Cool looking game. When you say unpredictable, can you expand on that?
Sure. For one example:
General Mariano G. Vallejo was one of the most wealthy, respected, and powerful of the Californios. He not only wielded political power, he had some valuable military experience. Knowing this, one of the first acts of the leaders among the Bear Flag revolutionaries was to make a forced march from their gathering point (Sutter's Fort, in what is now Sacramento) to Sonoma, secure the Presidio there and capture Vallejo before he even knew a revolution was brewing. They succeeded, and Vallejo spent the rest of the war in a cell at Sutter's Fort. Historically, Vallejo would go on to be a major figure in early California politics, and was instrumental in pushing California statehood. At the time, however, a friend and ally of Vallejo's---Chief Solano of the Suisunes people---offered to mount an expedition to rescue him. He declined, rightly thinking that it would put his life at risk and bring heat down on Solano's people.
In Greene's game, Vallejo's capture triggers an automatic "Solano Rescue" die roll; if it succeeds, Vallejo is freed and is joined by his personal guard unit (armed
vaqueros from his extensive
ranchos), and he becomes one of the leaders of the Californio/Mexican forces in the war. In my most recent game, he was rescued, then rallied the scattered units in northern California and resisted the US/Bear Flag forces, but died some months later at the Siege of the Presidio of Yerba Buena (San Francisco), a completely non-historical event.
That's a small example, but its the kind of thing that Greene incorporates into the game to possibly twist history like a pretzel and keep the game from falling into a historical rut. Nothing he adds, however, is out of the realm of historical possibility.
« Last Edit: June 26, 2021, 06:08:19 PM by blindsey »
Blake H. Lindsey,
Merced, CA
“The french Captain tells me, I have caused a War with France; If so I am glad of it, for I detest Things being done by Halves.” --- Commodore Thomas Truxtun of the USS Constellation, after defeating the French frigate L'Insurgente, 1799