The Approach to Madrid - A Spanish Civil War Action

November 1936, a small village on the outskirts of the capital 

A Nationalist Air Attack goes in.

We had a spare Thursday last week in our gaming schedule before the start of our big Spanish Civil War game based on the attack on University City, I was wondering what to fit in for a one-off game and was considering a bit of WW1 Naval, but with some work to do on the rules, I came up with the idea of a SCW skirmish before the big match. I love this collection so having them on the table is never a chore. It will also get us back into the SCW swing having not played this period since November 2014.

A T26 and Pz1 advance

Our little scenario would represent the final push on the outskirts of the capital, with both sides feeling out each others strength prior to the main event.

Set Up

 Each grid sq is 2ft.

All terrain is as you see it, any reinforcements enter the table on that players entry point. Each player takes one of the entry points, Nationalist at the bottom of the table and enter on the first activation of their unit.

Nationalist Forces

Player 1 
1 x Legion HQ with 4 Figs (2 x Off, 1 x Sgt and 1 Std Bearer
3 x Legion Coys each with 8 Figs (Sgt with SMG, 1 x 2 man LMG team and 5 Rifles)
1 x HMG and crew
1 x Pz1 b

Player 2
1 x Moroccan Regulares HQ with 4 Figs (as above)
4 x Moroccan Regulares Coys with 8 Figs (1 x Sgt with Pistol and 7 Rifles)
1 x Pz1 b

Regulares advance through the cover of some woods 

Republican Forces

Player 1
1 x International Brigade HQ of 4 Figs  (as Legion)
4 x Int Brigade Coys of 8 Figs (1 Sgt with Rifle and 7 Rifles)
1 x Bilbao Armoured Car

Player 2
1 x Anarchist Militia HQ of 4 Figs  (3 elected for the day leaders and a Std Bearer)
4 x Anarchist Militia Coys of 8 Figs (all Rifles with 1 sort of in charge ish)
1 x FT-17 "Tank" armed with MG.

Through the Barricades  (all sing along)

Reinforcements 

Those of you who haven't seen our SCW games before, we give the players quite a lot of freedom how and what units and kit they get following the initial set up. We use a money system which can be weighted for a particular scenario, I've even bought some old Spanish currency to use.

For this game each side rolls a number of d10 each turn, every roll of 5 or below generates 10 pesetas, on the first turn the both sides have 10 rolls, after that it was 3 rolls each with a extra 2 rolls every 5 turns. The sides can then purchase more troops as well ammo.

The shopping list for both sides was;

5 psts 1d4 Ammo
10 psts 5 Ammo
10 psts 4" Barricade
15 add LMG to Republican Unit
20 psts add a Militia (Anarchist or Carlist ) Section / HQ
20 psts 1 Dynamitareos added to a unit
25 psts Add Int Brigade, Legion or Civil Guardia Section / HQ
40 psts Light Mortar
45 psts HMG
50 psts Heavy Mortar
55 psts Armoured Car
60 psts Anti Tank Gun or Light Tank (Nat only)
70 psts T26 Tank

Moroccan Troops taking cover

For rules we use our own home brew which is based around the Iron Ivan games Seven Coffins for Seven brothers set with a card activation system, event cards and the money side as described above.

AAR

We only set the one night aside for this so we had about 3 hours game time which was plenty to get to grips with each other. Luckily for the Nationalists they had good money rolls and could afford a T26 straight away, the Republicans opted to buy a couple of barricades and seal off their half of the table.

Republican Air flys over the table on route somewhere else.

The Republicans didn't get any luck with air support but the Nationalists managed one very effective run on the right hand barricade dropping bombs in the middle of the Anarchist HQ and taking out half the troops behind the barriers with their machine guns.

A unit of Legion had got the upper hand on some Militia in the foremost building on that side of the table using the extended range of their LMG and HMG to great effect.

The Legion in a firefight

On the other side of the table the other barricade had struggled too, the Brigadista behind it were engaged by a Pz1 and had nothing to reply with, the Bilbao joined in for support but was quickly taken out by a T26 from long range.

Republican Morale had started to fail with units getting pinned as our nights gaming came to an end. Nationalist Forces had only lost 3 men whilst the Republicans were closer to 20 so I would have to give the victory to Francos men. I don't think they will have it so easy in the University City game.

The Bilbao burns as a small unit of Int Brigade tries to hold out.

So I hope you have enjoyed our little SCW skirmish and will come back for the next installment when things get bigger.