An Impossible War

The First Carlist War was a civil war that ravaged Spain between 1833 and 1840. Upon the death of Ferdinand VII, using the succession conflict between his daughter Isabella and his brother Carlos as a pretext, supporters of liberalism clashed with defenders of tradition. Carlism gained its strongest foothold in Navarre, the Basque Provinces, and neighboring territories—the North—where the main campaigns, battles, and sieges took place.

Tomás de Zumalacárregui organized the Carlist forces into an army capable of fighting the liberal government troops. Despite being outnumbered, he took advantage of his strengths and the enemy’s weaknesses to defeat them and consolidate his control over a region where the geography and popular support were in his favor.

The Carlist objective was to capture a city. They laid siege to several, but failed to take any, and Zumalacárregui died while besieging Bilbao in June 1835. Expeditions were sent to encourage uprisings in the rest of Spain, but the liberals relentlessly pursued them. Don Carlos himself led an expedition that reached the gates of Madrid in September 1837, but was unable to take the capital.

At the end of 1836, Baldomero Espartero became commander-in-chief of the liberal army. Under his leadership, the troops improved their performance and carried out a relentless campaign to crush the enemy. Carlism was far from defeated, but its chances of winning the war had vanished, while internal divisions grew.

In August 1839, peace supporters laid down their arms with the Embrace of Vergara, while Don Carlos and those refusing to surrender crossed the border into France. In the Maestrazgo and Catalonia, the Carlists would not be defeated until July 1840.

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An Impossible War is a game about the decisive years of the First Carlist War in the North. Infantry and cavalry are represented by blocks, which introduce fog of war into operations. There are also artillery counters (field and mountain artillery) and logistics units (supply trains and backpacks).

The main map is a point-to-point board covering the northern theater of operations: Navarre, the Basque Country, and surrounding areas of La Rioja, Burgos, and Cantabria. In addition to provincial capitals, major towns and other localities are shown, along with primary and secondary routes of communication. There is also a smaller map of the rest of peninsular Spain, showing the regions affected by the Carlist uprising and allowing expeditions being launched from the North.

Each turn, players compete for initiative and carry out a variable number of actions. There is also a card deck for each side, including historical, operational, and tactical events. The cards add background and unpredictability to the game, helping make each session different. This is NOT a card-driven game, but one assisted by cards.

An Impossible War simulates the historical conflict, which featured numerous skirmishes, few major battles, and significant siege warfare. It is an asymmetric game in which each side has strengths and weaknesses. Players must exploit their advantages and mitigate their disadvantages to achieve victory.

The Carlist player must make use of superior mobility and unit quality to consolidate territory, wear down the enemy, and threaten cities. The Liberal player must contain and suppress the insurrection; they have more troops, but of lower quality and plagued by logistical nightmares. Additionally, they must quell uprisings and chase down Carlist expeditions across the rest of Spain.

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Game Contents:

1 Main map (Northern map)
1 Regional map of the rest of Spain
1 Battlefield board
1 Rulebook
1 Playbook
2 Player aid sheets
73 wooden blocks (48 blue, 25 red)
1 sheet of 18 mm stickers
2 punchboards with 18 mm tokens
72 cards (36 Liberal, 36 Carlist)
10 artillery tokens (wooden)
4 six-sided dice
2 cloth bags

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ALL GAME COMPONENTS ARE IN ENGLISH