Silly After Action Report - Poland Getting Mildly Singed

My frequent opponent Ivan Kent has recently taken delivery of Bounding Fire's latest product, Poland in Flames.  We've decided to go through each scenario until Poland is little more than a pile of ash.  In keeping with my predilection for second rate combatants we have decided to do all of the scenarios involving Slovaks first before coming back to the more incendiary German and Russian scenarios.  So, not so much Poland in Flames as Poland Gets Mildly Singed.

First up is Scenario BFP 105, The Winter City.  On the 1st of September the German army exploded across Poland's borders.  Being in an expansive mood they didn't limited themselves to Poland's borders with Germany but exploded across the Polish border with Slovakia as well, the Slovaks having rented out their backyard to their German neighbours.  As a battle hungry wehrmacht stormed towards things Polish a few Slovakian divisions tiptoed along as well to snatch the fifteen odd square kilometres of Poland that Slovakia, for reasons best known to itself, coveted.  The Poles barely noticed but here and there some of their second line troops found themselves inexplicably locked in battle with an enemy that didn't speak either German or Russian.

I (naturally) commanded the Slovakians, 17 squads of deeply mediocre infantry, a heavy machine gun, a pair of mediums and a pair of lights.  Direction was given by four officers ranging from an inspiring 9-1 to a "why did you bother turning up" 7-0.  Fire support was provided by a single 81mm mortar.  My targets were buildings and level 3 hexes in the Polish set up area.  There were 20 victory points worth of these and I had to seize at least twelve.  Standing firm in my path was the 1st regiment of Poland's Border Defence Corps commanded by that grizzled veteran Ivan Kent. To stop the mighty Slovak surge he had 9 squads, a pair of half squads, a heavy machine gun and two mediums.  He also had 18 concealment counters to help confuse me as to his set up plus four trenches and four foxholes just in case sitting at the top of cliffs and almost unclimbable hills wasn't enough of an advantage.

The first picture shows the set up.  Ivan has set up mainly in the east and centre protecting the bulk of the victory locations but (in my view) leaving himself open to a flanking manoeuvre in the west.  I have detailed a flanking force climb onto the plateau from the west and hopefully sweep all before them.  In the east I have a large force which was designed essentially as a pinning formation to press slowly forward and stop Ivan from reinforcing the west.  Any gains I could get here would be a bit of a bonus.  What with a dry stream acting as a gully and double crest lines any attempt to climb would exhaust my troops and lay them open to devastating fire.  A half squad with the hmg and an 8-1 leader sat back on a hill in the west to hopefully pour some fire down on his units on the plateau.  In the east the mortar set up on pretty much the only useful level 3 location under my control.  Its job would be to pound his ridge forces which I suspected (correctly for once) would be nestled in trenches at the top.

But first, smoke.  I intended to drop a smoke round on top of the ridge and hopefully blind his troops for a couple of turns.  Unfortunately my very first roll of the game, the weather check, was boxcars resulting in gusts.  My mortar dutifully produced the smoke but the gusts meant it wouldn't be hanging around for long.  Things went quite well in the first turn.  Certainly a sacrificial half squad died moving in the open in the east but others slithered and sleazed up to his forward position in the woods and their supports piled up behind creating a somewhat embarrassing traffic jam.  Over in the west my flanking force did indeed flank and made its way up onto the plateau without loss.  Over in the far east a pair of squads sallied boldly forward and mounted the first ridge in the hopes of teasing Ivan into dropping concealment by firing at them (he didn't).

End of turn 1.  Flanking going splendidly but a bottleneck in the east as I try to squeeze a battalion through cover meant for a platoon.

Both Ivan and I were entitled to feel a little hard done by with our heavy machine guns.  Mine proved incapable of so much as stripping concealment from his guys in foxholes in the centre and Ivan's sat under a rain of mortar shells which twice broke the various units manning it.  I obviously had less emotional attachment to my Slovakian soldiers than I do to Italians because I expended them ruthlessly (and sometimes carelessly) sending half squads out to strip concealment by drawing fire.  A number of them died but little by little Ivan duly revealed himself.

In contrast to my "herd the soldiers towards the machine gun fire" tactics in the centre and east I moved my flankers cautiously, easing forward and ensuring a strong base before moving forward again.  Ivan pulled back his forward units as I approached allowing me a good position to (hopefully) lunge forward and seize some locations.  In the east things were more brutal.  We both took casualties and at one point each of us took an enemy half squad prisoner but finally I cleared out his forward position in the woods.  This just left me with the interesting problem of how to climb a very steep hill in the open with a bunch of guys shooting at me.

Heavy casualties in the east but my western flankers close in

Over it all the mortar was my ace in the hole.  It didn't always score a result but a couple of nice rate tears and not one but two critical hits on units manning his heavy machine gun certainly shot my troops forward to a great extent.  Since Ivan was trading space for time in the west I oozed gently forward, occupying what he left but not really challenging his positions until I had built up a powerful force.  Except for one half squad which I sent on a suicidal death run in front of his foxholes to seize a victory location.  My theory was that he wouldn't drop concealment for a mere half squad.  Eventually he did and sent the half squad yelping back in shattered confusion but not until after the location had been taken.  If Ivan wanted it back he would have to hop out into the open.  He decided he didn't want it back.  Things settled down for a couple of turns.  From my firebases in the west I shot at his locations without much result while in the east I got a little cocky after his heavy went down and tried climbing the hill.  They didn't find enough of those guys to bury.

There were twenty victory locations, ten were located on the plateau in the west and centre, the other ten were located in the east on the top of or behind that damned ridge.  Ivan obviously intended to sacrifice the ones in the west as long as he could keep my flankers occupied there and relied on his ridge top trenchline to deny me in the east.  For quite a while it worked.

Gathering victory locations in the west and dying in the east.  Could be an analogy for Germany's entire war.

Slowly my mortar pounded away at his ridge line troops, switching occasionally to hit the plateau when I thought the ridge had suffered enough.  Still Ivan kept a presence on the ridge, slinking away in his movement phase and advancing back.  A second attempt to climb the hill was punished but not as brutally, a half squad survived and with a lodgement I redoubled my efforts.  I also decided bugger climbing the hill and sent a pair of squads trotting down the dry stream bed into the rear of Ivan's position.  My own ridge dwellers in the east charged forwards taking advantage of Ivan's preoccupation with the surviving half squad on the hill side and managed to press up to a trench.  Over in the west I managed to to pile up a large number of squads outside one of his few remaining buildings and sent them in to close combat.

I'm on the record as not liking close combat as it always seems to turn out badly for me.  This time not so much.  Granted there were no swift results but over a couple of turns I managed to kill a couple of squads in the east for the loss of only one in return.  Even better with the game drawing to a close my heavy machine gun decided to do its job and finally managed to break one of his foxhole dwellers on the plateau.

The end of Ivan's turn 4 and things are starting to look up for me

My stream travellers hopped out and captured the building in the rear of his ridge position and the remnants of my pinning force (now severely mangled) finally dragged themselves into a couple of trenches on the ridge.
At the end of my turn seven I had fourteen locations, having seized most of the ridgeline and Ivan didn't have the troops left to recapture them.  The last of his force in the east gallantly died trying but then it was all over.

This was a very enjoyable scenario and a good introduction to Poland in Flames.  The next scenario sees me commanding Slovaks on the defence, a situation which has unpleasant memories for me.  Ivan is positively licking his lips at the prospect.

Nearing the end. A litter of support weapons on the hillside marks where brave Slovakian soldiers died to ensure victory.