Arriba é Non Pasaran-Second SCW Game

 

La Legion and the Moors have cut the road and occupied the hills outside of the town of Villa Grande.  The Republicans need to shift them before something worse happens.
 

Neither side can really see all of the others forces.  The hills hide the Francoist second line while the Republicans are obscured by the buildings of the town.

The Moors decide to extend their line to secure a flank. A panzer moves up between the hills. 

 

The Republicans push a gun forward and fire a round at the Moors on the hill-it misses.  They’ve also advanced a little too far.

The Francoist gun has a clear line of sight on the Republican gun and fires and misses twice.

The Legion’s anti-tank gun redeploys. Two Republican tanks have been spotted.

A Republican T26 shoots out of the town at fast speed.  Rapidly followed by 3 sections of infantry.

The last section to move is up against the Moors who are supported by a Pak 37mm.  The lads don’t fancy their chances.  They scuttle back to the town and take up firing positions in a building.

The Legion moves up two sections to support the front line of Moors. 

Another T26 shoots out of the town and a BT5 too.  The BT5 has two sections of infantry in support. (First run through the card deck)

 Another Republican unit isn’t happy. It heads for the trees and opens up on the Moors.

2nd Section Moors on the hill are taking casualties from rifle fire, 3 down.  Not all the Government troops are reluctant. The first section supporting the BT5 rushes forward to take up position in the woods opposite the Moors.

The Moors Mortar gets busy and finds its range on the T26 to no avail.  Another T26 breasts the hill and spots the Panzer.  It takes a shot at the Panzer’s side and immobilises it.

 There is a plane overhead, whose is it?  One of Franco’s flyers as it turns out.  The pilot machine guns a section of Republican infantry before dropping two bombs on a T26.  One bomb falls wide the other does minimal damage.  The infantry takes 3 hits.  It’s too much for them and they head for cover.

The Francoist 75mm shot at a T26 and miss. Followed by the anti-tank gun which doesn’t.  One T26 out of the game.

The Republican 75mm fires at the anti- tank gun and destroys it.  It’s artillery mayhem.  The Moors, battered and now without artillery support hang on.  It gets worse.  The reluctant Republicans feeling safer in the woods are shooting hell out of them.  

Section 2 of the Moors fall back behind the hill line. Section 1 puts two bursts of light machine gun fire and two volleys of rifle fire and pins the Republicans.

La Legion can do nothing in the face of the T26, they get out of the way at a run.  The Panzer is stuck fast without a target.  It’s down to the 75mm gun now.

On the Republican side most of the infantry won’t advance but they will shoot.  Their two remaining tanks can dominate the battle.

 

The Republican BT5 emerges from between the woods and takes out the Moors Medium Mortar with a single shot.  It’s all over for the Moors and La legion and they withdraw at speed. (Second run through the Card Deck).

Not bad I think, and it could have easily been different.  Tanks are a handful even for good troops.  But, not invulnerable. 

Three tanks are a nightmare.  That said I wanted to try them out with the differing artillery types in this game.

The Francoists lost the Panzer and 10 of the Moors as well as a mortar and a Pak 37mm.  La Legion didn’t get to fire a shot.

The Republicans lost a T26 and 8 soldados.

BTW, it would be remiss of me not to show you the refurbished Dangerous Wandering Bull.  I’ve Christened him Minos.

The Event Card and Event Table seem to be working well without unbalancing the game. In the game it produced two reluctant units and an enthusiastic one, and an air strike.  The other two events were for troop types not on the table and could be ignored.

I'm now ready to do the second draft of Arriba é Non Passaran.  More SCW soon.  Next its back to the American Civil War for a refurbishment progress report.

Arriba é Non Pasaran Updates

 

 

A quick post on my updates to Arriba é Non Pasaran. I thought it would be useful to see how the game now works before we go to the second game .

First the new Events Table.  As you can see Air Support is now possible. I’ve also tried to reflect the political dissatisfaction at the actions of high command that, sometimes, effected units on both sides.  Once again, on the turn of an Event Card you throw a D12.  the score dictates the event.

Event Table

Score	Event	Effect
1	Anarchy	Anarchists need to have a meeting -no further movement from them this turn.
2	Vehicle Breakdown	The last vehicle to move breaks down.
3	Non Pasaran	Nominate one of your engaged Republican units as exempt from all guts checks for the rest of the game.
4	Arriba Espania	Nominate one of your engaged Nationalist units as exempt from all guts checks for the rest of the game.
5	Inertia	All infantry units currently engaged take no further action this move.
6	Panic	The last militia or conscript unit to receive its second pin panics and spends the next 2 turns retreating at a run.
7	Stray Artillery Rounds	Throw a D12 and measure the score in inches from the centre of the table in the direction indicated by a throw of the compass dice.
8	Wandering Dangerous Bull-   Infantry must not be contacted by the Bull and must move out of the way if contact is possible in the next turn.	1. Place a Bull on centre of the table. 2. Throw a compass dice then a D6. The Bull moves in the direction indicated for the D6 score in inches each turn.
9.	Republican Air Strike	Your plane flies in a straight line along the enemy’s line. You mark 2 bomb points where it will bomb.  At each, throw a D6 and measure the score in inches from the bomb point in the direction indicated by a throw of the compass dice. Your bomb explodes there. You fire your Cannon once at any available target using HMG stat’s
10.	Francoist Air Strike	Ditto above.
11.	We are nothing to them	The last unit to move is dissatisfied.  It moves to the nearest cover and takes only defensive action for the rest of the game.
12.	We owe it to our hero!	The last unit to move is inspired.  It gets an additional move-now!

 

I’ve also sorted out, to my satisfaction, the arrival of reinforcements to the front. Extract follows:

 "Assets arrive on the table edge of the purchasing player. For each Ammo resupply place a pack mule on the baseline of the purchasing player. 

To deploy your purchase, place its Unit Card face up on the table then throw a D3. The score indicates the number of turns that must elapse before you can add the appropriate card to the Card Deck.  Place the D3, score upmost, on the Unit Card as a reminder."

That’s it for now.  Next, the game.

Arriba é Non Pasaran - How it works

Here, you can see various bits and pieces from my 15mm Spanish Civil War collection. The rest of this post is about my Arriba é Non Pasaran rules for that conflict.  

The rules are still in their first draft-currently 10 sides of A4.  Below, is an extract on the card activation system and event card table.  This is the engine of the game. 

There is a lot of hurry up and wait about it.  You may know what you want a unit to do but you have to wait until there is a chance to do it.  Meantime the other side is doing stuff.  Attrition is built in.

If you are lucky a unit card may come up last on the previous turn and first on the current one. Such a unit can act in a very motivated fashion. 

The unexpected will happen. Sometimes to your benefit and other times not.  I've tried not to  let it unbalance the game.  That said war is a shockingly chancy business.

I wrote Arriba é Non Pasaran with solo gaming in mind and, so far, it is good for that.  On reflection I think it would work for two or more players too.

Obviously you have to make your own unit cards.  I enjoyed researching the pic's to do so.  You could of course, should you want to try the system, simply write the unit names on the cards.  The extract follows:

 

"Arriba é Non Pasaran 

This is a Spanish Civil War game of infantry companies.  Companies may vary in size but mostly all have either two or three sections. Armour, Artillery and Air support may appear always in short supply.  Higher command will not appear save through the actions of the player.  Arriba é Non Pasaran is a card driven game. It works like this.

The Card Deck

Place a Unit Card for each Company in the Card Deck add 1 Event Card for every three Unit cards in the deck.  When a Unit card is turned all of its sections and attached support can either move twice or move and fire once or shoot twice. Close combat happens after moving and firing.

When an Armour Card is turned that vehicle can either move twice or move and fire once or shoot twice.

When an Artillery Card is turned both sides artillery, depending on type, can either move twice or move and fire once or shoot twice.

When an Event Card is turned, throw a D8 and consult the Event Card Table below.

Score	Event	Effect
1	Anarchy	Anarchists need to have a meeting -no further movement from them this turn.
2	Vehicle Breakdown	The last vehicle to move breaks down.
3	Non Pasaran	Nominate one of your engaged Republican units as exempt from all guts checks for the rest of the game.
4	Arriba Espania	Nominate one of your engaged Nationalist units as exempt from all guts checks for the rest of the game.
5	Inertia	All infantry units currently engaged take no further action this move.
6	Panic	The last militia or conscript unit to receive its second pin panics and spends the next 2 turns retreating at a run.
7	Stray Artillery Rounds	Throw a D12 and measure the score in inches from the centre of the table in the direction indicated by a throw of the compass dice.
8	Wandering Dangerous Bull-   Infantry must not be contacted by the Bull and must move out of the way if contact is possible in the next turn.	1. Place a Bull on centre of the table. 2. Throw a compass dice then a D6. The Bull moves in the direction indicated for the D6 score in inches each turn.

After 3 turns add a Low on Ammo Card to the card deck. When this card comes up any side that has not replenished its ammo supply in the last 3 turns is now low on ammo’. Consequently, all of that side’s units now shoots at half effect until more ammo is provided.

You are now ready to play.  Shuffle the deck and place it face down.  Turn the first card and move the unit it shows.  When every card in the deck has been turned check for Reinforcement and Resupply. "

Currently, I'm looking to extend the Event Card Table to 12 possible events that would be triggered by a score on a D12.

I'm also looking at how reinforcement and resupply will work.  Each side can buy assets at the end of each turn.  When they actually arrive will be determined by a dice throw.  You will know the sort of thing I have in mind.

That's it so far.  It is a work in progress.  I hope it is of interest. 

I'm going to try a bigger game next and we will see how everything works.