Finally played my first White Eagles game: Scenario 13, Borderlands. The Polish setup emphasized putting the ATG’s in places where they had maximum coverage, including one on a slope several hexes west of town (which spent the first two turns digging in.) This severely limited the usefulness of the Soviet AFV’s since none of them have tank leaders. The rest of the setup (apart from the 75/97 arty units) was in town.

Even though the ATG outside the town succumbed early to off-map artillery, the Russian armor (apart from some armored cars that took a blind spot position adjacent to town early on) was neutralized for most of the game by the threat from the ATG’s (and the 75’s until they ran out of ammo and were eliminated.)

As for the rest of the huge mass of Soviets, they pressed relentlessly on from south and west. The cavalry swept past town and joined some infantry against the Polish artillery (plus an infantry unit that had fled into the same field), though it was actually ammo and not attack that eliminated the guns., and the cavalry took some losses.

The rest of the action was adjacent and in town, with point-blank fire and assaults the main events. The Russians ground away at the Poles and even bombarded hexes with friendlies in as many as 4 adjacent hexes. By game’s end, though, the dogged Poles held one town hex free of Russians and disputed all the rest except one the enemy had cleared.

The Soviets gained 3 VP for one town hex and 7 VP for Polish losses, while the Poles had 5 VP for one town hex and 5 VP for Soviet losses. Since the Russians needed a 2-1 edge to win, it was a Polish victory.