Naval Power
If, as I suspect, you are having a little 'flak' over the war at sea, then I'm not surprised. This is so often the way, and many wargamers (I've been at it since 1963) are unable to come to terms with "water wars". Britain like most European nations is no longer the great seafaring power it once was, nor is Spain.
Yet, since Iberia is a sea-girt peninsula,with numerous islands and colonies;and Spain at the time of the Pronunciamento had fleets, significant naval dockyards of great antiquity, and a naval and maritime tradition stretching back over a thousand years,to ignore the Spanish Navies,and their roles in the conflict is simply ridiculous. Stalin's T26's did not fly to Spain, nor did the bulk of war materiel sent by the Germans and Italians!
My only advice to younger wargamers is this,try using ships and naval warfare as an adjunct to field campaigns. Naval battles have the frequent benefit of being fairly brief affairs, and involve quite manageable sized forces. There's less cost, less painting involved, and consequently less time consumed. About six months ago, I bought and painted a small Nationalist flotilla, ten vessels in 1/600 scale, from Skytrex, Skywave and Matchbox. Three S-bootes, two MAS boats, an armed tug, two armed auxiliary trawlers and a small armed merchantman. Total cost, under £ 12. Total painting time, one evening.I cant even begin to compare that with the time it took me to build my unit of three Pz.I's from Fujimi, which cost about the same all told. I bought four Soviet G-5 torpedo boats recently (that's every single one which the Republic had!) from Skytrex and still had change from £ 4. They took less than 30 minutes to paint.
We all have our blind spots in warfare and research. I think for example that much of the material in "ABANDERADO" has a feel which might be better placed in say "Oral History" itself a very learned and respected journal, covering the kind of remimscences which so often appear, and would undoubtedly appeal to a wider academic audience.
Then there's aerial warfare. Well, no-one can doubt that the Spanish Civil War saw the start of many of the less pleasant pastimes of bomber commanders, and the clear supremacy of aircraft over ill prepared men on the ground, and isolated ships at sea. I bought Don Featherstone's book on air warfare back in 1968, if memory serves me.
Quite frankly in all the passing years, I've never ever been able to stage or produce an effective, realistic air wargame, especially above the wargames table in 25,20,or 15-tnm scale. I can however use aircraft over the 1/600 and 1/1200 scale naval battle , and I do. It would be excellent reading indeed, if one of the many air wargamer's who read "ABANDERADO" could write a simple, quick and playable air wargame using the aircraft available to Nationalist and the Republicans. I'd certainly give it a try.
(ed - I have had some flak over the amount of naval articles, however this doesn't represent a swing to this area - it just reflects the fact that several readers have sent me some excellent articles which deserve to be read. In the next issue will be Rob's article on wargaming the sea war in 1/600th-1/700th scale and a brand new set of playable airwar rules from the Exeter wargames group.
Last Issue's CD3 Scenario
I should add a few details and corrections to the account of the CD III described in the June 98 issue. I ought to know, it was played at my house and I supplied most of the stuff. In CD unit ratings are crucial, they were:
- Republicans:
- International Bn- veteran MG 9
Ejercito Popular Bn- 1 regular MG 8, 2 trained MG 7
Nationalist:
Falange Bn- trained MG 7
CTV Bn- 2 x regular MG 6
Note that there was only one 4 bn Republican brigade plus detached units in the defence not two as the article seems to indicate. I was a Nationalist player and this makes our performance seem a good deal worse than it appears at first glance, especially in view of the fact that we had three air strikes not one.
I think that Command Decision is an excellent set of rules to play the SCW. We play the rules as written, the most common weapons used in the conflict are already rated in the equipment booklet. However, given the paucity of radios in the conflict, we do not allow forward observers to move.
I'd just like to say that I enjoy "Abanderado", keep up the good work.
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© Copyright 1998 by Rolfe Hedges
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