Friday 27 February 2015

Man the Barricades! - Spanish Civil War Chain of Command

This week I was supposed to play two games of Warhammer.
In the event, changes to the Dad's Taxi schedule meant I didn't play either game (apologies, General Ballroom) but as one door closes, another opens and instead I managed to inveigle myself into a game of Chain of Command with Scrivs, James and Northstar Nick.
Specifically a Spanish Civil War version of the game.
Scrivs and Nick had provided all the terrain and figures, and it all looked absolutely splendid.

I refused to play the fascists, and so was given some of the forces of La Republic to command.
I checked with El Nick what to do and he instructed me to "Man the Barricades!" so I did.

Here's the eye candy:


The Table in all it's glory.






 Man (or woman) the barricades.



 No pasaran!






 Into the orange grove, men!




 Run away Jose!

 More Republicans bolster the cause!




The Fascist armoured car breaks through but the banners still wave.

My apologies for the yellow "cast" to some of the pictures. Lighting at the White Hart leaves a fair bit to be desired.

In the event we didn't finish the game, mainly because we were chatting and not focused and Scrivs had to explain everything to me in words of one syllable.
But a great time was had by all.
Nick's men drove off James' fascists in a hail of bullets, but the police I was facing managed to flank me through the orange grove before driving their advantage home with the armoured car.
Honours pretty much even I'd have said

This was my first time with Chain of Command, and not having previously enjoyed my TFL experience with the Dux Britaniarum rules was unsure what to expect. I know CoC has had lots of love recently but I was suspicious...
Turned out I needn't have been. The game flowed very well and I got a handle of the basics pretty quickly. It all seemed to make sense and the nice "multiple six" mechanics that break the IGO-UGO flow worked nicely I thought to create those moments when suddenly one side or another flows forward unexpectedly to seize the initiative.

James an I talked about Americans versus Fallschirmjager, I started thinking about buying an International Brigades force from Nick and I even texted Stephen during the game, thinking we might revive our abandoned Bolt Action project from a couple of years ago as a new Chain of Command project.

9 comments:

  1. What a fantastic table...lovely terrain and figures.

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  2. Yes Scrivs' games are always stunners. In this oone I love the vans and the oranges!

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  3. Great pictures, very atmospheric with these barricades...

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  4. Great looking game. Glad you enjoyed the rules.

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  5. Very nice game! I've been thinking about doing a SCW project lately (big TFL fan), but as my gaming partner and I both also 'refuse to play the fascists', we have arrived at an impasse :-)

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    1. "as my gaming partner and I both also 'refuse to play the fascists', we have arrived at an impasse :-)"

      ...well, not everyone was a hard line fascist for the Nationalists! You could stake a very nice Asalto force or Carabineros or such, maybe some religiously motivated Requetes....plenty of non fascists types to mess with in Franco's forces.

      ;-)

      Happy W

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  6. I have resigned myself to playing the Nationalists of late. They do get the better hats though :)

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  7. Lovely stuff Tom,

    I saw this one on Scrivs blog and glad you are tossing up the possibility of an Internationalist force....what could be grander than manning the barricades of Madrid, seeing of Franco's Regulares and Legionaries at the gates of University City...No Pasaran!
    :-)

    Happy W

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