Copyright © 2024, Philip Robinson. All rights reserved. This work may not be reproduced, in whole or in part without prior permission of the creator

Thursday 7 October 2021

Un Paseo Al Sol

 A return to 1930's Espana for this weeks game. The scenario saw the Guardia Civil holding an important rail crossing held up in the adjacent station building with an approaching Republican popular army force.

Coming up in support was a platoon of Foreign Legion with two squads of Moors in advance of them.

This was a most unusual game using Bolt Action rules which are usually blood baths over such relatively open terrain both sides causing few casualties to each other. The game ran to a seventh turn with no clear winner a winning draw for the Republicans being decided upon.
Photos from the action follow below.
The Republicans Advance

La Legion Advance Through The Copse To Counter The Advance On The Right

The Moors Hold The Centre

A Squad Of Carabineros Advance In Support Of The Republican Advance





An enjoyable game, but still lacking the feel for the conflict I get from reading accounts. I am still unable to put my finger on what is missing, food for thought, perhaps the late Robin Hunt nailed it when he wrote in his Military Modelling article, "to really understand you have to be Spanish"

Until next time continue to be careful out there and KBO.


29 comments:

  1. Very nice Phil.no doubt you will get there.

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    1. Thank you George. After nearly three decades, perhaps I am looking for something that cannot be replicated in a game of you soldiers.

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    2. Toy soldiers, bloody fat thumbs I need a bigger phone.

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  2. Superb looking action, Phil! Keep posting your thoughts on why BA may not be modeling your impressions of fighting during the SCW. Was the result dice driven this time or something else?

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    1. Thank you Jonathan. I think I have come to conclusion that using WWII rules is never going to be a solution and will have to just play the period in the head rather than on the table.

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  3. An excellent looking game. Perhaps racking up the central heating and getting a bigger wattage light bulb may solve the feelings issue?

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    1. Thank you Matt. Not a bad suggestion with winter coming on too, add in some San Miguel, manchego, serrano ham and olives too. But can I afford it with energy prices set to rocket?

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  4. I like the light bulb suggestion! It was indeed a very atypical BA game, clearly we both need new dice.

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    1. See above. Very tempted to buy some new ones Sunday🙂

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    1. Thank you Neil.It was certainly interesting.

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  6. Great looking game Phil. Especially like the look of the cornfield👍 As to rules I wonder if some gentle/more modifications to BA is the answer. I have found the mechanics and the approach in BA really good, one of the elements for feel may be the equality of the unit sizes I suspect in SCW units were actually very random in size. They would also have been pretty poorly armed so reducing their firepower is an obvious option ? But these will reduce rather than increase casualties 🤔

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    1. Thank you Matt. Both sides had squads of 5 or 6 and I used my 3man small team hose rule, the Legion and Moors were classed veteran and the Republican Popular army regular. Perhaps at this stage in the war both sides were looking and acting akin to WWII forces anyway? So I maybe there or there abouts regards "flavour"

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  7. Lovely table, visually it does give SCW, so perhaps some tweaking of Bolt Action is needed to do the flavour thing. There is a blogger (S. Bagalan) who is a big fan of Crossfire WWII rules and he has done a SCW variant that may hold some flavour that you could use.

    Here is a link to his relevant page;

    https://balagan.info/fuego-cruzado-crossfire-house-rules-for-spains-wars#more-2077

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    1. Thank you Norm. I have looked at Steve's site when I was considering getting Crossfire, I shall have to revisit. I have a couple of SCW mods for Bolt Action, which I do use problem is remembering to do so, always a problem with "special rules" looking at Bolt Action reports it's amazing how many forget Tiger Fear, but that isn't a bad thing🙂

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  8. Lovely looking game, the dry stone walls are ace! I wonder what it is you're missing, can you put your finger on it?
    Best Iain

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    1. Thank you Iain. I can't, I think that is a big part of my problem, perhaps what I am looking for isn't relevant in such low level encounters.

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  9. A lovely looking game Phil…as always.
    I think the problem with finding suitable rules for the Spanish Civil War is trying to find its wargaming historical place… it’s not WW1 and it’s not quite WW2.
    I wonder if using Back of Beyond might be an option…

    All the best. Aly

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    1. Thank you Aly. I think you have the root of the issue there.
      I will dig out my copy of Setting the East Ablaze and check them out.

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  10. Great looking game Phil. Trying to capture the essence of the conflict is tricky, even at Battalion level using the supplement for BKC. As with all civil wars, it was nasty and vicious, with little quarter shown by either side. Early on units were very much 'grab a gun and go to the front', with digging in not seen as 'manly'. Very quickly after the obvious casualties from fighting in the open and experience gained, it turned more into early WWII IMHO.

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    1. Thank you Steve. I think you may be right there Steve, I find the early period is certainly where I feel more at ease with how the games play out.

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  11. Lovely looking game Phil. Might I suggest a glass or two of good Rioja and perhaps some authentic Spanish tapas?
    Cheers
    Matt

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    1. Thank you Matt. I did have Rioja and a paella one time.

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  12. Great looking - figures and terrain. We used BA a few times for SCW but in the end actually settled on A World Aflame by Osprey as our rules of choice for the period. Thanks for sharing.

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    1. Thank you John. I do have a copy, must dig it out and give them a try too.

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  13. A lovely looking game Phil.

    Cheers,
    Helen

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