The San Miguel Campaign is a fictional Spanish Civil War campaign set in March, 1937. The campaign terrain is completely fictional. The Order of Battle of both sides are reasonably accurate and historical, at the brigade level, but no such divisions as those featured in the campaign did really exist. They simply happen to be tailored to the available model and figures and the units our playing group is interested in.
You, as the overall Republican commander, will control a reinforced Division, which will be known after your fictional Spanish name. This formation includes some divisional assets, some Corps attached assets, a reserve Battalion, and three Brigades. You will also take command of the Brigade in line. Each of these Brigades will be under command of a subcommander.
As the overall commander, you are expected to deal with the general strategy of the campaign. You will decide how your forces are to be used to achieve the objectives. You will issue strategic-turn orders three times every campaign day, for the morning, afternoon, and night turns. You will send these orders to the referee, by e-mail, within deadlines that the referee will set. Your orders will be addressed to your subcommanders, through the referee. You will also be able to require air support missions, and to request reinforcements and supplies. Your subcommanders will in turn send you reports, thorugh the referee, to inform you about their units' actions, engagements and successes (or lack thereof). You will also receive intelligence reports, weather reports, orders from higher up. You needn't micro-manage the deployments, travel orders, and such lesser decisions; these are your subcommanders' job. What you should take care of are the general issues such as setting the intermediate objectives, deciding the main task assigned to each brigade, defining the operational areas, managing your divisional and attached resources, and the like.
Your forces include divisional assets, attached Corps assets, a reserve Battalion, a Brigade in line, and three Brigades. One of the most important tasks you'll have is to decide how to assign and attach these assets.
You can break up an unit as you wish in order to attach it. You needn't attach a whole Tank Battalion, for example; you could decide to break it up into Companies and attach a Company to a Brigade.
Divisional and attached Corps assets can remain under your direct command; in this case you will issue their orders directly, through the referee, and a tabletop commander will use them tactically when needed. Or you can assign them to one or more of your subcommanders.
The Brigade in line is the unit currently holding the front line. It is deployed in the frontline hexes and/or in the immediate rear hexes.
The reserve Battalion can be considered as a divisional asset, or as part of the Brigade in line, as you wish. If you assign it to the Brigade in line, you must deploy it in one or more adjacent hexes of the immediate rear.
Finally, your subcommanders' assets (a reinforced Brigade each, plus any assets you decided to assign them) aren't under your direct control. You will issue orders to your subcommanders (other e-mail players). In turn, they will issue orders to their battalions, that will be tactically controlled by tabletop players when needed.
All of your artillery batteries already on the campaign map will begin the action with a double allocation of ammo, if you wish (EXAMPLE: a 76.2mm gun with a double-sized stand would normally have 10 rounds; it will begin with 20 rounds). However, be aware that these batteries won't have the transport vehicles needed to move the surplus ammo. You could assign trucks from your transport pool, or let the battery vehicles shuttle back and forth between a new position and the old one where the ammo is stockpiled, or... you could have the batteries fire the surplus ammo before moving!
All other supplies aren't a problem as long as your units comply with the additional campaign rule concerning supplies. All your motorized units have all the fuel they need.
If you are a subcommander, by reading the above you'll have understood not only what are the tasks of your overall commander, but also yours own. The overall commander will give you intermediate objectives, generic orders about how to achieve them, areas of deployment and engagement, info if he can, attachments if he wishes. You will then deal with grand tactical issues, such as deciding which of your battalions to commit first and which to keep as your own reserve, defining the aggressiveness expected by your battalions, establishing axis of movement, artillery fire missions, field works, and the like; you will then issue strategic-turn orders, implementing your own orders, to the battalion commanders (tabletop players). If possible, leave your battalion commanders a bit of leeway on the tactical level, so that they can take their own decisions when moving companies on the tabletop. When you will receive their reports, you will in turn send your report to the overall commander (always through the referee).
The date is February 28th, 1937. The units deployed on the Jarama front and Madrid are tired and depleted, but they can probably keep holding their ground. However, the Republican HQ wants to relieve the pressure on the capital. A limited, successful offensive along the San Miguel Valley would allow us to cut a highway, lying not far from the front and currently used by the Nationalists to resupply the Madrid Reinforced Division, thereby causing some problems to the enemy.
Furthermore, intelligence reports hint that the enemy is planning an offensive in this same area, both to drive the threat away from that highway and to reach, in turn, a railway that is one of the few remaining lifelines for Madrid. Thwarting such a move is essential.
Your Division has been recently formed by putting together rather diverse units and it has been decided it will be used in this sector, to carry out an offensive aimed at the highway and, at the same time, to prevent any enemy attack. The brigades have already begun assembling in the rear areas.
The map should be self-explanatory. The friendly map edge is the northern one, the southern is the enemy's. The map covers the area of the San Miguel Valley. The western third is hilly, wooded and with the most difficult terrain; these are the foothills of the Sierra Alta. The central part includes the Rio Blanco, the main river in the area, and is more densely populated. The eastern band has a few sparse hills and woods.
The Nationalist front line runs north of hexes 0801, 0802, 0803, 0804, 0905, 0906, 0907, 0808, 0909, north and east of hex 0810, north-east of hex 0710, north of hexes 0711 and 0712.
The Republican frontline runs south of hexes 1001, 1002, 1103, 1004, 1105, 1006, 1107, 1008, 1009, 0910, 0911, 0912.
The area between the two frontlines is the no man's land. Somewhere it is one hex wide, it is two hex wide in hexes 0903 and 1003, and the lines are in contact north of Bejares and north-east of Cobo.
The hexes in contact with the frontlines are frontline hexes. The hexes behind frontline hexes are immediate rear hexes. All other hexes are rear areas.
The bridges between hexes 1005 and 1004 and between hexes 0909 and 0910 have been destroyed.
The Rio Blanco is nowhere larger than 6". Railroad and highway bridges are Class VI, main road bridges are Class V, secondary road bridges can be of any Class between II and IV. In this season, the Rio Blanco cannot be forded. The Rio Turbio and the Riacho could be fordable for personnel and tracked vehicles, dependent upon how much will it rain during the campaign. Lesser streams should always be fordable, barring exceptional rains.
The bridges between hexes 1005 and 1004 and between hexes 0909 and 0910 have been destroyed.
Be forewarned that secondary roads, especially those in the area of the Sierra Alta foothills, can easily be degraded by a combination of heavy traffic and bad weather.
The map does not show lesser features, such as hedges, low stone walls, small patches of vegetation. All of these are more common in the central part of the valley.
The map does show all buildings, however. In this region, even isolated farms are almost always relatively large walled compounds, and isolated small buildings an exception.
The marshes in hexes 0407, 1003 and 1408 are considered as generic cover (tall weeds and bushes). However, after it has rained enough to instate general light mud conditions, the marshes are considered as swamps.
The Brigade in line is already deployed (see below). The divisional assets and the attached Corps assets can be deployed anywhere in the rear areas (see map) - you decide where. The reserve Battalion will be deployed either with the Brigade in line (only in immediate rear hexes) or with your divisional assets, as you wish.
Brigade in line deployment:
Brigade HQ Company (less the recon cavalry stand), Brigade Trains: 1205 (Campobueno).
Brigade recon cavalry stand: 1008.
"Leones Rojos" Infantry Battalion:
command stand, 2 Infantry Companies, 1 MMG stand: 1006 (Roncal). command infantry stand, 1 Infantry Company, 1 MMG stand: 1107.
"Teruel" Infantry Battalion:
HQ Company, 1 Infantry Company, 1 MMG stand: 1103. 1 infantry Company: 1002. 1 Infantry Company, 1 MMG stand: 1004.
"Dimitrov" Infantry Battalion:
HQ Company, 1 Infantry Company, MG Company: 0911. 2 Infantry Companies: 0910.
The Brigade in line is fully entrenched, and each Battalion of it also has 2 bunkers, while all other units are in trenches. Each road leaving the line towards the no man's land is cratered for 1" as default, but if you need it you can have the roads restored before the campaign begins. One bridge (your choice) behind your line can be rigged for demolition (with enough explosives and a fuse set by Regular engineers), if you wish.
Two of your Brigades are already in the rear areas, and you can deploy them where you want to; but no units of different Brigades can be initially deployed in the same hex. One of the Brigades is arriving in the area and will enter through the friendly map edge during the first strategic turn. You may choose which Brigades are already in the area and which is arriving.
Your main objective is to push the front south all the way to the enemy's friendly map edge, occupying as many highway hexes as you can; the most important ones are the eastern ones (nearer to Madrid).
If you cannot occupy any part of the highway, you should at least bring it within field artillery range, destroy the bridges and do as much damage as possible, with artillery and/or air support.
Failing that, you are expected to push the enemy south and at least occupy the town of San Miguel.
Your orders are to launch your attack on March, 1st. You will use the Brigade in line as a blocking force, and you will attack with two of your Brigades, reinforced with divisional assets and attached Corps assets as you deem fit. Your third Brigade, arriving in the area on the same day, will be your reserve. You may require air missions. You will secure at least one useable road leading south. You will also beat back any offensive move by the enemy.
At this time no reinforcements are set aside for this area. The Corps could detach some more artillery if needed. You may request reinforcements after the first day of action, and they might or might not be granted depending upon the situation.
The enemy holds the front with a weak infantry Brigade, with little or no supporting assets. It is strongly fortified, though.
Also, the enemy is moving fresh units to this area; it is suspected that they will be used for a counterattack. These forces will probably be evenly matched with your Division.
Be aware that Italian tankettes have been introduced; the MG-armed ones are a threat for your infantry, but the flamethrower-armed ones are deadly both for the infantry and the armor.
The enemy has no air assets in the area.
The weather will be variable on March 1st. Short rain spells are possible. Cloud cover up to 7/10. Air activity probably impossible for at least part of the day. No wind or light western breezes.