Generic orders of battle for Fuego Cruzado – my variant of Crossfire for the Spanish Civil War.
Note, a Crossfire Platoon corresponds to a Section in a real Company of the Spanish Civil War. I’ve adopted the Crossfire terminology here to avoid confusion.
Generic Infantry Battalion
The Infantry generally had the following organisation.
Crossfire – Generic Infantry Battalion
- 1 x BC
- Battalion Heavy Weapons
- 0 or 1 x Mortar and FO *
- 1 Machinegun Company **
- 4 x HMG
- 4 x Infantry Company **
- 1 x CC
- Company Heavy Weapons
- 0 or 1 x LMG ***
- 3 x Rifle Platoons
- 1 x PC
- 3 x Rifle Squads
* Some battalions, notably Nationalist units later in the war, had a mortar assigned to the headquarters.
** The official organisation for an infantry battalion was four rifle companies and a machine gun company. Few ever achieved this organisation, and most real battalions dropped either a rifle company or the machine gun company.
*** Unlike their WWII counterparts Spanish Civil War Companies lacked integral heavy weapons. Normal companies of the period are assumed to have only one LMG per platoon; such “normal” companies don’t have a LMG stand. Certain units (the Foreign Legion, the International Brigades, Communist units, dismounted Cavalry, Assault Guards) are given a LMG stand at the company level to reflect the fact these units typically had a full complement of LMG (2 per platoon = 6 per company). This LMG stand operates like a HMG stand for all game purposes reflecting the high firepower of these units.
Generic Cavalry Regiment
Cavalry normally fought dismounted as infantry. When dismounted a Cavalry regiment has this organisation:
Crossfire – Generic Cavalry Regiment
- 1 x BC
- 1 x Machinegun Squadron
- 2 x HMG
- 4 x Sabre Squadrons
- 1 x CC
- Squadron Heavy Weapons
- 1 x LMG *
- 3 x Sabre Troop
- 1 x PC
- 2 x Rifle Squads
* Cavalry, like certain other types of unit, had a higher complement of light machine guns (three per troop). This is represented by a LMG stand at the company level; this stand operates like a HMG for all purposes once dismounted.
Support Units
All units, except Militia, can call upon elements of their higher level organisation, which typically means they have access to:
For both Republicans and Nationalists
- HMG squad or even a whole company
- Mortars (all off table with a FO on table)
- 50 mm
- 51 mm (2 inch)
- 81 mm
- Artillery (all off table with a FO on table)
- Italian made 65 mm Infantry Guns
- 70 mm Mountain Gun (the 70 mm Schneider M08 was the main Mountain gun in use before the war).
- 75 mm Field Artillery (if on table it is optionally horse artillery; the 75 mm Schneider M06 Field gun was the main field artillery in use before the war – for both field and horse artillery)
- 105 mm Field or Mountain Howitzer (the 105 mm Vickers M22 and the 105 mm Schneider M19 were most common instances before the war)
- 122, 150, 152 and/or 155 mm Heavy Artillery
- Anti-tank guns
- Italian made 37/45
- Tanks / Armoured Cars
- Renault FT-17 (both machine gun only, and cannon equipped versions)
- Engineers (but not Assault Engineers)
For Republicans only
- Dinamiteros squads (max of 1 attached to any non-Dinamitros platoon) or complete Dinamiteros platoons.
- Anti-tank rifles for rifle squads
- Mortars (all off table with a FO on table)
- 82 mm
- Artillery
- 45 mm Infantry Guns
- 76.2 mm Field Guns
- 107 mm Field Guns
- Anti-tank guns
- 37 mm
- 45 mm
- Tanks / Armoured Cars
- BT-5
- T-26
- FAI Armoured Cars
- BA6 Armoured Cars
For Nationalists only
- Mortars (all off table with a FO on table)
- 45 mm with Italian crews to support Italians only
- 80 mm
- Artillery
- 65 mm Infantry Guns – with Italian crews?
- Anti-tank guns
- 37 mm PaK 35/36 with German crews
- 88 mm Flak 18 with German crews
- Tanks / Armoured Cars
- Panzer I A and B – with either German or Spanish crews
- CV-33 and CV-35 with Italian or Spanish crews
- CV-33 Flame Thrower version
- Autoblinda IZ Armoured Car
- Captured T-26