Sunday Game - Spanish Civil War

Today was the first time our "Sunday" group has got together for a game since February. The game we played today was originally scheduled for Sun 22 March but as concerns about the spread of Covid 19 mounted in New Zealand in the days leading up to the weekend, and with a couple of our gamers in the vulnerable age group, we regretfully felt obliged to cancel it. Had we known it would be three months until we could next get together, we may have made a different decision!

The scenario was set in 1939, at the tail end of the war, with the combined forces of Generalissimo Franco closing in on the Republicans in NE Spain. Barry, Nick and I commanded the Republicans whilst Chris, Mark and Paul were the Nationalists. Rick organised the game, supplied all the wonderful figures and terrain and acted as umpire. Basically, the Republicans were attempting to hold a line along a railway, so that at the start of the game our forces were concealed. The battle area however seems to have been in a particularly barren area of Spain, so that the railway line was more or less the only defensible feature, meaning it did not take a strategic genius to work out where we were likely to be positioned!

I had three battalions of militia holding the left wing - the FAI, the CNT (yes, really) and, courtesy of  Ricks understanding my appreciation of female warriors, the Miliciana, This group was supported by an armoured truck. Nick had the right wing, with three battalions and a couple of field guns, and Barry had our central reserve with a few more infantry battalions and some armoured cars, tanks and AT guns.

The Nationalists we were assured had approximately the same forces, although it did not seem that way - at one point my 3 battalions were facing 9 battalions of Nationalists! Both sides also had aerial support from appropriate aircraft.

I wont try to do a blow by blow account of the action - basically, Chris advanced quite slowly and cautiously against the built up area held by my militia, he lost one battalion in his first contact but then brought massive fire to bare on each battalion in turn, so that at the end of the game he had wiped out all three battalions with little further loss to his own forces.

On the other wing, Nick did a stellar job of holding off a massively larger force with his very limited resources, to the point that when the game ended around 4pm, although his force was pretty much exhausted too, the Nationalists had only just been able to cross the railway line, and Paul's Italian force had been virtually destroyed in the process.

I will let the images of Ricks lovely troops tell the rest of the story....the figures are all from the excellent Empress Miniatures range

Inspirational Republican leader and Miliciana to her rear

Guardia Civile lead Chris' attack

Marks advance in the Nationalist centre

Paul's Italians march towards glory

Nationalist cavalry scouting ahead

Republican air support in the form of a Poliakarpov

Nationalists continue to advance

A small tank concealed in one of the buildings defended by my militia

Nicks troops entrenched behind the railway line

Above and below- the Nationalists move forwards

Nicks infantry overwhelm a Nationalist armoured car

Several shots of the massed Nationalist force

By the end of the game, the Nationalists had crossed the railway line

Nicks troops had been pushed back by the Italians and the German armour

In the centre, the Nationalists were moving forward into an open area.

It was a great first group game after the lock down and enjoyed by all, although Rick had told we Republicans right from the outset that he expected us to be overwhelmed. In fact, Nick put up a much stiffer resistance than had been expected and possibly got us a draw. For a different take on the action and some more images, check out Marks blog 1866 and All That.