SCW: Battle of Illesca

Another AAR.  We seem to have had more wargames this year than in the last ten put together, which is of course a good thing as it concentrates the mind and gives us a chance to find out if those rule sets off the internet, which look good on paper, actually look good on the table.

Basque anarchists hiding behind a wall

The set up here was a Spanish Civil War (SCW) game using a free set of rules called Honour the Dead and the scenario was meant to represent an action from the Republican advance on Madrid in October 1936, at a village called Illesca.

It all seems rather quiet.  Too quiet.

The playing area was Geoff's kitchen table and the terrain and figures were his.  The troops were mainly from Warrior's 20mm SCW range, with the Republicans (attacking) comprising three companies of infantry supported by a Matchbox Renault FT-17 tank.  The Nationalists had a company of Falangists, a company of Moroccans, 2xHMG and a 75mm field gun, with the job of defending the village.

Republicans start to advance.

Due to the narrowness of the table and/or a faithful recreation of SCW tactics, the Republicans attacked directly towards the village in line formation, preferring not to advance through the cover of the woods and rough ground flanking the village.  The Nationalists were generally hidden within the village itself although the Falangists decided to jump over the wall into the graveyard in order to defend the wall nearest to the enemy, thus making themselves visible.

Man struggles with frozen eel as Falangists move through graveyard

The Republicans continued their advance with the Renault taking fire from the 75mm (which missed) which in turned fired at the Falangists and missed.  The rest of the Republican infantry continued to move forward.

75mm field gun with Russian crew

However, in the next move the 75mm managed to immobilise the Renault and general firing from the previously hidden defenders commenced with some effect, with the Basque anarchists taking particularly heavy fire from the Moroccans and the supporting HMGs.

Basques trying to get into cover ASAP

In the next move the Renault was hit again and the crew bailed out so that was that.  Meanwhile the infantry continued their advance through steady, though oddly ineffective, fire from the defenders.

Republicans advance past immobilised tank.

By the next move the Republicans had managed to get to the graveyard and after a swift tussle threw the defending Falangists back.

Republicans at the walls

Meanwhile the Basques had reached the convenient wall in front of them but were pinned down.

Basques in position, unwilling to advance further

By this point we were running out of time, but after some heroic die throwing (and by manhandling the 75mm up to a better position) the Basques started to take some serious casualties and were quickly finished as an effective fighting force.

Some of our Basques are missing

At that point we had to leave it but the overall situation was that the Republicans probably weren't going to win as they had no heavy support and they had been stopped in the centre entirely.

Situation at the end of the game.

Overall, it was an OK game although the rules seems a bit laborious as units had to inflict/accumulate multiple Disruption Points (DP), influenced by Morale Ratings and Ability Ratings, and after a while DP were translated into elements to be removed, (eventually) resulting in reductions in fighting ability.

HMG on the roof AKA "The Basque Suppressor"

DP could go up as well as down, being 'rallied off' meaning that even though a unit had been under sustained fire it did not necessarily follow that there would be anything wrong with them after that. Anyway, that's another set of internet rules tried out and ticked off, so on to the next!