Grumble Jones - An ASL Blog: A weekend with the Spanish Blue Division

Welcome to 2026. So far not looking better than 2025 and maybe even a tad bit worse. Still early so we'll see if sanity prevails somewhere down the road. As for Dan and I, we are already blowing through scenarios. This weekend's game would put me at 11 for the year and 12 for Dan. It's always nice to come out of the chute strong at the beginning of the year. East Side Gamers, Break Contact and Winter Offensives provided the scenarios we played at the beginning of the year.

I am a huge fan LFT 10 La Division Azul. I have always been intrigued by the 250th Spanish Blue Division. I especially enjoy the counters included in the pack.

Please note that the cover picture for these AAR's was created by ChatGPT. I'm sure most of you would already guessed that it was indeed AI generated.

AI is already showing up across many of the World War 2 sites that I follow. Too many folks are trying to pass off AI generated pictures as historical images, which they are not. We will have to be personally diligent going forward to fend off AI generated history.

The La Division Azul pack has 10 scenarios with a counter sheet of Spaniards. This pack came out in 2009 and hard to find these days.

Our first scenario, played on Thursday would be FT83 Go On to Kolpino! Designed by Jean-Luc Bechennec & Xavier Vitry, this scenario depicts an action during the Battles for Krasny Bor at the end of December 1942. Historically, the Spaniards charged into dug in Soviet positions and succeeded in ousting the defenders. But once the pillboxes were cleared the Spaniards began to surge forward again in pursuit of the fleeing Soviets. They were shouting that they wanted to GO ON TO KOLPINO. They finally succumbed to reason and returned to the newly captured trenches.

As the attacking Spaniards, I would command elements of 6th Company (Cpt Iglesia), IInd Battalion, 262nd Infantry Regiment and Sappers Platoon (L Muro) of 250th Infantry Division. My force consisted of 9 x 4-6-8's, and 3 x 5-4-8's led by a 9-2, 8-1, and 2 x 8-0's with an MMG and 3 x LMG's.

As the defending Russians, Dan would command elements of the 133rd Rifle Regiment, 72nd Rifle Division. His force consisted of 5 x 4-4-7's, 5 x 4-2-6's and a 2-2-8 led by an 8-1, 8-0 and 7-0 with an HMG, MMG, 50 MTR, 3 x Bunkers, 8 x Trenches, 6 x Wire and 36 Mine Factors.

The Spanish Player wins by amassing more VP than the Russian Player. Pillboxes are worth 2 VP each as well to normal CVP gains.

Just a heads up...I may have marked the wrong hexes in some of the bombardment hexes in the pictures that follows. Please excuse these.

My plan was to utilize the Bombardment to shield my advance as I just moved towards the Soviet line. My 9-2 would board edge creep to flank the entire right flank of Dan's boys.

The Bombardment would eliminate the mines in B9, which I was unaware of at the time. This would allow my 9-2 an unimpeded access to the bunker and trench system.

In Advance Phase one of my 4-6-8's with the 9-2 advanced into the A9 minefield. They would never leave.

I would get a black card with each new OBA draw. I kept the Bombardment going and left it in place. It would break many of the Russians, stop Routs and eliminate the possibility of the Russians making a run for the border.

My 4-6-8 in the Minefield finally made the move to exit and Dan rolled Snakes...they didn't make it. Meanwhile my 9-2 and 4-6-8 with MMG had gone into CC with Dan's 8-1 with 4-4-7 and MMG. We would kill each other. Just devastating to the Spanish effort.

My 8-0 in the center had three squads and they simply hunkered down for the rest of the game rather than move into the LOS of the HMG.

Game end. As Turn 5 neared the end, Dan had only a Crew a 7-0 and 4-4-7 that were good order. The Bombardment was still coming down and the Spaniards had gained twice as many VP as the Russians. That would be game and a German victory.

Spanish Blue Division = 1 Russians = 0

Our second game, played on Friday would be FT80 One Spanish Hero. Designed by Xavier Vitry, this scenario covers fighting north of Sitno, Russia in October of 1942. Like our first scenario, this another Spanish attack on entrenched Russians. Again, the Russians would be routed after the exploits of Spanish Lt. Jamie Galiana Gamilla. Gamilla was of the course the One Spanish Hero.

Dan would command the attacking Spaniards this time, elements of 269th Infantry Regiment, 250th Infantry Division. His force would consist of 9 x 4-6-8's, 2 x 2-4-8's and a 2-2-8 led by an 8-1 and 8-0 with a Hero Gamilla, a 50 MTR, MMG and 3 x LMG's.

I would command elements of the defending Russian 848th Infantry Regiment, 267th Rifle Division. my force would consist of 5 x 4-4-7's, 4 x 4-2-6's, and 3 x 1-2-7's led by an 8-1 and 8-0 with an HMG, 2 x MMG's, an LMG, 2 x Bunkers and 4 x Foxholes.

The Spanish Player wins at game end by controlling 2 of the Pillboxes without incurring 14 CVP.

The battle begins with half squad apalooza as Dan sends them out to scout the area. My HIP 4-2-6's are revealed and the first one shoots and cowers, but does DM the moving half-squad. The other 4-2-6 will be broken and disrupted by the 9-1 Hero stack in Advancing Fire.

Turn 1 begins very badly for the Russians. The two disrupted squads are destined for POW camps.

Dan's 80mm OBA lands squarely on my HMG pillbox. That's just great.

Turn 2 - Dan moves full steam ahead. The OBA breaks my 4-4-7 with LMG on the hill and that squad will never rally.

Dan makes good progress with only a half-squad KIA'd at this point.

Turn 3 - My MMG in the upfront pillbox MALF'd and then the crew rolled a 12 on a MC. Dan strolled casually into the pillbox to take his first one and my ELR immediately dropped to 2 by SSR. He moved his OBA and it would drop on my HIP 8-0 with 4-2-6 and 4-4-7. The 4-2-6 would break and Dan's men would swarm that location. I waited patiently for the Heroic Leader Stack to move. I got a lucky on them which KIA'd the Heroic Leader and the squads all broke. That would be my only success for the game.

My joy lasted a few nanoseconds...as Dan would snake a morale check on a broken 2-4-8 and create the new Hero. DRATS!!!!

Dan got his second and last module of 80mm OBA. My 8-0 and 4-4-7 and 2-2-6 had to route through it. The 2-2-6 died, but the 8-0 and 4-4-7 survived. But final destination vibes would follow them. I was in bad shape. Dan's dice were hot and my had gone stone cold. I was ELR'ing and Disrupting and of course surrendering. Dan would take 5 squads prisoner.

The game was pretty much over as I MALF'd my HMG. Dan's boys just walked right up on me. My 1-2-7 Crews had very little chance of surviving the coming close combats.

Dan's boys storm up the hill and put my bunkers into Close Combat.

Game end and final picture as Dan captures all 3 Bunkers.

Spanish Blue Division = 2 Russians = 0

Our third game, played on Saturday would be FT82 One Could Go Anywhere! Designed by Xavier Vitry, this scenario brings in the first Soviet attack on the entrenched Spaniards. Sadly, I would once again be the Russians. This was also the only scenario of the four we played, that would have armor.

As the attacking Russians, I would command elements of 305th Infantry Division and 5th Tank Regiment, 3rd Armored Division. My force would consist of 15 x 4-4-7's, 9 x 4-2-6's and a 2-2-6 led by a 9-0, 8-1, 8-0 and 7-0 with 6 x LMG's and 3 Tanks.

As the defending Spaniards, Dan would command various companies of the 263rd and 269th Infantry Regiments of the 250th Infantry Division. His force would consist of 12 x 4-6-8's and 4 x 2-2-8's led by a 9-1, 2 x 8-1's, and 2 x 8-0's with an MMG, 4 x LMG's, 2 x 50 MTR's, 2 x DC's, 2 x 37L AT Guns, 4 x Foxholes and 3 x Trenches.

The Russian Player wins at game end with control of 3 or more multi-hex buildings on Board 3.

This is one of the scenarios that makes me cringe as an attacker. I have no smoke, no OBA, no MMG's, no Mortars and way too many 4-2-6's. I get 3 tanks that have to move in platoon movement and have to enter on one of the two roads. The Germans have 2 x 37L AT Guns...(3 Rof), which can easily take out my "worthless" tanks. Of course navigating the stupid roads will take two turn just by themselves. Dan's reinforcements...basically refills his entire beginning force, come in on Turn 3. As you will see, my armor was too slow to the party. With the Germans dominating on the level 2 hills, moving would be very tricky. Additionally, Dan's dice would once again be hot to the point of domination. 3's, 4's, 5's, were his staple rolls. His sniper would reduce my sniper to snakes, which would allow Dan's penchant for rolling "3's" to go unpunished. I on the other hand would roll like always do and ELR and disrupt squads left and right. Sounds like it was fun right??

Yep...this scenario is Bud Kilmer approved.

Turn 1 - I move my boys up...too cautiously as Dan's 9-1 with the MMG was giving me the stink eye.

Broken squads litter the battlefield and to add salt to my wounds...the Russian Sniper would break a 4-4-7 with LMG moving concealed with my 8-1 stack.

I continue to push towards the east side of the village. Dan's MTR on the hill had MALF'd on its first shot, so my boys were able to close on the hill with the objective of driving down into the village from there. My tanks were dragging a@@...but coming along.

On the left flank, my boys were essentially pinned down by Dan's 9-1/MMG and MTR. Every time I tried to emerge from the woods, I would be broken. But this allowed my storming of the hill to go forward.

By Turn 3, I had taken the hill and was pressing on my first victory building.

Dan's reinforcements of 6 squads was a real game killer. I had suffered many ELR's and about 5 squads eliminated. Dan had lost 1-1/2 squads and a crew. These two new kill stacks could easily move up and make it impossible to take the two victory buildings in the loop.

Dan made one misstep and his 8-1 kill stack moved into the LOS of my boys on the hill two 4-4-7's and one LMG. I couldn't roll worth a damn and got two PIN checks, which Dan passed easily. That was game as those two stacks were game changers.

I finally evicted all the Russians from the first victory building.

Last picture I took. I would concede shortly after this picture was taken. We had played for 2-1/2 hours and I with one Victory Building, I didn't see a path to taking two more buildings with the 2 turns remaining. Dan's boys on the left flank hill had dominated the game. His 37L AT Gun took out the first of my three tanks and there's was no moving against it. Dan had his boys in stone buildings across the street from my weakened boys in wooden buildings. The math was against me and I didn't have the stomach for the humiliation of feeding more of my squads into the meat grinder. My personal ELR had never been high and matched the 2 ELR forced on my squads. So I gave the concession and Dan had the victory. Congrats to Dan on finishing this series 2-1.