Matrix Games Forums

Hey everyone,

We're posting one of our first After Action Reports for War in Spain 1936-39! One of our community members, Beckettc17, dives into one of the smaller starter scenarios found in the game and attempts to eject Nationalist forces from the Balearic Islands. Read on to discover how their efforts went!

A massive thank you to Beckettc17 for putting this together

- Max


My two main goals are to take the island of Ibiza and then to follow it up and take Palma on the main island of Mallorca. Palma is a heavily defended city, so in order to take it before the scenario ends, I'll have to make sure I land enough forces on the island early so that I can get it under siege as quickly as possible. I'm not too worried about the Nationalist navy in the scenario, but they do have transports and an occasional Italian cruiser, so I can't be careless with what I do. I'm going to use my troops from the south of Spain as my Ibiza invasion force, and then use my stronger force in the Barcelona area as my force to go towards Palma. I'll also use the island of Menorca as a base to invade other parts of Mallorca so that my main invasion force can focus on taking Palma.

One of the first things I want to do in this scenario is move all units with assault value to the ports so that they can be sent to combat on the Islands, so I go through and find all non static units and move them to the nearest port that has ships capable of performing amphibious assaults.

I create amphibious task forces where I can and set targets in Ibiza and Mallorca so that I can begin my assault and try and take Palma as quickly as possible. I'll have to use these ships to keep ferrying troops to the islands which is why i start moving them to the ports as soon as I'm able to.

I send my two destroyers to interdict any Nationalist ships between Ibiza and Mallorca, I also send two task forces of 2 submarines to lurk outside of Palma to find any ships going in and out of there. I use my planes to search for any ships that could be there.

I was able to damage a few Nationalist ships, but one of my destroyers took heavy damage from coastal defense guns chasing after ships and had to return to Barcelona for repairs. I landed on the NE and west side of Mallorca and started moving inland as well as west and NE on the island of Ibiza with the goals of heading to the capitals of the islands.

Ibiza fell easily, now I just have to mop up the defenders of the island then I can focus on Mallorca where I have advanced a bit on the NE of the island, but need more troops ferried over to push on Palma.

Have full control of Ibiza, now to move all troops to Mallorca and go for Palma.

The Nationalist side tried to use an Italian CL to disrupt my conveys of troops to Mallorca, but my destroyer was able to sink it in the middle of the night.

Won a couple of hard fought battles around Palma that allows me to advance on the city and put it under siege.

After a couple days battles, Palma is finally in Republican hands!

Finally managed to take Palma and get a Decisive Victory for the Republican side!

Which SCN number did you play?

The Balearic Islands short campaign, I believe it's number 5

Thank you for the test and information.

You conquered Mallorca in a surprisingly direct and simple way.
I have to look carefully if it was possible to do it in reality. I mean landing on the west coast.

As is known, Mallorca remained in the hands of the Nationalists throughout the war.
They built approximately 20 CD batteries. Most of them were 14cm Canot Guns.
They built all the batteries in the south, east and north, but none on the west coast.
That suggests something to me. I will look into it. Dali

As I said, the west coast is mountainous and difficult to cross (there was only one road to Palma from west). Moving inland was very difficult if the road was well defended.

Fantasy game probably i wont buy sorry. still better desk games.

(no tengo muchos amigos aqui y soy mala persona.)

Sure!
I don't play fantasy games either.

This is a very crude simulation of a very crude war.

I've been working on this for (only) three years and I'm not a complete expert on the Spanish coast. So please excuse me, thank you.

Dali101 wrote: Mon Dec 01, 2025 10:20 pm Sure!


This is a very crude simulation of a very crude war.

correct. right said.

Dali101 wrote: Mon Dec 01, 2025 10:20 pm Sure!


This is a very crude simulation of a very crude war.

correct.

Beckettc17 wrote: Thu Nov 27, 2025 6:21 pm The Balearic Islands short campaign, I believe it's number 5

This is #7 the tutorial. #5 Republic does not have DDs