A43 Into the Fray
Repost of lost blog post from 2017?
The invasion of Poland was a success for German arms but perhaps a strategic failure for hitler. his plan had always recognised that enemy number one was Russia and enemy number two was France and he had planned on smashing France quickly then turning on Russia. In this plan he saw Poland as a willing ally and Britain as if not an ally then at least a friendly neutral. his aggression elsewhere had hardened attitudes and the Poles, stubborn as ever and exposed between two powerful enemies, were not willing to play ball. hitler thus invaded and in doing so finally pushed Britain over the brink.
The Polish army was prepared for the conflict though not for Blitzkrieg and their army resisted as the Germans swarmed in. Prior to the war’s start the Polish 4th army had taken positions in the north west of Poland (Pomerania) to prevent hitler occupying this area by coup de main as he had similarly done in sudetenland earlier. The arrival of the full war had meant this force could be better used elsewhere and it was moving back as the main German armoured spearheads swarmed in. German successes in the early war were less caused by technological prowess than by all-arm co-operation and co-ordination and the furious advance of armoured spearheads to prevent costly attrition battles from developing. These armoured spearheads won through gaining local force superiority over often technologically superior opponents. Even the Poles possessed small numbers (a hundred or so) of tanks with better armament and armour than their German opponents (the 7TP)
In the north west, Guderian’s xIx
Panzer Corps was one of the spearheads. In the area of krojanty elements of the German 20th Motorised Infantry Division were advancing to secure the flank of the spearhead. The Polish cavalry of the 18th Pomeranian Uhlans scouted a battalion of the 20th Division (the 76th Infantry Regiments under Colonel hans Gollnick) resting in a clearing outside the forest. The Polish cavalry was an elite formation possessing considerable esprit de corps and this showed in both their combat readiness and their turnout. In this case, their commander, Colonel kazimierz Mastalerz decided to take advantage of the unsuspecting Germans and to launch a surprise assault.
Two squadrons (the 1st and 2nd - around 250 men) under Captain Eugeniusz swiesciak charged in the evening twilight at 19:00. The remains of the force (including some Polish tanks) was kept in reserve as the 18th’s orders were to cover the retreat and going ‘all in’ would compromise their ability to carry out their orders.
The Germans were surprised and
quickly cleared out of the clearing by the village. Fortunately for them some motorised reconnaissance vehicles then arrived and restored the situation with their machine guns and 20L guns proving effective killing both Mastalerz and swiesciak and around twenty men. The Poles surprised in turn and having lost two of their senior and obviously aggressive commanders retired. Their action had enabled Polish troops engaged close by at Chojnice to pull back and caused enough alarm at the 20th Motorised Division that it almost stopped its advance and pulled back. General Guderian later said in his memoires that he met his divisional staff: “wearing helmets, preparing an
anti-tank gun for a possible Polish cavalry attack” and that he soon calmed things down and got them moving forward. The interesting result to this small engagement was that several reporters were shown the scene later on and the inference provided was that the Poles had charged the tanks and armoured vehicles. This was later spread widely around as evidence of Polish incompetence or foolhardy bravery against technological progress whereas it was in reality the first cavalry charge of World War II and a successful one to boot.
To read more concerning the Polish
cavalry myth look at this website article by alexander Zakrewski: http://www.militaryhistoryonline.com/ wwii/articles/polishcavalry.aspx
In this scenario, the Germans win if they garner 20 more casualty points than the Poles or exit 30 off of one of the board edges.
Situation Enemy Forces
The Polish army in the area is numerous and represented by the 18th Pomerarian Uhlans of the Pomorska Cavalry
Brigade and some green troops of the 13th Infantry Regiment of the 9th Division. It has several difficulties which can be taken advantage of. Firstly their force is split in two allowing defeat in detail. secondly the range of their defensive forces is considerably weaker than the Germans. This should allow the initial line to be hurt without placing valuable German units at risk. secondly they have a fairly weak officer cadre, again in the defensive line. These troops are primarily green so have weak morale and limited rally potential. The cavalry reserves are of different calibre and being mounted will be able to reinforce fairly quickly. The reserves also have a much closer range to our own troops plus elite morale and better officers. This means that we will have to defeat the first line quickly. should the Poles reinforce their second line quickly and form one force at almost 2:1 odds then the German position becomes much more difficult. Initial scouting reports show that the Polish infantry force have formed in two zones. a strong force with both anti-tank weapons and a MMG has set up in the stone village (krojanty). This will be difficult to dislodge due to the strength of the primary position and the lack of easy approach routes
The second position has the majority of the defence strung out in a line taking advantage of the woods. It looks like several Polish units will start out in range of the German advanced units. Plus locals captured indicate that the Polish officer in charge is on this flank and is not held in high regard by his own troops. These are weakness that could be exploited. Equally the extensive wooded areas behind the Poles will prevent the cavalry reserves arriving as quickly as they could on the right side of the battlefield.
Though the quality of officers improves inside the cavalry the total number available to the Poles for all 27 or so squads is still small and by its very nature they will not be able to have a good concentration of officers at all points. This means their defence could fracture if enough pressure is applied.
Situation Friendly Forces
The German infantry comprises
solid first line troops of the 76th Infantry Regiment with excellent range and standard firepower and morale. The officer cadre is not experienced though is demonstrably of better quality than their initial Polish counterparts. The German force also has a good proportion of officer to squad and most of the German line can have officers close by to provide support and rally opportunities. The arrival of a small armoured/motorised force has the capacity to break any stalemate that may occur. This force should avoid the known Polish anti-tank weapons inside the village. The lack of decent Polish leaders also lowers the possibility of close combat hurting the tanks. Either way the tanks will require close infantry support as soon as possible. The tanks are of the standard Panzer IIa configuration so carry a 20L gun plus localised machine guns. The lack of enemy armour means their primary role will be to provide support through the high ROF machine gun (4 on the IFT as opposed to 1 using the 20L with high explosive plus no to hit roll).
ORDER OF BATTLE
XIX Panzer Corps sub units comprising
Company 2nd Btn 76th Inf Regt,
20th Motorised Infantry Division 1st Platoon (full strength) 9-1 sgt schmidt, 2 1st line squads, MMG 2nd Platoon (3/4 strength) 8-0
Captain hauser, 3 1st line squads 3rd Platoon (3/4 strength) 3 1st
line squads
Company 2nd Btn 76th Inf Regt,
20th Motorised Infantry Division 1st Platoon (full strength) 8-0 Lt korth, 3 1st line squads, MMG 2nd Platoon (3/4 strength) 8-1 sgt kochler, 2 1st line squads, 2 LMG 3rd Platoon (3/4 strength) 2 1st line squads, 2 LMG Motorised Reconnaissance Units of aufklärungs-abteilung 20
Panzer IIa
PsW221 reconnaissance cars with CMG
Plan
The 1st Company and 2nd and 3rd platoons of the 2nd company will form up in the centre and provide suppressive fire upon the Polish front line with a strong push towards the centre of the map to take the close wooden buildings as quickly as possible. For this the officers will need to be used to move the troops forward quickly then once done to step back to prepare to rally DM’d troops. The 1st Platoon of the 1st Company will take a firing position over the stone village buildings to prevent concealment gain and to prevent the Polish left easily counter attacking our own troops as they move to the centre. The left flank comprising the 2nd Company will advance to hopefully seize the wood line. It is expected that the Poles will then fall back to try and use the closer ranges of the wood to counteract German range advantage. It is also hoped that the initial fire will have drastically reduced their defensive potential allowing the superior German troops to destroy them before the cavalry reserves arrive. The troops will be encouraged to use small squad size fire groups as the Polish defenders will be in some cover (the woods) but not enough to make large fire groups necessary. Due to the lack of decent officer leaders on that flank and the low morale of those troops simple morale checks will be enough to disperse the force to permit out troops to advance in.
We are going to aim for victory through annihilating the enemy in the Napoleonic style. Exit conditions can go jump. Once the tanks arrive they will be used primarily to shield the infantry from exposed fire allowing the infantry to advance and do more damage. Prisoners will be taken if possible firstly because the Polish infantry are green and with a low ELR so will disrupt quickly and secondly because they are worth double victory points.
I briefly considered taking the entire force around the far right flank but as the Poles has garrisoned a MMG in the top floor of the stone building our troops would have had continual MMG fire practically in the open plus having to cross grain meaning they would be squeezing through the gap to the right of the building just when the polish cavalry reserves would arrive. It would allow German range to be used to advantage though so maybe that would have been the best approach...
Turn One
The plan started slowly with the left flank attracting fire from the Polish line and no less than 2 4-6-7s and sgt schmidt were DM’d trying to enter the wood by the grain this though meant the Polish defenders had shot their bolt and apart from a disrupt from the MMG the remainder of 2nd company reached the edge of the grain unharmed. In the centre the attack was driven forward very aggressively. Captain hauser managed to DM back on a 1MC but the troops with him passed both morale and a leader break pin check allowing them to assault into the wooden building destroying the defenders. On the right flank the 1st Platoon was unsuccessful in laying down its own fire but was itself broken and pinned by counter fire from the poles.
German Casualty Points 0
Polish Casualty Points 2
1 squad destroyed in combat
Difference +2
On the initial Polish turn the cavalry entered and galloped forward to attempt to create a second defensive line. several good shots broke a couple of cavalry and both the 6+1 infantry officer and another 4-3-7 disrupted and broke trying to move back from the advancing Germans. In the meantime the Germans took two squads prisoner.
German Casualty Points 0
Polish Casualty Points 10
squad destroyed in combat
squads captured
Difference + 10
Turn Two
Things were now much more sticky for the Germans. heavily outnumbered they needed to stabilize a defensive line until the motorised reinforcements arrived and protect the prisoners at the same time.
The turn plan was for the centre to send prisoners back so as to allow one MMC to guard them, to send another MMC forward to attempt to capture the officer - this was a little more risky but any attempt by the Polish cavalry to counter in would be met by point blank fire from the wooden building should they succeed in taking the forward squad. On the right I wanted to get the MMG up and running as soon as possible so I would get the officer to move back and rally his MMC. On the left a more dicey attack would be needed. The LMGs (including some of the central forces would lay down lots of 4 firepower attacks on the 3 remaining nondisrupted Polish conscripts. hopefully this fire would disrupt/DM at least two of them - this would allow the Germans to advance forward and engage them in combat , the numbers would be about equal so a better aim might be to advance fire them into DM’ing/surrendering once disrupted. This would provide a better defensive line on the left than the corn field and slow the Polish cavalry advance as my opponent would be unlikely to cross that gap in one gasp.
The turn began badly for the
Germans. On the far left the broken sergeant schmidt managed to double six on his rally attempt and then 5 for his wound roll and promptly imploded, then the multiple Prep Fire attacks only managed to casualty reduce the aTR squad in the wood and disrupt it. Of the two units with LMGs that were supposed to move in to take the wood line one DM’d. The other managed to avoid defensive fire and get to the next square to the disrupted DM’d unit. In the centre one MMC managed to get next to the disrupted officer without damage and the switch out of prisoners proceeded apace. Thus by the Rout Phase the Germans had picked up two more prisoners.
On the Polish turn the Germans managed to absorb a few ineffectual firepower attacks whilst the Poles consolidated their position. Units shuffled about inside the village buildings (allowing a lucky shot by the now officer manned MMG to disrupt one of the defenders) whilst the elite cavalry started creating some formidable kill stacks. One of the LMGs in a wooden building did sterling work in the centre managing to retain rate and along with other defensive fire breaking (and in one-case re-breaking) several of the elite Poles. Bad rolls by the Poles also caused two more squads to casualty reduce to half squads through a die failure and a morale fail whilst broken. a small Polish consolation was that a hero was created due to a battle hardening roll. In this turn I made no less than 3! double ones none of which did anything useful but this was countered by his sniper failing to wake up which could have made my day much worse.
German Casualty Points 1 9-1 officer kIa | 2 |
Polish Casualty Points 1 squad destroyed in combat 3 half-squads destroyed 2 squads captured 1 half-squad captured 1 officer captured | 18 |
Difference | + 16 |
Turn Three
The Germans armour now arrived and I had a turn of rule whipping. This is something most of you are probably familiar with where you take damage (or possibly lose a game) through not understanding the rules - in a game like ASL this is almost a given though in most cases you are playing players with equally large gaps in their knowledge. as before my prep was noticeably unspectacular with my machine gun on the left double sixing and breaking and not much of note occurring. My only bright spot was the disrupting of the green squad with the aTR in the stone building. On movement I started consolidating the prisoners further - this is to allow me to get some of the guards back in action asright and quickly storm forward to the village buildings and hopefully disrupt some of the green troops allowing me to capture some more prisoners. This would take me over my total allowing me to sit back and then defend with the Poles having to attack me to cause casualties which would cause them to expose themselves. Unfortunately it all went pear shaped. Firstly after some re-organisation of my defensive position I brought my vehicles on. Now these are not that spectacular with the armoured cars especially being less than impressive as to fire their machine guns they have to go CE. also I should point out this is the first game I have ever used armour against an opponent. What I thought I would do is to use the cars to screen the advance of my infantry on the farm. This would allow the Poles one shot at my infantry before the vehicles became the closest target hence could not be shot again. so I duly lined the cars up right outside the farm. I then moved an MMC out into the grain at s1. here rules whipping one occurred as apparently vehicles still in motion are not TEM blocks, this meant my boys in the wheat field took much more damage than they might have and promptly DM’d. I then tried to move another squad to s8 (other board) mainly because all available Poles in the building had fired so could not fire again due to the vehicles until I arrived next to them. Unfortunately I had also assumed that the hedge at R1 blocked the kill stack at P1 from hitting s8 on measurement it just missed so the squad got to s8, survived the sFF attacks from the building then took a 12 -3 hit and was erased. Now if I had known of the motion thing my tankettes might have tried laying smoke down or stopped thus providing a +1 modifier to all this fire which might have allowed the attack to go in. as it stands if I had realised the hedge was not going to provide a LOs block I would never have deliberately put a squad in that situation and taken that shot hit so I was somewhat annoyed (with myself I might squad plus officer close by so they had no where to retreat to so either surrendered or were destroyed through failure to rout. Not realising ThaT approach at the time is more my un-familiarity with aFv rules. still live and learn.
I now faced the interesting task of having to gain around six more casualty points but would have to take the fight to the enemy. The enemy was concentrating nicely whereas no less than five MMC were now shuffling prisoners backwards and my own forces were split up. I now hit a lucky break. The game at this point was paused for a week and this allowed me time to consider my options. My original plan in the couple of days just after the game was to use firepower to attempt to sleaze some more victory points and only attack if the Poles moved back or took any unusual risks. Fortunately that weekend I decided to read through ASL Journal 8 and came across the article on ‘Why Beginners lose’. apart from being a mine of useful general beginner tips it provided a situation where a single tank could surround and dominate infantry without good aTR support. Reliant on this I decided on a new, shinier plan. If I can get the tanks to work then the Polish position could now be summarised as a strong right flank, a strong platoon in the centre which was almost cut off from either flank and a weak left flank.
What I would do (allowing my tanks could survive any street fighting from the Polish left - here I relied on the fact I had infantry available to lay down fire) was to surround the centre units with vehicles whilst laying smoke to screen approaches and then drive an aFv into the wood in aFv bypass movement. This should stop the stack from firing allowing a couple of German squads to enter an adjacent hex. Then any fire damage would break then destroy (or cause to surrender) and the infantry could happily pile fire in or possibly assault. allowing I could destroy me to switch effort against the Polish left flank which though strong was equally vulnerable to tank bypass and most of the troops inside were the weak conscripts. This should cause the Polish right to need to react but in helping they would have to cross the open spaces and thus open themselves to fire and hopefully disintegration. This plan was heavily dependent on me pulling it off and not missing something, which cannot be guaranteed. as far as I could tell I would need a vehicle with a working machine gun to do the bypass, I would not want to assault in if the tank was still there in the Close Combat Phase and not would I want to drop smoke INTO the hex or the adjacent one. Fortunately having some time I resolved to read up on vBM, street fighting, failure to rout situations and encirclement as a preparatory action to the game.
German Casualty Points 4
1 9-1 officer kIa
1 MMC kIa
Polish Casualty Points 18
1 squad destroyed in combat
3 half-squads destroyed
2 squads captured
1 half-squad captured
1 officer captured
Difference + 14
Polish Turn 3
This mainly consisted of consolidation of the Polish position, along with an attempt by two Green MMC to assault and close combat the moving armoured cars. having passed their task check in both cases they then failed to do anything to the armoured cars. Elsewhere apart from movement of fire teams upstairs in the wooden buildings and a lot of rallying the main result of this turn was some ineffective shooting by both sides. The Poles tended to roll too high to hit and the German counter fire hit and hit quite well but was followed by the Poles rolling easily enough to avoid any damage.
The only result of note was that the light machine gun and infantry in the shell holes in the centre of the German position were
DM’d and forced to retreat into the woods.
German Casualty Points 4
1 9-1 officer kIa
1 MMC kIa
Polish Casualty Points 18
1 squad destroyed in combat
3 half-squads destroyed
2 squads captured
1 half-squad captured
1 officer captured
Difference + 14
German Turn 4
I now had the chance to implement my plan. Unfortunately it rapidly unravelled as I forgot half the things I intended to do. First things first though I managed several rallies on the left flank and fixed my medium machine gun. Next up I remembered to sort the prisoners out freeing two more squads and a light machine gun to move back into action in the centre. Both medium machine guns then did good work forcing DM’d status and DMing a unit before the tanks started up. I moved the two panzers onto opposite sides of the nasty Polish central kill stack (three elite squads and an 8-1) and stopped both before firing the MMGs into the hex. as it stands I did not double the firepower of the MMG for point blank range (and probably should have). The first panzer did nothing whereas the second panzer DM’d and ELR’d the officer to an 8-0, DM’d a stack and pinned two of the other squads. I had happily then announced that the stack was encircled only to be told you cannot encircle in the Movement Phase (shame!). Well that buggered that tactical plan up. Looking at the hex I then noticed that I could destroy the two DM’d units through failure to rout so moved an armoured car in to block the final escape rout and stopped. With the next armoured car I attempted an overrun (with no gun so at base 2 FP) on one of the conscripts that had tried to assault me (which failed) and then parked blocking line of site from the Polish right flank (I had remembered that being in motion provided no TEM bonus) and the other then moved forward to vBM the stack doing an overrun on the way. This was successful and the conscript failed its morale check and went disrupted. I promptly parked the armoured car on top of it so that it was tied in combat and would get destroyed at the end of the turn. This would get me a couple of casualty points but was actually a silly thing to do because the Poles had recovered their aTR a mere two covered hexes away and I promptly forgot about my vBM sleaze plan PLUs (if I have read it correctly the disrupted unit only gets to rout where there is a vehicle in an adjacent hex and a vehicle in motion still holds the unit in combat so I did not need to stop and lose the motion bonus). Woops and double woops. having stopped that turn I now needed to get my infantry up to the kill stack and they would have to take fire on the way. The first fire from the stack two hexes away was ineffective but the subsequent managed to pin the first unit moving. since I needed that kill stack further damaged I decided to risk the 2 residual and move a second squad up. The residual then promptly pinned the other squad.
In other areas the MMG on my left managed to get an excellent double rate of fire shot and broke the units on the Poles far right but in return the Poles in the building managed to snake eyes one of my central MMC with a light machine gun and they all broke with one ELRing down to 2nd line). Even though my sniper activated and DM’d a further MMC on the Polish right this weakened my attack considerably as now there was only one unit with an light machine gun which could protect the flank of my parked tanks from the strong Polish right flank whereas before it would have been highly risky to cross the open ground now it would be almost easy.
German Casualty Points 4
1 9-1 officer kIa
1 MMC kIa
Polish Casualty Points 24
4 squads destroyed in combat
3 half-squads destroyed
2 squads captured
1 half-squad captured
1 officer captured
Difference + 20
We stopped again now for another week. Though I now had the casualty points at least two and possibly three vehicles were at risk from the Polish attack which could really hurt my chances. If this did occur then my main chance would be to counterattack any Poles left in the open and use what vehicles were left for vMB sleaze to attempt to protect the counter attack. Looking at the board from the Polish perspective my units looked very exposed and especially my vehicles none of which I needed to have stopped and thus were all at risk. a quick forum rules check on motion attempts showed that I would at least get a 1/3 chance of getting some of the armoured cars in motion and I did have some infantry to lay fire down. The next Polish turn would be key.
The Poles started well blowing up one of the armoured cars with a short shot from the aTR in the farm buildings they spent the rest of the time laying down an ineffective prep fire and re-positioning their troops. The capture and killing of their officers was starting to help as of the remaining officers two were on board 33 with the weakest troops and the 9-2 was on board 4 but separated from a portion of the troops. This meant the Poles were starting to have difficulties rallying broken troops. The Poles did separate their two elite units surrounded by my tanks and assault move each over a panzer having passed both task checks. The only positive points for me were that both close combats failed to hurt my panzers and in the process one of the elite Poles was casualty reduced. Elsewhere a snake eyes occurring on a Task Check allowed my sniper to casualty reduce the disrupted green unit on board 4 for another victory point. apart from that my own shooting was appalling.
German Casualty Points 9
1 9-1 officer kIa
1 MMC kIa
1 aC destroyed (Ma, aF < 5)
Polish Casualty Points 25
squads destroyed in combat
half-squads destroyed
2 squads captured
1 half-squad captured
1 officer captured
Difference +16
German Turn 5
Last turn my shooting has been bad and this turn I was looking for an improvement and that I gained - improving in the wrong direction from ‘bad’ to ‘appalling’. half my preps missed and the other half caused morale checks that were shrugged off. I then followed up my bad shooting with some appalling decision making. First up I thought I would try an overrun with one of my armoured cars crews CE - bad idea. Two conscript units in the farm managed to get a good roll and stunned the car before it reached the hex. This should have been an indicator not to carry on but no I then tried with my remaining armoured car and the overrun did not do anything and yes the armoured car ended up stunned in the hex with the elite Poles. I then tried to overrun with one of the Panzers to no effect and eventually parked them next to the 9-2 leader hoping to deal with that stack. since this was exactly the mistake I made in the previous turn I am delighted to say I obviously do not know how to use smoke or to learn anything from anything. I then moved the left flank forward (successfully capturing the disrupted half squad left by my sniper) and managed to put fire on a group of three broken Poles. With a morale of six I forced a Morale Check so was hoping for at least one casualty reduce but the Poles managed to pass all three with ease. In the centre I moved a unit next to the 9-2 - which was stupid as it promptly got a 4 -4 Final Protective Fire shot and with a die roll of 3 was eliminated. Oh good. at this point I decided running more units at them would take equally horrendous shots so stopped moving more forward. In the centre two of my boys assaulted in to the bullet proof 4-5-8 that had taken out my armoured car and survived three overruns undamaged. Naturally even with 2-1 odds nothing happened and all three remained locked in combat.
On a plus side I still had plenty of units and my left flank was sweeping forward plus most of my officers were nicely spread out. Opposing that was that 92 sitting on an aTR right next to one of my tanks. all to play for and it would probably go down to the wire again. sO another break and next week we would continue and possible finish.
German Casualty Points 11
9-1 officer kIa
MMC kIa
1 aC destroyed (Ma, aF < 5)
Polish Casualty Points 28
squads destroyed in combat
half-squads destroyed
2 squads captured
2 half-squads captured
1 officer captured
Difference +17
Polish Turn 5
as things turned out this was the deciding turn. Things started well for the Poles with the officer managing to pick up the aTR (after the squad had failed) followed by the armoured car next to the melee being destroyed by a lucky hit (a four) from the medium machine gun. Next shot though was the aTR and even though it hit easily enough at point blank range the resultant kill roll failed to do anything other than dent the Panzers armour. Things started turning my way though when the concentrated fire of five German hexes (I say concentrated in terms of amount of shots as opposed to fire groups) managed to DM the officer and the squad and later destroy both with the officer failing a wound roll and the squad failing a further morale check whilst broken twice! This reduced the pressure on me considerably as it removed a potent thorn in my side, threatened my few remaining vehicles and removed the only officer on the Polish right reducing rallying capabilities.
The only other event of note was the elite half squad next to the combat in Q2 failed a Task Check to advance into combat and was pinned (due to the aFv). In the combat the Polish elites resolved to attack the armoured car rather than the infantry which made sense as it would be a 5 -3 roll and succeeded destroying the car. They made this at the cost of their own lives as the two German squads promptly erased them in turn whilst they were distracted chucking grenades into the top of the armoured car.
German Casualty Points 21
9-1 officer kIa
MMC kIa
aC destroyed (Ma, aF < 5)
Polish Casualty Points 36
7 squads destroyed in combat
5 half-squads destroyed
2 squads captured
2 half-squads captured
1 officer captured
1 9-2 officer kIa
Difference +15
German Turn 6
Though most of my armoured force was now destroyed my position on the left flank was looking much stronger with not much that could threaten my two Panzers except for close combat so I swung into action and drove them to the edge of the board to block the rout routes of the three DM’d squads in P8 spinning them at the end so they faced the building (and thus could protect against any approaching close combat troops) and dispensing smoke. That allowed me to move a platoon with an 8-0 officer and two 4-6-7 plus light machine gun from U8 to P9 which promptly destroyed all three enemy units for failure to rout. Elsewhere I consolidated my position. My two squads who had just won the combat survived all the defensive fire before re-pinning the elite half squad next door then assaulting them and destroying them in melee. Elsewhere I abandoned the medium machine gun on my far right flank and attempted to run the officer there over to help rally some squads in the centre. Unfortunately the 4 -2 shot was too attractive to the Poles and the officer was broken in the prisoner hex by a long shot from the Poles elite stack plus hero.
German Casualty Points 21
9-1 officer kIa
MMC kIa
aC destroyed (Ma, aF < 5)
Polish Casualty Points 43
10 squads destroyed in combat
6 half-squads destroyed
2 squads captured
2 half-squads captured
1 officer captured
1 9-2 officer kIa
Difference +22
Polish Turn 6
Things were looking rough for the Poles and they resolved to try to take more risks to recover the situation. This fell into three actions essentially. On the Polish right the squads shifted slightly to better garrison the building and prevent my tanks repeating their rout block endeavour of the turn before. apart from that the right just attempted to break my large stack in P8. Failing but DM’ing the officer.
In the centre the hero attempted to charge across the grain field to recover the anti-tank rifle. he managed to get to the hex next door before being wounded. This did not prevent him advancing in at the end of the turn though.
On the right a large force moved out to attempt to free the prisoners. Firstly a half squad, and then two full green squads with an 8-0 officer. The half squad finished in T10 (board 33), the rest landed next door in T1 (board 4), at which point they faced a barrage of fire from a squad plus newly fixed LMG in the farmhouse, a 4-6-7 and 44-7 plus an 8-1 officer next door and finally the guard squad. The eventual result of all this was a half squad lost and the rest DM’d back to T10.
My own shooting managed to trim
another half squad of the Poles manning the medium machine gun near the farmhouse and disrupted what was left over.
German Casualty Points 21
9-1 officer kIa
MMC kIa
aC destroyed (Ma, aF < 5)
Polish Casualty Points 45
10 squads destroyed in combat
8 half-squads destroyed
2 squads captured
2 half-squads captured
1 officer captured
1 9-2 officer kIa
Difference +24
German Turn 7
I sensed victory now so did not want to screw anything up. My main problem was the hero who had picked up the aTR and one of my Panzers was rear facing to him. To avoid this I reversed into bypass of the wood directly behind the vCa and then into a hex further back still allowing close infantry to provide cover and preventing any chance of a reaction shot. My other tank I shifted well out of combat range of anyone. On my right I attempted to get some squads across the road to do more damage to the DM’d Poles in the wood losing a half squad crossing the road I still managed to get two squads and the officer plus the light machine gun across where they managed to strip of another half squad and forced the rest to rout back where they had started. apart from that my fire was ineffective.
German Casualty Points 22
9-1 officer kIa
MMC kIa
1 half-squad kIa
3 aC destroyed (Ma, aF < 5)
Polish Casualty Points 46
10 squads destroyed in combat
9 half-squads destroyed
2 squads captured
2 half-squads captured
1 officer captured
1 9-2 officer kIa
Difference +24
Polish Turn 7
The Poles attempted to claw back some points with some Prep Fire but as most units were now safely ensconced in buildings I avoided any further damage. The main event of note was the lone hero sprinting across the open to attempt to shoot at the prisoner stack. The intention was apparently a ‘hail Mary’, hoping that the escort or prisoners would get killed (when reading the vP rules later I noted though that prisoners killed by their own side count as double vP instantly so the only thing that would have helped would have been the death of the guard squad) but he was killed for DM’ing
hen failing a morale check which was not a surprise considering the hail of fire he was running though at -2. On my shooting another half squad was destroyed before the game ended.
German Casualty Points 22
9-1 officer kIa
MMC kIa
1 half-squad kIa
3 aC destroyed (Ma, aF < 5)
Polish Casualty Points 47
10 squads destroyed in combat
10 half-squads destroyed
2 squads captured
2 half-squads captured
1 officer captured
1 9-2 officer kIa
Difference +25
Conclusion
This was a great game and a good learning experience especially as it was my first ‘attempt’ using armour. I did not realise quite how at risk armour is to infantry - especially the early war armour. What was nice about the scenario was that both sides were attacking and defending and had forces available to do both. as can be seen from the points things were fairly even until turn 6. What hurt the Poles in the end were three things - firstly the loss of several officers (especially on their right flank) really prevented much pressure coming from this side and stopped broken Poles from flooding back. secondly I managed to take over the central position so could prevent the Poles from easily concentrating plus it allowed me more shooting options and kept my officers fairly central so they could rally as required. Finally I feel the one decision which won the game was my surrounding of the three DM,’d stacks in turn 6. If the Poles had moved a couple of units from the building to cover these troops then I would not have been able to threaten them without damage and the following extreme risks, which the Polish player had to take, would not have been needed. Once the Poles had to start taking chances they had lost any chance to recover.
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