Annual Wargaming Trip - Day 4

Our last full day at Tarawera on Saturday dawned at around 0600, and as I happened to be up at this time., I took a couple of photos over the 10 minutes or so it took the sun to rise......

Not the usual photos of miniatures but I think you will agree this was a pretty impressive display to start the day!

Todays game was a Spanish Civil War encounter at the small town of Torrelodones, 40km NW of Madrid, and involved every conceivable faction on both sides!

My role was Juan Garcia Oliver, commanding three units who were occupying the town and were concealed from view as the game commenced. The units under my command were the CNT (Confederacion Nacional de Trabajo - anarchist trade unionists) CNT/FAI - (Federacion Anarquista Iberica - full blooded anarchists) and the Redfront Miliciana - female factory workers militia. In addition, I had a morale inspiring leader in the shape of Dolores Ibarruri - La Pasionaria.  Also on the table were:

The International Brigade
Soviet Russian infantry and armour
Republican Loyalist Regular troops
Nationalist Regulars and North African Troops
Carlist and Falangist fascist militia
Italian "volunteers"
The Condor Legion - Nazi German "volunteers"

There were 5 aircraft in play - two German, one Italian and two Soviet - plus a wide variety of weird and wonderful armoured vehicles.

All the figures, terrain, aircraft and buildings were collected, painted and provided by Rick, who of course also created the scenario we were to play.

In essence, this was quite simple. My militia were holding the town, in which lay large stocks of war materiel that the Republicans did not wish to lose. The International Brigade and the Soviets would arrive after the first move to reinforce my position. Meanwhile, the Nationalist forces, spearheaded by the Falangist and Carlist militia, were advancing from the NW to attack the town. Mark commanded the Fascist militia, John the Italians and Paul the Nationalist regulars and Condor Legion. On my side, Barry led the International Brigade and Chris the Soviets and Loyalist Regulars.

The Carlist and Falangist Militia advanced rapidly on the town, whilst the International Brigade entered from the table edge directly north of my position. The Italians came on behind the Nationalist militia and the Nationalist regulars came directly from the west, on the southern side of the railway line that ran through Torrelodones and bisected the table diagonally. Finally, Chris entered from the eastern table edge, behind me, with the Soviet and Republican regulars.

As one might expect from this war, the action was confused and intense. The Stuka appeared on the first move, flew directly across the table at 900mm per move, and bombed the railway station, where one of the CNT militia units had been concealed. This caused a fire to break out, although the occupants were able to roll a 4 to put this out on my next move. The Nationalist militia led by Mark opened fire on the International Brigade as they deployed into a position to cover the approach to the town from the north and west. When they got close enough, my Miliciana girls opened up on the Carlists from their position in the church and scored a few hits. The Russians advanced to support me too whilst the Nationalist regulars streamed towards the town from the south west, supported by 2 PzKfw 1's and field guns of the Condor legion. No one was surprised that the large Italian contingent were the last to advance, following behind the Carlist and Falangist militia.

The International Brigade, supported by Soviet infantry and the two T26 tanks, quickly got the better of the leading Nationalist militia but the threat from the south west was far greater. Large numbers of Nationalist regulars, including Moroccans and the Spanish Foreign Legion, rapidly advanced and drove one of my CNT units out of the railway station. A unit of Moroccans tried to enter the goods shed but discovered twice their number of CNT militia were holding the building and were repulsed with heavy loses. However, a move or two later, Paul deployed a flame thrower that set fire to the shed, and my unit was forced to withdraw. When the second German aircraft appeared and bombed the church where the female Miliciana were holding off the Carlists, this building was also set alight and had to be abandoned.

Whilst this action had been developing, the militia had been slowly loading the contents of the goods shed onto three or four Russian trucks, so that they were able to spirit away a good percentage of the weapons and ammunition, preventing them from being captured by the Nationalists.

The two Soviet aircraft made an appearance and patrolled the skies, driving off two of the enemy planes. Unfortunately, when they went over to the offensive, one of them was shot down before it could make an attack on the enemy forces!

Chris cleverly kept the two T26 tanks - by far the best armour on the table - out of the range/LOS of the 88mm gun, although he may not have needed to bother because in 10 or 15 attempts, they only scored a hit once or twice, and even when they were deployed in their primary AA role, they failed to hit the Soviet aircraft right above them, only to have salt rubbed in the wound when  the surrounding Italian infantry shot it down with rifle fire!

By the end of the game, the Nationalist militia had been wiped out, the Italians had knocked out both T26 tanks, the Nationalist regulars had stalled in the street fighting, the International Brigade was mostly gone, the Republican militia was forced out of their original positions, half the town was on fire but the Republicans had managed to extract a good quantity of the threatened war materiel and send it south westwards towards Madrid in the Russian trucks!

A great game that had lots of colour and panache, as we have come to expect when Rick provides the figures and creates the scenario - and below are the pictures to prove it!

 Torrelodones from the south east - all looks peaceful

 To the north west, the Falangist and Carlist militia advance towards the town

  Dolores Ibarruri - La Pasionaria

 Some of the female Miliciana - all the figures are from the Empress Miniatures range

 Two interlopers - female Soviet advisors I slipped onto the table just for a few photo ops!

 One of my Russian advisors questions a local suspected of Nationalist sympathies

 The Italian aircraft reconnoitering the railway line

 Move three or four - the Condor legion Stuka bombs Torrelodones station - advancing Nationalist forces can be seen to the west and south west of the town

 The Nationalist Regulars advances en masse, led by a locally produced armoured car

 The Falangists advancing adjacent to the railway line

 The much vaunted but virtually useless FLAK 36 88mm gun

 The second German aircraft bombs Torrelodones church, forcing my girls to decamp

 The Italian contingent advancing along the railway line

 The Falangists on left and Carlists on right just before clashing with the International Brigade

 Nationalist infantry, supported by cavalry and two Panzer 1's, assault the railway station

 A view from the south west shows the flood of Nationalists advancing on Torrelodones

 The Miliciana repositioning after decamping from the burning church

 The International Brigade v's Falangist militia

 Muera Los Sacerdotes - a Miliciana LMG team act as firing squad for the local clergy!

 A general view of the battle from the south west

 The International Brigade and Nationalist militia slug it out

 A general view of the town from the south east

 The massed Nationalist assault on Torrelodones from the south west

 Two Russian T26 tanks versus the Italians

 Close up of the two T26 tanks

 The game comes to a close as half the town burns 

Republican graffiti - Down with the Church and Death to the Priests!

Another great days wargaming was followed by Mumm champagne, a fantastic meal and copious amounts of red wine - cant get much better really!