September 1939 campaign Pt 4 Clash of Armour

As German tanks speed towards Warschau, the Polish high command commits an armored formation to stop the high tide.

Since this is a meeting engagement, both sides deploy as fast as possible, trying to grab the many valuable key positions. The east-west road is vital for these operations and after a few turns, most of the battlefield is divided. The Poles hold the easternmost towns while the Germans manage to take the westernmost town.

Soon the Germans organize to assault the towns, starting on the centerboard. A successful combined assault quickly dispatches the Polish defenders and at this moment nothing seems to disturb the German thrust towards the other towns.

But, as before, the German armor overstretch and they lose their Pz III contingent, one of their most powerful units. Suddenly those cowering Polish Vickers B tanks look a lot more threatening and the Poles decide to actually do something constructive. Because all the German troops are concentrated along the road, the Polish Armored Cars surge along the northern flatlands, trying to cut the German supply route. The Germans now have to make a big decision, using their Deus Ex Machina PzIV unit to assist the infantry assaults on the Polish towns, or to deal with the hinterland threat. The German Major decides on the latter. This basically decapitates the surge eastwards, much to the relief of the Poles. The Armored Cars were all butchered but their sacrifice was vital for the survival of the Polish PBI.

At Scenario end, the Poles were still in control of most of the road and all the eastern towns. The Germans held on to the 2 towns on the centerboard and were lucky to still hold on to their supply route.

VP: Poles 45 – 30 German. After 4 games, the Germans still have a 17 VP lead.

Our campaign leaders were omnipresent, especially the German ones, finally earning Lt König a much deserved Infantry Assault Badge. But HQ’s must have sand in their eyes, no one was noticed by the brass so still no promotions!

Two relatively equal forces run into each other. The Germans have some air support and the Poles have some cavalry. The Poles have a bunch of infantry support tanks. While the Germans certainly have the better tanks at the top end with a platoon each of PzIIIs and PzIVs, they are also bringing along a bunch of PzIs and PzIIs to give the Vickers B's in the Polish arsenal a target rich environment

It was interesting, given the heavy emphasis towards mechanised combat that the real hero of the scenario was the Polish Kapitan (Rozycki) who led an infantry and cavalry force that swarmed over the best tanks of the German force reducing them to smoking hulks.

The Germans lost 8 tank steps to the 1 lost by the Poles and 10 other steps to the Poles' 9 losses. The Poles, however, controlled 7 town hexes to the 1 held by the Germans. This ended up being a huge Polish win 45-18.

In addition the Polish leader got his second medal while to date no Germans have a medal. It was a well deserved medal as he led the assault north of the woods that ended up destroying the PzIIIs and PzIVs. Both sides, however, have Captains so the effect on the campaign of such medals is to date nothing. The Poles lead the campaign 205-123. The Germans need a big win coming up.

Given the VP rich entry area that the Poles enjoy it is hard to see how the Germans can win this one. They have to keep their tanks held closely and intimidate the Polish armor (something I didn't do, I actually tried to get the good tanks north of the woods on board 15 and they were caught by the high initiative of the Poles and destroyed in assault combat before they could get off a shot.

This is, however, a fun scenario as the Poles try to find a way to use their swarms of TK-whatevers and their armored cars. The order of battle contains some of the oddest menagerie of armor seen in one scenario except for some of the Kursk scenarios (I reserve my judgment on Saipan...). I toyed with giving this one a 4 but it just seemed a little too programmed for that. Still a lot of fun to play and well worth the time.