Morning in Spain

Morning in Spain, looking back towards Italian baseline.

This photo is looking back over the central bridge where the CVs are. You can see the blue overalls of the worker's militia platoons, some in the village at left and some in the open between the bridge and town. The Italian militia (closest to camera) have swept around through the village and are about to engage the pinned militia in the open with fire. In the midground are visible an Italian infantry company, advancing towards the crossroads, and various other infantry advancing in the distance and through the woods. At the rear of the table are visible mortar support units and Italian trucks.

This photo was taken after the final turn had been completed and the markers which we use in the game removed. The Italian had had a dawn militia attack upon republican elements in village and woods. Reinforcements had arrived over the following hours, a battalion of infantry and a company of CVs. It is those CVs which have swept onto the two bridges in middle of table. They only did this with a turn to go, as Republican militia held out in the village, put up a bitter (though losing) fight for the woods nearest the river, and advanced reinforcement centurias up the roads. With only an hour of game time to go, it appeared that a draw was likely and a republican win possible. Then, the CVs swept through several gaps and stormed over the empty objectives (central bridge had been heavily shelled on previous turn by Italian artillery, and subject to air attack by a pair of CR 32 biplanes, which together had eliminated a centuria of militia that threatened to block the Italians with their lives).

For historical context, the Italians were part of the 1936 sweep to cut off republicans in Malaga. They had to get across the bridges to win this game. The Republicans were to buy time for the evacuation of Malaga. They had to deny one bridge for a draw, both for a win.

The games purpose (besides providing entertainment, which it did) was to test out the rules we are working on (Al Front!). We played it over four sessions, a couple hours per session. Not bad for a Brigade sized game. The scenery has moved on since then, and I look forward to posting pictures of our current set up.

I'm not sure when this will happen (as we have lives to live between games), so thought I'd post this to keep the blog active.