After a long time reading through C&CV1 and enjoying the wire organizational diagrams, I decided to try out one of the campaigns. I picked the September campaign in keeping with my tendency to work with "minor" countries and odd units. I have a long term interest in completing all 80 scenarios with Polish units. By the time I get close I fully expect that there will be new ones and I will be on a perpetually expanding task. Oh well, kind of like parenting...

In this scenario a relatively undermanned Polish unit has to stand up to the initial German assault. In previous plays the Poles seem to melt away due to the OBA. My Poles, especially in the urban areas held up well and were able to mete out some terrible devastation on the Germans. The final score of the scenario was 42-41 Germany. I call that a draw.

The actual scenario play was called after the Germans secured the first town they came to. There were only 6 turns left and the Germans were highly disorganized from the swirling fight. As a "gamey" thing I could have pursued some of the outlying Polish troops with leaders to get some points from barrages but the Poles had blunted the German attack substantially and the Germans needed time to sort out their losses, recover morale, etc.

The key Polish tactic was to get the Germans into assault combat in the towns where their leader characters with Urban Assault skills could help out. The Polish leaders are Rejewski, Rozycki, and Zygalski, the three men who had the greatest impact in working out the Enigma machine.

The German leaders were also active in the scenario. For them I chose names from anti-Nazi leaders of the pre-war period. Ascher, a Jew who fled to Britain and joined the British Army, Stressemann and Wels who were members of the Weimar Republic and/or labor movements of pre-war German political activity.

All in all a very fun romp. I am playing with the leader character rules which add some chrome and a lot of fussy paperwork. I enjoy it but it may not be everyone's cup of tea (pint of ale, snifter of... well you get the idea). I believe that the campaign can be played without the leader characters without a substantial loss of enjoyment. As a ftf scenario this may not play as well since the Polish player has little maneuver possible, however if you commit to the entire campaign there will be opportunities for both players to experience attack and defense so it will even out.