Band of Wargame Brothers: Spanish Civil War- Bolt Action

Spanish Civil War- Bolt Action

Having played a couple of games of Bolt Action with the boys, Phil liked these rules so much he suggested we use them for a Spanish Civil War shoot out. I thought why not? Figures were laid out, terrain was placed, forces allocated and with a cry of "No Pasaran!" it was on.

Roger played the Nationalists (AKA Fascist Bastards) and I played the Republicans (AKA Good Guys, Communist Bastards, Anarchists etc etc)- you get the idea.

A simple scenario, with Phil umpiring, saw the Republicans (communists/anarchists/regular army and international brigades) holding a village in late 1936 with a combined force of armed thugs..er sorry Spanish Foreign Legion and Morrocan Harkas (regiments) attacking them to take the fortified village.

The three Moroccan Units- all classed as veterans and fanatics...scary guys with long knives and no sense of mercy.

Using the classifications in the rules (inexperienced ,regular and veteran) we made allocations based on our own distorted/informed/prejudiced/idiotic/biased perceptions. The Legion and the Moroccans were classed as veterans with the fanatic special rule for both to reflect the viciousness that both displayed during the war and their predilection for close combat and their refusal to take prisoners. The militia, I suggested should have been super elite combat troops......but Phil for some reason disagreed and we classed them as inexperienced. I then suggested that the International Brigade unit should have stormtrooper elite status, be parachute trained and be airmobile with a complement of Apache helicopters and laser assault weapons.
His comment was unrepeatable, but they did get classed as regular.
So on one hand we had some inexperienced militia types backed up by some good regulars, being attacked by tough veteran assault troops.

The Communists militia defend the barricades! Their shooting just seemed to upset the Moroccans and the Legionnaires.

The Republicans also had two Medium Machine Guns (MMGs) and one was placed on the first floor of a building and a second was in a sand bagged position that covered a small hill on the edge of the village. The Legion and the Moroccans launched a direct assault with no preliminaries and no support weapons. They went in bayonets and all with a Viva La Legion! The first Moroccan Harka suffered severe casualties as they advanced in the open and were hit by the two MMGs and rifle fire from the communists and the anarchists.
While they paused to rally and regroup the second Harka passed them by and stormed the barricades with more fearful losses. They smashed the defenders in a brutal round of melee and then stormed across the village taking more hits. The third Harka hit the building with the MMG and despite taking over 50% casualties stormed the building and put the defenders to the knife.
On the Nationalist right the 1st Legion Bandera also suffered heavy losses as they advanced. They stormed one barricade and then fought another bloody melee. The 10th Bandera also stormed a barricade, took severe losses and then was vanquished by accurate rifle fire from the International Brigade unit. The last Bandera of the Legion, the 4th, would destroy a militia unit but in turn would suffer horrendous casualties and be shot to pieces by the last remaining militia unit. In the end the attackers suffered way too many casualties to effectively occupy the village and were forced to withdraw.

The Spanish Legion hits the barricades.

A very close fought game with a numerically superior force of poorer quality troops defending a defensive position against a smaller number of much better quality troops. Casualties on both sides were very high.....but a gripping close fought game. So as far as we are concerned, using the statistics for some of the Pz Is and IIs and the Soviet T26 we are going to play lots more Spanish Civil War games!

Another militia unit moves up to support their comrades at the barricades.

The Republican MMG fire thru the first story window in support of the militia.

Another regular republican MMG.

The Battlefield. The Republicans hold the village to the left, the Moroccans in 3 lines to the right...and the Legion assaulting the barricades at the top of the photo between the houses.