Played this small first scenario from White Eagles with Tony Reynolds (user "Bangla" on this site) over two sessions. Bangla is fairly new to the system so this small scenario would provide a great learning experience for him and a new experience for me, as I had not played a scenario out of this book. It portrays a pre-invasion assault on Polish Factory works in Slask by a crew of criminals, renegades and misfits, defended by elements of a Reserve division and local police. The objective for the Germans is to destroy as many factory hexes as they can. The Polish units start hidden while the German units approach from the North and South.

We rolled for sides with the result that I was to be the Polish and Bangla the Germans. I setup primarily with units on the north and south end of the town on board 2, representing the factory complex to defend. I also setup a Porucznik (Por) with an ON unit in the northern town, and another Por leader with the CYC unit on the northwest edge of the woods east of the road on board 6. The Germans split the Engineers, one in the north along with the HMGs with 3 INF, LT and SGT. The CAPT and MAJ arrived from the South with 4 INF and the other Engineer.

BATTLE

The Germans approached from the Northeast and the Southwest edges and moved along the forest lines towards the town. As both forces rounded the forests on those edges, the outlying units in the north moved back towards town while the Germans in the south came under a short burst of fire from the CYC before that unit and the Por with it moved back towards the town. Once the polish units made it to town, the objective was to keep the Germans at bay, setting up in locations with a wide range of firing arcs. The Germans spent the better part of the middle turns getting close and into position while recovering from disruption due to opportunity fire. The northern units moved an ENG and 2 INF units around the hills to the northeast of town with the LT and the SGT and 2 INF units moved west around the town, leaving the HMGs to cover their moves. While moving, The German realized that the HMGs would be stuck without a leader and moved the LT back towards the HMGs, away from the ENG and 2 INF. This turned out to a critical point in the game as the German had spread those units far enough that they couldn't bring all units to bear. The 2 INF and ENG units left around the eastern part of town could not approach as enemy units kept them at bay. Towards the end of the scenario, the Germans were able to get several units into town, but at every opportunity, the Poles tried to entice the German into making an assault, locking the units in combat with good defensive positions and preventing the Germans from moving freely through the town and attempting to wreck the works. The Poles were able to eliminate 5 steps of Germans while not taking any. This was due primarily to the Germans focusing on destroying factory hexes rather than units. Unfortunately, the German demolitions were fairly unsuccessful - they were only able to destroy 3 hexes in 26 attempts. At the end of the game, the Poles had 24 points to 9 for the Germans, leading to a major Polish victory.

AFTERMMATH

This was a game played for the benefit of Bangla getting some experience with the PG system, only having played against one other player and a few games solo. The scenario does provide interesting options for the Poles while I think the Germans have to concentrate on getting to town and starting the destruction process as soon as they can. In our discussions after the battle, we agreed that not keeping the units near or with Leaders and approaching within firing range with 3-stacks really made the game difficult for the German to win. Regardless, even with avoiding these two mistakes, I don't think that the game is a slam-dunk for the Germans to win. I think the scenario provides an interesting puzzle for both players and is a fairly even scenario.