The Spanish Civil War, Triumph & Tragedy, 20mm

The year’s wargaming didn’t get off to a very good start. My own game was cancelled. Britain is in the grip of heavy snow, and our Russian Civil War game set in tabletop snow fell victim to the real stuff piling up outside. Instead I sat in on a large 20mm Spanish Civil War game run by Colin Jack.It was was based around the Nationalist assault on the Spanish city of Badajoz.Colin didn’t seem to mind about the garish-coloured tabletop, the fantasy fields or the lack of olive groves, so I held my tongue and watched the game unfold. It was a multi-player game, with at least four active players on each side. The rules were new – a set called Triumph & Tragedy from Empress Games, which have had a good press recently, so I was interested to see how they worked. One risk with multi-player games is that they often slow down to a crawl, but this one zipped along nicely.The city was defended by a motley Republican (government) force which included Asaltos, Guarda Civile, various nationalist and political militias, and possibly a few regular Spanish troops. The Nationalists (rebels) consisted of troops from the Army of Africa (Spanish Legionaries and Moroccans), supported by Facist and Royalist militia. There didn’t seem to be much finesse on either side – the Nationalists just lined up and charged, but the defenders did show a bit of aggression, coming out of the defences to meet the enemy in the fields outside the city.In the end the defenders inflicted such heavy casualties on the bad guys that they gave up the assault. The main thing was that everyone seemed to enjoy themselves, and the rules were fast-flowing, easy to pick up, and fairly realistic – albeit bloodthirsty. Of course, we often use Chris Peers’ rules, so bloodthirsty is only a relative term! We decided to try Triumph & Tragedy again, this time for one of our “Back of Beyond” games in a few weeks.

Tags: Triumph & Tragedy