Squad Battles: Spanish Civil War

Some call it “The Passionate War”. Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy and the Soviet Union used the conflict as a test bed for World War II. The Western democracies tut-tuteed their way to their sleep-walking path to disaster. The passion came from the ranks of the rightist Spanish Nationalists, leftist Spanish Republicans and the thousands of idealistic volunteers that flocked to both sides. The Squad Battles team assembled by John Tiller, with scenario designer Jaoa Lima, takes a look at this long and vicious war at the tactical level with HPS’ Spanish Civil War.

A Nice Break from Field Gray and Olive Drab

Spanish Civil War’s documentation is spread throughout online screens and PDF files in the game directory. The generic Squad Battles manual and the usual “Getting Started” scenario cover game mechanics well. Players are well advised to look at the Scenario_Map.pdf to see how the scenarios fit into the war.

The terrain on the 2D map is functional if not inspired. The zoomable map is made up of forty-meter hexes with a time scale of five minutes per turn. Players should play with the contours option on as many obstructions to line of slight are not otherwise noticeable. Features like barriers and obstacles are uniform and seem out of place. Various overlays concerning visible and reachable hexes, contours and units can be toggled on and off. A jump map provides a glimpse of the entire map. New terrain innovations give cratered and damaged hexes different effects on combat.

The shortcomings of the terrain graphics are made up by the unit and weapon graphics. Units are displayed as busts of soldiers and officers. The composition of forces is made up of a polyglot of different groups. The distinct, colorful uniforms of each are lovingly portrayed on the map and in the information bar. An option allows colors of different friendly organizations to be seen as background to the counters. The information bars shows the status and strength of each unit. Right clicking provides even more information. Equipment and weapon icons are clear and detailed. Again, a right click provides additional information on weapon platforms, range and penetration. Leaders are marked with a star. Battle animation consists of blast markers with expanding collateral damage circles and tracer paths. Damage to structures caused by heavy ordinance is shown. The illustration of early vehicles, whose facing is marked by a yellow arrow, shows equipment not seen in later conflicts. The information bar also has unit organization and data on the selected hex in terms of elevation and protection.

Sound effects are good. Machine guns chatter, rifles snap and explosives boom. Movement causes the tramp of troops, rumble of engines and clip-clop of cavalry hooves. Mortars whump while heavy artillery causes the “boxcar in the sky” effect. Dive bombers howl to the attack. When officers attempt to rally troops, they snap out orders in Spanish. The weapon sounds when the AI takes it turns simulates a vicious firefight.

Back to Basics’

Game mechanics are the usual Tiller formula. Basic movement and attack commands can be done via mouse clicks while more esoteric actions such as changing facing and calling in air or artillery support can be accomplished through a menu, tool bar or hotkeys. Units fire automatically in defense and hit the ground on their own when situations heat up.

The basic units of Spanish Civil War are squads of six to ten men, three-man crews and individual leaders. All men carry personal weapons, but can also carry grenades or other explosives with no movement penalties. Crew-served weapons like machine guns and mortars require the attention of more than one trooper to function properly. Vehicles have crews who can bail out if necessary. Squads are rated for status and morale while having action points that determine how far they can move or how often the can fire. Combat effects include not only personnel losses but changes to status, including ‘disrupted’, ‘pinned’ or ‘demoralized’. Officers are rated as “b” or “c”, indicating their ability to rally troops. A new kind of leader, the political officer, has a rating of “x”, indicating his ability to rouse the guys to glory or send them scared silly to the rear pronto.

The 59 scenarios included in the game show that, in spite of the evolution of organization and weaponry on both sides, clashes remained grinding, bloody infantry battles, very different from any of the mobile operations of World War II. The scenarios begin in 1936 when the Nationalists began the slow circular attack on Madrid. Early on, the equipment included light World War I-era mortars and machine guns, but the rifle was the primary weapon. The Republicans were usually outnumbered and had fewer support weapons. They made up for this by using fine defensive positions and displaying spirit equal to their opponents. Scenarios are a matter of the attacker building a base of fire and then trying to flank the defenders. In doing so, officers must be risked to rally the men moving in the open. Loss of officers signals not only problems with morale but also the ability to call in air and artillery support. Final assaults on objectives, sometimes aided by using abandoned weapons, must be devastating and delivered before the end of the scenario. Be the length ten or thirty turns, the battle will hang in the balance until the last and only rewards the side that uses cover, officers and fields of fire to the best advantage. A new variable reinforcement and alternate scenario length adds to the tension.

A fascinating way to watch the progress of the war is to play the campaign game. Players take on the persona of a young officer of either side and fight a long branching series of scenarios. Performance dictates how the officer will improve and which scenario is played next. In this manner, the player can witness the introduction of heavy artillery, air power and tanks. The officers can meet storied formations such as the Abraham Lincoln Brigade and the Kondor Legion. The gritty course of the war can be seen and felt. More play opportunities are provided by a powerful scenario editor/maker and the full range of multi-play.