There has been some discussion on the Internet lately, as to the reasons for the seemingly sudden interest in the Spanish Civil War. Since I have been involved in studying and gaming it for more than 12 years, (longer I think than Pat Condray), I thought that I would put down on paper, some of the reasons I got involved in it. Let me say from the outset, that this is a difficult war to portray on the tabletop, without getting involved in the question of the "black" wargame (a term that we haven't heard used too much in recent times), tactically, it is very much a combination of World War I and early World War II, but it is the facets that surround the actual gaming side, that give the conflict life.
The recent death of my dear friend and Spanish Civil War Aficionado Supreme, Robin Hunt, got me to re-examine the reasons why I became involved originally. I have to confess from the outset, that I have a certain fondness for the more unusual conflicts, I am more likely to build armies for the Russo-Polish War, than I am for the Fall of France, and the Italian vs. British phase of the war in North Africa, than the race for Tunis. Yes, you can say that I definitely march to the beat of a different drummer, militarily speaking.
At first glance, the casual student of the conflict, is greeted by a bewildering maze of political alliances, parties and unions, all struggling for supremacy. To dismiss the war simply as a struggle between Communists and Fascists, is to lose all of the subtle shadings of Spanish politics that give the war its color. I don't want to go into a detailed history lesson, I'll list some bibliography at the end that will provide you with that if you are interested. Let it suffice it to say, that the struggles that engulfed Spain in the 1920s and 30s, which came to a head in the war that started in July of 1936, had in fact been building for at least a hundred years previously, and to some degree, can be directly linked to the two Carlist Wars of the 19th century.
The feelings that divided the classes and strata of Spanish society, ran deep, and were woven into the very fabric of life in Spain. In some respects, it is surprising that the war did not happen years earlier, but the "wait and see" attitude of the people delayed the violence until 1936 perhaps, they needed only the additional spark of the communists versus fascist debate to light the fuse.
The Spanish Generals, Franco, Mola, Yague and others, expected to have an easy time of it, rolling over the "Loyalist" forces with little effort. They were very wrong, and after a seemingly quick start, the war ground down as the Loyalists or Republicans dug in an showed that they intended to fight for their own beliefs as hard as the Nationalists did for theirs. The regular army and militias that fought the early battles on both sides, were quite evenly matched, in experience, training and equipment, all basically minimal, it was not until Franco's Army of Africa was airlifted to the mainland, that the character of the war changed for the worse. The airlift itself, was one of the more remarkable achievements of the pre-WWII era, accomplished as it was by numerous crossings and re-crossings, and purportedly by tying the Moorish Regulars to the wings of the shaky JU-52s!
Few struggles in human history, have created a body of literature that is anywhere close to that which grew out of the Spanish Civil War. Hemingway, Orwell, Spender, Dos Passos, Malraux, these are but a few of the literary notables for whom the war was an endless source of inspiration and experience. The war seemed to inspire a passion in all who were involved in it, on both sides, and it is this passion I think, that has attracted so many gainers to the period over the past year or so. For me personally, My "Journey of a Thousand Miles", began with the few steps to my local hobby shop, and the purchase of the English magazine, "Military Modelling".
That issue in particular, contained the first of a series of articles by Robin Hunt on his interest in the war and his attempts to bring it to life on the gaming table. He later did a similar but somewhat briefer piece for "Practical Wargamer"'. The series of articles served to bring the war to life for me, and following up with some of the bibliography Robin suggested, I found that I had become completely hooked. A sideline to the gaming involvement, was that I began a 13 year friendship through correspondence with Robin, that went far deeper than simply two gamers corresponding about the hobby, and I have kept all of his letters, and will definitely put them in a safe place.
That was as I said, about 13 years ago, and I have been studying the war ever since. Several times, I have started to assemble collections to game the period, once even doing a fair number of 54mm conversions and doing skirmish level gaming in that scale. Always though, something seemed to stop me just before the collection really jelled. Now however, since Robin's death, I have felt almost a duty to set up a new collection to game the war properly in his memory. I think to some degree though, I have gone off the topic, that is what draws gainers to the period. There are I think, several fairly easily definable reasons, that I will list in detail.
1. Its colorful! Where else in the years before WWII, can you field troops with Flags, bright red berets and assorted colored scarves, side caps etc.?
2. It doesn't require a load of armored vehicles. The "blitzkrieg" had yet to be developed, and what was used, were basically high priced machine gun carriers ( except for the T26 ), even the heaviest tank employed, the BT5, was a light tank by WWII standards. They were used sparingly, and when properly employed, could turn the tide of a battle, especially since the available anti-tank weapons, were correspondingly primitive.
3. You can still deploy cavalry. Ok, not a whole lot, but cavalry did still function in a classic role, mounted and with drawn sabers.
4. Militarily, it is not a complicated war. This is tied to the above. You are dealing with a limited variety of troops and equipment types, and with tactical systems that are more Horse and Musket than they are World War II. Its more about the effective use of combined arms and available resources, than gun calibers and armor thickness.
5. You can deploy a bewildering variety of aircraft, ranging from WWI vintage biplanes, to JU-87s And all of them fighting for supremacy at the same time. You can look up at the sky over an SCW battle, and see planes from Italy, Germany, France, Great Britain and Russia, representing every possible stage of inter-war aircraft development. Very nearly all of the aircraft that flew in the war, is available in model form.
6. It is basically non-partisan. In this regard, it is similar to WWII gamers playing the Eastern Front. I think that we would be less likely to choose a "good guy"or "bad guy" in these games, than we would if it were a game involving the British or American armies versus the Germans.
7. There is the chance to use some troops for more than one conflict. The Italians, can easily be used to play the invasion of Ethiopia, or the Libyan campaign of WWII, while the Spanish Foreign Legion and Moors, can be used for the savage campaigns against the Rifs in 1920s Morocco, which also featured French involvement.
8. You can choose from several levels. It is easy in this conflict, to portray actions from skirmish level up to major battles, using the same figures. It is simply a question of organizing or identifying them in a different manner depending on what they are needed to represent for a particular scenario. It was very common on both sides during the war to assemble "hodgepodge" forces, made up of several companies from different units, this makes it easy to field forces at different levels, and also allows you to collect a wider assortment of troop types.
9. There is plenty of background available for scenario development. You can choose from any of the great books or movies on the war, or any of the many published memoirs to create good scenarios.
In short, there are a great many reasons why gainers would want to play the Spanish Civil War, and now it seems that several figure manufacturers are jumping on the bandwagon. Along with the fine ranges already available in 20mm from HPC, and 15mm from Peter Pig, there are several other ranges either new or under development. There are a few sets of rules written specifically for the war, that try to capture some of the struggles between the factions, as well as the action on the battlefield proper, in addition, it would not be difficult to modify existing WWII rules that you may already use to deal with the peculiarities of the conflict. I know for a fact, that there is at least one variant of "Crossfire" for the period, and the larger scale "Spearhead" rules come to mind as another possibility. In one of my early attempts to do the war on the tabletop, I even tried an adaptation of my own favorite rules, "The Sword and the Flame", which worked pretty well, but needed a lot of figures.
If you are tempted, but not sure, then I would recommend that you do some reading on the war. There are a number of excellent works available, new and older rare works, but to get a general overview, I would suggest that you pick up the three related volumes from Osprey; The Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939 The International Brigades in Spain, 1936-1938 The Spanish Foreign Legion.
They have the advantage of being readily available, and provide a clear and concise picture of the struggle, without getting too bogged down in the politics of both sides. In addition, the color plates should go a long way towards inspiring you to paint up figures to fight the war on the tabletop. I would strongly urge you to borrow form the Library, a copy of Hugh Thomas' work, simply titled The Spanish Civil War. It remains 40 years after its original publication, the standard study of the conflict. A new edition of the book was released a couple of years ago, that greatly expands the scope of the material based on newly released documents and research. I suspect, that once you start to read, you will be drawn as I was into the "Spanish labyrinth", and you will start to feel the passion, as you read of the stirring speeches in the Republican frontlines of "LaPasionada", or the heroic leadership of Moscardo at the Aicazar. If I have one complaint from the wargames standpoint, it is that the published memoirs and histories are generally one sided, written from the point of view of the Republicans, and there is very little available that gives a good picture of the way the war was waged by the Nationalists.
I guess that you can surmise from all of the above, that the for me, the Spanish Civil War, is a bit more than just another wargame period, it is a study, an interest, an obsession. I had the opportunity for two semesters, to teach a Graduate Level course on the war, and enjoyed it immensely; it gave me the chance to look at the war from a more intellectual viewpoint. I have even become a contributing member of the only veterans organization for survivors of the war, the Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Briizade and its sister organization, the Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives which have done a great deal to bring out bring out volumes of memoirs and new research on the war. Their newsletter, is another good source of ideas for scenarios.
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© Copyright 1999 Hal Thinglum
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