Casualty Count: (x-y), where x=Soviet steps lost and y=Spanish steps lost. Penal units don’t count.

BATTLE SUMMARY

The Spanish hold two hills, primarily in the southwest where most of the entrenchments are. There is another small hill in the northeast which is heavily mined and holds two entrenchments.

The Soviets enter at night time (visibility = 2 hexes) and thrust toward the southwest, ignoring the heavily mined entrenchment hill in the northeast. In Soviet fashion, the penal units, armed with rocks, lead the charge!

At the one hour mark, the Soviet Penal units meet up with the first Spanish entrenchment and the fighting starts. The Penal units assault uphill and are completely slaughtered. But they bought the time the Soviets wanted as the main infantry advances as the Spanish are busy.

The second Spanish entrenchment to the southeast is demoralized by heavy Soviet artillery fire. (1-0)

Soviet wave washes up the hill and spreads out to attack the west-most entrenchment and the second demoralized entrenchment which takes 2 casualties from another brutal artillery strike! (4-2) Soon after they flee and the Soviets gain their first entrenchment!

The Spanish begin to send reserves from the northeast hill to aid in the defence in the southwest.

At the end of the second hour, the Kommissar begins to execute Soviet HMG squads. The Spanish artillery crew flees from the centre.

The Kommissar executes the remaining members of two HMG platoons. That’s four steps chalked up to the Kommissar! (11-5)

Spanish reinforcements reach the southwest hill. The Spanish entrenchment on top of The Finger comes under artillery fire and breaks.

Spanish reinforcements clash with the Soviets in the woods on the hill and are reduced by combined artillery fire.

At the three hour mark the sun begins to rise.

Fighting at the top of the hill goes back and forth with both sides taking losses (13-8). At the first centre entrenchment the surviving Spanish HMG platoon is reduced! His fate seems inevitable.

The Spanish flee from an assault in the woods, but artillery and mortar fire rains down and both sides are hurt bad. Soviet Kommissar eliminates two Soviet reduced platoons! The Soviets are down to half a platoon in the woods.

The Spanish are demoralized in the entrenchment at the top of the hill. In the first entrenchment they flee from the Soviets and are eliminated.

At the four hour mark the Spanish flee the entrenchment at the top of the hill. The Soviets have taken three entrenchments! They brace for the Spanish counterattack coming through the woods. Spanish artillery hits the Soviet mortars. (20-11)

Spanish proceed through the woods but are hit hard by Soviet artillery! The Spanish launch a counter-assault in the centre entrenchment on top of the hill but do not appear to have enough firepower to remain. The fighting is fierce and the Spanish are reduced by a Soviet counter-attack.

A little over an hour remains.

Friendly Fire demoralizes the Spanish in the centre entrenchment and they are eliminated by Soviet assault.

The Soviets guarding the edge of the woods are eliminated by three Spanish platoons. But this leaves the Spanish open to direct fire from two Soviet HMG platoons and artillery!

Spanish attempt to assault the second entrenchment but are eliminated. They are fought back in the woods.

Time runs out and the Spanish are defeated.

The northeast hill is held by one Infantry, a single 75mm battery, and minefields.

SOVIET MAJOR VICTORY!!!

Aftermath

Final Casualty count was 36-27. Both sides failed in their Minor Victory condition, but the Soviets succeed in their Major objective of controlling three entrenchments.

A few notes on the gameplay:

1. Artillery was king. Anyone in the woods or open was highly susceptible to artillery fire. Particularly when the sun began to rise and spotting range was increased.
2. With no morale differential (The Spanish are usually better) it was not very inviting for the Spanish to initiate counter-assaults, but rather hunker down in their entrenched positions enjoying the defensive benefits.
3. The low morale on both sides meant even a lowly “M” result from Direct Fire or Bombardment fatal. This greatly helped the Soviets to demoralize some entrenchments prior to assaulting and made hard work for the Spanish reinforcements.
4. The Kommissars were brutal this mission. It was tough on the Soviets losing two whole HMG platoons by turn 8.

Scenario Rating: 4/5 – This was a great battle of attack and counter-attack. Despite the entrenched position, the Spanish were forced to use their extra units (reserves) wisely and both sides had quite a bit of movement. Although not a small scenario, it played surprisingly fast.

Author	treadasaurusrex (Spain)
Method	VASSAL
Victor	Soviet Union
Participants	Reconquista
Play Date	2023-02-28
Language	English
Scenario	BluD017

This was another extended 5-session play-through of an infantry-heavy slugfest with the undaunted and eager, Reconquista, leading the Red Army troops. I led the defending, and overmatched Spanish side, in what was almost a very costly draw. We used the FOW, consolidation, excess initiative and smoke/illum optional rules and experimented with the following 2 house rules:

1)Road Movement for Mechanized & Foot Units All FOOT & MECHANIZED units may move on roads at the rate of 1/2 a Movement Point (MP) per road hex, just like MOTORIZED units, and 2) Standard Movement for Mechanized Units All mechanized units may move through clear hexes at a movement cost of only 1 movement point (MP) per hex, instead of 1 1/2. Add one to this cost if moving up, across, or down slopes hexes, and Both sides drew poor leaders, with the Spanish having a slight morale advantage. Together, we threw an amazing 25 combat 7-die rolls in only 24 game turns -- 13 of which were FOW-shortened!

The bulk of the entrenched Spanish force was concentrated on two hills in the southwest sector of the battle map, but they also held a 20-meter hill in the northeast sector with two entrenchments that was surrounded by minefields. the Red Army's slow, mass movement-to-contact from the northeast to southwest began in the pre-dawn gloom at a visibility of only 2 hexes. Their skirmisher penal units were on point in the early turns taking heavy casualties, mostly to adjacent-hex direct fire, once they were in range during game turns 5-6. Multiple close assaults, proceeded by remarkably accurate Soviet OBA ensued as the penal platoons attacked straight uphill in the face of very heavy fire. As it turned out, this was a clever but costly feint attack intended to draw Spanish attention away from the followup Red Storm of regular INF and SMG units. The first Spanish casualties did not occur until the 7th game turn, but then they rapidly accumulated as the Soviets reached decisive engagement range. Entrenchments fell to the Soviets on the northeast hill, and the remaining Spanish fell back to the south, in a desperate foot race with the bulk of the Bolshevik force. Very soon, during game turns 9-14, the Red storms breaks over the other two Spanish-held hills in the southwest. Many morale collapses occur on both sides in fierce, close range fighting in the waning darkness of the woods. Dawn revealed a series of a repeated seesaw, attack & counter attacks with many losses by the end of game turn 21. OB Artillery is deadly at this stage of the fight as visibility improves. Eventually 3 contested entrenchments permanently fell to the relentless Red tide by the end of game turn 22, though at a heavy cost. Brave Spanish counter attacks slowly weakened, and they failed to recapture 2 of the entrenchment in spite of heroic efforts by their relatively few remaining leaders. With enhanced visibility, units in wooded hexes are constantly losing steps to OBA ad onboard mortar barrages.

At the end, step losses are 40 for the Soviets, and also 6 leaders/Kommissars, while the Spanish lost 24 steps and 5 leaders. The Soviets prevailed in this infantry slugfest, thanks to their ability to hold on in 3 of the captured entrenchments. The Spanish probably should have stayed in their dug-in positions, rather than going over the top and into close assaults, though this did result in the elimination of crucial Soviet HMG units.

I give this relatively balanced scenario a 3, and recommend it for both SHARED & SOLO play. There was a lot more maneuver and critical decision points than we expected, in what was a fast-paced encounter. While the FOW clearly helped the Spanish side, it came down to the last 7 game turns to determine the final outcome. In a daylight situation, I think that it would be a better play-through, which is why I am not joining my gracious opponent in giving this one a 4. The house rules we tried worked pretty well in this play-through.