Friday Night Game - Spanish Civil War

 Last night Chris and I went to Andrew's place to help him play test his home brew rules - which use a lot of the same core mechanisms as his rules we have used for fantasy/pulp games, and I have also used in some of my solo games. The basic premise of the rules is, you must roll 9 or more on 2 D6 to succeed. So, with firing, a 9 is a hit (12 is 2 hits!) close combat, the same, a morale test requires 9 or better to pass etc. Movement is random - 2 D6 for infantry, 3 D6 for cavalry or vehicles. There is no turn sequence, and the order of play is decided by a pack of cards equally split between red and black (face cards removed for another purpose - generating random events on a double 1 roll), During testing, we decided if the same colour comes up three times in a row, the fourth card MUST change play to the other side. This works, because in firing or combat, both sides are in action - so, if the Republicans are Red and a Red card is turned over, the Republicans choose what to do with all their units. If all they do is move, the Nationalists have no response - but, if the Republicans fire with two units, the Nationalists have return fire. 

There are advantages and disadvantages in certain circumstances - infantry in the open v tank are at disadvantage but if they are in cover, it is equal - an infantry unit that has an MMG etc attached outguns an infantry unit without such support, so the latter is at a disadvantage etc - if you are advantaged, you roll 3 D6 and choose the higher two scores, if disadvantaged, 3 D6 and choose the two lower - if units are equal, each side rolls two D6. In any situation, only ONE unit is EITHER advantaged or disadvantaged - so you never get an occasion when both sides are rolling 3 D6. The same principles apply to close combat - a support unit means the supported side is rolling at an advantage, but that's it, and you can't have more than support, even if the primary unit has support to each side and potentially to its rear as well - unlike some rules, it's not cumulative, the attacker is simply fighting at an advantage.

Chris and I had a fun game using most of my 20mm SCW collection, with Andrew as umpire, and I managed to take " a few" images to give a flavour of the game!

First few images show table layout and initial deployments

Above and below my Republicans - two brigades of four units each plus armour and cavalry support

The Nationalists had fundamentally the same forces - all troops were graded as basic ie they did not have a grade 1 2 or 3 modifier that they could add to their basic dice roll.

The objective of the game was to hold the railway station in the centre of the table and have as many units as possible within 12 inches - I had a run of three red cards in a row, which at this early stage of movement only, was a definite advantage! Chris and his nasty fascist Nationalists just had to sit and watch as the CNT militia and T26 tanks reached and then occupied the station on move three!

Republican Sadumi Spanish produced tankette.

A Republican Trubia Naval tank 

Above and below, Republican Milicianas of the Rosa Luxemburg Brigade, and Republican regular infantry

Nationals Moors move forward supported by an HMG

Republican (at bottom left) and Nationalist cavalry confront each other on the flank.

"A cargo!" (Google it - its Spanish for Charge!)

Milicainas and Assaltos on the Republican left confront the advancing enemy.

The two forces converge.

Nationalist "Requetés" militia in their distinctive "cherry berets" move around the rear of the Republican left flank positions.

More Nationalist infantry moving up in the centre.

T26 and PzKfw I's adjacent to the railway station. The infantry in the ruined building to the right of the panzers are Republicans.

A Tabor of Morrocan Regulares advance, supported by field guns.

Nationalist FT17 tanks close assault the Milicianas!

The heroines of the Rosa Luxemburg battalion won the melee with the FT17's and drove them back in disorder!

The exchange of fire around the railway station intensifies as more units become engaged.

And the FT 17's are back for a second attempt - this time, the Milicianas decide to pull back!

On the other flank, the Nationalist cavalry are getting the better of their Republican opponents!

Milicuianas in their new position, having retired behind the cover of some low-lying hills. They have been joined by the left-wing brigade command group too.

The "Requetés" close assault the Sudimi and Trubia Naval armour - they were bounced back!

At this point a double 1 was rolled and Andrew drew a random event card - which turned out to be a Republican sniper - here she is!

The sniper could be placed anywhere (here she is on the roof of the railway station) and could fire at a brigade commander with a +2 modifier ie she only needed to roll as 7 to get a hit. But after about ten minutes of discussion to and fro, we agreed she is a one-off event - once she has fired and caused whatever effect, she is taken off again.

I had a number of great die rolls at important points in the game (I also managed some bad rolls!) This was when I was at disadvantage so had to add the two lower scores ....you can see why its a good one!

General view of the centre of the battlefield as the Republican left gradually gives ground and falls back towards the railway line and station building. The Brigade command group of the left hand Republican brigade had been eliminated by the Nationalists at this stage (units accumulate four hits and then have to do a morale test - needing a 9 to pass - and if they fail, roll 2 D6 for how far they route - I managed to roll 2 x 6 for the distance and the command group were off the table edge - told you I rolled some bad dice as well as good!)

The Regulares go in against the Assaltos.

Assaltos and Milicianas fighting the FT17 supported Regulares for every meter of ground!

A couple of views of the centre of the table from the Nationalist perspective - basically all the infantry and armour were converging on the critical area around the railway station!

A massive close combat as the Nationalists attempt to drive back the Assaltos and Milicianas!

Having caused the Republican cavalry to retire (but not leave the table), the Nationalist horsemen return to the centre to put pressure on the Republican artillery position.

The Milicianas are forced to give ground against the furious attack by the Morrocan Regulares, but the Assaltos drive back the supporting FT17 tanks!

A final image of the centre of the table when we called the game a winning draw for the Nationalists! In events not pictured above, the Nationalists had assaulted the CNT holding the railway station - but were repulsed! The PzKfw I unit plus one of the repulsed infantry units were sitting on 4 disadvantage points as were the Republican artillery. The Republicans managed to pull the CNT (who had accumulated 3 disadvantage points in their heroic defence of the railway station) out of the building and replace them with the fiery ladies of the Rosa Luxemburg Brigade!

The Republicans were the only ones to actually lose a unit (the Brigade Command) and had 5 units within 12 " of the railway station - the Nationalists had 6 units within 12", although the Republicans still actually held the objective, and getting them out may well have proved very difficult - but I was happy to say Chris was in a slightly better position than I was. It was 2245 and we had been playing for about four hours, so it was time to call it a day (Andrew still had about 14 or 16 cards left in the activation pile, so playing to the "end" would have taken another couple of hours!)

That was great fun and with a couple of tweaks (which is the whole point of play testing!) the rules worked really well. Andrew has offered to put on an SCW game at Barrys place, but using Ricks beautiful collection of Empress 28mm figures, tanks, artillery and aircraft, hence the need for a couple of play tests first to make sure things will work. We were all happy with how the game went and will hopefully get together again in a couple of weeks to do another test game. 

Thanks to Andrew on two counts - a fun game with simple rules and also enabling me to get all of my SCW collection out on the table at last!

Thanks to you for your visit and I hope you enjoyed the AAR! Next time, a return to new units for the great Northern War project.