This recreation using miniatures and a homemade set of rules is modeled after the opening campaign of World War II, the German conquest of Poland. Most people know about it, but few know that it was not the walkover that the general histories often make it. Strategically the Poles were outclassed and overrun by the Panzers unleashed upon them in the war's first blitzkreig, but tactically they often fought well and the professional German officers paid credit to their tough resistance.
After working for a long time to come up with a way to run the campaign, I have settled on what Donald Featherstone calls a 'narrative campaign'. While a full-blown campaign with both sides plotting strategic map movement and organizing offensives and desperate defensive lines would be great, I felt it just would be too much work and also figured I could not get enough players willing or able to put in the time and paperwork involved. Also many scenarios that occurred in the real war probably would not come about in a map campaign ... which would be unfortunate as there were many fascinating battles of all sizes. Finally, the gigantic size of such a major campaign with an entire nation being overrun by a huge wave of armies would be almost impossible to do justice to due to sheer scale.
So I am running the war as a narrative. I will basically follow the main events and course of the war though battle outcomes may be quite different thus influencing the following manuvers and encounters. I will pick the fights and set up the scenarios, leaving the players the tactical decisions but not the strategic ones. I may also have a few multi-scenario minicampaigns right within the context of the overall campaign. Once battles are finished, I plan on writing up battle reports just like Jack Scruby did for his wars.
This way there is no paperwork or major time commitments for the players - their job will be to the officers commanding on the particular battlefield trying to accomplish missions already set for them. Scenarios may sometimes be long ones so don't expect battles to always be finished in one night but the terrain can be kept standing and the game continued the next time. I reserve the right to judge when a scenario is over or what the final results are. I also will be tweaking the rules as we go and coming up with specific special rules for some scenarios. I ask that players accept these decisions as what they are, an effort to make the campaign both realistic yet playable. I also request that all players involved curb their competitive nature but instead try and play the games in a spirit of trying to recreate history rather than win at all costs. The games and end results will be better for it.
Enough of the explanation - on to the war! On our wargaming table it is now September 1939 and World War II is under way!
More WWII Poland 1939 Campaign
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© Copyright 2001 Hal Thinglum
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