NQM SCW in SHQ revisited

We gave the SCW scenario we played a couple of weeks back another go, having clarified a number of rules points. I rotated the terrain through 180 degrees so that Phil, who always sits in the same place, got to play the other side.

Steve and Chris were also in the room. Chris joined Phil with the Republican defenders and Steve took the Nationalists, both reprising roles they'd played before. For this game I got rid of the 1SP platoons and just had 3SP company bases. All the command stands were 1SP. I also modified the Post Combat Outcome roll to include the difference in unit quality, something we all thought was missing for the SCW in the previous game. The only other change to the RAW was to allow the MG companies to fire at 2 squares range

Chris surprised me by using the  armoured car with the Asaltos as a recce unit. He pushed forwards boldly to disrupt Steve's advance.

Steve's recce were also surprised, and fell back, allowing his first unit on the table, the Moroccans, to collide with the recce car, swiftly followed by the rest of his infantry.

Steve opened the combat by shelling the Civil Guards in one of the villages ineffectively.

He followed this up with a full blooded assault by a Bandera of the Legion. This was unsuccessful.

The Moroccans at the other end of the table stormed one end of the bridge, evicting the Anarchist militia.

Phil brought up his Popular Army companies to counter attack against the Legion.

The Moroccans drove the Anarchists off the bridge, but declined to cross it.

The Bandera were having mixed fortunes. They repulsed the Popular Army, but lost out to the Civil Guards and fell back.

Undaunted at the other end of the table, Chris sent in the Asaltos, and got the Anarchists to try once more.

The Anarchists were driven back again, taking heavy casualties, but not enough to break them.

Phil brought up the Popular Army once more, and attacked strongly out of the village. Steve seemed a little stunned by this, and lapsed into passive defence.

Chris meanwhile tried to disrupt the Nationalist artillery by attempting to overrun it with his armoured car. He led a charmed life, surviving despite taking a two hits.

The Moroccans resolved to clear the village, and attacked over the bridge, routing the Anarchist militia at last.

In return they were caught in a crossfire from the Communist militia and the Asaltos, and had to fall back.

The Bandera stood their ground, and shot off the attacks on it, expending copious amounts of ammunition. The yellow counters are out of ammo markers.

Falling back from the attack on the guns, Chris used the recce to scatter Steve's Med and Log units.

Phil had another go at Steve's Bandera. I think I got this wrong, and he may have attacked without allocating reinforcements, which is not normally allowed.

Having reorganised, the Moroccans had one last go at clearing the village.

In a welter of sixes the Asaltos and the Militia inflicted enough damage to overload the rifle companies, leaving the surviving MG to hold the bridge.

It was a frenetic game, resulting in a win for the defenders, as the Legion needed to fall back and completely re-organise and call up some reinforcements before proceeding.

The Strength Points in the game favour the defenders, being 26 Nationalist v 34 Republican, plus the Republicans are for the most part in medium cover. Using the quality differential in the Post Combat Outcome roll worked well, and I will persist with it for games at this level, and will also expand it to include any other opposed die rolls, like the Recce roll [Edit: This is already a rule. Can't believe I've missed it. Probably because mostly units are the same quality, so it doesn't matter]. Even so, this game showed me that NQM is a numbers game, by and large, rather than one of quality. Although I do think Steve should have tried to used all of his troops to take one village then attack the other from along the other river bank. 

The historic encounter this game was based upon was a victory for the Nationalists, but at a heavy cost and they were unable to advance without further reinforcements. One writer notes it was the first time Franco's columns had met any serious resistance, so that side of it played out okay.

I think I've sorted my understanding of RSO level pretty much. I might want to run the British Battalion at Jarama in the near future, but my next target is to have a go at the Divisional (DSO) game.