In Scenario 9 from Blue Division (Holy Thursday), the Spanish start in the middle of three boards, and must hold out against a numerically superior Soviet force. Both sides have reinforcements that enter on a roll of 6 (more on this later). The scenario lasts 36 turns.

I set up most of the Spanish in town and woods hexes, and experimented with placing two small stacks on the shoulders of the main town in Dug In positions. I thought perhaps they would be able to disrupt any Soviets approaching for assault by forming fire groups. The mortars are set up in such a way as to reach the hexes in front of the main town. It is also worth mentioning, as it will become a key theme, that the Spanish got an incredibly good selection of initial leaders, including an 11-1-2 (!) and a 10-0-1 Teniente. The Soviets weren’t so lucky.

Turns 1-8#

The Soviets push forward, and inevitably begin to get hit by off-board artillery. As they get closer, the Spanish experiment with Dug In “shoulders” proves to be a failure. Since they are not in limiting terrain and thus can be spotted, the Soviets call in long-range artillery and one stack is disrupted. The other stack immediately retreats through some field hexes, and will eventually make it to some woods hexes unscathed. The Soviets lumber forward, their ranks dispersed now by OBA and mortar fire. They manage to reach and assault the disrupted stack and kill off two steps. But try as they might they cannot dent the defenders in the town. With base morale of 8, a leader with 11 morale giving them a +2 morale modifier, plus the town column adjustment, the Spanish defenders cannot be moved. Even if a lucky shot disrupts a unit, the Spanish player uses the next activation to bring it back to good morale. The Soviets are eventually able to accumulate enough undisrupted units next to the town to advance into assault, but it’s the same story. The Spanish player is getting a +2 modifier each time (leader plus morale advantage), while the Soviet has a -1 (-2 town, +1 leader). The fighting swirls back and forth, with the Spanish reserving his activation to recover from disruption, and the Soviets shuttling fresh units into the hex to replace disrupted and fleeing demoralized troops. A similar situation develops in a woods hex to the west, with a stalemate setting in as repeated Soviet assaults fail. As turn 8 begins, the Soviet player desperately needs his armor reinforcements; maybe they can blast away with point-blank direct fire to set up an assault.

Turns 9-17#

But it was not to be. Nine straight Soviet rolls fail to get a 6, and the tanks are nowhere to be seen. Not only that, but on turn 13, the Spanish player gets a 6 on his first reinforcement roll, and thus gets 3 engineer units, and some guns. The back and forth in the woods and town hexes continues, with the Soviet even trying to bombard the contested town hex in the hopes of getting lucky (he doesn’t; and some friendly units are hurt). I kept playing, even though the outcome no longer seemed in doubt, and finally decided to end it when on turn 17, the Spanish rolled a 6 on their second try to get some German units (a Panzer III and an 88).

Post Mortem#

I’m not sure what to think about this scenario. Clearly, the Spanish had very good luck (outstanding leaders, quick reinforcements), and the Soviets very bad luck (could not get their tanks). Even if that had evened out, though, I think the Spanish side is favored, as they are defending in towns and woods with superior morale. The other thing to note is that having important reinforcements enter on a roll of 6 can really produce wildly different outcomes. Perhaps if the Spanish morale had been lower, and the Soviet tanks could have entered on a roll of 5-6 or 4-6, it might have been more even.

I give it a 2, taking points off for imbalance and for the reinforcement issue.

Superior quality, but outnumbered, Spanish forces need to hold on to their ground against the wave of Soviets.

Soviets advanced from the north as the Spanish were awaiting in and around the two towns.

The Soviets, with the help of OBA, aircraft, and mortars eliminated all the Spanish not hiding in towns and proceeded to assault the northern town. The Spanish in the southern town watched on and took artillery hits.

The Soviet losses were high, but the victory condition of inflicting 12 steps seemed inevitable. Eventually, a lucky mortar strike eliminated the Spanish 75mm IG and the battle was won.

The Spanish managed to inflict approximately 30 steps against the Soviets, including one and a half platoons of T-34s.

This scenario, as is, seemed doomed for the Spanish from the start. There was also very little room for Spanish movement, as the 6 town hexes were the only places where the Spanish were somewhat protected from the significiant Soviet artillery.

If there was more "options" for the Spanish, than to sit back and be pulverized, and if there were "updated" victory conditions, such as the VP method often used in France and Cassino, this scenario could be much better. As it stands, it wasn't very exciting.

Rating 2/5.

Author	treadasaurusrex (Soviet Union)
Method	VASSAL
Victor	Soviet Union
Participants	Reconquista
Play Date	2023-01-16
Language	English
Scenario	BluD009

This was a 3-session online play-through with the cunning Reconquista leading the defending Spanish & German combined task force. I played the more numerous, but motley, Soviet side. At least I had armor in this episode! We used the FOW, excess initiative, smoke, consolidation and extended assault optional rules in what was a very near run engagement that the Russian barely were able to win, thanks to faulty victory conditions.

Both sides had decent leader draws, which particularly benefited the outnumbered Axis force, as did the 8 FOW-shortened game turns. The godless Soviet Hordes came on in multiple waves from the north edge of the battle map and aimed their rather haphazard movement-to-contact at the garrisons in the two towns - a total of 6 town hexes in all. Many Soviet casualties resulted, thanks to heavy & accurate Spanish opfire, and a sum total of 13 combat 7-die rolls that plagued the Soviets - usually at crucial moments.

Eventually, those Axis units not in the town hexes were slowly eliminated, mostly by the Russian's substantial OBA, hard-charging tanks, and - sometimes accurate - mortar fire. The Bolshevics wave crested in the assault on the northernmost town and then swept over to the other town in subsequent turns. Still in all, it proved unexpectedly easy to inflict the required 12 steps of Axis losses for a Russian victory in this overlong scenario. Soviet casualties were very high throughout this play-through and there were countless morale failures before the battle was finally won. Final Soviet step losses we 28 and 2 leaders. The few T-34 tanks in the Soviet arsenal proved there worth but did lose 1 step in the process to brave Spanish counter attacks.

I give this one a 2 since it was fun to play, though unbalanced against the Axis, too long, and with victory conditions in desperate need of a rewrite.