Triumph of Fascism (2012)

Triumph of Fascism: The Spanish Civil War 1936 –1939 is a two-player a Card Driven Wargame: a strategic historical conflict board game, with a heavy emphasis on integration of the politics and military spheres…and cards driving the game. Players assume the side of RED (Republican forces – the elected government) and BLUE (anti-Republican forces/ ”Nationalists”/ Fascists / Francoists – those seeking to overthrow the elected government) in the Spanish Civil War (SCW). This epic conflict involved the toppling of a democratically elected government, its replacement by a totalitarian regime, significant foreign intervention and a “trial run” for WWII European powers.

Triumph of Fascism (ToF) begins with an optional Revolt Pre-Game (RPG), permitting players to shape the outbreak of the SCW on terms most favorable to their side. Each side begins by enlisting its political “camps” (BLUE: Nationalist Army, Carlist, Falange and Army of Africa, RED: PCE, Republican Army, UGT, Anarchist, POUM, Catalun and the Northern Gobernitos) and potential foreign power supporters (BLUE: Germany, Italy and Portugal, RED: Britain, France and Russia). Upon completion of the RPG – or by utilizing one of the standard deployments - players are ready to begin the campaign game or play a short scenario.

There are three phases to a game turn: Strategic, Action and Logistics. The Strategic Phase requires players to “spend” their Action Cards {ACs} (think of ACs as currency) planning their turn, influencing political dynamics (enlisting support of “camps” and “foreign powers”, impacting the battle for hearts & minds, pursuing alternative historical foreign policy paths), developing capabilities of its forces prior to initial combat and shaping the air and naval war. Additionally, players construct the Hearts & Minds (H&M) pool. The H&M pool is supplemented during the turn by various game actions (reflecting the vagaries of support for both sides); the more friendly H&M blocks placed into the pool, the greater the chance of gaining the H&M advantage throughout Spain.

During the Action Phase, players utilize their respective decks of 52 Action Cards to activate units for movement and combat, implement events (receive reinforcements, etc.), conduct a range of political operations, generate replacements or strategically redeploy units. limited air operations occur during the Action Phase.

The Logistics Phase addresses attrition, rebuilding units, province control and other odds and ends. Province control is a function of controlling the provincial capital, gaining an advantage in presence (two of three provincial locations) and H&M (most H&M points awarded from a mix of friendly forces, H&M blocks & chits and intrinsic sympathy). One key dynamic in this phase is the blind draw (with a variable ending) from the H&M pool from which players allocate H&M blocks to gain advantage in particular provinces. The campaign game is playable in about six to eight hours, while shorter scenarios take between two and four hours. The game is won by controlling key geographical locations (dominant control of provinces and ports) or by winning by victory points.

Triumph of Fascism is somewhat of a sequel to Triumph of Chaos. Both games utilize the Paths of Glory game engine, supplemented by a significant political “game” component, which has its roots in Days of Decision and The Persian Gulf.

ToF is currently in playtesting.