Several months ago I began to be interested on games about our Civil War, and I looked at some of the existing titles, all of them made from an American perspective and –in my opinion- quite far away from the real conflict. Besides, I like card driven games (CDG) quite a lot, that is, games where the cards are the main engine of the “things” you may do. So when I discovered that a game about the Spanish Civil War based on a CDG was close to be published, and that its designer was Spanish, I thought that in principle it had a promising looking. When you later read the rules, look at the cards, see the aids and read the scenarios, optional rules and historical reviews, your tears really drop off knowing that you have such a great game in your hands, one great game, one that is published once every ten years. Playable, easy to learn, each game is different to the previous one; in short, exciting!
The game is called “Crusade and Revolution” (C&R) –I find the name adequate and explanatory of our Civil War-, it is heir to the successful Paths of Glory (PoG) and has very similar but improved mechanics. At the end of this review I will talk about its differences and similarities with PoG, for those who know this last game and they want to know more about the excellences of C&R.
I have a limited experience playing C&R and there may be several aspects which I clearly do not master, so I will not go into them in depth.
The game begins at the end of July 1936, with the Nationalists placed in Western Andalusia, Morocco, Castile and Leon, Galicia, Navarre and Aragon, with small columns formed by falangist militia, regular army and requeté (carlist militia). They are in the blue spaces of map.
Republican player has a host of militias anarchically distributed, divided among POUM, ERC, CNT, Santander, Basque Country, Asturias, or without defined political adscription –after the disbandment of army- and several more disciplined police units (I guess they are carabineers, faithful civil and assault guard). They are in the red spaces of map.
There are three active sieges: the Alcázar of Toledo, the Santa María de la Cabeza Sanctuary (in Jaen), and a quarter in Gijón. And two insurgent isolated cities (Nationalists) in Republican territory: Granada and Oviedo.
Game turns last two months each (until April 1939), except the first three turns, which have just one month. That is, 18 turns of play. 993
Each turn is divided into six alternative impulses for each player, always starting by the Nationalist player, and usually you play one or more cards in each one of them.
Before starting to describe the game’s components, I want to underline that the game does not pretend that Republicans win the war (understanding it as the conquest of the rebel or Nationalist territory), because it was a nearly impossible task against the professional army of Africa (legion and “regulars”), the discipline and military experience of the rebels, and a tremendous aid from Italy and Germany. The Republican objective must be resisting “better” than it happened and counterattacking more effectively than their historical counterparts. The Nationalist (or rebel) player has to do things better (or faster) than former Nationalist side did. In this aspect the game reminds “For the People” (about the American Civil War, published by GMT).
Next, I am going to describe each one of the game’s components:
1) The cards are the engine of the game; there are 55 for each side, divided into three groups. The first set of cards (18 by side) is called “War of the Columns”: it covers the first five turns of the game (until February 1937), with a mix of event cards, plenty of combat cards, and very few reinforcements. A second set of cards (20 by side) is added in the sixth turn: this deck is called “Mobilization” and reinforcement cards predominate in it. And a last group of cards which are added on turn 12, named “War of the Armies”, where many political, morale and propaganda events are reflected. Cards have a “power” of 2, 3, 4 or 5. The last are the most powerful but least frequent ones, they have important political consequences; that is, if you use them for moving, attacking, for replacements or redeployment, you do not apply the event that could affect future cards in the following turns. This tension about how to play them is even more distressing for the Republican player. 597