Fighting off the raving Fascists, Monarchists, and Religious fanatics!

[RangerJoe]

Okay, I really haven't played the Republicans much in the beta testing so this will be a little new for me. I know that the Nationalist forces are better than the mobs that I have so I need to work around that. Stay alive, hold Madrid, and train my troops while bleeding the enemy as much as is possible.

If I do some tutorials with pictures, I want to put an index here with links. Yummy, sausage links with pancake syrup on top . . .

[RangerJoe]

So, I need to go through my units and get them into shape. A lot of Republican units disband, so do the Nationalists. There are various reasons for this including the lack of trust in the unit, the desertion of members of the unit, and so on. That is beyond the scope of this AAR and as far as I am concerned, beyond the scope of the game but these disbandments were historical.

Here is an artillery unit near Madrid. This is what it looks like before I did anything with it. The pink (rose) is when the unit disbands. The light blue is the selection to remove the disabled devices which are shown by this (3) or whatever number is disabled.

Initial artillery unit near Madrid.png (282.97 KiB) Viewed 761 times

This picture shows the unit with all of the devices that are ready to fight.

Artillery unit after detaching disabled devices.png (284.01 KiB) Viewed 761 times

This is the TOE or TO&E of the unit, that is the Table of Organization & Equipment which shows what the unit should have at the full authorized strength. The pink shows what devices are missing by the negative number like this: (-3). The yellow is both the gun limber caisson which carries the ammunition for the gun and what the gun is attached to for moving. "As the caissons go marching along" is part of a song about artillery on the move. The "static" device is a device that locks the unit in place so it won't move. Some units have them, including most if not all of the small village garrison units. Don't be fooled by their small size, they can be tough but I digress. The blue is showing that everything is carried by vehicles which are the trucks and the wagons. That means that it will use the vehicle movement rate for the unit so it will move faster on roads than foot movement but slower in rough terrain and much slower than in mountains compared to all foot units.

TOE of artillery unit.png (333.86 KiB) Viewed 761 times

This is the RSV unit that was created when I detached the devices from that one artillery unit. I have others in the hex that I will need to take care of as well and those devices will go into the RSV unit. The pink is the devices which are all disabled, when they are repaired/healed then they will move to the other column. The blue distribute means that when the devices are repaired/healed, then units that need those devices and are receiving replaces can receive those devices if they are within 20 hexes and can trace a valid supply path to the RSV unit. The yellow has the merge function where you can move devices from one unit to another unit in the same hex. They do not have to be healed and the RSV units themselves can have so many devices in them so you may need more than one RSV unit in a hex to hold all of the disabled devices.

[RangerJoe]

I mentioned to someone on Discord that sometimes when a squad type of device is upgraded that the device numbers may change. This may also happen when the squad device is downgraded. I will show an example from my last Beta game on the Nationalist side with a Falange unit.

This is the Falange unit with 6 Falange Squad 36 devices that I want to upgrade to Falange Squad 37 devices.

upgrading squads with device numbers changing.png (275.43 KiB) Viewed 740 times

Here are the important combat and size values for the Falange Squad 36 device in pink. Please note the soft attack values and the load cost which I personally equate to the number of men in the device. Please note that there are some squad devices of women as well that upgrade but are then not defined as women squad devices. Oh well . . .

falange squad 36 device ratings.png (780.22 KiB) Viewed 740 times

Here are the important combat and size values for the Falange Squad 37 device in pink. Note that the "Anti Soft" value increases by 3 points so the firepower of the squad increases. The penetration and "Anti Armor" values stay the same. The load cost decreases by 2 which I equate to two fewer men. This load cost is important when moving the unit/device by air, water, and/or vehicle since the load cost determines how much of the capacity the device needs and thus how efficiently it can be moved by aircraft, land vehicles, and/or water transportation. Trains and strategic movement are different.

falange squad 37 device ratings.png (416.76 KiB) Viewed 740 times

This is the number of Falange Squad 37 devices now in the unit after upgrading the 6 Falange 36 device. So I gained one more device along with the additional 23 "Anti Soft" firepower points. The AV only went up by one, however. So the total AV of the unit only went up by 1. That will be a discussion for another time.

falange unit after upgrading.png (272.25 KiB) Viewed 740 times

Please note that in order to do this upgrade, the unit already had 8 Falange Squad 37 devices to start which I downgraded to 6 Falange Squad 36 devices. I did not take a picture of the unit before I downgraded the devices because there is a limit to the number of pictures that I will post. That means the downgrade and then the upgrade actually cost this unit one Falange Squad 37 device. So don't do this upgrade/downgrade just to see how the AV changes because you can lose devices. Usually you want to upgrade your devices and not downgrade your devices but there are exceptions which you will have to find, I won't tell you about those.

[jwilkerson]

Excellent tutorial on device management !!

[RangerJoe]

Thank you.

Now for some more. Too bad someone didn't ask me to do these before the release so these could have accompanied the release in an attached file . . .

Here is an artillery unit that will disband later but that is over 10 months away. It is below strength and I want to increase the strength and swap some devices. Right now, all devices will be transported with no men walking. That affects the movement speed depending upon the terrain type.

Artillery unit that I am going to manipulate.png (289.11 KiB) Viewed 693 times

Here is the artillery unit truck device. You can see in the pink the attributes of the device, it is wheeled for faster movement and it is a non-combat device. The front line troops would refer to these support device types as REMFs. When means Rear Echelon . . . Oh wait, I am not allowed to post the rest of that here due to the family orientated language requirement. Those trucks use "fuel" to move, which also includes when they are moving supplies around but the entire unit is not moving. Since fuel can be a limiting factor and I don't think that the Republicans actual have any oil or refineries in Spain itself, it has to be imported. I will get into that later with convoys. The light purple is the load cost of the device and how much cargo it can carry. The load cost is important since aircraft are limited to size of the loaded device and for ships, the load cost also determines how slow these devices unload. The yellow is where I can see what other device types are allowed in that slot.

Artillery unit truck device.png (536.73 KiB) Viewed 693 times

Here are the possible substitutes for the truck device. The devices in the pink are devices that are not yet available. You can see the "Load Armored Wagon" device type, that is for armoured trains which both sides do have later. So you can pretend that you are a Coptic Egyptian actor pretending to be a medical doctor during the Russian Revolution! But I don't want the unit to be restricted to railroad lines and it has a need for lots of supplies in the form of ammo so I will select a horse powered vehicle for this unit which is in the light purple. It also shows the number of the device in the "Pools" which are not shown on the map while the numbers in the "RSV" are the numbers of the device in those units anywhere on the map whether or not this unit can receive those devices as replacements due to factors mentioned in an earlier post.

artillery unit support type possibilities.png (570.3 KiB) Viewed 693 times

Here is the unit that after I changed the trucks to horse wagons and merged devices from other units in the same hex. You can only merge devices from units in the same hex. If you notice, now 78 men are walking instead of riding but the unit is also larger. I can manipulate the number of transport devices in the unit by increasing them, I may or may not get into that later, or by adding additional captured vehicle transport type devices.

artillery unit after manipulating it.png (289.44 KiB) Viewed 693 times

[RangerJoe]

Just to annoy people, this picture shows the combat power information for this unit after all that was done. I may or may not cover that if I describe the various unit types.

artillery unit combat information.png (2.25 MiB) Viewed 693 times

I could not attach the picture to the above post since there is a limit of 4 pictures per post. Ah vell . . .

[RangerJoe]

Here is how I turned a regular infantry unit into a "mountain" unit. I did not change the regular infantry squad type into the mountain man squad type but I manipulated the devices and then I took devices from other units to get this unit close to full strength.

Here is the unit before I did anything. The problem is in the support device types which are wheeled vehicles which are in the pink area. Even horse powered vehicles have a little bit of trouble moving in rough and mountain terrain. The dump function in blue is important. The unit organization in yellow will inform you of other units in the organization, where they are now or when and where they will enter the game. That may be gone over later.

initial infantry unit changing it to a mountain unit.png (328.63 KiB) Viewed 676 times

Here is the infantry unit after using the dump function in pink which removes all of the vehicles and places them into a "Vehicle Dump" unit which is a type of RSV unit. The detach disabled devices in the blue area removed those disabled devices.

infantry unit after dumping vehicles and detached disabled devices.png (327.37 KiB) Viewed 676 times

Here is the unit after merging devices from other units. In the pink area, if you look at the "experience" of the unit, you will notice that it went from 51 to 56. This can happen if you get devices from a more experienced unit. It can also lose experience as well so be aware of that. The morale of the unit went up by one point but we won't mention the morals of the soldiers in this family friendly forum. The disruption stayed the same but the fatigue went down from 33 to 29.

infantry unit after merging devices from other units.png (311.83 KiB) Viewed 676 times

This is the vehicle dump unit showing as an RSV unit. I am not showing the devices in the unit because I want to show other things and I am limited to 4 pictures per post. The pink area shows that this unit can also become a logistical unit. I will do that after I dump the disabled devices since I don't have any logistical units in the area and they are very important in getting the bullets and beans to the front line soldiers. The yellow area shows that this unit has no fuel so the truck movement is extremely limited but since this is a port, I am not worried about not having fuel because fuel supplies concentrate in the ports. Someone asked me how to disband a unit to get the devices returned to the pools and that is in the blue area with the disband function which you have to right click on that to disband the unit. I will not do so but I will detach the disabled devices into a new RSV unit because logistical units don't share their devices.

Vehicle dump as an RSV unit.png (268.13 KiB) Viewed 676 times

I would like to point out that the dump function can be reversed by merging the devices back into the unit. So if you accidentally hit dump or change your mind, it is reversible. The disbanding of any RSV unit is not reversible and you should be able to return disbanded units by recalling them like any other destroyed unit but that may be gone over later.

[RangerJoe]

Here I will show how to make a new logistical unit and why I am making it the way that I made it.

There are Republican units that will disband early in the game, the Nationalists enjoy the same thing! Anyway, I had an RSV unit already, I removed the disabled devices into another RSV unit, and there was one truck left in the unit.

Turning an RSV unit into a logistical unit including devices for rough terrain.png (252.51 KiB) Viewed 602 times

Here is the same RSV unit after I sent the truck to the other RSV unit and raided units that are going to disband for some support device squads as well as all of their horse vehicles and pack mule teams. Why not use those devices if the units are going to disband!? The reason for the wagons and carts is for the unit to take supplies from a base on a rail road line where a RR logistical unit can unload them there and then move the supplies to bases farther on a road and/or to units in the field. The pack mules are used in the rough terrain or mountains because they move a lot faster than the wheeled vehicles. Imagine trying to drive a car or truck through the mountains or even broken terrain and/or hilly terrain with no roads! Even a forest can cause troubles although a savanna should not because the trees are widely spaced unless there were creeks, ravines and/or gullies which would make it broken terrain. The pink area shows that it is an RSV unit, the blue shows that it still carries fuel and how much it used to need even though the trucks are gone, and then it shows the logistical capacity which is explained in the manual on page 281 under 9.1 Unit Logistics Screen if you want to look there for more information. The Yellow is the next button for the next picture where I will show how to turn the unit into a Logistical Unit.

finished RSV unit to turn into a logistical unit.png (286.5 KiB) Viewed 602 times

The blue area has the change type selected and the pink are shows what types this unit can be. This is with the selection in the preferences, under the advanced preferences, "Form LCU" set to "Off" and those are the only two types of units allowed to be changed under this setting. One of the reason for the user to adjust the settings is they can change the flavour of the game for themselves or if they are playing a PBEM, then the players can decide what they want enabled or disabled for their game.

Changing the RSV to the logistical unit.png (255.42 KiB) Viewed 602 times

Here is the finished Logistical unit to be used. Note that it still carries fuel and shows a need for fuel if the unit moves as if the trucks were still there. This need will disappear the next turn. If I wanted to add more devices into this unit, I would have to change it to an RSV unit. By the way, a great use for captured vehicles is to use them for Logistical units and/or to use them in the rear area units. That is because if captured devices are disabled by combat, they may not be repaired. So if you keep the vehicles out of combat then they won't be disabled. You can also give foot units captured vehicles to make them all carried by vehicles so they will travel faster by roads but that may be another discussion.

[RangerJoe]

Okay, now some of the "Boom Boom" stuff!

First a CL and a DD bombarded and then a BB and 2 DDs bombarded.

TF 90 bombarding at 85, 134 Malaga - 16:00

Defender losses: 178 Casualties
Squads lost: 25 disabled, 3 destroyed
Vehicles lost: 6 disabled, 0 destroyed
Guns lost: 0 disabled, 0 destroyed
Units Destroyed: 0

-------------------------------------
TF 89 bombarding at 85, 134 Malaga - 19:00

Defender losses: 178 Casualties
Squads lost: 3 disabled, 12 destroyed
Vehicles lost: 8 disabled, 0 destroyed
Guns lost: 2 disabled, 0 destroyed
Units Destroyed: 0

After I chased out 2 artillery units from San Sabastian, the units crossed the river and attacked them again. They received some nice presents! Although I captured no guns nor a lot of vehicles, the Nationalists will have to dig deeper into their stockpiles to replace these device.

Weather in hex: Clear wind 2
Republican shock attack at 111, 56 in Rough Forest terrain

Attacker artillery value: 0
Defender artillery value: 0
Attacker adjusted AV: 21
Defender adjusted AV: 0

Engineer Combat Power 6
Attack odds: 1000/1 (Highest fort level 0)
Attacker now controls 5 of 5 NM in hex

Attackers managed to cross river

Defender losses: 136 Casualties
Squads lost: 0 disabled, 0 destroyed
Vehicles lost: 0 disabled, 101 destroyed
Guns lost: 0 disabled, 13 destroyed
Misc. lost: 0 disabled, 7 destroyed
Units Destroyed: 0

some nice presents.png (269.45 KiB) Viewed 559 times

The Butcher's Bill for the day.

[RangerJoe]

20 July 1936

No serious fighting today but airpower and a destroyer sank 13 small ships.

The Nationalists had slightly more casualties but a lot more devices disabled and destroyed.

[RangerJoe]

21 July 1936

More naval action and a submarine torpedo actually hit a target! Yes, submarines can fire at more than one target.

Sub attack at 71, 144 near Tangier - 07:00
Weather in hex: Clear wind 0

Nationalist Fleet:
PG Lauria: Torpedo Hits: 1, and is sunk

SS C 2 is sighted by escort
PG Canovas del Castillo unable to locate submarine. Abandoning search.
PG Lauria hit by 450 W-450 Torpedo
SS C 1 launches 1 torpedoes at PG Lauria
SS C 1 launches 2 torpedoes at YMS Galicia
SS C 1 launches 1 torpedoes at PG Canovas del Castillo

One CL and 2 DDs also scored, sinking the following ships:

AP V.Puchol: Shell Hits: 11, Heavy fires, Heavy damage
LB Camila: Shell Hits: 1, and is sunk
AP Ciudad de Alicante: Shell Hits: 103, and is sunk
YMS Ricarde: Shell Hits: 1, and is sunk
with flavour like this:
1718: YMS Ricarde, having her rudder jammed, starts to sail in wide circles to port

Plus:
On the island of Ibiza . . .

TF 96 unloading over beach at 140, 108 Sant Antoni - 09:00

Republican amphibious landing at Sant Antoni 140, 108 (Light Urban terrain)
Weather in hex: Clear wind 0
Republican take undefended base at Sant Antoni 140, 108

And:
I got a lot more toys!

Republican deliberate attack at 111, 57 in Rough Forest terrain

Attacker artillery value: 0
Defender artillery value: 0
Attacker adjusted AV: 2
Defender adjusted AV: 0

Engineer Combat Power 0
Attack odds: 1000/1 (Highest fort level 0)
Attacker now controls 5 of 5 NM in hex

Defender losses: 209 Casualties
Squads lost: 0 disabled, 9 destroyed
Vehicles lost: 0 disabled, 270 destroyed
Guns lost: 0 disabled, 0 destroyed
Units Destroyed: 1

[RangerJoe]

Some questions were asked in a Discord channel and I will post the answers here:

1) If LCU is at the base with sufficient supplies is it using its organic logistics to move supplies from the base to itself or is that last mile of logistics abstracted. So is there any point of units sitting at a base having their organic logistic devices.
2) Similarly to above but unit is located at a railway hex. Can it be fully supplied by the railway units or does it need its own organic logistic devices.
3) Assuming that the answer to at least 1 of the above questions is no organic logistic devices are needed do logistic devices consume fuel while idle?
4) In editor certain devices are marked as 'fast'. Does the whole LCU need to be made up from fast devices to be fast and what is the movement rate for 'fast' devices/LCU. (Manual mentions movement rate for cav and vehicles but not all cav devices are fast and having slow or fast logistic vehicles does not appear to impact inf/art/log/cav movement speed provided that there are enough of them).
5) In the editor there is melee stat for devices. When is it used?

1) No cost to logistics when at a base. furthermore any logistics in that unit can then help to move items from/to other bases and help the base supply LCU around that base
2) Trains do not stop in the middle of the tracks to supply units. RR logistics work between bases only.
3) No fuel, but organic transport keeps consuming supplies. Horses, etc. But 1. above can mean fuel spent to do logistics for other purposes at that base.
4) per device. For vehicles this turns track to wheel, and for squads turns foot to horse mounted. Slowest device in unit does set the unit speed.
5) currently not used. It is a datafield for timeframes where some units had swords rather than fire arms. The age of the firearm started with many traditional units fight by sword and shield still.

Also:

But while logistics is complex, most of it runs automated.
Basically you just need to watch if your bases and units are in good supply.
For bases you might add logistics units along bases to a base with good supply.
Or expand the Train Depots if they can use RR.

For units that start a day with low supply you need to decide if to move closer to own bases, increase logistics at base or increase logistics in hex of the unit.
The LCU logistics info ( shown above ) can then tell if you need more trucks or more pack animal/porters to supply this hex.
Sometimes it is good to swap out logistics devices for another type.
For example swap trucks with pack animal before going to fight in a forest without roads.

<< if I have units near a train station but no logistic units within the unit or a logistic unit nearby , they won't get properly supplied ? >>
Right. Supplies must be moved from base to unit. The devices in LCU do this. Base or hex of the unit.
<<For instance, being at a railroad, moving rail cart units to that base that has a rail will increase the supply ?>>
Rail carts work over long distance. And only for base to base transport.
RR carts also need a Train Depot industry at base to be kept running.
They have a range of 60 hexes, and so you only need to make sure you have a good number of them in a "network" means bases that can reach each other by RR.
The Train Depot size also defines how fast RR carts can be unloaded and loaded at the base. Good infrastructure is required for transport hubs that need to load and unload a lot in that hex.

RR tracks can be blocked by enemy influence ( logistics are not riding into hot zones by train ) So keep units along the tracks if the enemy would otherwise be closer to those tracks than you are.

<<How do you increase logistics at a base ?>>
There are some dedicated logistics units you can move around. And all game rules allow for creating your own if you really need more.

As far as replacements for a unit are concerned:

<<Its insane how much longer it takes, I just did a 5 turn test with the same unit, who had 15 disabled, by leaving them with the unit, 5 turns later, I had replenished 6 of the 15 missing>>
Note supply is a factor in how many can be replaced.
See the LCU logistics info. clicking it will tell the base used to supply each day.
The supply level of this base does define how many device per day can be replaced by this base.
If you need many new devices, increase supply of that base or move close to a base with supply so the unit will use that base for supply.

As far as repairing devices:

Disabled devices will recover in any unit, but maybe slower than back in a base with a hospital.
Benefit: Disableds are quick to kill if hit. Air or artillery strikes. So the losses can be higher if such a unit is hit. They also consume more supply to recover. And take up space on ships and airdrop if you attack by ship or air. Having a few disableds is not an issue mostly. But if you drag a lot of them with you on the frontline they become a burden.

Replacements of missing devices ( this is not replacing disableds ) is only done if the unit allows this. They all start with "off" cause that is a game preference. The default at scenario start can also be turned "ON". Depends on what you prefer.

[RangerJoe]

22 July 1936

Showing the power of air units when a poor, defenseless engineer unit retreated from a base.

Republican air raid at 96, 89 (Plains terrain)
Time: 0800. Weather in hex: Light Cloud wind 2
Raid was detected at 46 Kyds, est altitude 5000 feet
Time to intercept 1021 seconds

Republican aircraft:
7x Hispano Ni.52
3x Fokker F.VII
2x CASA Bre.XIX B.2
2x Hispano E-30
1x Ju K.30
5x Hispano Ni.52

No Nationalist Aircraft losses:

No Republican Aircraft losses:

Defender losses: 163 Casualties
Squads lost: 0 disabled, 18 destroyed
Vehicles lost: 8 disabled, 1 destroyed
Guns lost: 0 disabled, 0 destroyed
Units Destroyed: 0

Republican air raid at 96, 89 (Plains terrain)
Time: 1600. Weather in hex: Light Cloud wind 0
Raid was detected at 46 Kyds, est altitude 5000 feet
Time to intercept 1021 seconds

Republican aircraft:
6x Hispano Ni.52
3x Fokker F.VII
2x Hispano E-30
1x Ju K.30
6x Hispano Ni.52
3x CASA Bre.XIX B.2

No Nationalist Aircraft losses:

No Republican Aircraft losses:

Defender losses: 90 Casualties
Squads lost: 0 disabled, 17 destroyed
Vehicles lost: 0 disabled, 11 destroyed
Guns lost: 0 disabled, 0 destroyed
Units Destroyed: 0

Then the battle . . .

Weather in hex: Clear wind 0
Republican deliberate attack at 96, 89 in Plains terrain

Attacker artillery value: 0
Defender artillery value: 0
Attacker adjusted AV: 149
Defender adjusted AV: 1

Engineer Combat Power 0
Attack odds: 77/1 (Highest fort level 1)
Attacker now controls 5 of 5 NM in hex
Defense collapsed, survivors routed

Attacker losses: 14 Casualties
Squads lost: 2 disabled, 0 destroyed
Vehicles lost: 0 disabled, 0 destroyed
Guns lost: 0 disabled, 0 destroyed

Defender losses: 145 Casualties
Squads lost: 10 disabled, 5 destroyed
Vehicles lost: 0 disabled, 14 destroyed
Guns lost: 0 disabled, 0 destroyed
Units Destroyed: 0

[monniker]

Thank you for your informative tutorial and AAR! It's quite clear that, once people sink their teeth in, managing these device shuffles will become the "meta" of War in Spain. And I had virtually no idea how to do it until I read about it here!

A few quick questions on strategy if you have the time. I can see the value of Ibiza and Mallorca for the Nationalists, but largely from the perspective of the long term as they lack the planes and ships to really make use of those bases in 1936, at least if the war is going decently for the Republicans. (Watch me get proved wrong immediately in a Nationalist AAR).

Do you view the islands as a target of opportunity or a necessity?

Secondly, with a dearth of armored units in the early war, do you place many (or any) units on reserve when you engage in combat? Would you have any pointers on that?

[RangerJoe]

23 July 1936

Getting set up to invade Mallorca. Ibiza has been invaded, a few more days and it should be Republican. Then those units either go to Formentara to secure that Island or get bogged down in Mallorca. I would prefer to capture Formentera first, then relocate the troops to Mallorca. The yellow attack will take place the next turn, then the pink will move in when another battalion is dropped off. The red is the two invasion targets on Mallorca. This operation may be a little ahead of schedule. But ones all of the islands are secure, then there won't be any airfields for the Nationalists in the area. Then I will plan other invasions . . .

Balearic Islands plan.png (527.05 KiB) Viewed 454 times

[RangerJoe]

24 July 1936

A relatively major battle at Hernani with some nice presents.

Republican shock attack at 110, 57 - Hernani (Light Urban terrain)

Attacker artillery value: 0
Defender artillery value: 25
Attacker adjusted AV: 39
Defender adjusted AV: 2

Engineer Combat Power 19
Attack odds: 16/1 (Highest fort level 1)
Attacker now controls 5 of 5 NM in hex

Attackers managed to cross river

Attacker losses: 71 Casualties
Squads lost: 9 disabled, 0 destroyed
Vehicles lost: 0 disabled, 0 destroyed
Guns lost: 0 disabled, 0 destroyed

Defender losses: 3905 Casualties
Squads lost: 0 disabled, 276 destroyed
Vehicles lost: 0 disabled, 23 destroyed
Guns lost: 0 disabled, 56 destroyed
Misc. lost: 0 disabled, 2 destroyed
Units Destroyed: 5

nice toys to play with.png (274.24 KiB) Viewed 443 times

More duck soup in the Med with submarines hitting with 3 torpedoes and sinking one ship. Most of the ships are small but they are all important in their own way.
Also, captured devices, aircraft, and ships show up as destroyed or sunk to the other side.

Butchers Bill 24 July 1936.png (168.11 KiB) Viewed 443 times

An important item on the logistical front, the rail line from Ferrol to the rest of Spain has been cut. The place is shown in the pink circle. Ferrol can receive a lot of supplies from Germany and some units enter in that area. It is an important area for the Nationalists. The rail line from Vigo to the rest of Spain may also be cut soon. Any unit relatively close to a rail line without actually being on the line can prevent trains from traveling through that route. If so, then the supplies from Germany will have to arrive in SE Spain where I can have submarines operating from bases in the Med.

[RangerJoe]

Thank you for your informative tutorial and AAR! It's quite clear that, once people sink their teeth in, managing these device shuffles will become the "meta" of War in Spain. And I had virtually no idea how to do it until I read about it here!

A few quick questions on strategy if you have the time. I can see the value of Ibiza and Mallorca for the Nationalists, but largely from the perspective of the long term as they lack the planes and ships to really make use of those bases in 1936, at least if the war is going decently for the Republicans. (Watch me get proved wrong immediately in a Nationalist AAR).

Do you view the islands as a target of opportunity or a necessity?

Secondly, with a dearth of armored units in the early war, do you place many (or any) units on reserve when you engage in combat? Would you have any pointers on that?

You are most welcome!

I consider the Balearic Islands and especially Mallorca necessary for the Republicans since there is an airfield on Mallorca which can threaten the supply lines from Odesa. By attacking those places early, I hope to capture them before more units show up. So I am using some of the Regular units and artillery to do this. The Italians do have air units and ground forces to ship in from Naples. Let the Republicans sink them at sea, maybe even including some cruisers!

The units on Reserve in combat don't chase the enemy forces when they retreat. Instead, they will either defend by plugging a whole that the enemy make when you are defending or penetrating through the enemy's lines when your units make a whole in the enemy lines. But the mobile forces are great, I will be using them shortly in another fashion when I try to create havoc in the enemy rear areas which I am already starting to do with some smaller infantry units.

[RangerJoe]

25 July 1936

This is the best kind of land battle to have.

Republican air raid at 98, 153 - Nador/Taouima (Light Urban terrain)
Time: 0800. Weather in hex: Clear wind 0
Raid was detected at 59 Kyds, est altitude 5000 feet
Time to intercept 903 seconds

Republican aircraft:
9x CASA Bre.XIX A.2

No Nationalist Aircraft losses:

No Republican Aircraft losses:

Nationalist Fleet:
xAK Cabo Huertas: Bomb Hits: 5, Shell Hits: 7, On fire

Losses on ships: 69 Casualties
Squads lost: 9 disabled, 0 destroyed
Vehicles lost: 0 disabled, 0 destroyed
Guns lost: 1 disabled, 0 destroyed

xAK Cabo Huertas hit by 10 kg GP Bomba M
xAK Cabo Huertas hit by 10 kg GP Bomba M
xAK Cabo Huertas hit by 10 kg GP Bomba M
xAK Cabo Huertas hit by 10 kg GP Bomba M
xAK Cabo Huertas hit by 10 kg GP Bomba M

Ibiza is almost liberated, the major port city is left and it was almost liberated today. Notice that the way that it reads is that there is a clear wind which is better than a smoky or fragrant wind!

Weather in hex: Clear wind 2
Republican deliberate attack at 140, 109 - Ibiza (Light Urban terrain)

Attacker artillery value: 8
Defender artillery value: 0
Attacker adjusted AV: 9
Defender adjusted AV: 0

Engineer Combat Power 0
Attack odds: 18/1 (Highest fort level 3)
Attack reduces base fortifications to level 0
Attacker now controls 4 of 5 NM in hex

Attacker losses: 4 Casualties
Squads lost: 1 disabled, 0 destroyed
Vehicles lost: 0 disabled, 0 destroyed
Guns lost: 0 disabled, 0 destroyed

Defender losses: 68 Casualties
Squads lost: 22 disabled, 3 destroyed
Vehicles lost: 0 disabled, 0 destroyed
Guns lost: 0 disabled, 0 destroyed
Units Destroyed: 0

The rail line from Vigo to the rest of Spain is broken. If you were wondering about the use of armoured trains, they can help to keep your rail lines open.

Rail line from Vigo is now broken.png (1.33 MiB) Viewed 436 times

The Butcher's Bill as the Duck Soup in the Med continues with 8 ships sunk.

[RangerJoe]

Earlier in this AAR, I turned an infantry battalion into a "mountain" battalion by removing the vehicles. I did not change the infantry squads, I just made it move completely on foot. The areas in pink show the difference in movement costs. The same movement costs occur even if there is a railroad line in the hex and the unit is moving in the same direction as the railroad line.

With wagons.

Unit with wagons moving through mountains.png (309.79 KiB) Viewed 435 times

After I dumped the wagons. They can be replaced later.

[Sergey45]

Earlier in this AAR, I turned an infantry battalion into a "mountain" battalion by removing the vehicles. I did not change the infantry squads, I just made it move completely on foot. The areas in pink show the difference in movement costs. The same movement costs occur even if there is a railroad line in the hex and the unit is moving in the same direction as the railroad line.

With wagons.
Unit with wagons moving through mountains.png

After I dumped the wagons. They can be replaced later.

Do we compare that movement cost to something else ?
I am assuming the higher the movement cost, the more time it will take for them to get to their location ?

On that note, do we know how much a unit can move maximum in this turn? Of course I understand by train, terrain type etc... can all affect the movement hexes per turn.