An Island Challenge

It was down to me to put on the game this week. I was going to do some ancients, but then I thought it would be good to return to the Spanish Civil War. Casting around for inspiration I wondered about basing a game on the invasion of the Balearic Islands in 1936. 

The information on the invasion is infuriatingly both precise and vague. The standard works in English (like Thomas) tell you the outline story. The Republicans from Catalonia invade the islands in May. They conquer all, before they land on Majorca, where they establish a big beach head then sit down and stop. At this point they have the support of the Republic's Navy, and air superiority - which means they have some planes, and the Nationalists don't. The Nationalists then get some Italian aircraft, the Navy withdraws, and in September the Nationalists counterattack and the Republicans are thrown off the island in short order. The reprisals are then, as you might expect, horrendous*. The best accessible account in English is on Richard Barber's blog, which has a decent orbat, a map and some pictures, but is light on what was where and when.

Consequently this is certainly a "based on" not a recreation. I went for the Nationalist counterattack, rather than the landing. I chose to focus on the northern end on the beach head, and pitted about a third of the Republican defenders against the main Nationalist strike force. That gave the Republican defenders six battalions in three groups plus an artillery battery, and the attackers three battalions and a battery.

This is the initial set up, with some changes to names to stress this isn't an actual refight. I had a look on Google maps, and did a street view walk around to get a feel for the terrain.

The Nationalists were better quality in both training and motivation, and had a higher army efficiency rating. I also played about with the activation suits.

This gave me a Nationalist force that looked like this:

		Training	Motivation	WTC	Activation Suits
Los Handos Regiment*	3 x inf coys 1 x  HMG coy	Trained (d8)	Committed (d8)	2	Hearts, Clubs, Diamonds
Civil Guards Tercio	4 x inf coys	Trained (d8)	Committed (d8)	2	Clubs, Diamonds
Falange Bandera	3 x inf coys 1 x  HMG coy	Trained (d8)	Fanatical (d10)	2	Clubs, Spades
*Motorised with trucks

 

		Training	Motivation	WTC	Activation suits
Artillery Battery	2 x 75mm field guns	Trained (d8)	Committed (d8)	2	Hearts, Diamonds

The Republicans had the following:

Socialist Workers Militia
		Training	Motivation	WTC	Activation suits
1st Column	3 x inf coys 1 x  HMG coy	Untrained(d6)	Reluctant (d6)	0	Hearts, Clubs
2nd Column	3 x inf coys 1 x  HMG coy	Untrained(d6)	Reluctant (d6)	0	Hearts, Clubs

 

Anarchist Workers Militia
		Training	Motivation	WTC	Activation suits
1st Centuria	3 x inf coys 1 x  HMG coy	Untrained(d6)	Reluctant (d6)	0	Diamonds, Spades
2nd Centuria	3 x inf coys 1 x  HMG coy	Untrained(d6)	Reluctant (d6)	0	Diamonds, Spades

 

Mularca Workers Militia
		Training	Motivation	WTC	Activation suits
1st Battalion	3 x inf coys 1 x  HMG coy	Untrained(d6)	Committed (d8)	1	Diamonds, Clubs
2nd Battalion	3 x inf coys 1 x  HMG coy	Untrained(d6)	Committed (d8)	1	Diamonds, Clubs

 

Artillery Battery
		Training	Motivation	WTC	Activation suits
Artillery Battery	2 x Field Gun	Trained (d8)	Reluctant (d6)	1	Spades, Hearts

Both sides had an Off Table Assets selection, which was mainly air support.

In Shedquarters Richard ran the Republicans, ably assisted by Steve and Jon on-line. In true Republican fashion Steve and Jon were left to argue about who should be in overall command. Steve got the job. Richard ran the local militia, Steve was the Socialists and Jon was the Anarchists.

For the Nationalists, Chris was on-line in overall command (he had a stinking cold, and wasn't up to coming out this evening). He had Tim help him in SHQ.

As you can see from the set up, this was also an excuse to get out my fishing fleet, and my Bellona wharf.

The Nationalists started the first turn with an automatic 6 on their initiative roll. Chris chose to bring on his entire force at point B. He got on his regulars, and debussed them, followed by the Civil Guards. Steve's artillery was on them in a trice, pinning the regulars in the open.  Chris' inexperience with the system showed here, I think. 

This meant that his priority next turn was to get his guns on the table to suppress the fire holding up his advance.

Jon started to bring down his Anarchists from his lofty perch on the hill top, and sneaked through the woods.

The Falange militia moved on through the woods on the other side of the table, and the Civil Guards dispersed into more open order. Luckily for Chris, the artillery fire had been ineffective.

Richard shuffled his militia round in the village. The village is split into three defendable zones for game play purposes. Chris started to fire at the village, and inflicted some casualties.

Jon's Anarchists continue their sweep round the edge of the village, and in the spirit of true worker co-operation, rush forwards to  support the militia in the village. Even if they might include members of the petit bourgeois. Steve's Socialists reluctantly take a step out from the port.

The Los Handos regiment fire a volley, then charge home.

The militia are thrown out of their position in disorder, suffering massive casualties, but survive their "It Tolls for Thee" test.

The Civil Guard aren't doing so well. Richard has succeeded in subjecting them to fairly effective fire, and they seem to be trapped in the open.

Steve's Socialists try to evict the Los Handos with a bayonet charge. They are "bounced" with minimal damage on both sides.

Jon continues to skirt round the edge of the village. Me, I'd have got into the sunken road, but Jon was right, as the Civil Guards had a lot on their plate.

Which soon included at strafing run from the Republic's surviving airmen. It didn't cause a lot of damage, but the Guards went to ground and were Pinned.

With the Civil Guard in a bit of a state, what with having been shot at and bombed and all, Jon positions himself for a confrontation...Anarchists v Police. That could be tasty.

The Anarchists charge home, firing from the hip and cheering wildly (at least in my head they did). The Civil Guards are scattered to the four winds.

But what's this? Mussolini's finest flyers swoop in to cover the rout (!). Their fire isn't that effective, but Jon's boys panic and flee.

Chris has gone to bed by now, citing his illness as a justification. Seeing his position crumbling, Tim desperately needed a game changer. He stopped shelling the Republican artillery so he could focus on a different target. Quick as a flash, Steve started to shell the Falange hiding in the woods.

The Nationalists in the town were becoming increasingly beleaguered. With nothing to distract them, Jon's Anarchists were letting them have it in no uncertain terms.

The Nationalists in the village die to the last man, and we call it game over. A win for the Republic, but at some cost.

It was a lot of fun to get back to using these guys. The lack of armour and other heavy weapons in no way distracted from the game. This is a good size for the rules because although they work really well up to Divisional level, they were originally written for "Column Warfare". Perhaps it's time I got the Legion out again.

I think that the Nationalists could have done better, and more familiarity with how the rule systems work would have helped. Jon is a great proponent of getting your artillery on first if you can, and dictating the pattern of play with it. I would not have come on from the side, but used the other two entry points, and built a jumping off position in the sunken road. Even so, it is still a tough ask, given the need to attack troops in cover who outnumber you 2:1. It might be, based on the historical effectiveness of the two sides, that I should push the Nationalists all up to Experienced/Fanatic status, and give them an HQ section with mortars. Also, they were unlucky not to get any air strikes early on as their Off Table Assets were more lethal.

Anyway, everyone seemed happy and we had no IT problems. So that was a win as well.

* And, jarringly, end up as a plot driver in an episode of the BBC's daytime sun and sand detective series "The Mallorca Files" episode "Son of a Pig".