SCW game

 Well a couple of weeks ago we at the club had a Spanish Civil War game. But I did not take ant photographs so I had to wait intil this aircraft had been shown on the Analogue Painting challenge.

Let me first talk about the aircraft. This is my only aircraft (so far) for the 10mm SCW armies I have. Mostly because they are just so fiendishly hard to acquire the right aircraft in the right scale or this conflict, but also because they do not figure so much in many of the battles. Yes I do know about the bombing of Guernica. But generally most battles not so much! Anyway this is a 1/200th (10mm) scale Zvesda kit of a Ju 52. Painted in civil livery of the period the aircraft did see extensive service in WW2 in military use. The kit went together perfectly, no problems at all. Seldom do you get such good kits. Yes I grant you that it is small and only about 18 parts but still it was a joy to build. Only the 2nd Zvesda kit I have built but they have both been very good indeed.

Back to the battle. (No the plane was not used.) We did use a slightly modified version of my own 1 page rules and they worked well. There had been a few tweaks from last time but as rules they work well for a fun uncompetitive type game.

I say uncompetitive and this is the twist. I set an overall objective and give a single random objective to each player. Which are not revealed until the end. There are a total of 30 objectives, and if players choose they may take a second secret objective. And the objectives will give (OR TAKE AWWAY) victory points. From the player with the card. And you just don't know until the card is drawn. Quite often they are contradictory to the main objective, or your allies or even each other. It is all the luck of the draw.

In This Game one player had to take a set building and not advance beyond it. Another player had to use a certain Phrase to insult an ally, yet another player had to suffer less casualties than any of their allies.  One of the Objective cards is -10 Victory points just because the Ref (me ) is having a bad day and someone else has to suffer as well. These cards worked really well.

In so many wargames it is a case of lining up troops against each other and fighting head on. With this set up you just do not know how your allies will react. This creates a level of doubt and it is entirely possible to lose the battle and yet come out as the winner on the day.

And Below are the results of the day's Game.

Defenders
Peter +41 VP
Richard -18 VP

Attacking
Graham +15 VP
Matt -10 VP
Tim -13 VP

Victory Points are a combination of Overall objective, The Number of bases you loose, the number of bases you kill, and the secret objectives.

Overall it was a Defenders victory on the battle field and for Peter in particular as he overwhelmingly achieved his secondary objectives while taking less casualties and allowing Richard to soak up as many casualties as he could.  Which meant that Richards 3 Platoons were all but whipped out. But this was because Peters secret objectives were to ensure that he took the least casualties in the battle. the result was while Richard was feeling supported Peter never had to push for an advance on the battle field. While Graham failed to complete his secret mission yet did inflict a substantial amount of casualties. Tim did complete 1 secret objective and with his second secret objective being that he would loose victory points every time ANYONE on his side fired artillery, he did also loose an armoured car and 2 Tankettes (fled from the table) Withdrew from the table in poor Order.