The Soviets are advancing on our well defended position. Sir, shall we fire? No, CHARGE!!!

Note: Score will be denoted by (x-y), where x=Soviet casualties, y=Spanish casualties.

BATTLE SUMMARY

Soviet forces begin their advance toward the Spanish. They position the Penal companies to lead the attack. The Africanistas, manning their HMGs open fir…wait… instead of opening fire they leave their urban buildings and begin to charge the Soviets!!!

Note: Maybe the Soviet condition won’t be too hard! If the Spanish fanaticism makes them charge, they can hopefully taunt them and sit back. This will be interesting!

Soviets advance and the Spanish back into town. The Penal platoons come under HMG fire and the Soviets set-up outside of town.

Spanish charge out of the town again and initiate assault in the woods and open terrain east of the town! (1-0)

Spanish continue to fight against their own fanaticism and Soviet SMG platoons enter the undefended town! (3-2)

Casualties are high and the Spanish that advanced are eliminated. Soviets head westward toward the second town. The defenders are spotted and Soviet artillery eliminates Spanish AT Battery. (5-10)

Note: Casualties are actually even, but those PEN platoons don’t count toward victory conditions!

Soviet armour begins to pound the west village. Spanish infantry charges!!! They eliminate a Soviet platoon in the fields but are caught out of the protection of the village!

In the eastern town, Spanish infantry initiates another assault. (9-14)

The last of the Spanish infantry in the west village is demoralised and flees to the north. The western town hexes are all under Soviet control, although Spanish infantry still lurk in the fields. What seemed impossible occurred due to the Spanish Fanaticism!

In the eastern town though, weak Penal units are clogging up the assaults.

To the west, Spanish infantry assaults the Soviet T-26s and eliminate a full platoon of armour!

The Soviets just can’t get any favourable results in the eastern town assaults and the 5 hour time limit is reached.

Final casualty count is (16-20) (tanks count double but the 8 Penal steps lost count for nothing!)

Neither side succeeds in their victory condition, but both are very close! (Two Spanish platoons remain in the eastern town)

DRAW!!!

Aftermath

This was a very fun quick scenario that can be played in a single sitting. The Spanish fanaticism is almost humourous at times!

Only qualm is that the special rules are a bit vague when it comes to demoralized/disrupted units and leaders. Basically, I treated the Spanish Fanaticism like the Penal units. “Charge if able”

Scenario Rating: 5/5. I’ve decided to give this a rare 5/5! I’d gladly play this one again (either side). It’s quick and low density (not my preference), but still has plenty of surprises and twists.

Played solo in 3 hours.

Same exact battlefield as in scenario 2 except this time, the Spaniards control the towns on the western map and the Soviets must dislodge them.

The Soviet penal troops rush forward and survive first contact in relatively good order. Even worse for the Spaniards, one platoon of penal troops is disrupted next to town and make it impossible to fire at the Soviet troops until they get into good position.

The Soviets send troops in the north woods to assault the village from the rear, and a powerful fire group to the south woods to spread out the Spanish defenses. The Spaniards take a few opportunity shots at a few units moving into the woods and, what do you know, snake eyes twice in a row!

The Soviets use combine arms to assault the town but their few assaults failed badly and must waste 1 hour to recover morale. Three hours into the scenario and the Soveits do not yet control a town hex. Time to act rashly and I send a detachment to the 2-hex village for the Soviets to have a chance.

Helped by very precise artillery support, the detachment ejects the Soviets defenders from the small village. The battle for the larger village rages on and the issue is in doubt until the very end. The Soviets have favorable odds in every assault but “1s” and “2s” just won’t cut it.

The Spaniards still hold 3 town hexes and have inflicted 1 more step loss than they received. Spanish victory.

I rated this scenario a “4” and recommend it for both solo and shared play. The Spaniard player will need to react to the Soviet movements and the Spanish fanaticism SSR will make them hard to control.

*This was a solo play that I thought would be quick play, but not quite. I found it interesting as it has both sides with "forced" troops. The Soviets have the penal troops while the Spanish have fanatical leaders. The leaders are interesting as they will possibly go fanatical when they activate. Although note that this possible fanaticism will not happen if they are recovering, but will when they are in an assault hex. But with my play, it seems that this can be avoided, if a player positions properly. My narrative will note this.

I did like this scenario but feel that this SSR needs a bit more to force the Spanish into a more desperate situation. Defensively, the Spanish can be very strong, but not impervious.*

The Spanish setup the bulk of their forces in the larger town on board 17. HMGs hold the western approached with dugin INF's in front. A lone AT gun is in the town with the other covering the south side of town from the fields to the south of the smaller town. INF's hold the large towns flanks. The Spanish command structure is good with leaders with 10's and 9's. The is one super Tenente at 11-1-2. He holds a key dugin position in front of the HMG's. More on him a little later.

The Soviets hold the Barracks on board 19 with a company of troops, but the main force will enter from the east. Penal troops will lead the attack with two battalions of Soviet troops and a company of T-26's advance to force the Spanish from the town. The Soviet decide that they will need all troops forward as their morale is less than the Spanish and leaders are even worse.

After three turns the advancing Soviets make contact with the Spanish. Soviet OBA is good for this scenario and with a 42 OBA factor start getting step losses while the units are advancing. This starts to put a pinch on the Spanish to recover disrupted units, but their super Tenete fails to recover for 45 minutes. This leaves the Spanish dugin troops without a leader to support morale checks during the bombardment. As the Soviets creep forward, the Spanish must wait and Commandante has strict orders not attack but just OP fire while the Soviets advance. This makes it hard as the leaders cannot assist with any recoveries or direct fire.

When the Soviets are in range the Spanish open up with mortars first followed by the HMG's. Predictably, the low morale Soviets begin the disrupt and demoralized, but some make it through the fire to close on the north side of the large town. Penal troops leading the charge but get killed trying to assault. A second group does make it in to a reduced Spanish INF hex and lock up the Spanish troops. A Tenente activates to help but gets the whole northern INF group advancing into the woods. The Soviets respond with the reinforce company that tries to get around the Spanish in the woods. Out of the town they are vulnerable to the Soviet OBA, that does get some step losses. Spanish OP fire is good and disrupts or demoralized the flanking Soviets.

To the south, the Soviets have better luck and get into the woods south of the large town. From here two platoons move to take the smaller town from the 81mm mortars that have been harassing the Soviet advance. Spanish fire from the south side of the large town slow this advance, but eventually the Soviets force the mortars out of town. But to the north is a 37mm AT the is preventing the T-26's supporting an attack on the south side of town. On board artillery disrupts and demoralized them and eventually they spike their guns and run.

The Soviets continue to push the troops into the southern woods. Tank fire into the dugin troops demoralize the Spanish and the Soviets assault the southern foxholes. Clearing them the Soviets go for the stronger defenses with the super Tenente. With a leader and a T-26 an INF piles into the super Tenente's position. The Soviet attack fails with the INF demoralizing. The Tenente see's opportunity for glory and charges the tanks and demoralized INF. The score a step loss on the tanks by pitching grenade bundles into the treads, but the Soviet counter attack is accurate and kill a step of Spanish INF. Retreating back to their foxholes the super Tenente is struck by machinegun fire from the reduced tanks and is mortally wounded. His faithful runners try to get his body but are also killed by the fire.

The Spanish continue to push in the north. More penal troops charge a reduced Spanish INF in the northern woods. Tieing up the Spanish, the Soviet units move around to get to the open town hexes in the rear. Spanish mortar fire slows the Soviets but eventually the Soviets gain the north-west town hex. The Spanish pull back the units in the assault with the penal troops as the Soviets try to press the reduction of the perimeter. But Spanish HMG fire disrupts the Soviet advance.

Back to the south the Soviets are stuck in the woods with several early FOW rolls, but eventually get something moving in the front of the town. Fire on the dugin troops kill two steps but the remaining troops recover quickly to provide defense. More Soviets keep the pressure on but Spanish HMG fire keep them at bay. By turn 20 the Spanish have held the town and the Soviets are left with disrupted and demoralized troops.

Author	treadasaurusrex (Soviet Union)
Method	VASSAL
Victor	Spain
Participants	sagunto
Play Date	2023-01-06
Language	English
Scenario	BluD004

*This was an involved 5-session, online, play-through with the relentless Saugunto handling the defending Spanish side and me leading the attacking Soviets. As others have noted: the Soviets have penal troops while the Spanish have fanatical leaders in-place, who turn into monsters in close assaults. We used the defense-favoring FOW, plus consolidation, excess initiative, smoke/illum optional rules.

Spanish held the bulk of their forces in the larger town on Map 17. This was a traditional defensive setup with machine guns covering the the western approaches and dug-in infantry on the flanks. A single AT gun unit was in the same town, and another covered the south margin of the town. The Spanish drew a fine set of leaders -- much better than the Soviet draw! There were 9 FOW-shorthened turns to help the Spanish defenders catch their breath between, steadily-weakening Soviet attacks.

A company of Soviets setup in the Barracks on Map 19. Their main force later entered from the eastern map edge. As in other AARs; the Soviet Penal troops led the eventual attack with two battalions of Soviet troops and a company of T-26s moving to contact to attempt to occupy the town. It took the Soviets four turns to fully make contact with the Spanish garrison in this play-through and most of the massive Soviet OBA strikes proved inaccurate, except when shooting at clear hex targets. This scenario requires finesse to get the Soviet attacks properly sequenced, since the morale gods are not on the side of the Commies, and especially not on the side of the attacking penal troops, acting as skirmishers for the onrushing Bolsheviks. Spanish artillery proved deadly if spotted effectively throughout our play-through.

The southern sector featured the Soviets successfully getting into the woods south of the large town. From there, a pair of platoons were able to overcome the resistance of the Spanish 81mm mortar units. Spanish fire from the south side of the large town, dramatically slowed the advancing, by-now-ill-ordered, Soviet Horde. Long-range Spanish AT fire stops the supporting T-26 platoons, in their tracks. In time, the Soviets gain control over southern woods, and the Soviet attack in the north gains ground. In the southern sector, the Soviets were repeatedly thrown back in costly attacks on town hexes and by ferocious fire from dug-in Spaniards. Bt the end of our 5th session, the Spanish still hold the largest town, and the bulk of the remaining Soviet troops are either demoralized or disrupted - and all but two of their leaders had been eliminated. This was a close-run, but fun, encounter in Russia that I think merits a 3, but would benefit from more intensive play testing and a rule rewrite.