Strategy and Tactics

[Erik Springelkamp]

I have been playing SCW as Nationalists into spring of 1937 now, and I wonder about general strategy for both sides.

Following what I read about the war, I first connected the Northern and Southern areas, consolidated the South and attacked in the North.

I didn't launch an early attack on Madrid, because I read it failed at the time.

I managed to conquer almost all of the Northern Republican areas, except the last stand of the Republic in Gijon.

I attacked Gijon with a 2:1 majority - and probably better troops, but this is a tough nut to crack.
I win every round of combat, but that is not enough to conquer the city, or even get majority Military Control.
Now after many weeks of combat, my supplies are running out: evidently the supply doesn't run into an enemy controlled region.
I think I should have started shuttling supply manually with supply trucks, but when I started this battle I expected it to be over quickly, as had happened in the other Northern cities.

I expect heavy city fighting later in the game in Madrid and maybe Barcelona, so how do people handle the attacks on such strong points?
I see military control remain at 100% for the Republic, which is a problem in turns when the attacking stack is not active, while the terrain implies that a retreat takes more than one week, and will generally be cancelled by combat.

So far about tactics of city fighting.

On general strategy:
The Republican AI is not very active, but at least from 1937 onwards starts attacks from the Madrid area in various directions, using interior lines, so that keeps the Southern troops busy to defend while they wait for the Northern victory.

But I wonder, what are the Republican strategic options?

I understand that historically they lost by wasting their military power in large but ineffective offensives.
So one option - not spectacular - would be to defend economically and delay the Nationalists, and exploit the interior lines of the Eastern area.
It seems hard to defend the North against a determined Nationalist offensive.