Picking the Poles

The Polish were the first to feel the full force of the German Blitzkrieg in 1939 and it was their invasion that would cause France and Britain too declare war on Germany and begin the second world war.

While the Polish were previously in the V3 Blitzkrieg book, this time they are being released as a PDF, before they are later wrapped up in the Barbarossa Eastern Front book. While the PDF is free expect access to the lists on Forces of War to be removed when the book is released (in a similar way to the Op Husky Lists and the Italy book). Of course the Early War Barbarossa Eastern Front book will grant access to all the book’s lists on Forces,so all is good.

Lets jump in and an look at the Polish

Overview

Key Points

• Aggressive troops
• Fairly Cheap
• Lots of Artillery
• Lacks AT above 8
• You get a Train!
• The tanks are small but ‘middle’ of the road.
• You can run a Cav formation for some epic infantry charges.

The Poles are a pretty straight forward army to run, they don’t have any wacky rules (although there are less of these in EW than LW), and you don’t have to worry about tank choices as you only really get 1 (tankettes don’t count).

Formations

The 7TP JW Tank Company starts the show. With FA2 and SA1 along with a AT6 overworked FP4+ gun it’s pretty much par for the course in EW. Remember that FA2 is pretty much FA6 in LW and AT6 is AT10. While aggressive it compensates for this with a 3+ remount (vital in EW where things have lower FP) and last stand. The issue with the formation is that it’s pretty bear with a single HQ team and 3 platoons. No recce, inf or artillery. 49 points with get you 4+4+4+1 which is a fairly sturdy formation. On the plus point they are better priced than the woeful British tanks !

Motorised Cavalry Squadron

Don’t get confused this is motorised infantry not horsemen. This is the pretty elite infantry formation for the book. It is rounded out with HMGs, AT guns, motorcycle recce and also an information “tank” option.

The infantry themselves are Careful, Fearless and Veterans which makes them awesome but pricey with 8 stands including 1 x HMG and 1 x ATR coming in at 9 Pts. Oddly it has no mortars in the formation which is a shame as it means you have to take the more expensive and non core artillery to provide smoke and bombardments.

Rifle Company

This formation is the line infantry and much more affordable with their aggressive confident trained stats. They still get 3+ rally and last stand which is highly useful. It has the standard HMGs and AT guns but this formation comes with 81mm mortars and even 2 guns of 76mm artillery. Their scouts also have the scout rule under the motorcycle troops. Interestingly they have night attack which while situational is nice to have especially when you face another Defend list and don’t fancy a Defend Defend mission and so can so surprise them by choosing Attack.

Calvary Regiment

The next is something I reckon our own Richard Hardy will be interested in, the Polish Cavalry. These guys hit on 2s on when they charge and are Fearless as well. Aggressive will mean getting into an assault is tricky though, but you do get 17 stands for 15pts so swings and roundabouts. While you can’t take a ‘proper’ tank unit in formation you can take the TKS Tankette which while tiny are just as good in an assault as their bigger brothers, just don’t let them get hit by anything more than a MG!

Support

A lot of the support is familiar to the French players with Renault FT Light tanks, and R35s (the best armour rating the Poles have) along with recce armoured cars. There are lots of artillery options but the stand out is the 75mm artillery which like the French has the Quick Fire rule meaning 2 guns don’t have to re-roll hits when bonbarding. They are also AT9 and the only thing that the Poles have to threaten the Soviet Heavy tanks which will soon appear. 2 x batteries of them at 6pts per 2 guns is pretty much an auto include for competative players.

Finally you have the Armoured Train. A fantastic model and project for anyone to do and perfect for scenario games but in practice a bit of a death trap. It’s looks like a great idea but then you realise its FA3 and is as survivable as any aggressive tank but packing a lot of points into it. It only moves 12 inches (and its locomotive will likely then be killed next turn!), and while it dashes 36” it then can’t shoot and means the enemy will definitely be in range of it. Best of all the defender can put minefields on the track and every car has to take a skill test to cross it. There might be something in it if you cover the whole train in smoke to be fair.

That said it may have a place as a pure artillery platform. Keep it back and use the 2 x bombardments it offers with a single gun carriage. In a way it’s giving you Armoured Artillery for only a few extra points. In a few missions it could come on and deliver some much needed AT9 at a critical moment but again this would be very situational.

Command Cards

Unlike their Late War brethren the EW Polish do get their own command cards. You can form formations of Recce Tankettets, R35s and Renault FTs as well as the wz.34 armoured cars. Like the main tank company all platoon options are the same so they lack a bit of flexibility.

The Sapper card allows an 7 rifle stands with 3 x Flamethrowers for 10pts which is quite tasty if you want to play aggressively, alas they are not part of the rifle formation so can’t night attack.

Options for 105mm and 155mm artillery are included with FP 3+ and 2+ respectively.

If you want to spend more on your armoured train you an also upgrade it to Veteran (most useful for the artillery car).

Character wise you can can have a Tankette platoon ambush and have scout with Roman Orlik, re-roll misses with a 37mm or 76mm inf gun unit leader with Leonard Zlob, deploy a motorised infantry platoon after deployment but before game begins with Kan Wojcik or gain the Oberserver, Spearhead and Mountaineer rule for a Motorised Cav Platoon with Zbigniew Kiedacz.

One thing to point out is that there is no AT3 in assault infantry boost card meaning that the Polish can’t use this to mitigate their lack of AT punch.

Conclusion

Solid and dependable is how I describe the Poles. They have both good and great infantry and a capable all rounder tank. It has its quirks with the Cavalry capturing the old WW1 feel with an army at the start of WW2. It will stack up well against German forces and Blue on Blue vs Brits but will struggle a little vs the higher FA French. I do fear they will not deal with the inevitable Soviet heavies with no high AT guns other than 75mm arty and a lack of AT3 in assault. Time will tell…. Mark