Comrades,

I recently ran a SCW scenario at our local wargame club using Command Decision III. It was an early war scenario, basically a partly ruined town lay in the center of the board, occupied by a militia force of a battalion of CNT, a battalion of UGT, a company of Asaltos and a company of Dinamit‚ros. On a hill overlooking the town there were two companies of the local Guardia Civil holed up in a large ruined building complex (fresh out of churches, used a burned two story apartment from Scenic Effects). The local militia commander had encouragement to go do something about the situation.

The board, set up in a hurry, was fairly bare of cover, although there were dry ravines (barrancas) entering the board from the north and south. The local commandant, in this world an ex-US Army officer decided that terrain must determine route of attack, intelligently sent a battalion and a half with the two good companies through a wheat field and olive grove to attack the hill from the North. The Guardia had little luck in spotting until the militia emerged from the woods. Sucessive attacks by the Dinamiteros, the Asaltos, and the UGT were thrown back with serious losses, some from the machine gun platoon supporting the Guardia, and some from Opportunity fire volleys at close range. Fire power of everyone but the machineguns were 1, and although the Republicans had a light machine gun armed platoon, with a higher RoF but rifle range, it was quickly silenced.

Then, as the Reds rose for one more try, a Republican reinforcement column emerged from the barranca on the south side of the map, ready to assault the hill. Leading the way was a PCE battalion, followed by a battery of 75mm guns, a machinegun platoon, and two companies of Carabineros with another machinegun. Things were looking unhappy for the Guardia, and the local militia rose to the attack with enthusiasm.

Alas for the cause of liberty, as some biplanes of an indeterminate type blundered over the board at this exact moment, and, searching up the road from the embattled hilltop in the direction of the nearest Red stronghold, they discovered the trucks with the 75mm battery. They carefully dropped their bombs from medium altitude and got the truck with the gun crew in it, inflicting a hit and pinning them. Worse, far worse, every other Republican unit in the reinforcement column rolled a 9 and went to ground!

Worse was to come, ­Qu‚ mala memoria! as behind the militia lines north of the hill there debouched from the road a column of white turbaned cavalry! followed by a truck that deployed a battery of 65mm guns across the road. These failed to see any targets, but the Republicans caught sight of the Moors between them and their town, and the UGT battalion, already shot up, ran for the olive groves, not to be seen again. The Anarchists, who had just committed their last troops from the town towards the hill just as the cavalry, and two companies of regular Spanish Army (fascist) showed up behind them, panicked and ran towards the South.

Here the Italian airmen were having a field day, going in low to strafe the column. No further casualties were inflicted on the prone Republicans, indeed, they used their rifles and machineguns well and hit the planes, but the latter passed their morale check while the former did not and the column stayed pinned.

The death in action of both the commander of the Asaltos, followed shortly by his whole command, and of the commander of the Dinamit‚ros as well left little hope for the residue of the Santa Theresa local militia.

As the game was concluded, the commander of its militia, still alive, was crouching adjacent to the fortress of the Guardia firing his pistol at the windows. The Guardia had taken few casualties, the local people's forces had been essentially wiped out, and the reinforcement column had spent its time on board pinned by one pinch‚ group of airplanes and had hardly gotten a shot off.

As a result of the game there seems to be revived interest in CD III, as well as the SCW. The commander of the fascist relief column has just placed an order with Historical Products for some Spanish Army troops, and is muttering about scratch building some Lewis gun teams.

The referee can hardly be blamed for the rotten luck that brought in the fascists at exactly the right time, as it was, indeed, this correspondent, who double hatted as the commander of the Republican reinforcement column.

You can't believe how badly I wanted to bring on my I-15, recently painted with an extremely small penguin with a red neck tie! He would have swept the air of the bandits! I just couldn't get the dice to summon him!