Reply To: Poland 1939 – Preparing for 80th Anniversary of World War II

[jamesevans140Participant 2055xp 2]

I have finally had the time to sit down and watch both videos and may I say a great game guys.  Congratulations on a well deserved win @yavasa.  Your attacks were masterful and your aggression and speed of movement was very in keeping with blitzkrieg doctrine.

@oriskany a brave loss old friend.  I am glad PL holds true to the laws of armoured warfare.  1. Tanks can take ground,  but they can’t build it.

I know you don’t agree,  so we will have to agree to disagree,  that I consider Pz-1s and Pz-2s as tankettes.  This battle at leased demonstrated just how compatible they are to the Polish tankettes.  It the PZ-2 had of been armed with a 37mm I would consider it a light tank.

From memory this was the last hurrah for the German Armoured Light Division in its pre-war form. As it was for the 3 fire team squad, which the Germans considered them too hard to manage in combat.  So by the Battle of France they had mostly been replaced by the 2 fire team organisation. It is surprising how much change the German military went through after Poland.  A bloody nose here and there during the Polish Campaign high lighted some of the weaknesses in German organisation and doctrine.

The Polish Campaign is the only large battle of  WW2 were tankette like tanks and tankettes went one on one.  Another thing the game demonstrated in a minor degree that the armoured car replaces and usurped the tankette.  Vehicles of this type by the beginning of the war were only best deployed in armoured recon. Using this type of vehicle as a primary armoured unit was feast approaching its use by date. However we must look at these vehicles and things like the T-60 within a time frame and in this time frame they did well.  It a blink of an eye time surpassed them and they were honestly obsolete. Another issue for them was the amount of 37mm AT guns found even in an infantry division.  Again another weapon system time was about to pass by,  yet in this time frame they could hit real hard.

If I had a partner it would have been interesting to zoom in on some of the battles in this game and replay them in 15mm (FoW). Also after looking into it the Rommel rules with a few modifications is now our official rules for zooming out to look at a battle more holistically with a few exceptions like Kursk.

I certainly hope that you guys will team up and doa few more battles for Poland as I greatly enjoyed this one and it has perked my interest again for this formative campaign. I just wish that I had more time on my hands to do some wargaming in this campaign.

Once again great job guys, more please.  😀