Defiant Stand, Poland 1939

Our next and final miniatures game was a chance to play with some of the 28mm Polish figures I have been basing using the Nuts! rules from Two Hour Wargames.

I used another of the Skirmish Campaigns scenarios - this time from their Poland 1939 booklet - although I changed the Poles from the Black Brigade to standard infantry (since I don't have any suitable figures for the Black Brigade - though these are now available from Gorgon Studios in the US).

Lenin took command of the Poles and I took the invading German forces.  The scenario has the German forces motorised (motorcycle combinations and trucks) but given the final terrain layout the vehicles became rather redundant after the first turn!

My first motorcycle team advanced up the road towards the crossroads but as they approached the ford they came under fire from the nearby buildings and pulled off the road.  With clear enemy activity I decided to move my trucks off the road and deploy my troops in the woods.

As I came to the edge of the woods my troops came under rifle and machine gun fire from both the houses by the crossroads and the barn.

In decided to try to get my MG teams deployed to provide covering fire to enable an assault across the open ground.  Whilst it was easy to suppress the rifle fire the machine gun was a different kettle of fish.  I had multiple attempts before their MG jammed and I was able to get a team into position; however, when the Poles cleared the jam I didn't fare too well in the subsequent fire fight.  We also had to contend with sniper fire!

After taking quite a few casualties I managed to deploy my mortar team to lay down some smoke and advanced towards the barn under the cover of that and one of my remaining MGs.

Things were going relatively well until we came under fire from an LMG in the barn and most of my men decided to withdraw to the woods.

The NCOs carried on and managed to reach the barn and throw grenades through the openings which dealt with the men inside.  Whilst I had secured one of the three buildings (my victory conditions were two) I had suffered serious casualties, particularly of my NCOs and as a result was not able to press home my attack.

My only frustration with the game (other than the minor one of not actually getting my vehicles far onto the table) was that my new Poles spent almost all their time in the buildings and so weren't very visible. As a result they don't feature in most of the photos of the game.  I will be posting some more pictures of them when I have finished basing up the remaining few.