SCW Republican Raid Part 3

Republican Raid - The 3rd and very final part

Well I was hoping for an exciting write up detailing the cut and thrust of a Republican attack, the lines flowing back and forth as both sides battled for supremacy, sadly that's not what happened, one word covers it and that is massacre.

View of the Killing Fields, a Legion unit with deployed LMG wait the advance on a rooftop.

The Anarchist group currently elected to suggest things for the troops to do, but to suggest them in a none confrontational manner whilst realising that they are no better than the rest, look the other way towards the Legion and Carlists.

This bad boy took the Republicans roughly from behind without even buying them a meal and a drink first.

Those of you familiar with the TooFatLardies rules will recognise this card as the Tea Break card, for the SCW we spent hours coming up with a radical new name for the card for our game and settled on Siesta ;-) Those of you unfamiliar with the rules may not know the significance of it. Basically each turn is run by an activation deck, each unit has a card in the deck, when the card is drawn that unit can fire, move or reserve its fire until the end of the turn. However if the Siesta card comes out the turn ends, any unit can move towards the nearest cover or fire (if it passes a morale check) if its card has not come out.

The start of the ill fated attack, the Anarchists in the foreground have already been pushed back.
The Republican plan of pushing units forward to draw fire so other units could use the cover of the woods to attack the less heavily defended redoubts just didn't work, every turn the Siesta card came out early, always after the Legion had fired and usually leaving one or two units out in the open to get shot at. The result was unit after unit getting wiped out, the Republicans unable to co-ordinate the attack due to bad luck with the cards just died in droves in the killing ground.

The Republican casualty pile from the attack. Not a pretty sight.

And that was that. No one was sitting round the camp fires celebrating singing 'Viva la Quince Brigada'

One of the things I like about the TooFatLardies card system is the unpredictability of it, however it makes it extremely difficult to co ordinate a large attack involving a large number of units, just like it would be in real life. In the 4 or 5 years we have been using these type of rules this has been the worst outcome as a result of the way the cards were drawn. I'm also still not sure about the card activation system for larger games, it leaves some people who don't have their cards drawn out of the game. It works well for a couple of hour club games but the larger weekend games I'm not sure yet. In the back of my mind I'm thinking about having cards activating larger bodies of figures, maybe having two Siesta Cards with the turn ending on the second card or using separate decks of cards for different zones on the battlefield. Any thoughts or solutions would be gratefully accepted.

So that was the end of that. Next up we travel back in time to the AWI, a new game starting Sunday using British Grenadier.

SCW Republican Raid Part 2

Spanish Civil War - Republican Raid Part 2

With two widely spread bridges over a river the game quickly developed into two separate battles, the Nationalists had a hidden set up using the TooFatLardies blinds idea. You might spot the small beige discs in various terrain features, there is one of these for each hidden unit plus an additional disc per unit, units become visible when they are spotted or they fire.

Bilbao Armoured Car from Force of Arms

Things on the Republican right flank didn't go according to plan, 1 unit of Irish, the HQ and the MG rolled towards the bridge on the road, in a typical "recon by death" move. It worked and the Nationalists opened up with their MG from the redoubts.

The right flank grinds to a halt on Turn 1

The infantry debussed and legged it into the old toll booth house by the river. They were just putting a brew on when a hidden unit of Carlists charged the building from the nearby wood. The God of Dice was on the side of the righteous and the Republicans ran screaming back over the river without firing a shot.

Not the best photo, but it shows the victorious Carlists in the Toll House, the HMG and HQ diving for cover in the scrub. By this time the T26 has arrived, Art Observer can be seen hiding behind it. You can also see one of our random event cards, giving extra accuracy to the tank along with one of the wooden casualty markers which we use to record Ammo.

Clearly it was time to spend some dosh and the Republicans purchased one of the three T26 driving straight out of the show room onto the bridge with the Artillery Observer in his camouflaged sombrero. It didn't take too long before the Carlists were wiped out, both Mgs from the T26 and the rallied Vickers being way to much firepower for them.

A Nationalist T26 arrives unseen and sneeks through the village.

Whilst occupied by the Carlists the Republican T26 is unaware of what is about to hit it. A loud bang on the side of the turret certainly wakes the crew up ! No damage caused but the vehicle is pinned. In one of those magical moments when all the dice go right, the Republican tank, rolls the dice and unpins itself, it rolls the dice again spots the unseen enemy tank, rolls again with its last dice (our rules allow vehicles three actions a turn) and hits it. Another roll for hit location (Nationalist tank is hull down so 50% chance the shot will bounce of the redoubt) hits the turret and wallop the Nationalist T26 loses its main armament. The crew however survive and carry on in their mobile armoured machine gun carrier.

The right flank calmed down after this, the Republicans didn't commit much more resources to this flank, probably due to the open ground in front of the redoubt and a long range duel continued for the rest of the session. The Nationalist T26 continued with its run of "luck" and was struck by a 75mm Art shell which ripped a track off, turning it into an immobile armoured machine gun carrier.

The end of the session saw the "Mad Priest" carrying bundles of dynamite forward with his beloved Carlist brethren, it forced the Republican T26 back over the river, No one messes with the Priest !

A walk in the park ?

The left flank started more slowly, a cautious advance lead by the UNL and a unit of Irish followed by the Anarchist conga had pushed over the river, the Irish debussed and were heading for the orchard whilst the Anarchists (after pausing to reorganise as they were advancing in sequential number order ) where heading for the farm buildings. Then they heard a noise overhead.......

Anarchists run for cover as a captured plane attacks the column

The air attack took out the UNL using its "balls of death" (two round bomb templates side by side) and strafed the Anarchists. This however was only a minor set back, with some good luck on the money front ( a Lottery Ticket win in the random events ) the Republicans just bought another T26 and sent that down the same road.

A T26 and more Anarchists advance past the burning UNL.

The Carlists put up a stand in the wood to the north of the orchard but were overwhelmed by numbers, the session ended on this side of the table with the Republicans regrouping, a number of units were out of ammo and awaiting supplies, a line had been formed waiting the start of the offence towards the village and hopefully for the Republicans the ammo dump beyond. The Nationalists in the meantime and been slowly filtering some Foreign Legion units into the town and had placed an Anti Tank gun in the redoubt waiting the oncoming assault.

Top photo shows the first unit of Legion arriving with its transport in the village, the bottom photo shows the one sided battle for the wood.

Game night is this Thursday when we will play to a finish, will the Republicans smash through the Fascist lines and declare victory for the people or will the Nationalist crush the rebel scum and win the day, tune in and find out.

SCW Republican Raid Part 1

Spanish Civil War - Republican Raid Part 1

Last weekend saw the start of a new game set in the SCW at Castle R.

The background was as follows, the Nationalists have paused in their advance using a river as a natural barrier to reorganise prior to the next big offensive. Leaving a light force of Carlist Militia to cover the river crossings and supply dumps, the remainder of the force is forming up nearby. Republican recon has spotted this opportunity and has sent a flying column to force the river crossings and capture supplies.

The table layout, Republicans attacking up the table from this view point across the river, taken at the end of the first days gaming.

The Republicans start with a company of International Brigade (Connolly's Irish} and a HMG all motorised ( For our rules this is a Command of 4 figs including a CO and a Standard Bearer and 3 units of 8 figures armed with Rifles ), a UNL 35 Armoured Car, along with an off table battery of 75mm field guns and an observer attached to the HQ, who start off table heading for the bridges.

The Nationalists start with a company of Carlists and a HMG as well (same organisation above ) they have three unattached lorrys based at the supply dump as generic transport.

Our rules use a purchase system to upgrade units, buy reinforcements and ammo, each turn each sides rolls for extra money to buy goodies. To add to the flavour of the game I bought some old Spanish currency off ebay.

The International Brigade form up under cover ready to advance whilst the Anarchist Conga moves up.

Each side rolls a number of d10 each turn, every roll below 5 generates 10 pesetas, on the first turn the Republicans had 15 rolls, the Nationalists 10, after that it was 2 rolls each with a extra 3 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

The Republicans had a company of International Brigade (Mac Paps) and 3 Companies (with 4 8 man Rifle units + HQ) of Anarchists available to buy along with 2 HMGs, a Heavy Mortar, 2 Light Mortars and an Anti Tank Gun.

The Nationalists had a company of Carlists, 2 companies of Legion (same organisation but smaller 6 man units with integrated LMG) and a company of Civil Guard (HQ & 3 6 man units) along with a light mortar, a HMG and an Anti Tank.

Later in the game a Nationalist redoubt containing a T26, an anti tank gun, a Carlist HQ all protecting the Nationalist money stash.

In the "car show room" there were 3 T26's to buy along with the old faithful FT-17, 2 Armoured Cars (another UNL and a Bilbao) and 3 CV33 Light Tanks which were only available to the Nationalists.

The house rules we use are a mixture of various sets, Disposable Heroes, A World Aflame and TooFatLardies influences are all in there. Each turn uses cards to activate units with Event Cards mixed in to spice up the game and make it less predictable, it works for our group.

In the next post I'll cover the first sessions gaming.