**Summer in the Sierra - The Matrix Games version of West Front

Pass of Alte de Leon, Sierra de Guadarrama, Old Castile, Spain. [H2H] [HISB] The long-festering societal tensions of Spain finally burst in mid-1936 when the forces of the Right, a complex of varying interests led by the Army, rose in revolt against President Azana's and PM Largo Caballero's Popular Front Government, a coalition covering the left spectrum from mild social liberals......including many Regular Army officers... to anarchists intent on the destruction of formal government and the forceful reshaping of society. The Nationalist forces were strongest in Old Castile and colonial Morocco, whereas the east and south, including Madrid, Valencia and Barcelona mostly supported the Republic, as did the socially conservative but politicallly liberal Basques on the Biscay coast and hinterland. Whilst confused internecine fighting broke out nationwide in city, pueblo and countryside, wiser heads on both sides saw the strategic significance of the passes through the sierras north and west of Madrid. It was here, in July 1936, that the first "real" battles of the Spanish Civil War took place.
[SPECIAL NOTES) [NVV] The sides in these early SCW battles were learning about war, thus as yet doing little damage to each other. Use of EA will probably lead to an indecisive result.