SCW Oviedo 1936 - Siege and relief attempt

[bill5549]

I have added an article to my blog on a 6 player game based on the siege and relief of Oviedo in 1936.  We had 9 militia brigades engaging 7 nationalist brigades - there is a full OB in the blog article.  Extra equipment, personalities and air support were controlled by chance cards.

We used Triumph and Tragedy but with a random card drawing each turn activating the brigades.  This approach worked well for a big game.  See
http://blenheimtoberlin.blogspot.co.uk/


Viva Republica - militia held at the wire defences


Lufthansa volunteers drop MG ammo to the embattled garrison


5th columnists -  priests, nuns, old ladies and guardia - attempt to capture the church

[Westfalia Chris]

That looks excellent! I am also intrigued by the random card draw approach for activations - did you mix the unit cards into a pile and then draw from it, or did players draw cards from a faction-specific pile?

I'd think this would provide a good level of uncertainty, which would be rather appropriate for the SCW, and it might reduce time usually spent for the plotting phase of the turn.

[bill5549]

Yes I mixed the unit cards into a pile and then drew 1 card from it.   Given the action was split into 2 fronts, until they started to interact at the very end of the game,  I had separate piles of cards for the units involved at Oviedo and for the Blocking/Relief units so play could proceed at both ends of the table. 

To save time in such a big game the activation cards were for each brigade which activated all the squads in a brigade - each squad could then of course do different actions. 

However I allowed a unit which was activated to pass and this allowed it to fire if it was ever charged later in that game turn.

Chance cards drawn at the start of the turns could add extra units to the piles - eg a Republican Bomber or the Trubia tank.

We have used this random card approach in BOB games using the Contemptible Little Armies rules.

[Driscoles]

This looks very nice. Thanks for sharing.

I played an AWI skirmish game recently with T+T rules and the natives also had an random activation from a predetermined  game turn.. That worked well and was exciting.

Cheers
Björn

[H.M.Stanley]

Very nice report chap