There are times when you find something when your least expect it. Last March was one of those months. I was selling figures at a local hobby shop flea market, when I stumbled upon some used military history books. Among the items was a beat-up booklet called Viva El Cristo Rey! Wargaming Rules for Spanish Civil War of 1936-1939 by Pat Condray. He must have published himself with old Courier photographs of his battlefield layouts, though there were so many typos, it wasn't funny. If I ever decide to play it, I'll have to retype the charts and do up my own orders of battle (since none are provided)! However, the rules are really playable and should flow smoothly (unlike the author's typing). Viva El Cristo Rey! is a 20-mm scale game set at what I assume is to be a battalion or regimental level. A game sequence consists of the following: Orders Phase, Movement Phase, Fire Phase, & Close Combat Phase. This completes one bound. Two bounds make a game turn. Condray leaves scenario design to a referee. With all these drawbacks in mind, you may be wondering why I think this rule set has any potential. First, the different troop types and scenario possibilities are endless. A person could dream up a campaign where several Republican players (each representing a different political faction) team up to fight two Nationalists players. The inherit instability of the Republican forces would make it a challenge for the players involved (though the smaller Nationalist forces would probably have an easier time of it). Secondly, morale is handled differently in Viva El Cristo Rey! than in most wargames. There are two types of morale: training and morale. This reflects the fact that some troops, like the Elite Archarists, Blackshirt Militia, and Basques could be as enthusiastic or motivated as Franco's Moorish regulars, German, or Italian forces. So some players might command really poorly trained Republican militia led by a fanatical Trostkyite leader, or conversely a Nationalist player might have some lousy Spanish conscripts and early war Falange militia reinforced by some Italian or German forces. Once I rework the orders of battle, I believe Viva El Cristo Rey! could become an excellent campaign or convention game. I'll now do the figure review. Condray has a two-page "catalogue' of Historical Products Company for his 20-mm SCW line. It covers Nationalist Infantry, Nationalist Militia, Moorish Regulares, Italian infantry, Republican infantry, Republican militia, International Brigades, paramilitary forces, cavalry, and field guns. He also lists some distributors that sell Renault, Russian, German, and Italian tanks. The figures and miniatures look pretty good from the photographs, though I was told that HPC products are almost now impossible to get (I'll look into this more, later). If that's the case, then any 15-mm figure range should also work well for the period. If anyone wants to eventually doing a Spanish Civil War scenario or game, please let me know at BlakeWalker@USA.Net. or call me at (314) 487-0259. I'll then go to the trouble of reworking the orders of battle and quick play charts if enough people are interested. Of course you ALL know that HPC products are available and are advertised in these pages. Pat Condray does tell me though that there is not a new edition of Viva El Cristo Ray so you'll have to suffer through all the typos and everything else. Be kind to poor Pat, after all he's an old fart like I am and so is set in his ways and not liable to redo something already done. (MB) Back to Dispatch Apr. 99 Table of Contents Back to Dispatch List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1999 by HMGS Mid-South This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com