A Return To Poland 1939, and Battlegroup Blitzkrieg

Over the past year I've spent most of my wargaming time developing and testing Honours of War. With the manuscript now submitted, it's time to give my other main period some attention - the 1939 Polish campaign.

1. Wheeling out the Armoured Train

The first tickle of interest was inspired by a scenario map in MW377. As you can see, 'The Bridges at Monocacy' was an ACW scenario - but my thinking was, firstly, what an intriguing map for a wargame and secondly, that railway line can mean only one thing - a chance to use my armoured train!

Many thanks to Henry Hyde for providing this map. Image © Miniature Wargames.

I decided to go for a scenario where Polish recce forces were co-operating with an armoured train to seize the two bridges on the map. They would encounter opposition from German recce and armoured forces. Additional inspiration regarding encounters between Polish and German recce units came from the excellent PIBWL site, for example the accounts of actions involving the Wz.29 Ursus armoured car. Rules in use would be Blitzkrieg Commander.

Scenario - The Bridges at Zamosc (6' x 4' table)

Poles CO CV8 (with the cavalry)
Initial forces (static deployment)
On railway from south east corner - armoured train (CV8) with Tatra T-18 drasine
On road from X - reconnaissance company; HQ CV7, 2 x Wz.34 armoured cars, 1 x Wz.29 armoured car, 4 infantry units (trucks), 2 mg units (motorcycles).
Forces arriving on the road from the west on move 5 (mobile deployment)
Cavalry detachment; HQ CV8, 6 cavalry units, 2 mg units (tazchanka), 1 37mm ATG (horse tow), 2 x TKS tankettes (mg).

Germans CO CV9 (with the tanks)
Initial forces (static deployment)
On road from Y - Reconnaissance detachment; HQ CV9, 1 x Sdkfz221, 1 x Sdkfz222, 1 x Sdkfz231(6-rad), 3 infantry units (trucks), 1 mg unit (truck), 1 37mm ATG (truck tow).
Forces arriving from the east on move 5 (mobile deployment)
Panzer battlegroup; HQ CV8, 2 x PzI, 2 x PzII, 1 x PzIV, 3 infantry units (trucks), 1 mg unit (truck), 1 75mm IG (truck tow).

The German forces arriving from the east should dice - on a 1, 2, 3, or 4 they arrive between the river and the north board edge. On a throw of 5 or 6 they arrive up to 30cm south of the river.

The bridges are the objectives, so obviously possession of both gives you a victory, and one each would be a draw. I suggest a turn limit of 10 moves.

This scenario is untested at the moment, and so may need tweaking after the first game. The idea is that the Poles have the advantage at first with their armoured train, but this is in turn threatened by the German armour on move 5. The arrival of the Polish cavalry will then hopefully even things up. I suggest the T-18 and one of each side's armoured cars be rated as recce units, and all other armoured cars are rated as recce support units.

2. Buying Stuff
Of course, no renaissance of interest in the 1939 campaign could avoid the spending of a little money. I thought I already had all of the worthwhile English-language books on this subject, but was alerted to one I had missed by the Polish Army 1939 section in Anatoli's Game Room. The book in question is from MMP, entitled Invincible Black Brigade (by Jerzy Majka), and deals with the creation, organisation and exploits of the Polish 10th Motorised Brigade. Being from MMP, this 120 page, A4 sized soft back is aimed particularly at modellers and so is fundamentally a picture book, with a large number of excellent and interesting photos of all the kit involved. But there is also a decent summary of the fighting which the brigade undertook and a good organisation table, along with some nice colour profiles of tanks and soft skins. All told, well worth getting, although cheap copies may be hard to find - I was lucky to get mine off Amazon for about £20.

I also decided my Polish armour needed a modest reinforcement. I ordered a 7tp twin-turret tank from QRF Models, to match what I already had, and out of interest I also ordered a 7tp from Battlefront, which can be completed as a single or twin turret vehicle.

My 2 original QRF models are on the left. The Battlefront 7tp is on the right in unpainted condition.
In between is my new QRF 7tp with tracks from a True North Miniatures vehicle.

The Battlefront 7tp is easily the best 15mm model of this vehicle you can get - you can make either version, it is pretty accurate and you get the option to have a tank commander in the turret. The only negative is that the rivet detail is overdone and needs sanding down. Unfortunately, at the time I was building my Polish forces the Battlefront Poland 1939 collection was way in the future, and I had to rely on the QRF models, which at the time were the best there was. I am actually quite fond of them - they are inaccurate, but have a quaint old school feel about them. Sadly, the moulds for the older QRF offerings are in poor shape these days. The tracks for the 7tp I received seemed to have been eaten by moths. I should have sent the model back, but I found some tracks from an old True North Miniatures offering which, whilst too small, were good enough for my needs.

I also ordered an additional Praga truck from QRF, a vehicle used extensively by the 10th Motorised Brigade. Confusingly, this model sits in the 'German' range of QRF vehicles. This is another old kit and whilst a bit rough, is just about acceptable for wargames purposes. QRF seem to have a generally good reputation, mainly due to their main man, Geoff, being considered an all round good egg. However, if ordering their older kits (usually obvious by the dodgy old photos on the website) be ready for poor quality. Their newer stuff is generally good. 

The QRF Praga truck as it comes from the manufacturer. Poor, but just about acceptable.

It is a great shame that Battlefront never completed their Polish range, particularly with the soft skin vehicles eagerly awaited by fans of this period. It just goes to show that big companies driven by profit margins rather than enthusiasm for the hobby won't always give you what you want.

3. Battlegroup Blitzkrieg

Talking of profit margins, we come to Battlegroup Blitzkrieg. When the first 'Battlegroup' title came out (Battlegroup Kursk, of course), I was predictably enraged that a 180 plus page, A4 size, full colour rulebook only covered one campaign of WW2. Clearly, a book that size was plenty to cover the whole war, and the principle behind the rules was endless supplements to maximise profits.

Nevertheless, at the time of writing you find me eagerly awaiting the latest supplement, which covers the 1939-1940 campaigns in Poland and France. That's £25 plus £5 p+p to you sir. £30? Have I gone soft? I think the answer is yes, a bit. I have been looking for an alternative to Blitzkrieg Commander for a while now - not because I have grown to dislike the rules, which I continue to consider excellent, but because after over 10 years of use I feel the need for a change, or shall we say a new perspective. But the various sets I have looked at all failed to inspire - mostly, they were too complex for my taste.

However, a while back my wargames buddy and good friend Paul acquired a copy of Battlegroup Kursk, and recently we got around to having a game. The rules (in my opinion) sit in a slightly uncomfortable space between skirmish level and the company level rules exemplified by Flames of War. The author (Warwick Kinrade) indicates the rules can be used at 4 levels - squad, platoon, company and battalion. The game I played with Paul was at company level: the rules proved a little hard to pick up, and were rather more 'granular' than we are used to (granular being a fancy way of saying 'detailed' in this context). We didn't get anywhere near finishing the game, but against my better judgement I began to develop a fondness for the rules. They were indeed a change from BKC, and at squad or platoon level I thought they could be a lot of fun. Once I am more familiar with them, company level might be OK as well, but I feel battalion level games would take a lot of time, familiarity and patience, as well as a fair amount of space.

This experience coincided with developing the scenario already presented above. In order to give the different perspective I was seeking, I had determined to play the scenario at what BKC players tend to call the squad level, where each stand of infantry represents a squad rather than a platoon. This means your basic formations are companies rather than the more usual battalions. But, having never tried this before, I found that how to play at this lower command level was far from obvious. Apart from the statement that ground scale changed from 1 cm = 20 metres to 1cm = 10 metres there wasn't much guidance. Did you have to double all game distances? Weapon ranges are given in centimetres, and only one range is specified, so where did that leave you? I didn't know, and neither did those who responded to my forum question. So it seemed that Battlegroup Blitzkrieg might fill this void.

I have already purchased the Battlegroup 'core rules' booklet for £10, and to be honest I am looking forward to playing another game. As long as I keep the games small, all that detail will be fun. It was also interesting to read Warwick's justification for this extensive series of large and expensive books. He says:

"The reason why Battlegroup exists is to try and infuse World War II wargames with more historical character... Each supplement deals with an individual theatre or period of the war in detail, providing gamers with its own unique character and feel".

This, it seems, means in particular a number of special rules in each book intended to provide that 'historical character', plus a series of very specific army lists. Do I buy this? Well, I don't want to call Warwick a liar so I accept his intention, though whether I actually agree with him is another matter. BKC managed this very well using a modest number of simple rule variations, conspicuous among them different command ratings for different armies in different periods. When I get hold of Battlegroup Blitzkrieg I guess I'll be able to judge the quality and accuracy of the army lists and special rules, and we'll see. I am by no means a beginner in this period. It might be interesting to play the bridges scenario above with both BKC and BGB, and compare. Let's hope I have the time and motivation.

And that's it. Let me know what you think of the scenario, and I eagerly await comments from anyone who plays the Battlegroup rules.