Great War - Spanish Civil War mods.

[Arlequín]

As I mentioned in a previous thread; I intend to use the Warhammer ‘Great War’ rules for the Spanish Civil War. While the majority of the rules can be used straight from the book, there are a few additions I felt were necessary. In addition I’ve added some vehicle stats.

Militia

The numerous militia of the early Republican Army was ‘un-militarised’. They had no formal command structure. The men within platoon level units (Seccíon) elected their own leaders, while the relevant parties appointed ‘officers’ at company level and above.

The egalitarian nature of the militia led to committees being formed to decide strategic matters, each unit sending one or more delegates. Even at squad level (Pelotón) individual orders and instructions could be debated before an action was taken.

To represent both this informal structure and the relative abilities of the officers appointed by the party, each command unit rolls at the start of the game;

   1-2 – Ineffective Commander.

   4-6 – Typical Commander.


Typical Commanders conform to the normal rules for command groups as found in the rules.

Ineffective Commanders are those leaders who are either; obviously inept political appointees with little military ability who do not have the confidence of their comrades, or typical leaders whose troops contain particularly argumentative and vocal members.

Those units forming the command of an ineffective commander will question each new order given to the unit within the game. Each time a unit makes an action that is different to the one it performed the move before, i.e. Unit was halted and the player wishes to it to advance etc, roll 1D6;

   6 - Unit Obeys Command.

   4/5 - After some discussion the unit agrees to follow its orders. Re-test next move and move       and/or shoot this move at half effect.

   2/3 - Unit ignores command and continues making the action it made the previous move.

1-   Unit ignores command as above and if under fire, or more than one enemy unit within    12” will make a ‘Fall-back’ move as per p.54 of the main rule book.

Commissars

Commissars represent the political officers and advisors attached to Communist militia formations. One commissar group may be bought as an additional command group for any ‘Communist’ militia company. Unlike normal ‘Militia’ command groups, the Commissar group is always considered as a ‘Typical Commander’.

The Commissar group will only affect those units belonging to the group it is attached to. Commissars do not issue orders as such, but serve to ‘motivate and inspire’. Like other command groups, Commissars have an effect range of 12”. Any unit within this area that fails to get an ‘Obey orders’ result on an Ineffective Commander test, or who fails a normal morale test, may be ‘motivated and inspired’ by the Commissar.

Units that are being ‘motivated and inspired’ remove one figure for each attempt that the Commissar makes (Maximum of 3). The player deciding before he rolls how many attempts he will be making. Remove the selected number of figures and take a leadership test. If the unit fails the test it may be repeated for each attempt. If a unit fails all of its attempts, it continues with its action and the Commissar unit is removed from play. Successful attempts allow the player to move the unit as it wishes.

Militia Weaponry

The militia were equipped with a variety of weaponry of generally poor quality. In addition their training was also haphazard and poor. Militia units suffer an additional -1 shooting modifier when their targets are over 50% of their weapon’s range.

All militia machine guns are prone to ‘jamming’ as per the rules on p.37 for Lmgs and p.40 for HMGs.

SCW Vehicles

FT-17 Tank

This vehicle is as per the vehicle in the main rules, but is no longer a ‘Fast Tank’.

Panzer I

Speed- 12/18”  8/8/7  Twin Mg. Fast Tank.

CV-33

Speed – 12/18”  9/9/8  Twin Mg. Fast Tank.

T26

Speed – 12/18”  9/9/8  45mm Gun, co-ax Mg. Fast Tank.

BT5

Speed – 16/24” 9/9/8  45mm Gun, co-ax Mg. Fast Tank.

BA-6

Speed – 12/18” 8/8/7  45mm Gun, co-ax Mg.

Bilbao

Speed – 12/18” 6/6/6  MG. (The Bilbao had only 3mm of armour).

Generic Armoured Truck
Speed – 12/18”  6/6/6 some may be 7/7/6

45mm Anti Tank Gun

48” Range, Strength 7 (AP), Strength 3 (HE) Large Blast Marker for HE. Shoots once.

37mm Anti-tank Gun

As core rules, but can fire HE at Strength 3 in addition to AP.


I haven’t worked out the points values yet… and obviously some army lists need thrashing out. The wide range of troop types in the Great war lists will give you all the necessary stats for SCW troops and quite a variety of levels of expertise/experience. At some future point I might add my thoughts on this when time allows.

If anyone has any additional rules, suggestions and comments feel free to tag them on, I’m always open for fresh ideas and suggestions.

[Arlequín]

Spanish Army Organisation 1936

Infantry Battalion

The official pre-war organisation of the Spanish infantry was as follows;

Battalion Command Group
3-4 Companies (Compañias), each of;
   Company Command Group.
   3-4 Platoons (Seccíons) - 9 Figures with Rifles, 1 Figure with Lmg.
0-1 Machine Gun Company (Most often split between the Platoons):
   Company Command Group.
   4 Machine Gun Platoons (Seccíons) – 1 or 2 Machine Gun Teams.

   Officially there were supposed to be 5 Companies in a battalion, but it was not unusual to find no machine gun company present in mainland units. The official quota of LMG to the battalion was 6-9 per company (1 per Squad) but this was rarely maintained, it being more usual to find 1 per platoon instead. It might therefore be more realistic to include 1 LMG team at company level and field Platoons as 10 Riflemen.

   A Foreign Legion ‘Bandera’ followed a similar organisation, but with only 3 rifle companies and 3 Platoons in the Machine Gun Company. Machine guns were usually over strength, so 3 teams in each MG platoon might be more typical. Legionary Infantry Platoons could be up to 15 figures strong.

   The Regulares were organised into ‘Tabors’ of only 2 Infantry Companies and one machine gun company (presumably of 2 platoons).

   MG Platoons were often divided up between the companies of the battalion, so it would make sense to allow 0-2 MG Platoons per company fielded to a maximum of 4 platoons in total per Battalion (depending on troop type).

Divisional Support

In the pre-war Army, no elements were held at Brigade/Regimental level. Divisional assets usually included;

Cavalry/Reconnaissance Squadron.
   Squadron Command Group
   3 Platoons – 8 Men with Rifles or Carbines.

   Again, each Platoon should have had a LMG team, but shortages reduced this.

Artillery Group.
   1-4 Batteries of between 2 and 4 Gun or Mortar teams.

   The Spanish Army was particularly weak in artillery and held an array of differing types, ranging from Schneider infantry guns, through the ubiquitous French and German 75/77mm guns of WW1 vintage, and some heavier types in the 100-150mm range.  Various types of mortar were also in use.
   
   Allowing 1 Team per company fielded to a maximum of 3 of any one type of equipment present would seem to match the availability of such weaponry to the army.

The Militias

Essentially the militias had a similar set-up to the old army, with the exception that Battalions were commonly called Columns and often had integral artillery etc, as available and Companies were termed a 'century'. 6 Centuries were supposed to be ideal for a column, but in practice there was no set number. Each century would contain between 8-12 figures.

[Agis]

I like the idea, I like it a lot...

[Arlequín]

I like the idea, I like it a lot...

Good to hear... it would be a shame too to let a good set of rules be used only by the mud-wallowers 

[Arlequín]

Spanish Aircraft 1936

At the start of the war, the Spanish Airforce operated 3 main aircraft types;

Hispano-Suiza NiD 52 - A licence built version of the Nieuport NiD 52. It was the primary Fighter Aircraft. It was armed with 2 fixed forward firing MG. Of the 35 Aircraft that existed at the start of the War, only 9 fell into Nationalist hands.

Breguet Br. XIX - The primary reconnaissance/attack aircraft. It was armed with a single MG and could carry up to 400 kilos of bombs. 100 of this type fell into Republican hands, while the Nationalists got 83.

Hispano-Suiza E-30 - Primarily a trainer, it was quickly armed with a MG for the rear cockpit and provision was made for the carriage of some 10kg bombs that were dropped by hand. The airforce had 20 of these aircraft, the Navy 10, almost all of which fell into Republican hands.

Spanish Navy Vickers Wildebeest

The Spanish Navy also had a small number of light bombers in the shape of the Vickers Wildebeest. All 25 of these aircraft were retained by the Republicans. It had two forward firing MG and one rear MG on a flexible mount. It could carry up to 750kg of bombs or a single Torpedo.



 

[Arlequín]

Spanish Armoured Units 1936

The Spanish Army had few armoured assets at the start of the Civil War.

Assault Battery
4 Schneider Tanks - These had served in the Moroccan War and had been returned to the Peninsular in 1929. They took part in the assault on the Cuartel de la Montaña and the attack on the Alcázar in Toledo. None survived the Summer of 1936.

Infantry Regiment No.32 'Milan'
This Regiment, based in Oviedo, had a single unit of 3 Trubia Tanks. The Trubia was a re-modelled version of the FT-17 Tank and armed with a MG. I'm uncertain which side this Regiment fought for, but I suspect it was the Republic.

1st & 2nd Light Tank Regiments
Based in Madrid and Zaragoza respectively, these units had been planned to be of full regimental strength. As it was, each unit contained 5 FT-17 tanks each when war commenced. The early Nationalist occupation of Zaragoza secured the 2nd Regiment into their service. I'm uncertain of the specific types used, but I suspect the MG armed version was more common.

Cavalry Armoured Squadron
Based in Madrid, this single squadron of 12 'Bilbao' Armoured Cars fought on the Republican side.

Assault Guards
Each Company of the Assault Guards was supposed to have had an armoured car unit of 3 'Bilbao' Armoured Cars on their strength. Of the 47 supplied by July 1936, 40 of these ended up with the Republicans, with the remaining 7 with the Nationalists.