15mm Crossfire - Spanish Civil War games

Here are a couple of Spanish Civil War Crossfire games I photgraphed a few years ago.

2005 Game

An encounter battle. Republicans are to the left of the road, Nationalists to the right. A Republican attempt to move round the left flank failed, but following a long fire-fight a Republican assault captured the building in the Nationalist centre effectively winning the game. The fields are made from an 'astro-turf' mat, a quick way of mass-producing the cover you need for a Crossfire game.

15mm Crossfire - Spanish Civil War armies

The Spanish Civil War was my first Crossfire project, and I am indebted to Steven Thomas's Balagan website for all aspects of Spanish Civil War research. I modeled my original two forces on the International Brigade and the Falange as these are iconic, but they represent only two of the many forces/factions involved. I have since added Legionaries, Moors, Carlists and Anarchist Militia.

International Brigade (nearest) and Falange Militia. Figures are 15mm Peter Pig.

Crossfire

Arty Conliffe's Crossfire (CF) is an innovative set of WW2 rules that captures the ebb and flow of infantry battle. It's my favourite wargame. It's the one I play most. And it's the one that most impresses me 'intellectually'. Like all great games its basic mechanisms are simple but subtle. It's not hardware-driven and armour plays only a minor role, so it doesn’t suit wall-to-wall tankies.

It's readily adaptable to 'low tech' pre-war conflicts such as the Spanish Civil War (1936-7). But the rules have interesting concepts and mechanisms which others have adapted and taken back to WW1 or forward to Vietnam.

Force on Force

It's only just over a month since I was planning new Square Bashing armies but the focus of my attention has now passed to the new Force on Force modern skirmish rules from Ambush Alley Games recently and sumptuously published by Osprey. The rules aren't exactly new, but they are new to me, new in this format, and likely to capture a significant audience. The rules have some very clever mechanisms and have been described as the most innovative new rules since Crossfire.

They are scenario-driven and centred on small-unit actions. With 15-20mm figures, they are intended to be used on a very compact table, typically only 2' square. Putting together a game should, therefore, be relatively economical in all respects. Even so, I've decided to be unusually cautious. My normal plan for doing a new game is to:

1. Buy lots of figures and scenery.

2. Start painting them.

3. Loose interest.

4. Put them into storage so I have room to start the next project!

Occasionally I manage to finish a project before losing interest, and sometimes I even get to play a couple of games. Whilst I may inevitably fall for this conventional, if doomed, approach, my current plan is to:

1. Buy some cheap 1/72 plastic figures and mount them on pennies.

2. Collect some small boxes to represent buildings.

3. Start gaming! 

Square Bashing the First Balkan War and the Chinese Warlord Era

The Balkan War 1912-1913,
Alexander Vachkov

I was planning to do both the First Balkan War and the Chinese Warlord Era using Peter Pig's WW1 Square Bashing rules when I saw that they are being revised and extended to include these periods. This is good news but now I'll probably want to see the army lists before collecting the armies. I'm also now waiting for the forthcoming Osprey book on the FBW.

I already have late WW1 British and German SB armies in 10mm, and I am planning to use 10mm Pendraken figures again. For the First Balkan War these will be WW1 Russians for the Bulgarians and Colonial Egyptians for the Turks. For the Chinese Warlord Era I will be using WW1 Russians and British, and Russian Civil War Bolsheviks with the pointed caps filed down. So far, I've only bought some FT-17 tanks.

Welcome

Welcome to this blog which I've begun as an extension to my static website [since removed]. As time allows I will transfer most of the old content into the blog. The name 'doctorphalanx' was given to me by an online wargaming web. It amused me so I adopted it.