Sunday SCW Game - Saving Salvador Dali, or The Russians AREN'T COMING!

 Today we fought out a wonderful SCW game using Andrews AS9 rules (that I have trialed a couple of times previously) and Ricks stunning collection of all things SCW from the beautiful Empress Miniatures range.

All the rules fit on one and a half pages of A4 (and that's with quite large font, too!) and all the players seemed to pick up the concepts pretty easily. Andrew is a big boardgame and fantasy player, so he has borrowed a lot of interesting concepts. Many of the mechanics are "abstracted" as he calls them - eg any combat (firing or melee) is basically decided in the same manner, and even if a target unit is outside its firing range - eg rifle armed infantry v's HMG - both sides roll with the chance of causing a negative impact on each other - this Andrew explained is not necessarily "fire" as such, but something potentially going wrong at the aggressors end, such as a weapon jamming or running out of ammunition. This is important as activation is decided by random turning of a pack of 32 standard playing cards, 16 red and 16 black. It's possible for either side to get up to three activations one after the other (after three, the activation automatically shifts to the other side), so if the firing worked in the usual manner, one side might just have to "sit and take it" for three consecutive turns. With the above mechanism, this is not a problem, as for every firing action, there is an equal and opposite reaction!

Anyway, I think I explained a lot of this in my AAR on the test game a few weeks ago, so on to today's action - and I make no apology for the fact I have a HEAP of images!

My command above - I have, of course, been type cast as the commander who always has the Milicianas in his brigade! I also added a few character figures of my own as the brigade command group!

Andrew had helpfully done up a card like the above for each player - note, my Señorita's had been graded as +2 - as good as any other unit in the game!

The Milicianas head towards the village in the centre of the table

Columns of Italian "volunteers" heading in the same direction.

Italian armour moving up in support

The Regular Republican army contingent

Assaltos and Regular Republican Infantry

The Uber Catholic Requete Militia on the Nationalist side

Blue shirted Falangist Militia - more Fascists!

The Foreign Legion and Army of Africa Moorish Regulares

The target of the converging forces. Andrew had explained the main aim of the game was to deplete the enemy, but there were also a few victory points to be had by holding the railway station (roofless as Rick somehow managed to leave it at home!). In addition, John, commanding the International Brigades, had a "secret mission" to complete in the town! (that is his D&D/RPG heritage coming out!)

The Milicianas and CNT/FAI militia line the walls of the approach road as the Foreign Legion and Moors start a sweeping flanking march that will lead them to this area of the battlefield.

The International Brigade arrive at the churchyard, where they have been tasked with a special mission.

The remainder of The Brigade follow on foot, passing a weeping local woman as they advance!

On the extreme left (naturally!) is the Soviet Army - don't blink or you will miss them till the last half hour of the game! (hence the secondary title of this post!)

Nationalist PzKfw I advancing....oooohhhh, scary!

As the Liverpool dockers and Yorkshire miners of the British battalion of the International Brigade debus into the churchyard, suddenly they are confronted by heavily armed Catholic “penitentes”!

"WTF?!"

The Italians roll forwards.

As do la Legion and some Nationalist cavalry.

Meanwhile, a little girl waits!

Soviet advisor attached to my brigade command group.

At the other end of the table, her countrymen are doing "something" - but whatever it is, they aren't letting on to their Spanish "allies"!

Soviet 45mm AT guns take out a Fascist armoured car!

As the Requetes and Nationalist Guardia's Civile watch on.

Falangists and other Fascist militias move forwards too.

The Republican regulars take up strong defensive positions on the outskirts of town.....

..... while the Italians occupy part of the village.

This means you, fascist pigs!

The Moors on the move.

The combat in the churchyard has been decided - and the “penitentes” are defeated - this is just a gratuitous shot of the nice conversions Andrew did. using Frostgrave cowled heads, parts of Perry plastic WWII kits and greenstuff!

The Nationalist left wing continues to close on my brigade holding the road to the village.

Through an initial run of three red cards in a row, I had managed to get an FAI militia unit into the railway station, however, shortly after their arrival, a very small Italian armoured vehicle turned up adjacent to the back wall - and it turned out to be a bloody flame thrower, which in short order, engaged the militia in close combat, rolling a plus two on its dice, won the fight and, when Andrew as umpire rolled a double, set the building on fire! Now, no one is getting extra points for occupying the railway station!

The cause of all that destruction.

The Nationalists under Nick set up a pair of HMG's and started to hammer away at my command. Here, the Milicianas are up to 3 of a possible total 4, hits- on 4, they will have to retire!

The Legion and Moors continue their inexorable advance on my positions.

Things are getting a bit intense in the centre of the battlefield!

Another Italian micro tank drives back a Republican MG crew.

The Milicianas are forced to pull back behind their FAI comrades.

Brigade command looking a bit nervous!

REVENGE! Two Republican battalions combine to counterattack the Italian armoured vehicle and it succumbs to their assault!

Nicks Nationalists are almost deployed to assault my brigade.

The Legion, Nationalist cavalry and two PzKfw I's are part of the advance too.

Mission Accomplished - the International Brigade have succeeded in locating the famous surrealist artist Salvador Dali - who they have been tasked with extracting from the church, where he has been in hiding, dressed as a young woman! He/she is loaded onto the truck for evacuation to Madrid.

But just at the wrong moment, an event card produces a Nationalist air attack - and the bstrds head straight for Dali's truck! We Republicans hold their collective breath as the plane........completely misses the target - TWICE!

The Regular army and Assaltos cover the retreat of the International Brigade.

A massed battery of Nationalist AT guns that they used like field artillery - Andrew will probably change something to prevent this being an option in future games!

Various Nationalist units at bay as casualties start to mount all around. 

Oh look - some tanks - I wonder where they have been and what they have been doing all day??!

The Russians FINALLY started to move towards the centre of the field and the crucial area of combat!

The Republican HQ "¿Dónde diablos están esos bastardos rusos?" I don't think translation is required??

"Get over here, Ivan!"

The Legion puts in an assault on my militia - and gets bounced back!

These bloody Nationalist HMG's caused a lot of trouble to my command!

Next, the cavalry charge the FAI militia - but again, the Republican line holds .... just!

This local Señorita was "adopted" by the Legion and they dragged her along with them as they advanced against my militia. She does not look very happy about it to me!

Legion and Moors massing for another attack - but they were all starting to pick up a few hits now too.

Even in the middle of a battle, a womans work is never done!

Both sides pause for breath - the Republican militia has been forced to pull back from their original positions, but the exhausted Nationalists don't have enough left in the tank to finish the job,,,,

Its a bona fide miracle - the Russians are COMING!

The militia converted armoured car did sterling work for most of the game, holding its own against the two PzKfw I's as well as an infantry assault by La Legion. It was eventually overwhelmed, however.

Late in the game, a Republican flame thrower went on a rampage, taking out two Nationalist armoured units, including this one, which just happened to be Barrys brigade command element!

The ejército and Assaltos still holding firm despite everything the fascists threw at them.....

.... and the International Brigade successfully exited the table with Dali in Drag aboard.

We had played through 32 turns, plus one extra Nationalist turn right at the end from a random event card. Now, we collected up all the "hit" markers from each army and counted them up. The Republicans had 32, and the Nationalists had.......44! In addition, the Nationalists had lost about 4-6 armoured vehicles, so it was a definite win for the Republican army - although it certainly had not felt like that to me, with two of my battalions leaving the field and the remainder all sitting on 3 or 4 hits each for the last half a dozen turns of play!

Well, that was great fun and it seemed like everyone agreed and very quickly and easily got the hang of the rules and how the mechanisms work. The real life "fog of war" caused by playing on a 6' by 18' table with four players per side meant I didn't really know a lot about what happened between Rick and Paul/Barry and Mark and Chris (the Russian tank commander) Suffice to say, the pristine lines of advancing Nationalists were all heading back the way they had come, by the time we reached the last turn - I believe all of Marks battalions were sitting on 4 hits apiece, and hence were forced to retire towards their own table edge.

I hope you enjoyed the report as much as we enjoyed the game - it was great to get all Ricks lovely SCW kit out on the table.