Thursday 10 August 2017

The Mexican Expedition 1916-1917


I'm skimming through this US government pamphlet history of the US intervention in Mexico to track down Pancho Villa. There's a separate volume on the 1st Aero Squadron and it's role in the expedition, which is also worth reading, even if the aircraft involved didn't achieve very much. There were several small scale skirmishes between the US troops, the Carranza government forces and the Villistas, including a few which didn't go so well for Black Jack Pershing's doughboys. Here's one for a start, the rather grandly titled but fairly pointless Battle of Carrizal:


There's some good stuff here, with lots of potential for some skirmish gaming using the Fistful of Lead: Viva Revolucion! supplement as a starting point. I will dig out the Shellhole Scenics 20mm figures that I have when I get back from my holidays to see what I can do with this project. I have American infantry and some vehicles already but, from the reading I've been doing, I'll need to add some US Cavalry too, probably using the Early War Miniatures figures, together with some Mexican federal troops.

5 comments:

  1. I almost added Carrizal as one of the scenarios, but it was pretty one sided affair and I couldn't come up with an interesting way to portray it.
    It effectively ended the Punitive Expedition. However, it leads to an interesting "what if". Pershing was furious at the loss and wanted to attack the Carranza forces which could have led to a full scale war with Mexico.

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  2. And it was a bit too large a skirmish too, even if you did the rearguard. There are plenty of other actions to recreate and always the generic ambush, raids, patrols etc.

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  3. I quite like the idea of the old rescue the downed pilot, fix the telegraph line or escort the payroll scenarios.

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  4. I`ve run a couple of games - a re-write of Ojo Azules ranch where the Mexicans actually put up a fight :) and a fictious attack on a US supply depot by a rebellious local Federal General - both played rather well and quite fun :)

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