conditions required a full company--at least fifty soldiers--to pass into Mexicali and off table for a Federal victory.
Chris's forces were also dwindling, and the bulk of his fighters were unarmed reinforcements caught in the open by John's quick advance on the south flank. Chris moved many of his surviving units into buildings, which would provide cover.
To begin Round Five, John won the Round initiative. His Federal 3rd Company crossed the southern desert and turned north, forming a line opposite the unarmed rebels on the edge of town.
John moved part of his Headquarters section--in particular, fifteen Rurales added to his forces as a reward for winning the first game--up to the edge of the Río Nuevo, right in the center of the table, to form a skirmishing line. Colonel Vega and his staff made their way down the hill after them. Across the ditch behind a row of sand-bag barricades, the last eight rebels near the canal held their positions.
Finally, John advanced his left flank to the top of the northern hill.
Now that John had surrounded Mexicali with the army, Chris had his chance to move.
The first thing Chris did was try to remove his unarmed reinforcements from the impending massacre on the south flank. With three Federal companies already on the wrong side of the river, these vulnerable rebels had little chance of reaching the bottom of the canal, where the rifles of dead combatants and their promise of a hopeful outcome to the battle now lay on the wrong side of the frontline. Unfortunately, about 15 of these unarmed volunteers had already been spotted by John's soldiers (within the 10" visibility range during this day of pouring rain), and could not move until after the Local Initiative rolls.
The rest of Chris's reinforcements raced back to town. Most of them gathered by the headquarters section near the house. Others rushed into buildings, already garrisoned by armed rebels. If those firing from the windows fell in these buildings, any unarmed volunteers could take up the fallen fighter's rifle and position in the window.
At this point, at the middle of Round Five before the firing began, John's Federal Forces had 108 soldiers left on the table, less than half of the original force. Chris had suffered heavy losses too, but the twenty-five reinforcements brought his numbers back up to 64. Three of Chris's dynamiters had survived.
John selected the southern sector as the first local skirmish to play out. John won initiative and fired on the unarmed rebels. Miraculously, only three were hit. The remainders sprinted for the nearest buildings; a big brick factory building, and the jailhouse next door.
Chris won the next local skirmish initiative. His line of rebels on the riverbed fired their volley, hitting two soldiers from the Headquarters group, and two from the Fourth Company on the road to their north.
Then, the rebels abandoned the position and ran into town, leaving behind a dynamiter who had already used his whole movement allotment.
Most of Chris's forces ended up behind the house at the crossroads.
Next, it was John's turn to move and fire in that center sector. Vega's headquarters section advanced, crossing the river pursuing the fleeing rebels, and gunning down the straggling dynamiter.
The headquarters group also fired into the white building, killing two inside. This began a discussion on how much cover units inside buildings should receive. As it stood in the rules we were using, a building provided as much cover as any other "hard cover," (ie, a barricade, trench, ridge etc).
Chris's rebels in and around the white building then responded. A dynamiter inside successfully lit the fuse and tossed his stick into the middle of the Federal headquarters section.
The blast killed five soldiers, and pinned seven more. Rebel fire from the cavalry and other units in and around the house killed three more Federals.
John won local initiative in the north sector, and again fired into the houses where the rebels were hiding. The Federal volley killed five rebels in the three buildings on the frontline, and two others caught in the open alley. Chris's return volley did little damage.
Round Six began with Chris winning turn initiative, and moving all of his rebels into the buildings of Mexicali, with the unarmed reinforcements spread between the positions.
Chris selected the northern sector to play out first, but lost initiative to John. The Federals fired into the little white house, killing both rebels inside, one of whom was a dynamiter. With no one alive in the sector to return fire, Chris tried his luck at the white house by the crossroads. Again, he lost the roll, and John's soldiers fired at the house, killing three of the occupants.
The rebels inside returned fire, killing a few more Federals. Next, the rebels in the northernmost buildings, and the cavalry hiding behind a house, fired at the soldiers who had entered that section of town, and those perched up on the top of the hill, killing quite a few of them.
Finally, John and Chris played out the skirmish on the southern end of the line of contact. John won initiative, and sent his Second Company charging at the factory building.
The soldiers fired at the factory, killing one rebel inside. Five rebels fired back out the factory windows, killing two soldiers.
It was now Round Seven. John won the initiative roll and continued to advance into Mexicali, surrounding the rebels' remaining strongholds. Elements of the Second Company tightened the lines around the factory, while other units from the company advanced north, joining the Headquarters and Company Four in besieging the white building.
You may be able to see in the photo, below, Colonel Vega, standing at the back of the Federal formation, just east of the smoldering ruins of the wooden bridge, and to the left of the small stand of trees.
Chris noticed Vega, too, and here he was, getting some dangerous ideas.
Taking a page from history, Chris assembled what was left of his cavalry in the northeast corner of the table. He used some surviving insurrectos in the area to thin out the northern edge of the Federal lines. Then, the horsemen set off around the flank.
They found Vega, standing close enough to the burning bridge to be illuminated through the rain. Chris's cavalry shot down the colonel. As one of the rebel victory conditions was shooting Vega with half of the rebel forces surviving, we began counting figures. If Chris had 38, he would win the game.
Chris had 35.
The conscripts on John's left flank didn't even break and flee at the death of their commander. Instead, they turned and blew away all five of Chris's cavalry. Soldiers on the hill fired into the northern buildings, killing another rebel. Chris's unarmed reinforcements continued to pick up their dead comrades' weapons to carry on the fight. The rebels won the local initiative for the skirmish zone around the surrounded white house. The insurrectos inside hit the soldiers with dynamite and accurate rifle fire, before abandoning the building and running into the factory and jailhouse.
With no rebel survivors in the north end section of the table, Chris's remaining forces were spread between the three stone buildings on the table's edge. Winning initiative by the factory, Chris's rebels fired out from the four windows and the door on the first floor, killing five soldiers. Six other rebels ran up the factory stairs to the second floor. The Federal forces returned fire, killing a few rebels at the factory windows, and bringing Round Seven to a close.
John won initiative for Round Eight. Knowing he had to pass a company's worth of units off Chris's side of the table, he wisely moved all of his soldiers into the town and toward that objective. We took the opportunity to count John's army. Only 61 remained. Chris needed only 12 more kills to win, but John had 57 soldiers within 12" of the east end of the table. If John won all of the skirmish initiative rolls, he could have won the game that round.
John selected the factory sector for the first local skirmish. Chris won the roll. With rebels at the windows on both first and second floors, he had weapons and positioning enough for eight insurrectos to fire at the soldiers. Five rebels died in the return volley, but not before they had killed six soldiers.
Next, John selected the sector by the jailhouse, and again, he lost the roll to Chris. Two rebels ran out into the jail's courtyard to fire at the oncoming soldiers, while two others shot their rifles from the jail doors. All four Liberals killed soldiers. John's Federals fired back, killing the two rebels in the courtyard.
With luck on his side, Chris won the final skirmish sector as well. Three rebels fired at the soldiers, hitting two soldiers before falling in a blaze of Federal bullets. All of Chris's insurrectos had fired their rounds, but they still had two more soldiers to kill in order to win. Having killed ten, however, John had 51 soldiers left on the table, but only 48 were within range of the edge of the table. Turn Eight ended, with no clear winner. I suggested we call it a draw, as the football game had already started upstairs, but my competitive friends weren't done shooting at each other.
At the start of Round Nine, John again won Round Initiative. He again selected the factory sector as the first skirmish area. It seemed John's luck had finally rebounded, as he won the roll for Local Initiative as well. He fired into the factory, killing six rebels. Only four anarchist remained inside. But they returned fire, killing two of John's soldiers.
With only 49 pro-government units left on the table, Chris officially won. For the second battle in a row, the rebels had pulled out an unlikely, last-minute victory. I told both players that they should feel like they won, as without the victory conditions set by the scenario, it would be hard to believe that John's 49 soldiers couldn't overcome the six remaining rebels. On the other hand, Chris had killed around 200 of John's forces already, more than twice the number he had lost. Both players fought smart and hard.
This game gave us a lot to think about in terms of rule changes. For one, we will increase the defense bonus given to units within buildings. Firing randomly into buildings where defenders hid had been far-too effective in this play test. Second, we will implement aspects of the rules we hadn't really used yet, such as Overwatch, which would give a bigger advantage to defending units, allowing them to interrupt the movements of attackers and fire at them without an initiative roll. Lastly, we had a hard time keeping up with morale points, mostly because we had John roll for morale for all five squads separately within each company. John, however, wisely kept his companies together, to prevent isolated squads from routing if their numbers fell below half, or if they wandered out of range of an officer. As a result, it became difficult to factor in morale when rolling for local initiative, which tended to involve a section of one of Chris's groups facing off against multiple mixed squads of one of John's companies. Morale tests to determine if units would route were also muddied by the combination of squads with different morale levels. Rolling for morale by company will also save time.
As in the historic event, the rebels in my basement won the Second Battle of Mexicali, keeping alive the dreams of freedom held by the militants of the PLM. Next time, we will skip ahead a little to March 19, 1911, when the rebels' attacked Tecate, in Scenario 7: the Siege of Tecate.
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