The demise of the Cold War and the unexpected rapidity of the breakup of both the former Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact has also affected the wargaming industry: a whole spate of hypothetical late 1990's NATO-Warsaw Pact games were, like Communism, consigned to the dustbin of history. Alternative history, like the Roman god Janus, now looks forward by looking backward (how else to explain the continued success of Nazis with Nukes!) Yet for most wargamers, Eastern Europe seems locked in a perpetual time warp called the Second World War -- with countries that appear as only a few colorful minions of Nazi Germany. Now is the time for wargame designers and players to rediscover a heretofore neglected Eastern Europe and the great Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth of the Seventeenth century is a good place to start, for few people have been at war more often or longer than the Poles. Wargames have not always been kind to the Poles, usually a few counters to be overrun in the opening moves of strategic games of World War II, though GDW did allow them two entire games: Red Star/White Eagle (1979) dealing with the Russo-Polish War of 1919-20 and Case White (1977), since reissued by Game Research Design as First to Fight, covering the 1939 Polish campaign. Decision Games has also joined the fray with their White Eagle Eastward (1992) while two other games on the 1939 campaign include JagdPanther's Poland, 1939 (1973) and XTR's Poland '39 (1992). But history is replete with major battles the Poles waged, often successfully, against the Turks, Tartars, Cossacks, Swedes and Germans. Henryk Scienkiewicz's With Fire And Sword (NY: Hippocrene Books, 1991, 1,135 pages, $24.95, translated by WS Kuniczak) deals with one such aspect of Polish history, the Zaporozhian Cossack revolt of 1648-52 that took hundreds of thousands of lives, began the destruction of Poland as a great power and placed the Ukraine under the thrall of Muscovy for nearly 300 years. With Fire And Sword is not your typical 1000-plus page historical novel a la Michener, replete with elaborate genealogies and a million year time span.Written in 1883-84 as a serial novel for newspapers (readers will quickly note each chapter has a distinctive, climactic end), its theme is patriotism and remembrance and, most significantly, an expression of freedom at a time when there was no Polish nation-state, only a people with an irrepressible identity and culture. Set against the backdrop of the Polish-Ukrainian borderland (the "Wildlands"), the novel vibrantly portrays, with all their strengths and weaknesses, the pageantry, glitter and independence of the great landed magnates and border princes who comprised the basis of the elective monarchy that historians have referred to as the Polish Nobles Republic. The two-volume Osprey Men-At-Arms series on Polish Armies, 1569-1696 depicts, in their inimitable fashion, an army that was both European and Oriental in form and structure. From its European-style heavy cavalry and winged hussaria, sturdy Polish infantry, German mercenary musketeers, Tartar light horse and even Cossack levies, this was an army that achieved fantastic victories (often out numbered 10 to 1) and also suffered catastrophic defeats. With Fire And Sword "fleshes out" this army and gives it life in the form of the hero, Yan Skshetuski, who is an officer in the hussaria of Yeremi Vishnovyetzki, Prince of Ruthenia. The year is 1647 and Poland, spared the horrors of the Thirty Years War, is about to embark on her own horror as the Commonwealth is challenged by Zaparzhian Cossack leader Bohdan Hmyelnitzki. (Older gamers may remember Yul Brenner in the film Taras Bulba which dealt with similar such Cossack Polish conflict, albeit from a Russian point of view since the film's genesis was a novel of the same name by Nikolai Gogol.) The author's descriptions of the Dnieper River and the rolling, undulating grasslands of the Ukrainian steppe seems remarkably like that of the Mississippi River and the Great Plains of the United States - as it should be for while Scienkiewicz never actually traveled to the Ukraine, he did spend two years in the American West. The opening chapters are literally "borrowed" from his U.S. experiences. Various subplots link together Skshetuski's love for Helen, who, in turn, is pursued by a Cossack nobleman; and Prince Yermi's conflict between military necessity and his lawful subservience to the Seym (parliament) and his King. But well over one third of the book is devoted to military affairs and battles, starting with the string of Polish defeats at the Yellow Waters and Korsun which shook the very foundations of Polish political and military power. The reader also develops a basic appreciation for seventeenth century Polish military organization as the author works the general levy, quarter levy and "furrow troops" into his story. Troop uniforms and equipment are also described at length and I found it helpful to keep the Osprey MAA series at my side as a ready reference. True to history, the final battle ends in a negotiated settlement in which Hmyelnitzki is made a grand hetman of the Ukraine and head of a 40,000 man army. And in the end, the Ukrainian Cossacks traded a rather benign overlord for the times, the Pole, for the heavier hand of Muscovy. With Fire And Sword is not a stilted, Nineteenth century novel. Scienkiewicz intended his work to have the widest readership possible in order "... to uplift the hearts" of the Polish people and W.S. Kuniczak's crisp, modern translation captures all the vibrancy of seventeenth century Poland. So entrancing are the author's descriptions of Polish life, society and military affairs that I found myself reading hundreds of pages at a time. Written as part of a trilogy dealing with events and wars which contributed to Poland's gradual loss of control over its own destiny, With Fire And Sword covers the first of Poland's major defensive wars in the second half of the seventeenth century. The second part, entitled The Deluge, is in two volumes (Volume I with 842 pages and Volume II with 918 pages) and covers the Swedish invasion of 1655-57. Key military events in The Deluge include the spirited defense of Czestochowa and the revival of Polish national resistance; the Swedish failure to take the fortress of Zamosc; and a climactic battle near Sandomierz in which Charles X's invading army successfully, but barely, escapes destruction by superior Polish forces. Fire in the Steppe, the final part of the trilogy (only 714 pages) deals with the Turkish invasion of Poland in 1672. Again, the Osprey MAA books on Polish Armies are welcome companions, the Grand Hetman Janusz Radziwill who betrayed Lithuania to the Swedes even appearing in one of the plates. Gamers usually have a better appreciation than most for history and changing military events. Reading With Fire And Sword and the other novels in the "trilogy" will help you keep your "edge". You couldn't make a better choice for your wargaming reading, Vivat! Vivat! Back to Cry Havoc #4 Table of Contents Back to Cry Havoc List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1993 by David W. Tschanz. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com