Second foray into White Eagles was #28, Tank Battle. I chose it because (a) it had some Polish armor, and (2) it only required Eastern Front material, plus one Bulge map. At least according to the scenario it did, but I discovered that one map (#17) is actually from Road to Berlin, which I don’t have. So I faked it, using EF board #5 with dimes as town hexes and pennies to delineate borders of the woods. It worked well enough..,

The Poles led with their Vickers B tanks, the TKS tankettes following (staying out of the way of the German armor when it advanced.) As the armored clash progressed - ultimately costing the Poles 3 of 4 Vickers steps and the Germans 4 Panzer II and one Panzer III step (the other becoming demoralized and out of the fight for about 6-7 turns) - the Polish personnel units spread out under cover of woods, then began inching out. They also attempted to add their ATG to the tank battle, but it was wiped out by artillery.

As the Poles advanced, the TKS platoons closed to the edge of town (out of LOS of the German ATG’s) and began blasting away at German infantry to little effect. On the west, infantry advanced through the light woods, challenged by the Panzer I’s; on the east, artillery interfered somewhat with the Polish advance, but other units locked a German ATG into a surprisingly lengthy assault.

Because of the initial Polish armor losses and some minor German successes elsewhere, it wasn’t until Turn 18 that the Germans were able to start rolling for their armor reinforcements, as it wasn’t until the end of Turn 17 that the Poles achieved the requisite 5-VP edge. The new tanks entered on Turn 20. Although the surviving Vickers dropped a step of the new arrivals, it was eliminated by a different platoon. Most of the remaining Polish units switched to exit mode at this point; half of the TKS tankettes escaped and half were wiped out by the new armor.

The Poles were spread out enough that ultimately 16 steps of INF/HMG (plus several leaders) were able to exit south, a whopping 48 VP. Almost none were left on the board: a tiny remnant of an extended city fight, plus the mortar and a surplus of empty trucks on the northern board. Without the exits the game would have been a draw, with only 1 more German VP than Polish in the losses; but the exits made it a major Polish victory.