I recently got my hands on a few copies of Spanish gaming magazine ALEA. This is the closest thing the Spanish have to Command/S&T but unlike those publications caters also to figure and fantasy/role players also. It also differs in that not every issue features a game. Also, it should be noted that generally there graphics are not up to the standard one expects. They have only recently been made available with English rules translations. It may come as no surprise that many of there games feature battles or campaigns involving Spanish armed forces.
ALEA #12 MOROCCO 1926. This is an operational level game on the final campaign by Spanish and French forces to end this Moroccan revolt against colonial rule. The Spanish army that participated formed the base of support for Franco years later during the Spanish civil war.
First impressions are poor as the map uses some odd choices of colour. Roads are red against the tan background of the map. Villages are represented by a dark green triangle which, whilst looking dreadful, also gives no feel for the type of terrain it represents. Counters are neat and functional but some have been printed in the wrong colour. Replacement counter faces are provided. Some Moroccan units have a white bar across there face for no reason covered in the rules.
The aim of the Spanish/French player is to capture as many villages as possible in the twelve turns this game lasts. The map is split into four geographical regions and the more villages that fall within a region, the more likely are Moroccan unit from that region likely to lay down there arms. This is rather like a variation on the part played by kraals in XTR'S LIKE LIONS THEY FOUGHT. To assist in this task they have air support, artillery, engineers and some armour. The player should also be aware that some of his indigenous Moroccan troops may not like what they see happening to there fellow countrymen and join them in revolt.
The Moroccan player has the benefit of highly defendable terrain and support from his own artillery. Also the Europeans supply lines have to be traced back to a road or rail net leading to a friendly map edge. Moroccan units can trace a path of any length to a friendly village. This makes sending some units around the allied flank to cut there supply there most effective strategy. European supply lines become to long to prevent this from happening without striping the front line of troops.
I found this to be a solid, well balanced game, on an unusual subject. It provides an interesting game for both players. However, there are many better games on the market so this is for those who are interested in this particular period or campaign.
ALEA #18 EXTREMADURA 1938. This games covers the Nationalist attempt to pocket Republican forces in the Extremadura province during the Spanish civil war.
This games comes with no surprises and uses standard wargame procedures throughout. Units that avoid enemy zones of control can move at twice the movement allowance but suffer an unfavourable die mod if attacked by there opponent in his following combat phase. This particular rule is important as this is the only way the nationalist player will be able to create the historic pocket on turn one. Combat is based on odds with units required to be within range of there H. Q to attack. Combat is odds based with step losses and retreats being the result. Air support is provided by some superb counters with full colour profiles of such models as the Heinkel HE70 or Polikkarpov 1-15 . If only they had not printed them in the opposing sides colours. Add a few panzer divisions and this would be a typical east front/WW2 game. Not everybodys cup of tea I know but I must confess I enjoyed this game and its certainly one I will be playing again but then I like WW2 eastfront games. Whether this particular battle was anything like that is debatable but as a game I think this is a success.
ALEA #20 DEFEAT IN BURMA. This is supposed to be a simulation of both the 1942 & 1945 campaigns in Burma. It suffers from a serious lack of development. This lies mainly in the area of the supply rules. Units trace supply to friendly cities (Allied), any hex in China (Chinese) or Thailand (Japanese). Supply lines can be any length and take any path, provided its free of enemy zones of control. This allows players to trace supply over mountains and through thick jungles for forces of any size, quite out of the question. Another area of dispute would be the costs of terrain on the TEC. As they stand mechanised unit can move faster and further through all terrain types. From this game we can conclude that a large mechanised blitzkrieg would have served either player best, particularly as supply poses no problem. Burma could have been overrun in a fraction of the time it took historically.
As you can see Defeat In Burma is a very poor game. This is unfortunate as graphically it is quite an improvement, apart from the fact that the hexes on the map are smaller than the unit counters causing all sorts of problems. One of those games to avoid at all costs.
Back to Perfidious Albion #93 Table of Contents
Back to Perfidious Albion List of Issues
Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List
© Copyright 1996 by Charles and Teresa Vasey.
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