Don't ask the author - NQM for the SCW in SHQ

This is the sort of game that I'd usually play with my own "For Whom The Dice rolls" rules. However I'm on a mission to play SCW games at all the levels of resolution allowed by NQM, and this week I wanted to have a look at the Regimental level game (so called RSO). Over the last year or so we've been playing Corps (CSO) and Front (FSO) level games. When we started out on this journey a few decades ago we were mainly playing RSO, so this was sort of a blast from the past.

I went for the early period of the war, August 1936 to be more or less precise. I took my inspiration from the Legion's drive north to capture Madrid by way of Badajoz and so on. On the 6th, some books say, a Bandera and a Tabor encountered their first real resistance. Whilst they captured the villages and the bridges they were tasked with, they took heavy casualties from workers' militias, supported by Asaltos and Civil Guards.

Terrain details were sparse, so I improvised the above layout. As I don't have any hex hills, I put some foam under the cloth and hoped the players could sort it out as we went along. For the game I was joined by Chris K, Phil & Steve.

Chris played the Republicans and deployed first. The Asaltos occupied the Convent on the hill top. There's always a convent on a hilltop. But not using the Anarchists to defend it Chris saved it from being burnt down.

The bridge and village at the foot of Convent Hill was held by some Regular Army companies and the Anarchist militia.

At the other end of the table the village was held by Civil Guards and Communists. And Chris brought along a propaganda truck too.

The Nationalists were fully motorised. The Moroccans were sent on ahead. My newly painted motor cycle recce teams have hared up the road out of sight (they do not feature in any of the pictures, which is a shame).

Steve had the SFL and was tasked with capturing Propaganda Village. Taking control of the artillery he started to shell the buildings.

Phil disembarked and mounted an attack.

He was repulsed bloodlessly due to some really poor dice rolling.

Steve went in with one company of Legionnaires, and met the same outcome, more or less.

Steve tried another all out assault and was bounced with losses.

Convent village was hotly contested.

The artillery switched to supporting the Moroccans, who captured the buildings at one end of the bridge.

Steve got a foothold at the other end of the table too. The fighting was fierce as indicated by the yellow "out of ammo" markers. 

Steve brought up his Med & Log to reorganise so he could press home his attack.

The fighting at the far end of the table really sea-sawed as Phil was unable to gain a decisive advantage. This was despite the Moroccans being afforded a number of advantages, like being able to sustain attacks without reinforcements and re-org on the go.

Steve finally got control of the part of the village on his side of the river, as Chris voluntarily withdrew to conserve his forces.

With the Anarchists still holding on grimly to the bridge, the artillery trained its fire on them.

Steve pushed across the river, but casualties were beginning to mount, and he couldn't force any of Chris' units to break.

The Asaltos finally came down from their lofty perch, and counter attacked against Phil's Moroccans.

Phil's Moroccans forced their way across the bridge through their own barrage...(note Red Cross on building, denoting a casualty clearing station).

...and the Anarchists counter-attacked and took it back.

By this time we'd played about a full day of game time. Steve was holding the crossing at this end. The far village was still disputed, but Phil was rapidly running out of troops. Time to take stock overnight and call up reinforcements.

We had a number of problems whilst playing the game. The bases represent one strength point (1SP) more or less, and Chris announced that one die is rolled in Combat per 3SPs. I wasn't sure, but they're his rules and he was certain. That gave some odd results. We weren't rolling a lot of dice, and there were some points when we had to work out what bases belonged to what company, as a company still fights if it only has 1SP left. i.e you always round up. This could be used in a gamey fashion, which struck me as not quite right. Chris was distracted by the idea that my bases should be representing 3SPs, as that's what I usually use them for, and was convinced I had a real estate problem on the table. He thinks 1SP platoons should be represented by figures on 2ps. I like NQM as I think the same base can be used for a platoon, company, battalion etc as the area represented by the hex changes as you go up a scale.

A subsequent check of the rules this morning reveals we were playing it wrong. You roll a combat die per base. You can only roll it in attack if the base is undamaged, otherwise when it effectively has 0SPs it can only defend. So we should have been rolling three times as many dice. ALSO bases with a hit - i.e. platoons at 0SPs - are removed if the unit loses the Post Combat Outcome roll and are forced to retreat.

Now that would have been a very different game. This one will be refought.