Arriba Espana: The Spanish Civil War, 1936-39
Feature
articles: “The Spanish Civil War”; “Women in the Soviet Armed Forces”;
“Fort Eben Emael”; “The Hammelburg POW Raid”; and “Japan’s Oilers &
Tankers.”The wargame featured in that issue will be Brian Train’s Arriba Espana: The Spanish Civil War, 1936-39.
It’s intended for two-player play, one representing the left-wing
coalition government of the Spanish Republic, and the other the
alliance of right-wing forces that rose in revolt against it. Solitaire
play is doable.
The 34x22” area-map shows all of Iberia and
is divided into regions, each with its own name. A region may be in one
of three states: government control, rebel control, or contested,
meaning neither side controls it. Getting and maintaining control of
regions is central for keeping your units supplied and for gaining a
high political support level. Each region is subdivided into one or
more areas corresponding to that region’s component provinces.
Each winter game turn represents three months, while those at the other times of year each represent two months.
Most of the 280 iconic counters are
military units; however, their scale is abstract, with each generally
representing groupings of two or more historic regiments, brigades or
divisions. There are also 16 new variant-add-on counters included for
issue number one’s Barbarossa game.
There are four armed autonomous regions in
the game: Asturias, Basque, Catalonia and Santander. The Government
player controls those units along with the Popular Army, the
anarchists, the Marxist POUM, and the international brigades. The Rebel
player controls Nationalist, Carlist, colonial, Portuguese, German and
Italian units.
There are 8,632 words in the rules. That works out to mean two experienced players can finish a game in about four hours.
The table of contents is shown below.
1.0 Introduction
2.0 Components, Definitions & Abbreviations
3.0 Sequence of Play
4.0 Random Events
5.0 Political Rules
6.0 Strategic Phase
7.0 Organization Phase
8.0 Movement
9.0 Combat
10.0 Recovery
11.0 Supply
12.0 Turn Inter-Phase
13.0 How to Win
14.0 Set Up
15.0 Optional Rules
16.0 Designer’s Notes
Other Articles:
- The Spanish Civil War: A Strategic Analysis
- Patton’s Raid on Hammelburg
- Japan’s World War II Oilers & Tankers
- Slovakia in World War II
- The Organization of the Red Army at the Start of WW II
