September Campaign scenario 7: A Break for Freedom

When Warsaw surrenders, many Polish troops decide that this war will not end with a defeat. They will continue the war, but to do that they need to escape to a neutral or Allied country. And as such, a group of Polish infantry tries to fight its way past the German 4th Light Division that is guarding the Hungarian border.

The Polish units try to get across the border in one huge column but right from the start they run into trouble when the cyclist vanguard get butchered in an ambush. The Poles, whose cover is now blown big time, decide to try to outrun the Germans but to no avail: at the foot of the Northern hills, the Germans are able to cut off the advance. Not thinking about surrendering terms, the Polish officers decide to duke it out with the border guards, thinking that sheer number of troops will carry the attack. Alas, it was not to be, hundreds of Brave Polish soldiers die during the assaults and within a few hours of frantic mano a mano, the Germans have v control of the battlefield (and Poland).

VP counting time: Germans 40-13 Poles (ouch)

Campaign result: +51 VP for the Germans: a resounding Major Victory for the Axis player. Now people will probably think: “off course the Germans win it, they are supposed to”. But this campaign seesawed right till the end, at start of the last scenario, the Poles still had every chance of pulling off a draw result.

The most fun of the campaign were the special characters, they gave a roleplaying experience to the game which was a big hit. We went so far that when our characters earned medals, we would purchase replicas of the actual medals and wear them with pride and joy during the games. I don’t have to tell you guys that following games were filled with many bouts of manly trash talking! In the end not one of our characters earned a promotion, although it wasn’t due to a lack for trying.

This campaign took us almost a complete year (50 weeks) to play every single turn of the darn thing: in total 110+ hours of play, spread over 28 sessions to complete 138 turns! Yes, we know we are slow players, but for us, playing quality games is always a social event with a lot of laughing, joking and drinking lots of incredible fine Belgian beer. We will remember this campaign as a hoot and a half, and we will refer to it fondly for years to come!

This is the final scenario in the September Campaign arc. In it, two battalions of Poles, some on bikes are trying to escape the surrender of the country and join in the forces in exile so that they can play Carpathian Brigade and Cassino (and maybe Polish Steel). The Germans are trying to stop them with two companies of infantry. A huge help to the Poles is that it is nightime and the Germans will have a tough time seeing them to use their firepower.

The Poles come rushing down the east edge of the board with the bikes actually gaining the edge despite having to run through some opportunity fire to get there. Rather than immediately exiting, however, they hold up within movement range of the German line and wait for the foot units to arrive. When they do the Poles attack from the front and rear and get some astounding combat results, shredding the Germans and opening a large hold for the rest of the troops. Fully 3/4 of the Poles are able to exit the board to "safety" in Hungary, apparently.

The Germans are simply too outnumbered to win this one unless the Poles just try to run. If they stop to fight the Poles will certainly not lose by much regardless of the dice. In essence, nothing decisive can happen in this scenario. I give it a "3" for the general interest but it is a weak 3.