"Spanish Civil War - Anybody out there?" Topic

Hi just wanted to see what the current popularity and thinking was on gaming the SCW. Have tried in 15mm, skirmished in 20mm with the old Bandera range and now exploring the opportunities of larger company sized engagements in 10mm with the Lardies "I aint been shot mum" rules. It seems to be a distinctly niche subject, but with so much becoming available from notables such as Pendraken and Minairons in 1/144,wondered what others thought?

The Empress 28's are beautiful and often tempt me, but must stay focused ….

15mm with (mostly) Peter Pig minis. I'm just working on some of the new resin armoured cars

It is on my list of things to get to, but it is way down on my list.

Taking advantage of my brand having been mentioned here, and having into account our prioritary focus on 1:72 – 20mm, I would humbly suggest you to use 20mm stuff, for settings larger than skirmish level too.

A number of my customers (and even myself) have got accustomed to game company or battalion level scenarios using such miniatures, in FOW-style multiple bases.

20mm figures do fit pretty well in such bases; besides, their painting job requires the same techniques and skills than 15mm ones; and in the end, a 20mm sized CV-33 tankette still looks dangerous on tabletop

Lluís

I had bought some Minairons and HPC figs. They don't matchup at all. So I decided to do the Peter Pig rules with the Minairons and I can do CoC or BA with the larger HPC figs. Either way I don't need many figures and it solves my scale dilemma. I do like your 10mm idea.

To be honest Stosstruppen, I must say that I use to mix figures from several brands whenever possible:

Please note that, while my Militiawomen centuria shown before is made up by Minairons figures mainly (soldadets.blogspot.com/2015/10/centuria-de-milicia-femenina.html), the Republican Inf. platoon in this picture shows a mix of figures from Minairons, Bandera/HPC, Caesar plastics and even B.U.M (soldadets.blogspot.com/2014/04/seccio-dinfanteria-republicana.html).

I honestly believe they all combine well enough (except those from Warrior perhaps) --but it's just an oppinion, of course.

Here I built a second Republican platoon (soldadets.blogspot.com/2015/10/2-seccio-dinfanteria-republicana.html), with an even greater mix. No Minairons figures there, but from Irregular, Caesar, Bandera/HPC, Barcino, B.U.M. and even Warrior (!!!!)

Cheers
Lluís

Check with nnascati.

The carlists I have seem way too big. I'm fine with the scheme I came up with regardless

The SCW enthusiast in our group used HPC 20's. Hasn't
run a game in a couple/three years, tho'

I heard someone say my name. :) MrJ 1970, the SCW is probably my favorite period of 20th century history. I own I library of close to four dozen books on the subject, as well as four films. I've tried numerous times over the years to put my passion on to the tabletop, with sadly no success. The conflict is more interesting to study than to game I have found. I just recently sold a large collection of the Empress figures to Chris Salander.
My plan now is to buy a few, single 54mm figures to paint for display.

I can't deny the Empress and Minairans miniatures are masterpieces in their respective scales and testimony to the talent and level of sculpting quality out there, SCW being fortunate to have two of the best ranges out there! I amy well look at these later for CoC. However I really want to go large scale with rolling Spanish terrain and lots of space for waves of tankettes and cavalry to threaten flanks and terrify militia and Falange. Likewise one of the major draws for me for this period has to be the vast range of interwar aircraft, and I'd like to use these in a strategic level rather than table decoration for single strafing runs that you often see due to the size of a 1/48th kit.

For this reason and the wealth of kits and models out there now, i'm exploring the potential of 10mm. Lluis, thanks for the huge range of kits at 1/144 level for SCW aircraft, I'll take at least one of each. Any chance of the Italian Breda 65 being added, will look superb over a 10mm Guadalajara table!

Going back a bit I remember Robin Hunt did a series in Military Modelling on converting plastic 20mm for SCW, for me it has always stuck in my head. What I also remember is he had photos of a 1/200 game with a huge model village, anybody have a reference or issue date for these articles to hand? Would love to chase up a back issue if possible.

I was friendly with Robin Hunt for many years until his death. The game you are referring to was done I think with the range from Pendraken, which was new at the time. It was Robin who started my fascination with the period, we had a friendship that lasted well over 30 years.
I may have the article around somewhere. Shoot me an email.
nnascati@gmail.com

Nick

Mr J1970, I had to try
Thanks for your warm comments anyway!

I have a moderate collection of Empress and Force of Arms. I will typically use the Disposable Heroes SCW mod

I have been tinkering in 20mm (Irregular and BUM) for a while – still haven't actually had a game… I remember the Robin Hunt articles in the old Military Modelling – converting Airfix stuff – very inspiring- led to a teenage reading of Hugh Thomas's book on the subject!

Loads in 15mm, comes out occasionally using Rapid Fire or more likely Triumph of the will.

Agree though as a pet period it's great but struggle sometimes to make a good game of it. Not sure why this should be to be honest.

brutonboy,
As someone who has tried several times, I think the problem is that there is really too much going on around the actual battles that is impossible to handle in anything but a role playing game. Without a way to bring in the political intrigue, it is just WWII with inferior weapons and nicer uniforms.

+1 nnascati.
Several periods are this way. There's great figures out there but it's the politics, literature, and dare I say "feel" of the period that can't quite get translated to the games table.

I have HPC 20mm figures. I plan to use them with the Portable Wargame mostly because I like the look of the figures and have just enough for that size game.

I think the problem is that there is really too much going on around the actual battles that is impossible to handle in anything but a role playing game.

I am not sure why this would be…all that going on is what helps make wargaming the period interesting… I can't see how all the politics, intrigue etc. going on in WWII… if anyone really cared about all nuances.

I have been really happy with the SCW version of Chain of Command.

I have 28mm Force of Arms and Empress Miniatures. Currently I am using modified Bolt Action Rules.

We game the period in 28mm, mostly Empress Miniatures plus a few others from various inter war ranges. Below is a link to our University City game a couple of years ago. Starting a Battle of Quinto game next weekend.

link

Regards Ken
The Yarkshire Gamer

Im a dedicated 15mm gamer where the SCW and WW2 is concerned.I have bags of stuff and I plan on spending at least the next couple of years knocking out companies for FoW SCW. Ive already had my 15mm Requetes posted here by Armand but I plan on following this up with a lot more.

IVe also started to write a free Spain in Flames equivalent supplement for any of us that want to do this in 15mm. I reckon there is a years work in that but I think it will be worth the blood sweat and tears. Im 17 pages in so far….WTS

Hi

I've dabbled with the SCW over many years but never found a rule system that I am happy with. That changed last year and I am now building two brigade level forces using Peter Pig figures and vehicles from various forces. If I could work out how to upload an image from my pc rather than linking to a website that doesn't exist, I'd be happy to post some images of my progress so far.

Cheers

Simon

Hopefully this should take you to photos of the first outing of my new Peter Pig SCW miniatures. A company of Guardia Civil and a falange of Falangists attacking part of an Anarchist column defending a hill. To give you a sense of the scale, three bases of three figures each represent a centuria.

link

Cheers

Simon

Yes I can see the anarchist unit, Simon. Really great paint-job and set-up.

Thanks,
Mike

Thanks Mike – I'll take some individual unit photos of the Guardia Civil and the Falange soon. I don't know if there is a way of photographing the battlefield while keeping the units in focus, but if there is, it takes a better photographer than me!

Cheers

Simon