Heading them off at the (No) Pass-aran

As regular readers will know Jon F kindly gifted me a battalion of Basque infantry for my SCW armies. It's been a week or so since I finished their basing, so they're about due on the table. As these were Jon's "skin in the game" it seemed only fair to let him command them, and for the Basques to take centre stage in a game.

Normally with the Tuesday games I have a couple of brigades a side plus extras to keep everyone involved. Rather than dilute the Basques, as I only have one brigade of them, I set up an afternoon (for me) /morning (for Jon) game with a brigade or so a side for the two of us.

The scenario is based upon the actions around the passes to the north of Madrid in late 1936, but I transposed it to the Basque country for the purposes of this session. As I knew that Jon would be commanding the Basques I was able to send him only his army's briefing, plus a sketch map so he knew his aims, but not his opponent's.

I will tidy the scenario up and add it to the resources pack, but Jon had three battalions of Basques, a reluctant unit of Asaltos, a field gun and some Trubia Naval tanks. I had four Carlist Requetes and some Civil Guards, plus an armoured recce unit, an AAA truck and some heavy mortars. Neither side had artillery spotters and each of us only had one joker asset, which was light bombers. Most of the infantry is untrained.

To be honest, this is the size of game the rules were originally written for, so it was good to give it a go.

Both sides want to take and hold the village and the valley road. The hills are only passable to open order infantry. The river is impassable to vehicles, but takes an activation for infantry. The hedges are just hedges. Carlists coming on from the left, Basques from the right.

I was keen to show you can use trucks safely. I rushed on my Civil Guards, and shielded them with my recce.

Jon brought on his artillery, and deployed it behind a hedge, which limited his line of sight. He then pushed his tanks up the road, and brought on own his painted Basque battalion.

Seeing that the tanks had used their activations, I drove my armoured car up close, and tried to knock one of them out. My Civil Guards are running for the village. The trucks are running interference.

Jon's Basques moved up to the river line. They spent most of the game there.

My joker came up early, but I wasn't able to sort out a long enough run of cards for a real damaging effect. It did shake them up a bit and pin them on the river.

The Asaltos and their accompanying armoured car arrived.

On my left a Carlist Requete started to scale the hills. I hoped to dominate the valley with my mortars.

A quick pull back so you can get a grip on where things are.

I bring on more Carlists, two in the middle and one on my right. I've made a miscalculation here that will cost me the game. Those units should be in open order, and one should be in the olive grove.

On my right my Carlists start to scale the foot hills.

Another chance for a wide angle view. A unit of Basques is entering the range of hills on the left of the picture.

Jon's tanks just went off road a bit and drove past my armoured car, so he could get at my infantry. I immediately swung my vehicle round and peppered the rear of the trailing tank, damaging it.

My AAA truck then opened fire on the lead tank, and again inflicted some damage. Alas not enough. My Civil Guards scuttle into the safety of the village.

I kindly allowed Jon an anti-armour shot from his field gun at a partially obscured target. He hit my armoured car dead on, destroying it completely. Curses.

He then swung it round and popped a barrage on my Carlists on the ridge line. Dammit.

I've got one of my central Carlist units into open order, but don't have enough orders for the other one.

Big picture time again. Jon's left hand Basques are making progress up to the hill-top monastery, and his Asaltos are starting to climb the other hills.

A loss of initiative means Jon can open fire with his tanks before I can get out of the way, and I lose my AAA truck.

Jon then attacks my open order Carlists with one of his tanks. The unit succumbs to tank terror and retreats off the table.

The other tank goes for the column on the road. The same thing can't happen again, surely?

It surely can, and they're off the table too. Oh Pea Aitch You Queue, as an old friend used to say.

In a fit of pique my Civil Guards close assault the Asaltos a/car, and destroy it. That'll show them.

Jon's joker arrives, but his airstrike falls short and hits his Asaltos. How sad.

On my right, the Basques creep closer, as the field gun keeps me pinned in place.

I try to clear out the tanks with some close assaults. It does not go well.

My Carlists and the Asaltos are exchanging fire from their respective ridge lines. Funnily enough this is going quite well for me.

On the other flank the artillery fire was lifted, and the Basques ordered to close assault. The net effect was that they ended back at their start positions with no harm done to either side.

On the other flank, however, my Carlists saw off the Asaltos, driving them back down out of the hills with heavy casualties.

A concentrated assault on the other wing sees two Basque battalions charge in on one unit of Carlists. It is a short, desperate, fight, but the numbers tell. 

The Carlists break and flee. That is over half of my infantry gone, so it's game over. The Bell has well and truly Tolled For Me.

So in the end I was strong on the left, and held the town, but I was down to two units against four, and the tanks had played a blinder. Funnily enough Jon's Basque unit never really got out of the starting blocks.

That was about three hours with chat, and played really well.

Yes, it'll be published in the next week or so.