The Battle of La Montana Del Monasterio.

The first moves see the Nationalists seize the crossroads and their tank holds the center as the infantry prepare to assault the hill . The Republican tanks and infantry move down the road to try and capture the crossroads as their infantry take possession on the hill .

The Republican tanks drive off the the Nationalist Heavy Infantry from the crossroads , I'm using the chance cards from the book and the Republicans got very lucky as the tanks was able to fire twice and the Nationalist Heavies received 15 casualties so they are removed from the table .

I've made some mini dice holders to keep score on the casualties unit suffer , here the poor Heavies have enough to take them off the table.

In the center the Republicans lost a unit to a combination of tank and infantry fire and a chance card that made them panic and get a D6 extra casualties .

The Nationalist assault on the hill was driven off with heavy casualties , but the Republicans lost another Infantry unit in the center . The Nationalists still held the disputed crossroads but were suffering a lot of casualties from the enemy tanks .

The Nationalists lost their tank unit and had to retire to the crossroads after the infantry there were eliminated . The Republicans were able to detach their Heavy Infantry from the hill and move up across the corn fields to pour fire into the retiring Nationalists . The Republican tanks moved up to take the crossroads and win the scenario. The Republicans lost 3 units and the Nationalists 5 , so a convincing win for General Benavente as he captured both objectives . The Nationalists have had to pull back to lick their wounds and I'm going to dice for the next scenario and for the forces which will take part in it . The game was very quick to play and the use of the chance cards added a new dimension to the game .

 

No pasaran ! Spanish Civil War Campaign

 

I've been looking through Neil Thomas's 'One Hour Wargames' book wondering how to use it and hit on the idea of using his 'Machine Age' rules from the book with my 15mm Peter Pig Spanish Civil War figures .  He mentions playing a campaign using 5 of the 30 scenarios in the book and linking them loosely together . The forces are decided by a dice roll and use a maximum of 6 units per side which is great as I can do this by the existing figures I have with minimal painting of figures .

    The first scenario - a pitch battle - you dice for a scenario from each group of 6 scenarios . The forces deploy 6" in from the top and bottom of the table and the victory goes to the whoever holds the hill and the crossroads .

The table as set up , the buildings, walls etc are purely scene dressing and do not influence the game . The crossroads are nearest the camera and the hill top left .

The forces , at the top the Republicans 3 infantry units , a heavy infantry unit and 2 tanks .Nearest the camera the Nationalists 4 infantry , a heavy infantry and a tank . He uses only 4 troop types in the rules but as I didn't have any cavalry painted I substituted tanks which are mentioned as an option . The Heavy infantry represent troops with heavier armament and better morale .

The Nationalist General Luis Rosales deploys his troops ., is he saying "I want that tree cut down for a start !" ? 

The Nationalist army, nearest the camera an infantry unit and a heavy infantry on the road to seize the crossroads and hold them , in the background 3 infantry and a tank unit which will attack the disputed hill .

The Republican commander General Jancinto Benavente discusses his strategy with his staff .

The Republicans , On the road their 2 tank units and a infantry unit which will attack the crossroads then an infantry unit which will act as a reserve and in the background a heavy infantry unit and the remaining infantry which will take and hold the hill . The next post will be the battle itself .....