Another report from the Spanish front

Last Monday an old friend (Tim Gow of "Megablitz and More") came down for the day to discuss the fall out from my redundancy. As we first met over a wargames table it would be rude not to have provided him with appropriate entertainment after our business meeting.

For the afternoon I subjected him to "Call it Qids". His account of this game is given here: Megablitz & Qids, but I failed to take any pictures, so no story on this blog. Besides, I've rather done it to death on these pages I fear.

For the evening we were off to our usual venue for another healthy round of saving Spain from Fascists/Reds, depending on your outlook.

I've been keen for Tim to give SNTK a go as he's a 20th Century aficionado, so this game at last provided a chance.

As we had a guest we got a decent turnout and were able to have a couple of players aside. Phil and Tim took command of the Fascists, made up of a force of SFL & Moroccans, together with some Regular Army and a squadron of Condor Legion tanks. They were charged with evicting a strong force of Reds from their defensive line.

The Reds had some IBs and militia and a goodly number of T-26s, and were led by Richard and Ian.

Having laid the game out I realised I'd left my camera behind. As such you'll have to go to Tim's blog again for some pictures and a battle report: Megablitz goes to Spain.

For my part I got a lot of useful feedback from the game. I clarified a number of areas I needed to look at in the rules, to whit:

• The role of Army Commanders
• Saving rolls
• Artillery hit absorption
• The use of trucks, loading and unloading
• Plane and tank terror
• Airstrike pinning effects
• C&C for armour
• Effectiveness of light mortars
• Unit fire discipline
• Definition of what constitutes cover
• Hand to hand modifiers
• Number of commands given in a turn
• Moving/stopping/setting up heavy weapons
• Effect of damaged bases
• Whether casualty removal is possible
• What die type to use for the initiative roll.
• Clarify when Training or Commitment dice are rolled

It looks like a lot but most of it is clarification or tweaking the numbers.

So a good evening's work and, I must  add, a hilarious time had by all.

Next Monday we're back playtesting DBA 3.0. That's the same day that I start my contract in London, so I'm hoping the trains will be kind to me and that I get back in time to take part. Ally this situation with the repeated need to visit ageing parents at the weekend and I'm starting to wonder where my wargaming time will be coming from in the future.