"New Mexican Revolutionaries and Federal troops" Topic

New Mexican Revolutionaries and Federal troops in 20mm
Here is the first batch of our growing range of Mexican Revolutionary and Federal troops in 20mm. These compliment well our range of American troops from the period 1911 onwards. The Mexican revolution is a very colourful and interesting period to cover as a modeller or gamer. This initial batch of miniatures allows you to create both mounted and foot troops from many of the factions involved in the long running Mexican revolution and American invasion during WW1.
Revolutionary armies covering Panco Villa, Emiliano Zapata to the federal armies under Diaz, Carranza and Obregon.

link
link
link
link
I'm progressing the multi-part White metal miniatures concept as its being very well received so far and these Mexicans come largely in that format. So, the Cavalry have separate heads and some with separate arms. The arms hold different weapons or open handed. The heads come from over 14 head sculpts. The variety of poses I have been able to achieve is beyond counting now and that's the idea. You can create individual units, using this approach. You can add character, posing heads as required. Just having a unit that don't all look exactly the same way, carrying a variety of weapons in different poses, adds a lot to what can be achieved when modelling these miniatures. Its also perfect for this period in history where soldiers had very little rigorous uniform enforced.
link
link
link
link
So the Revolutionaries come with a selection of Firing poses and attacking poses. There is a pack of weapons ranging from spencer and Krag Carbines to Winchester rifles, Spanish mauser and rolling block Remington's. Revolvers to colt 1911 pistols. Swords and machete and swords in scabbards. I plan to offer these in packs of 10 figures with all the heads and weapons at £7.50 GBP and £7.80 GBP. The Attacking poses are a little more as there are more options in these packs.
link
link
link
The Federal infantry come in packs of 10 figures, all with separate heads and some weapons. Military uniforms with ammunition pouches to the rear, water bottles. These are offered with a shako style hat or Field caps. There is an officer pack offered with 3 head types, Shako, Field cap and Cork sun helmet.

Mexican Revolutionary Cavalry will be in packs of 4 mulit-pose with all the head and weapon options at £7.00 GBP, a pack of 3 firing from the saddles @ £5.00 GBP and a pack of 4 in either open handed or hands on rains poses. These will have some weapon and head options as well @ £6.70 GBP.

Available from EWM : link

More details on our face book site at :
link
Work is under way with our good friends Ian and Paul, the Authors of the successful Crush the Kaiser Rule sets, to create a set of rules that capture spirit of smaller scale actions from this chaotic period of history. The wars in Mexico during the revolution and WW1 periods have been well covered by Hollywood which has created some well known images in our minds. The most recent film about Pancho Villa is highly recommended and should be credited for the levels of detail woven into the film. From a gaming perspective, it's a largely unexplored and ignored period yet it contains many of the "ingredients" that make a "period" very successful. In short this revolution that turned into a multi-sided civil war has great colour, many small scale actions and battles, interesting technology in the form of weapons and equipments. These include in this age where Aircraft and armoured vehicles started to make their appearance and machine guns truly dominated the battlefields of Europe and beyond. It boasts the USA's first motorised invasion with air support in 1916, you will find Machine guns being used along side primitive bows used by the Yukka Indians. Foreign intrigues from the 2 American invasions in 1914 and 1916, The German Kaisers political meddling and persuasions, to the Japanese and much much more. Its not for nothing that many Hollywood films have been set in the part of the world during these days of war and chaos. To that end, the Gaming framework and rules currently under construction will set out to capture much of that and introduce it to the gaming table.

We look forward to your comments.

Regards
Paul Thompson@ EWM

Nice stuff. Very tempting for an Imaginations interwar war I am thinking about.

Nice. I really don't like figures lying down though.

Very nice.

That's Yaqui Indians.

Prone figures make good markers, Morrigan.

Maybe this will be the first MR range to include Yaquis and later Constitutionalists in cast-off US uniforms with Mausers.

The Yaquis were used both as the storm-troopers of the North-western Army, and for their psychological effect on the Federales by playing on their ferocious reputation, such as being made to do a war dance in sight of the enemy, or unnerving them with the sound of their war drums (see the description in Ivor Thord-Gray's 'Gringo Rebel'). These factors should be built into any dedicated rules for the conflict.

Hi Henry,
Wow that's really useful information. Please feel free to pm me with any more like that.
Yes the rules need this kind of "chrome" . There is an Indian head included in the range of multi part bits. From the pictures I have seen, probably later in the war when the Indians were armed with more modern kit, they are dressed in a similar way to the other Mexicans around them? It's a start.
I still like the crazy notion of some of them using bows v others with cartridge based rifles and even machine guns!
I'm interested in the part played by any foreign mercenaries in the conflict if you have any Henri?
This first release is being well received and I that everyone for their comments here and elsewhere.
paul T@EWM

If you don't already have them Von, you really need:

Wars of Latin America 1999 – 1941, by Rene De la Pedraja

Battles of the Mexican Revolution 1913 – 1915, by James R. Hinds

Notes on the Mexican Army 1900 – 1920, published by OMM.

The Yaquis continued to use traditional tactics (essentially amounting to infiltration tactics – hence the storm-trooper analogy) and weapons right up to the restructuring and retraining of the Constitutionalist army in the Winter of 1914 – 15, that is, for the entirety of the anti-Huerta campaigns.

As already mentioned they had the psychological edge, and their primitive weapons weren't such a disadvantage given that when attacking they could render themselves virtually invisible to the Federales and suddenly launch an assault from concealment. During the war between the former revolutionaries they were armed and fought as ordinary infantry.

The Yaquis wore ordinary peon costume until supplied with uniforms, so many units wouldn't have been uniformed until 1915. For wargame purposes a useful simplification would be to have irregular units with bows and machetes in civilian costume only, thereby reducing the number of sculpts you need to do.

Many thanks Henry, some great references and advice, both much appreciated.

Glad to help, Von.

Another dimension of the storm-trooper analogy: compared to the majority of northern rebels, who tended to be reluctant to close with the enemy (at least on foot in daylight), the Yaquis were valued for their fearless attitude to close combat.

You could do Yaquis in uniform with bows and arrows just for the novelty value; it's a combination you don't see in any other period. There's a photo in the Osprey book. Note that leaders usually had a rifle.

In all honesty, there's probably no need to do specific later Constitutionalist figures. The standard Mexican campaign dress was virtually identical to the imported/copied cast-off SAW era US uniform, on which it might even have been based, so figures in summer uniform with separate heads in campaign hats would be fine.

I finally got around to looking at your website. It's a bit hard to tell from the photos, but it looks like all the Federal bodies at this stage are depicted in the 1898 full-dress double-breasted jacket (and large rear ammo pouch). In photos I've never seen this garment worn in combination with any headgear other than the shako; when you see the saumur kepi, peaked cap or campaign hat they're always worn in combination with the summer uniform that was introduced in 1913 (in either white or khaki). The kepi continued in use during the Huerta era, but I don't think the 1898 uniform did – except possibly with state/national guard units. Also, photos nearly always show Federales wearing bandoliers, even if they retain the ammo pouch.

The packaging of the range is a bit inconsistent. The packs with figures in one posture – either firing or advancing – work well, however, I don't think the packs that include firing and advancing figures are such a good idea: you might miss out on sales to people who want their figures in only one or the other posture. Also, the percentage of prone figures in some packs is rather high, and as you see from Morrigan's comment, some people have no use for/don't want them. By all means offer them, but in separate packs. They will sell because gamers need morale status markers.

Henry,
Many thanks again. All advice is welcomed.
It's unstated here and even on this range header on the web site, but we are always happy to pack as requested by customers ie with or without prone/ kneeling etc. even if people want 5 standing and 5 running, we can normally always accommodate such requests. Just ask.
I will make sure this is clearly stated on the range header.

I'm liking the yaki more and more. I was talking today with Paul Barnet, one of the crush the kaiser rules authors and mentioned your earlier points. All good stuff and the timing is excellent as we formulate the rules frameworks.
We are rather liking the "what if" element to the period as well. More on that later and I would welcome any inputs you or other may have on that topic?
Cheers
paul T@EWM

Yes, in a dedicated rule set it's important to work the peculiarities of the conflict represented into the game mechanisms. Otherwise you might as well just use a generic set covering the period (in this case that would be something for the WW1 era).

If you read the books I mentioned you'll see that other important distinguishing factors that set the MR apart from contemporaneous conflicts are: the surprising length of what are really relatively small battles (they often lasted for days), the common resort to night fighting, and the importance to the northern revolutionaries of mass cavalry attacks (both the latter being get-arounds for the reluctance of rebel units on foot to close with the enemy).

Also important to note is that in Chihuahua the early stages of the 1913 rebellion were essentially a repeat of the 1910 – 11 revolt (which didn't last long enough for the rebels to form regular forces). All the rebels were irregular guerillas (including many ex-bandits), and following the usual MR pattern it wasn't until the lull in the Winter that a major effort to train and reorganise occurred. In some other states (e.g. Sonora, home of the Yaquis) the revolt was lead by serving politicians who had control of state militia and rurales units (yes, revolutionary rurales!), which formed a solid, trained core around which to assemble an army.

What I'm saying is that it's important to accurately represent the distinction between irregulars and trained (if often minimally) troops. Also note that the Zapatistas never managed (or wanted) to progress beyond the irregular phase.

And of course any dedicated rule set wouldn't really be about the Mexican Revolution if it failed to make the personalities of its leaders a central element of the game (and central to a campaign system). Many armies started out as the personal bandit or guerilla followings of men with huge egos, and it was these personalties and their record of success or failure that determined who would attract more fighters and rise to prominence (success including military victory, but also the amount of loot plundered). Also, some leaders were noted for their lack of control of their men, who would go on drunken rampages when a town was captured, while others were lauded for the discipline they imposed (such as Pancho Villa).

Up to now I've favoured CLA for its simplicity and because it fulfills these requirements. I'd only consider switching if the CtK boys produce something that betters it.

The reluctance to close in an assault was a phenomenon peculiar to revolutionary forces (at least those originally formed from irregular bands) and Federal irregulars (Colorados and other former revolutionaries). Federal regular units were trained to attack and fully capable of doing so, although in practice they didn't often get to do so because their commanders generally preferred to adopt a defensive posture. I should add that by the time of the inter-revolutionary struggles of 1915 most of the main armies were sufficiently trained that infantry were now more capable of assaulting during daylight hours.

As regards hypotheticals, if you mean an expanded US – Mexican conflict, I suppose given the past emphasis on the US interventions when anyone discusses the MR here or in other hobby fora the inclusion of some such option is inevitable. I just think it would be a shame and a wasted opportunity if it became the focus of the rules. I think the real MR is more than colourful and exciting enough without the need to fictionalise it at all.