Greetings…
On Friday I went over to Alan Perry’s to play a Spanish Civil War game using very tweaked Blackpowder rules…
Rick , Michael and David were the Nationalists…. Boooo!
Nick , Alan and I were the Republicans…. Hurrah!
There were five objectives on the table…The Monastery , The Trenches, The Ford in the River, The House on the Hill and The Convoy.
Looking from just above the Trenches towards the Monastery. The Ford can be seen just behind the church on the right… The church was not an objective.
Looking up the table over two non objective Hamlets towards the No Mans Land between the Monastery and the Trenches
We diced for which side of the table we started on… The Republic got the trench side.
Nicks force…
Mostly International Brigade but with some help from an Anarchist truck driver to tow the artillery.
We had a collective command meeting and Nick decided to move his men out of the Trenches and towards the Ford and the church which would leave the Trenches free for me to use.
Some of Nick’s brave volunteers were already in position to move to their objective.
Nationalists occupy the Monastery… You can see that it had previously been occupied by some of our brave comrades… I think they left it quite clean and tidy.
Nationalist militia run around waving a flag…
The Convoy…
If it got to the Monastery then it would be a victory point to the Nationalists if it was destroyed or captured by the Republic the point would go to them.
David’s Spanish Foreign Legionaries occupy a defensive position which overlooks the Ford… This would become known as the tortilla position.
Republican artillery and a heavy machine gun lay down support to the International Brigade as they move towards the Ford.
After some debate my Anarchic Militia rush through the woods…with cries of land and freedom…hoping to attack the flank of the Monastery…
Suitably encouraged by a Republican Politico ( also suitably ignored).
By collective agreement we brought on our Artillery and Armoured Car…
Alan’s Marxist Militia move down to the river while unseen ( The official Photo Journalist forgot to take a picture… this happened a lot ) the rest of his men supported by Assaulto’s capture the House on the Hill.
Ricks Moroccan’s move forwards to try and take the House on the Hill from Alan’s brave men.
David’s Moroccans also move forward to support their Legionary comrades.
Republican forces push more men into the area around the church and tortilla position.
My brave comrades make a glorious (Some may say futile) assault on the farmhouse that flanks and covers the no man’s land between the Trench and the Monastery… This first attempt failed.
While the fighting continues at the farmhouse, comrades make their way towards the Monastery.
After a vigorous debate and a vote a decision was made to wait for our armoured car to move up and together with the machine gun we filled the farmhouse with bullets… which worked a treat.
At the Monastery people started pointing and an armed priest took aim nervously hoping for three six’s during the firing phase…
The Committee for Command and Tactical Decisions debates the pros and cons of occupying the Trenches.
With heavy fighting going on around the tortilla position David’s Moroccans move forwards to try and capture the church.
Ricks Moroccans ready themselves to attack the House on the Hill objective… This apparently got quite bloody and ended with Alan’s forces holding their positions…. I can see a position of Official Photo Journalist becoming available soon.
The Convoy… Doing whatever convoys do…
After considerable debate some of the comrades made a reckless decision to occupy a building in the no man’s land opposed the Monastery… Much to their consternation all of Michaels men starting shooting at them.
Fortunately the armoured car, artillery piece and those comrades with more sense started pouring fire in the enemies direction.
The Trenches were occupied… But turned out to be too far away from the enemy to do any good… A fresh debate started…..
Savage fighting continued around the church… Which was eventually taken by the Moroccans and Legionnaires… Although the bells tolled in victory their celebrations were somewhat dulled when they realised/remembered that this had not been an objective.
At some point our lovely locality built armoured car was knocked out on its way towards the Convoy…
Now if only we had a decent Official Photo Journalist.
This was a great game with a lot going on all over the table… In the end the Republicans held on to the House on The Hill and the Trenches… The Nationalists kept the Monastery and the Ford… the Convoy didn’t get to its destination but it also didn’t get captured buy the Republic… Everybody’s brigades were broken so they couldn’t really do anything constructive.
A draw was declared/debated/decided.
The terrain was by Alan and the figures were from Nicks collection…
All of my comrades meetings votes and debates actually reflect how bad my dice were…so nothing new then.
After one final committee meeting a possible solution was found…
And yes… Only one of them hit the target… sigh!
All the best. Aly
