Matrix Games Forums

17 Jul 1936 Turn 0 (Campaign Start)

I am excited to announce that I'll be starting YouTube's first PBEM for War in Spain with my friend and opponent from my current WitP campaign, Italian. In this video, I'll lay out my rough plans for the first turn and what my initial strategy is going to be. It could go out the window shortly after the bullets start flying but let's see how it goes.

https://youtu.be/n63njZgz__s

Field Marshal Helmuth von Moltke the Elder in 1871:

Kein Operationsplan reicht mit einiger Sicherheit über das erste Zusammentreffen mit der feindlichen Hauptmacht hinaus. Nur der Laie glaubt in dem Verlauf eines Feldzuges die konsequente Durchführung eines im voraus gefaßten in allen Einzelheiten überlegten und bis ans Ende festgehaltenen, ursprünglichen Gedankens zu erblicken.

translated into another language . . .

No plan of operations extends with any certainty beyond the first encounter with the main enemy forces. Only the layman believes that in the course of a campaign he sees the consistent implementation of an original thought that has been considered in advance in every detail and retained to the end.

If either you or your opponent wants assistance on how to do something, feel free to ask me. If I know the answer, I will assist. If not, I will let you know. Have fun!

I saw that you were a little confused during your discussion of CD gun ranges. In WITP each hex is 40nm which translates to 46 statute miles. Gun ranges are typically listed in yards (at least in US publications as well as British ones through WW2), so we should consider ourselves lucky that the game developers chose nautical miles as the scale since that math is easier to do quickly in one's head (1nm is approximately 2000 yards - we can toss the tiny remaining fraction as insubstantial in this application).

BTW: could you please zoom in one more level when discussing ongoing land operations. It is hard to see just what hexes/bases you are talking about on a normal sized monitor (at least normal for us senior citizens who haven't updated our computers in many years - what's the need? my computer handles this game and AE wonderfully!).

Eagerly awaiting the next installment.

Brad,

Message received regarding zooming in! My 2nd video is already rendered but I'll try to zoom in more when I can. Just understand I am on a huge monitor and recording in 4K and downscaling to 1440P as it is, so getting much smaller is difficult.

Something I am trying in my CG is transferring some of the xAKs from the Republic de Norte to the main ports in the east. First of all, you may notice that the port of Mahon is seriously low on supplies, but at the start of the game the Republica player has very few xAKs in that area (Cartagena through Barcelona). The Republic de Norte has an excess of xAKs, so if they can run the Gibraltar gauntlet they can be of great assistance to the war effort.

So far I have had decent luck getting shipping through the Strait. One PB was sunk and a couple of other ships have been damaged, but all the ships that started at Huelva have made it through said gauntlet. I am still waiting for the CL Libertad and her escorting DD to reach the Strait, and the liner Cabo San Augustan is running it right now (19 July turn) so we'll see if my luck holds out.

If you can link up the North to Madrid, then you have two Soviet ports to load supplies that the South can't access. I don't know if the supplies move around the USSR.

You can also look at incoming shipping to see how many will come to Odesa.

bradfordkay wrote: Thu Jan 29, 2026 7:52 pm So far I have had decent luck getting shipping through the Strait. One PB was sunk and a couple of other ships have been damaged, but all the ships that started at Huelva have made it through said gauntlet. I am still waiting for the CL Libertad and her escorting DD to reach the Strait, and the liner Cabo San Augustan is running it right now (19 July turn) so we'll see if my luck holds out.

It seems like the time to move any ships from the North is immediately; the Nationalists don't have a warship until Day 17 (Cervera.....well, the DD Churucca, but you can handle that), won't have any airpower, and the CD guns in the strait are very low experience and unlikely to hit anything

By the end of August, the Nationalists will have surface ships. CD guns start to actually get hits in Sept/Oct on slow ships. And of course the Nationalists have a few planes then too.

Since I figured out how to route ships through the stait, the CD guns have been less effective. For now, I think I am going to settle on a Fortress Nortje strat and the supplies and fuel from Leningrad will be needed there.

18 Jul 1936 Turn 1

I unleash some of my destroyers on the Nationalists trying to leave Spain and they do great work along the North Coast of Africa. On the ground, we have mixed results trading blows with the Nationalists. In the Air, my planes finally fly but I am less than impressed with their performance.

https://youtu.be/vdj_d4P7of8