Wargames Rules for the Spanish Civil War

Here are my thoughts on wargaming rules for the Spanish Civil War.

I like Crossfire and I have customised this as Fuego Cruzado: Crossfire for the Spanish Civil War but you have a variety of options:

Each of these options is described in terms of its scale, orders of battle, distinctive/interesting features, and finally comments and oddities about the rules.

Crossfire

Conliffe, A. (1996). Crossfire: Rules and organizations for company-level WW-II gaming. NY: Quantum Printing.

Designed for WWII but applicable to SCW. I have a version of Crossfire for the SCW and extensive material on Crossfire itself.

Scale of figures:

  • 15mm by default.

Scale of game:

  • Company/Battalion level; each stand represents a squad.

Orders of Battle:

  • Points based force composition.
  • The rules provide TO&E for WWII.
  • I’ve provided some TO&E for SCW.
  • The rules provide some generic scenarios, and the supplement ‘Hit the Dirt’ provides a whole bunch of specific scenarios for WWII.

Distinctive/interesting features:

  • No rulers because moves and shooting ranges are line of sight.
  • No fixed game turns because players retain initiative until one of their actions fails.

Comments and oddities:

  • Very clever.
  • Has artificial rules limiting vehicle movement, so that vehicles never dominate the infantry.

Additional resources are in my Fuego Cruzado: Crossfire for the Spanish Civil War section

Arriba España!

Cordery, B. (1989). Arriba España! Spanish Civil War Wargames Rules for 1:200th, 1:300th, and 20mm scales. Leigh-on-Sea, Essex: Partizan Press.

Scale of figures:

  • 10mm by default, but has variations for 5mm and 20mm.

Scale of game:

  • Brigade level; each stand represents a company.
  • Units are groups of stands hence presumably battalions, although there are no limitations for forming units.
  • An option is given for 20mm variation that says it is Brigade level but is probably Battalion level as each stand represents a platoon.

Orders of Battle

  • Generic formations are given at the back.

Distinctive/interesting features:

  • At set up roll randomly for
    • Competence of senior commander (Brigadier).
    • Political allegiance (anarchist, socialist, etc) of senior Republican commander with modifiers for the year.
    • Troop quality for each unit.
    • Air superiority (with modifiers for each side depending on the year).
  • Simultaneous actions achieved by:
    • Placing concealed action chits by each unit. Each unit can have two actions per turn. There are three possible actions: Move, Fire, Unpin.
    • Having placed action chits, then place priority chits indicating the order in which units will attempt their actions.
    • Having done that both sides go through in sequence of priority.
  • Republicans must roll for co-operation before units can move based on political allegiance of unit moving and that of the senior commander (Brigadier). If there is no co-operation then the unit doesn’t move this time.

Comments and oddities:

  • Looks a fairly standard set of rules. Phases and sub-phases. Ruled movement and ranges. Shooting affects morale; failing morale affects unit state (pinned and possibly retire/surrender). Close combat kills stands. Morale tests.
  • Distances are very tight, by which I mean table top ranges are very small. For example, infantry move 4cm cross country per turn, and small arms fire is 20cm.
  • Lots and lots of charts. Too many for me initially.
  • Too much seems to depend on the set up die rolls.
  • The alternate figure scales (5mm and 20mm) have different base sizes and a different ground scale, hence all charts that mention distances (base sizes, movement, firing ranges, morale distances) are reproduced for the other scales. I don’t see much point.
  • The 20mm Battalion level variation duplicates the entire rules almost verbatim – can’t see why.
  • Fairly brief, although the 4 variations on figure/game scale mean the rules are duplicated 4 times in the same booklet.

Bayonet & Ideology

Rules For the Common Man. (1994). Bayonet & Ideology: 15mm Battle Rules for the Spanish Civil War 1936-1939. Peter Pig.

Note: RFCM have put out a completely different set of rules with the same name. I haven’t seen the new set but I know they’re based on their grid based WWII game called PBI (Poor Bloody Infantry).

Scale of figures:

  • 15mm by default.

Scale of game:

  • Any. The rules do not specify what historical formation a stand corresponds to.
  • However, at most 1 in 6 stands can be a command stand, so, for example, if each stand is a pelotn (half what we would think of as a platoon) then the commander represents a captain as there were 6 pelotón to a company.

Orders of Battle:

  • Points based force composition.
  • Provides some generic scenarios.

Distinctive/interesting features:

  • The only effect of own command stands is to impose morale tests on the enemy, up to one per command stand.
  • Killed stands affect morale of nearby friends, and stay on the table until removed at the rate of one / turn.

Comments and oddities:

  • Looks a fairly standard set of rules. Phases and sub-phases. Alternate movement followed by simultaneous shooting, close combat, morale phases. Ruled movement and ranges. Firing kills or pins stands (at shooters option); close combat kills stands. Stands can “save” to avoid being killed from shooting. Killed stands affect morale of nearby friends. Morale tests.
  • Much looser feel than Arriba España, i.e. table top distances are bigger. For example, infantry move 15cm cross country, but small arms fire is still only 20cm.
  • In general this looks an abstract set of rules intended to get a bunch of figure on the table to have a bash. Won’t appeal to realists.

¡Primera Batalla!

Stine, K. and Conley, C. (??). Disposable Heroes Coffin for Seven Brothers: Infantry and Vehicle Small Unit Skirmish Wargaming in WWII. Iron Ivan Games.

Gardner, J. and Conley, C. (??). ¡Primera Batalla! The Spanish Civil War 1936-39. Iron Ivan Games.

Jayson Gardner, one of the authors, brought this game system to my attention. Disposable Heroes Coffin for Seven Brothers is the WW2 Skirmish Rules by Iron Ivan games. ¡Primera Batalla! is the Spanish Civil War supplement – I presume you need both books to play the game. I have seen neither the rules or the supplement so can only report what Iron Ivan Games says about them.

Scale of figures:

  • Iron Ivan Games says “you can play in 15mm, 20mm, and 25/28mm with ease, even 54mm.”

Scale of game:

  • 1:1 skirmish. Iron Ivan Games says “the basic maneuver element is a half squad or support unit and single vehicle” and that the rules are appropriate for “platoon sized engagements up to full company level games in 1:1 scale”

Orders of Battle:

  • The main rules, being for WWII, contain “basic army lists (German, American, British, and Soviet for late war)”.
  • The supplement contains “Squad level TO&Es of all the main factions participating in the” Spanish Civil War.
  • “The army lists provided contain easy to use unit ID cards and include a built in points system for players who wish to use historically accurate forces while playing a balanced game.”

Distinctive/interesting features:

  • .

Comments and oddities:

  • Iron Ivan Games says it has an “initiative system, alternating unit activation, realistic weapon and cover usage, a dynamic morale system for infantry and vehicles, as well as a target acquisition system to make vehicles more realistic”. “The game minimizes counters and is virtually chartless for infantry. No charts are used to determine a combat result, though some are used to provide organized information. Spend more time playing and less time looking things up! The only dice needed are several ten sided dice. ”

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