Guadalajara Revisted

One of the things I have been trying to do is to set up facsimiles* of actual SCW actions, and then running them through the rules mill to see if I get similar outcomes. This meant I was back at Guadalajara, with a similar, but slightly tweaked, set up to the last time I tried it. On the table this time was the actual CTV orbat for the Littorio Division, faced by a cutdown International Brigade.

The aim was to run it twice, once with the Monday Night Group on a Tuesday evening, and then with the Quarterly Shedquarters gathering (known as the 9th November group) shortly afterwards.

The Italians have to drive up the road, and capture the town at the end near the camera. It has been raining, and off road travel is difficult for wheeled transport. The road is wide enough to allow vehicles to pass each other. The column of arrival sequence has been pre-allocated by the umpire, and the Italians start part way up the table. For this game Richard and Ian shared the Fascists. Jon had the Republicans. There are two IB battalions, one in the centre olive grove, and one in the grove farthest from the camera. A crack unit of Asaltos with their Bilbao armoured car is rushing up the road in support on the left..

Here's a look at the Italians in all their off table glory. That's a Lancia armoured car out front as recce. The trucks have playing card tokens from a "Play 5" set, which cross reference with the cards on the units off the table.

Richard decided to just "go for it" and stormed into the village with his recce unit. Jon brewed it with his  concealed field gun.

The rest of the column moved up the table at speed.

After two movement increments his trucks were at the edge of the village, and he had one more activation to disembark.

The Bilbao storms up the road, and hides itself in the olive grove, to shoot at the AA truck on the road.

Jon's heavy mortar battery in the village opens up and hits the tail of the truck convoy.

The Italian artillery (it's on the table, near the other village) tries to target the Bilbao armoured car, but it scoots away to save itself.

The IBs in the central olive grove deliver a round of firing, then execute a bayonet charge. It routs half the "2 spades" battalion.

Then some Republican aircraft turn up and strafe the trucks further back on the road. The aircraft should probably be pointing the other way. Unless they over flew, chose a target then circled round to attack it. 

Yeah. That sounds plausible.

I can't recall who inflicted all that damage on the "Ace of spades" battalion. Could be that field gun that knocked out the recce unit.

From the other side of the table. The IBs charge again, wiping out 2 spades.

Meanwhile the Asaltos have been creeping round the olive grove from the road. They deliver a round of fire (ah! that's where the hits came from) and then overrun the Ace of spades battalion.

Meanwhile, the Asalto's armoured car has gone back up the road, and shot up the AA truck.

Now this is getting messy. The Nationalists call down fire from their howitzers on the IBs that overran the central unit (2 spades).

Then it turns out that previous strafing run was merely reconnaissance. The SB2s arrive, and deliver a heavy payload on the road. The outcome isn't pretty.

The Italian shelling succeeds in destroying one of their own trucks.

The CV35s gang up on the Bilbao, and destroy it.

Then the next truck goes up on the road. Running out of hamster bedding here....

Well, that about wrapped it up. The CTV is completely broken, with pretty much all of their infantry incinerated. They've got their CV35s, an MG battalion and their howitzers (you can see them at the back of the table), but everything else is smoking.

We haven't seen many decisive victories in our evening games, but that was one.

I think that shows FWTDR works just fine for Guadalajara. Okay, so the Italians were a bit gung ho, and perhaps should have shown more caution, but the originals didn't, so that was a good work out. Being tied to the road did for them, once the aircraft showed up.

Just need to reset it for a replay the following day.

Phew!

* By facsimile I mean a refight, but not an exact one.