Author: bucksurdu

This year, get the gamer in your life something that will make him (or her) very happy:  a copy of Combat Patrol(TM): WWII.

Information about the rules, including where to get them, a bunch of free downloads, and how-to videos are located here:  http://www.bucksurdu.com/Buck_Surdu/Combat_Patrol.html

The rules are available with professionally printed cards on War-games Vault:  http://www.drivethrucards.com/product/158116/Combat-Patrol-Set-A or http://www.drivethrucards.com/product/158122/Combat-Patrol-Set-B

They are also available in the UK and Europe from Sally 4th:  http://wargamesbuildings.co.uk/Combat-Patrol

Finally, get them from On Military Matters in the US:  http://onmilitarymatters.com/pages/dfindex.php

HAWK Zeb Cooke ran a cowboy game at last Friday’s club meeting using Combat Patrol(TM).  Players controlled posses, gangs, units, etc. vying for control of the town and possession of gold, cattle, and a saucy bar wench.  (I may have made up that last bit.)

By all accounts the rules worked just fine for the cowboy period without modification.  All Zeb had to do was build unit records with different weapons on them to reflect the technology of the day.

The little cards in the foreground represent cattle.  Zeb had printed cows on the tent-folded cards.

There was a rules misunderstanding regarding shotguns that made them overly powerful in the game.  They were doubling the rate of fire on double barreled shotguns, but the base rules, written for WWII, assumed the rate of fire for pump-action shotguns.  Doubling the rate of fire from the base rules made them nuclear weapons.

In the post-game kibitzing on the drive home, Duncan and I talked about whether the normal command radius should apply to cowboy games.  As I think on it, I think for units, like cavalry and infantry, they should still use the command radius.  For groups that would be essentially main characters in a movie, you could suspect the command radius or make it very, very generous.  I think in a cowboy game you want guys running all over the table causing mischief.

We had a couple of new gamers who had not played Combat Patrol(TM).  I was playing in another game at the time, but I heard that they both enjoyed the game and picked it up quickly.

There were a number of Combat Patrol(TM) games at Fall In 2016.  The breadth of the games showcased the flexibility of the system.  The number of younger players who caught onto the systems quickly demonstrates the ease of the rules.

I scheduled two iterations of a Poland 1939 skirmish involving a Polish armored train.  WWII is, of course, what Combat Patrol(TM) was designed to replicated.

Dave Wood ran a Zulu game using his modifications for colonial warfare.  This free supplement should be available in a month or so after a few more play tests.

All of the players seemed to pick up the rules quickly.  I don’t think there were any players in the game who had used the rules before.  A couple of players didn’t get into the fight right away, which was more a scenario design issue than a rules issue.

I really like the feel of Dave’s changes.  When the Brits can find cover or form up, they are hard for the Zulus to defeat, but if the Zulus catch them strung out or in the open, it can be very bad for the British.  That feels right to me.

Greg ran Combat Patrol with Star Wars figures.  This will also be a free supplement in the near future.  In fact there will likely be an original trilogy (and perhaps Rogue One) supplement and a Clone Wars supplement.

These youngsters caught onto the rules quickly and had a terrific time.

The Rebels were trying to take an important droid across the tables.  The Imperial troops with the AT-ST’s and other heavy weapons tried to stop them.  It was a close run affair, but the rebels eeked out a victory.

If you missed playing Combat Patrol at Fall In, we’ll be running several games using the rules at Cold Wars.  Come and see what all the buzz is about.

There is more information about the rules, including how-to videos, at the rules’ Web site.

I intended to arrive in the mid-afternoon on Thursday, but then we scheduled an interview for a potential hire late Thursday afternoon.  I still thought I might make it in time to run a Fate of Battle game for the HAWKs Thursday evening, but events conspired against me.  When I arrived, I was still angry and needed to calm down before gaming.  Instead of minis we tried a new card game I bought, called Smash Up.  We may have been doing some things wrong, but I think we were starting to get the hang of it toward the end.  Greg brought some Scotch that his had donated to the HAWKs, called Monkey Shoulder, and that helped smooth over the rough edges of our knowledge of the game rules.

Greg and I had the full breakfast at the Continental before heading over the host.  Friday morning I found that the new Host ownership had an odd way of managing the key to the Paradise room, but eventually we go the door unlocked.  Eric and I were running the same scenario, Heilsburg, 1809, on the same table.  My game was first, Friday morning, using Fate of Battle, and Eric’s was later using modified Regimental Fire and Fury.  Eric set up all the terrain for both games, which made my prep for the game much easier.  I was surprised that the game was full and that everyone who signed up showed up for a 0900 game on Friday.  The game went quite well.  All the players were engaged early and had a good time.  The Russian cavalry under the command of someone new to Fate of Battle ground forward against the French cavalry commanded by a guy named Jeff who plays a lot of LSNC.  Initially the Russian left, commanded by HAWKs room regular, Donald, chose to advance, but when two of three Russian brigades retreated, the French went on the attack.  The Retreating Russians recovered and returned to the fight in time to stop the French attack.  Though the Russians were beginning to drive the French out of the town, the arrival of the “fresh” Russian infantry made the outcome an inevitable Russian victory.

I spent some time in the flea market and dealer hall on Friday afternoon.  The big find for me was a batch of 1:50(ish) scale WWII tanks.  Greg also found a loose figure in a bin that will be painted as Peggy Carter before my next pulp-era game.  I had asked Battlefield Terrain Concepts to bring additional hedgerow, and I purchased more of that.  Otherwise, I spent a bunch of time kibitzing and wandering around.

I set up my Poland 1939 armored train game for Friday night and helped Greg set up his Star Wars game — both using Combat Patrol.   I was surprised that my Friday morning game filled, and I was just as surprised that my Saturday night game had not a single player attend.  Was it in the PEL?  I think it was.

Anyway, that gave me a chance to play in Kurt’s A Union So Tested game.  I didn’t know the scenario, so I volunteered to let the new player command the Union force that I thought would see most of the action.  Then three of us entered the table on the Union flank.  This was as much of a surprise to me as it was to the Union commanders.  The game played really well, with the Yanks doing a good job of slowing the Reb advance toward the key crossroads.  The Yanks held a forward salient too long, which didn’t allow them to lengthen their left flank, so I was pushing around it when time ran out, and Kurt called the game a Union victory.

After a little kibitzing and setting up for Saturday morning, Greg, Dave, and I headed back to the Continental to watch a few episodes of Tom Baker Doctor Who with Leela before hitting the sack.

 

Saturday morning, Dave and I went for a 3.5 mile run, and then the three of us had breakfast at the Continental again.  My Saturday morning Polish armored train game was overly full, so some of the standby HAWKs weren’t able to play.  The German objective was to capture the train to move it off the road, not to destroy it.  There is notionally a large German formation coming down the road, and the force in the scenario was the advance guard sent to clear the route.  We had a good mix of experienced Combat Patrol players and newbies.  Duncan took the one German squad on the table that didn’t have a vehicle, and for several turns he was the only visible enemy to many of the Polish defenders, so he received a lot of “love.”  On the German right, their two Pz. 38(t)s and two vehicle-mounted infantry squads tried to push around the Poles, but found the Polish defenders tough to dislodge.  The Poles did a pretty good job using their mortar to inflict some damage on the Germans.  Fortunately for the German tanks, the Poles had positioned their anti-tank gun on the other side of the table.  This is where the Germans tried to slip two halftracks full of infantry around the Polish right.  The anti-tank gun knocked out one of the halftracks, but the other slipped past.  The squad in the disabled halftrack dismounted and got involved in a long, unproductive firefight with a Polish squad in some nearby woods.  Half of this German squad failed morale and ran off the table.  The halftrack that got around the Polish defenses got to the train.  The artillery in the turret turned to knock out the halftrack, so one of Kurt’s tanks fired at it — getting the word result possible.  Recall that the Germans needed to be able to move the train off the road, but Kurt hit the undercarriage of the train car straddling the road, penetrated, and brewed up the car.  This would have made it hard to move the train later.  The Germans got infantry into the cab of the train, so I called the game a German victory.  I was gratified at how many of the folks who had never played Combat Patrol seemed to pick it up easily and were largely self-sufficient after a couple of turns.

 

Again, I had a few hours to wander the flea market and dealer hall, but there wasn’t a lot of time between my Polish game and when we planned to being setting up our Saturday evening game, so mostly I sat around and kibitzed.

Dave, Chris, and I ran the battle of Lvov Saturday evening.  This is a large game that we’ve run several times, including for the 114th Signal Battalion for one of their Senior Leader Development events.  The scenario is somewhat what-if in nature, as it involves the Russians and Germans conducting a coordinated attack on the town of Zboiska on the outskirts of Lvov.  While the Germans and Russians were both nearby, there was no simultaneous attack historically.  In addition to defending Zboiska, the Poles were also ordered to capture a nearby ridgeline and knock out the artillery that was shelling Lvov.  Duncan and a father-son team launched three infantry battalions up Graff-break Ridge.  They took very heavy casualties, almost two and a half battalions.  Duncan let the newbies get decimated while he advanced put he ridge against an beat-up defender, but he was still unable to knock out the guns before the game ended.  (By the way, the players were having such a good time that we played an extra hour!)  Dave and a newbie to LSNC played the Germans and crashed into Duncan’s cavalry screen, wiping out four of five companies by the end of the game.  Dave’s panzergrenadiers got bogged down trying to root Duncan out of his second line of defense, but the newbie, a guy named Hutch, got some of his infantry into the town.  On the other end of the table, Mike and Chris were the Russians trying to bypass Kurt and roll over Donald to seize the town.  Donald’s light Polish tank battalion was no match for Mike’s wall of steel.  While Mike killed every single Polish vehicle on the table, Chris pushed a few stands of infantry into Zobiska.  The victory conditions were based on the number of full (undamaged) bases in the town as well as the status of the ridgeline.  In the end, the Poles received two victory points, but the Russians and Germans didn’t receive any.  So after a hard-fought defense, the Poles eeked out a victory.  I think this might have been the most interesting iteration of Lvov we have run.  I was a little disappointed that we only had four non-HAWKs for a 12-player game, but all the non-HAWKs seemed to have an excellent time, and I think the HAWKs had fun as well.  It certainly made being a GM pretty easy.

 

I had bid $60 for a batch of painted WWII Americans in the Toys for Tots auction.  As I have picked up WWII figures here and there I find that I am short of plain riflemen and have too many submachine guns.  I thought this was a silent auction and that I had won the bid, but when I went to go claim the figures and pay I was dismayed that my winning silent bid was merely the starting bid for another traditional auction.  I guess I don’t understand the purpose of the silent auction.  I was disappointed at the way it played out.  There was a guy in the crowd who seemed to snipe at most winning bids with an extra five dollars.  I guess it’s for a good cause, but I won’t be doing the auction again.

Sunday morning Dave and I went for another run before breakfast at the Continental.  I normally run a chariot race game on Sunday mornings, but I hadn’t planned to run a Sunday game this year.  I hit the flea market again.  I rarely find anything of interest on Sunday, but this time was different.  In the flea market I found two of the Litko buildings I use in Granville, my pulp-era town.  They were already assembled and nicely painted for less than the unassembled kits.  Did I need two more buildings?  No, but what the heck?!  I wandered around the dealer hall, picking up some stuff from terrain bits Scenic Express and chatting with folks in the aisles.  By the time I returned to the HAWKs room, all three HAWKs-run games were well underway, so I just spent time talking to Mike and watching the three games.

After Eric and Dave cleaned up the HAWKs stragglers went to Brooklyn pizza for a nice lunch before the long drive home.  All in all, this was a good con for me.

Last night at our club we played a Combat Patrol(TM) game featuring Americans fighting Moros in the Philippines.  The Americans had to get a mule train full of supplies across the table, but the Moros were trying to intercept the supplies.  We used the under-development Pacific supplement to represent Moro morale.

The Americans chose to go “up the middle” rather than either hanging back to create a defensive perimeter or going either right or left to attempt to avoid some of the Moros.

The Americans were caught in the middle of the table.  Because of this, and the constricted terrain, the Americans were unable to take advantage of their firepower.  The Moros were able to close.  Their melee attribute was very high, so once they closed into hand-to-hand, the Moros won the majority of the firefights.

An American team fired a shot into the rocky outcropping in which the overall Moro leader had taken position.  The Americans got a hit, and an incapacitation result, despite the cover provided by the rocks.  In Combat Patrol(TM), once you hit a target (by drawing a card and consulting the hit indicator section), you then draw a second card to determine which figure is hit, how severely, and whether cover protected the figure.  The card drawn had no cover icons, so the Moro leader was incapacitated.

With the overall leader gone, all of the subordinate Moro units were pinned.  The Activation Deck has black and red cards in it.  When a unit is pinned, it can only activate on the black cards.  This severely limited the Moros for a couple of turns, during which the Americans were able to regroup and establish a perimeter.  During this time, the Americans also had some good card draws in hand-to-hand combat.  The Americans, who began the game outnumbered two-to-one, were beginning to redress a lopsided loss exchange ratio, but not in time.  The Moros had seized the mule train and were well on their way off the table with it when we called the game a Moro victory.

We used the draft Japanese Morale from the under-develoment supplement to reflect the fanatical nature of the Moros.  I also gave them a Melee attribute of four, compared to the Americans’ one.  The Moros, however, had few rifles and had to depend on closing into hand-to-hand combat to carry the day.

All in all, I think the rules worked quite well for this period.  I think it felt about right for the Philippines.  Look for a Moro supplement in the foreseeable future.

 

Combat Patrol(TM) is featured on the Meeples and Miniatures hobby podcast, episode 180.  See: https://meeples.wordpress.com.  This was a very pleasant experience.  Neil Shuck and the crew were very amiable. I think the interview came out very well.  See what you think…

The Harford Area Weekly Kriegspielers (HAWKs) hosted our 20th incarnation of our Barrage gaming event.  This year was the first year that we tried to run Barrage as a two-day event.  We also expanded our tournament offerings to TWO Flames of War tournaments, an X-wing tournament, and an Art de la Guerre tournament.  We had a number of excellent vendors with many great products on order as well as several flea market tables.  We also had record attendance.

Tournaments at Barrage

Below are some views of the Flames of War Tournaments run by Kurt Reese:

If you are a Flames of War tournament player and weren’t at Barrage, you missed a chance for two official tournaments in one weekend — well worth the trip to Barrage.

Below are some pictures of the Saturday Flames of War tournament run by Bob Everson of the I-95 Gamers:

Walt Leach ran a 36-player Art de la Guerre tournament:

 Andrew P. ran the X-Wing tournament:

 Games at Barrage

Views of Brian Cantwell‘s very popular ancient naval game:

Brians ships are made of paper and look excellent on the table.  They are crewed by 15mm figures.

Views of Matt Kirkhart‘s inspiring “Craftee Dungeon Crawl:”

The figures used in Matt’s games are made from wooden bits from the craft store and other odds and ends.  The figures are extremely creative and are made extremely attractive through very excellent painting.

Richard Hefner ran his every popular Aerodrome game:

The two people in the picture below had never seen a wargaming convention before.  They spent much of the afternoon in Richard’s game and had a terrific time.  We always have several games for younger gamers at Barrage. In this way the HAWKs try to encourage younger games to come to Barrage.

Here are some other games at Barrage that were aimed at younger gamers:

Chris Johnson, a huge supporter of our Armies for Kids giveaway project, ran this WWI airplane game on the floor.  We didn’t have as many younger gamers on Friday as we had hoped, but a host of non-so-young gamers had a great time nonetheless.

Chris also ran this very enjoyable American Civil War game on Saturday.  This time he got a host of younger and new gamers.

Peter Schweighofer ran two kids games.  One was Valley of the Ape.  The other was Panzer Kids from Peter’s book of the same title.

Note the mix of adults and kids in this game.  We had several gamers at Barrage who were new to gaming.  I tried to push many of them into kid-friendly games as a great introduction to gaming.

Lee Sowers ran two games using his to-be-released Skirmish Action rules.  I was able to play in one of them, and I enjoyed the game.

I ran a Combat Patrol(TM) game set in Normandy in WWII:

A funny moment came when the Americans targeted a mortar shell at some Germans behind a hedge.  The round landed short and into the middle of an American unit.

The Americans made good use of smoke to screen their advance.  Despite a very good defense by the Germans and some really poor American morale results, the Americans managed to work their way around the flank of the Germans and force the Germans off the first line of hedges.

Philip Gardocki ran an attractive game based on the Battle of the Pelennor Fields from The Lord of the Rings:

Mike and Patrick Byrne ran a lively Force on Force game in which the Russians employ a new weapon against the Chechens.  The game was going so well that it ran an hour longer than planned because the players weren’t ready to stop.

Chris Palmer ran two eight-player Frostgrave games, both of which were completely full:

Cliff Brunken ran this French and Indian War game:

Ed Watts ran a 7TV game, called the Yellow Submarine Caper that involved James Bond, The Avengers, The Beatles, and other factions.

Scott Perry ran a very cool looking naval boarding action game using the Age of Sigmar rules.

Eric Schlegel ran a cowboy game, Schlegel’s Gulch, using slightly modified Combat Patrol(TM).  It seemed to be a wild and wooly affair.

Jim McWee ran this game based on the Aliens movie, called “They Come Mostly at Night, Mostly,” using Aliens Miniatures Rules.  This seemed to be a very enjoyable game for those involved.

Zeb Cook ran a 1939 Winter War game using Combat Patrol(TM).

Greg Priebe ran a Star Wars themed game using Combat Patrol(TM) in which the Rebels had secured an important droid from a crashed ship and were trying to get it past the Stormtroopers.

By all accounts this was a very popular and fun game.

Dave Wood ran several Napoleonic games using Fate of Battle and 28mm figures.  There is something very appealing about a table full of 28mm figures.

Mark Fastoso ran a very pretty Dragon Rampant game using Flintloque figures.

Brian Lipscomb ran The Gates of Damascus using Lion Rampant.

Emril Gletscher ran a table of short games designed to give folks something to do between other games.  I played a game of Forbidden Island, and she ran Forbidden Desert, Gloom, and others. Next year I plan to give her a dedicated table and advertise this more.  I also “forced” Emril to try some other games, like Chris Johnson’s airplane game and Brendan Watts’ Eat Hitler game.

Joe Richards ran this Rapid Fire game of Russians versus Germans.  I haven’t seen Rapid Fire at a convention since the release of 3.0, and it was good to see this oldie but goodie on the table again.

Phil Jones ran this Volley and Bayonet game, The Golden Sun of Kolin.

Duncan Adams ran his WWI game using a mashup of Look, Sarge, No Charts rules for WWII and the American Civil War.

Kevin Lepley ran a cowboy game with the odd title, Cowboy Daze or Don’t Fall Asleep on the Wagon.

Eric Schlegel ran this Lord of the Rings game based on the late 1970’s version of the rules, “Ringbearer.”

Mike Pierce ran a modern game using Battlegroup rules.  The game seemed to be VERY will received.

Tim Tilson of NOVAG ran two games for us at Barrage, including this one.

Robert Franklin ran two modern games at Barrage in 1/285 scale.  He has these really clever terrain boards built into boxes for each store and transport.

 Phil Jones ran the battle of Liebertkolkwitz using Volley and Bayonet.

Some other excellent games at Barrage 2016.

This was our first year of trying to expand Barrage from one day to two.  We think it was very successful.  We had a full slate of games on Friday and every gamer had something good to play.  We hope to have even more games and gamers for both days of Barrage 2017.  We will be posting the dates soon, so mark you calendar and plan to be there.

Post Barrage LARP

Having done it twice, the HAWKs now have a time honored tradition of conducting a pirate tavern brawl based on Blood and Swash.  After all our guests have left, we rearrange some of the tables into a replica of the taverns that Chris, Jennifer, and I have used in many convention games.  Attributes are assigned based on the quality of the costume, sides are chosen, and the game begins.  As with our barroom brawl games, the objective is to get the treasure chest out of the tavern.  The winner fro the previous year acts as GM for the game.   This year Jennifer Palmer won the game.

 

I want to provide a personal and special thanks to the folks who made barrage a success:

• The game master who schlepped their gear to Barrage, set up their games, and ran them.
• The various volunteers, especially the HAWKs spouses who did a tremendous job preparing and serving meals, drinks, and snacks throughout the two days of Barrage.

 

 

 

 

To culminate gaming weekend to commemorate Ma’k Morin’s visit to the Aberdeen area, Mark ran a test of his fantasy rules at Wood’s Hole (Dave’s basement).  It involved “bad guys,” like Orcs, insect men, fire-spitting salamanders, goblins, and others, attempting to capture the tower from the “good” guys, composed of humans, dwarves, elves, and Roomans.

You can see a lot of cards around the table.  Each unit in Mark’s game has a card with all its attributes, characteristics, and special abilities.  Mark wasn’t sure how many players we would have, so he planned for eight.  With only four players, we had a lot of figures to control, and it was hard to find the right card.  When players have the right number of units, I think managing the cards would be easier.

In this picture you can see Mark’s Roomans (with reddish fur) and my Roomans (in green) preparing to defend a strong position against the bad guys.  Both Dave and Eric sent forces to attack this position.  I managed to fend off the succubus and the first fire-breathing salamander, but by the end of the game, Eric’s second salamander was approach and his Elite Death Guard Cavalry was about to get behind me.

There are a few things that can be done to streamline and improve the rules, but it went pretty well as a first test.

We had been gaming since Friday evening, and we had to quit this game around 1400, so we didn’t fight the battle to a conclusion.  I think the outcome remained in doubt when we quit.    It was a fun game, and it was fun to see a lot of Mark’s troops on the table for the first time in 30 years.

Yesterday we tested Greg’s scenario and rules modifications to use Combat Patrol(TM) for Star Wars.  It’s probably not surprising that the rules worked well for Star Wars, as the film franchise is light on science and heavy on action.

Greg built the cards for the various units.  For the Rebel speeder sleds, we just used the record cards for SdKfz 251 halftracks.  For the “chicken walkers,” or AT-ST, we just used the stats for the US M-5 Stuart light tank.  Greg, who is much more in tune with the Star Wars lore than I am, said that these are lightly armored and easily knocked out.

The Rebels started in one corner of the board.  Their objective was to get the droid (shown in the APC in the picture, above) to the opposite corner of the table and off the board.  The Imperial objective was to stop that from happening.

The terrain consisted of a desert town that occupied about a third of the board.  Since the towns on the desert worlds of Star Wars look Middle Eastern, I used my Crescent Root Middle Eastern buildings.  Before he runs this scenario at a convention, Greg is going to build up some bits to give it a little more of a science fiction look, but in general, I think the Star Wars figures looked pretty good next the Middle Eastern terrain.

While the Rebels had to get from one corner to the opposite corner, the Imperial forces started equally divided between the other two corners.  From each corner the Imperial forces had an AT-ST.  These were placed in the scenario to give the Stormtroopers a chance to cut off the Rebel escape.

You can see Geoff’s reaction tot he loss of his AT-ST in this video:  IMG_0091.MOV

Kurt’s APC is knocked out by small arms fire from Eric’s Stormtroopers.

Eric launches some HE at Bill’s rebels.

I had a team of Rebel infantry that was moving into the town to distract the Stormtroopers and keep them from interdicting the path of the APC with the droid.  I got pretty aggressive, and Eric hit me with two teams and a bag full of grenades.   It didn’t go well for my Rebels, but it did stop these two Imperial teams from repositioning to fire on my APC.

In the end, despite a lot of fire from Geoff’s infantry, I managed get close to the opposite corner with the droid.  Eric or Geoff hit the driver with small arms fire, which caused the vehicle to lose an activation of movement.  I dismounted the infantry and fired on Geoff’s Stormtroopers while continuing to flee with the APC.  I was eventually able to drive off the table, so we Rebels won the game.

At Historicon this Summer I had a chance to pick up the Sarissa armored train for 28mm figures.  Though it is meant to be a German train, I think, it works pretty well as a Polish train.  In these pictures you can see that I have sprayed it in field yellow and have not air brushed the brown and green camouflage pattern.  (I got out the airbrush and found out is was broken.)   Last Friday I put the scenario I plan to run at Fall In (in November) on the table at club night.

In the scenario, a Polish train has parked on a road that the Germans need.  The leading German forces have been tasked to capture the train so that it can be moved.  The Polish platoon is trying to defeat as many Germans as possible.  The idea is that a major German offensive is coming down this road, and it is imperative to get the train out of the way.  The rear car of the train has a gun that has run out of ammunition, so the train’s only armament is a 37mm gun in the forward turret.  The Germans entered the table along the top edge of the photo.  They had two half tracks and a truck full of infantry.  They had three more infantry squads and two Pz 38(t) light tanks.  The Poles had a light anti-tank gun and an anti-tank rifle.

Note that the Germans did not have to destroy all the Poles.  They merely needed to capture the train.  Most gamers will stop and fight, regardless of the mission, but this group had seasoned HAWKs who focused on the objective of capturing the train.  I defined capturing the train as having three infantrymen in the cab.

The Poles deployed no infantry in or around the train, deciding to defend well forward.  The Germans wisely avoided the obvious killing ground in the center of the table and attacked along both flanks.  The Germans did not know that only one of the two train turrets was operational, so they moved cautiously to stay out of its lines of sight.  The shack in the center of the table was unoccupied, and the Poles didn’t really have an opportunity to occupy it.  The shack did serve to limit the Poles’ lines of sight and enable the German infantry to move forward from the corn field.

The Poles had a strong infantry defensive position in the center, but the Germans avoided the area.  On the Polish left, the green German squads in the halftracks and truck moved up through the woods.  The Poles had place a small force on the small hill just off to the right of the picture above.  Their purpose was to slow down the German advance.  They did so, but at extreme cost.  They even tried to toss a satchel charge into the midst of the advancing Germans but it didn’t land were intended and did no damage.  As we called the game the Germans were swarming over the hill and advancing toward the front of the train.

Unfortunately I didn’t get any shots of the German armor advancing on the Polish right flank.  They kept well out of line of sight of the anti-tank gun.  The ATR got off a shot, but missed.  The right flank Polish squad had been all but wiped out by the combined fire of several German squads and tank fire.  At the end we called the game a German victory, because it was obvious that they were going to get to the train.