Scenario: Ambush at Tenczyn

[Brian61]

This is the second battle in a (hopefully) 6 to 8 battle series covering the Black Brigade from September 2, 1939 thru September 17, 1939. The day after the battle at Wysoka, the 10th Motorized(Cavalry) Brigade aka the Black Brigade, organized two ambushes. This scenario is a semi-historical portrayal of the ambush south of Lubien.

This scenario pits Kapitan Kolasa's squadron against elements of the 4th Liechte Division. It is a short one but gets rather ferocious as the German response intensifies towards the end. Map is a custom map (a pretty bad simulation of the terrain shown by Google Maps) size 40x60. Visibility is 35 and length is 18. There is a path added in the southeast of the map to allow retreat of damaged or unneeded units.

I'm not sure the difficulty level matches the point based results, it may need some work and suggestions are most welcome.

Hope this is of interest,
Brian

[DRG]

This one went to the bitter end

Poland - 2708
Germany - 281

Polish decisive victory

My new favorite thing..... TKS.m or as I like to call it the "polsko żniwiarz" The AP rounds for it's 20mm cannon rip through German armoured cars quite nicely. The TKS's of all variants accounted for 21 kills. They should never be discounted as useless becasue they aren't if used correctly.

Good Scenario, as I've said. I like them this size . It won't be easy for most players. I repositioned a number of units at the start of the game



Don

[Brian61]

Originally Posted by DRG

My new favorite thing..... TKS.m or as I like to call it the "polsko żniwiarz" The AP rounds for it's 20mm cannon rip through German armoured cars quite nicely. The TKS's of all variants accounted for 21 kills. They should never be discounted as useless becasue they aren't if used correctly.

You know I had to look up żniwiarz

When you read of the Black Brigade's battles and its two weeks of fighting some of the top units in the wehrmacht and coming out on top consistently, looking at the TOE is quite a shock. No doubt the TKS's played a major role. In many ways I prefer the TKS to the Vickers, mostly because I'm not as tempted to think of the TKS as a tank, more a light tank destroyer/mobile machinegun nest.

Thanks for the report from the front
Brian

[DRG]

Originally Posted by Brian61

You know I had to look up żniwiarz

Yeah, me too

The TKS's are only useful if you can keep them from getting into slugfests with their opponents, otherwise they don't last long. The secret is flank ambushes then pull back into the trees before the survivors figure out where the fire came from. In the one case a TKS.m nailed three AC's in one turn, all from the flank, all without return fire.

And, as always, it helps to be lucky......

Don

[DRG]

You know... if you set these up with a basic core of units then add what you need to complete the scenario you have the basis of a campaign

Don

[Brian61]

Originally Posted by DRG

You know... if you set these up with a basic core of units then add what you need to complete the scenario you have the basis of a campaign

Don

Yes, I'm hoping to do that. Still researching the low level TOE details with (thanks to wulfir's tip) the aid of some polish speaking members of the Axis History forums. The squadron TOE I've been using for the scenarios is close but about 50% too heavy in manpower and over by one HMG. Fact is, none of the available low level TOEs (saber company, rifle company, bicycle company - all of calvary regiments) fit.

As near as I can tell with current data, the motorized calvary squadrons of the 10th had between 162 and 195 men each. This gives roughly between 44 and 55 men per platoon, after allowing for the squadron HQ and platoon of two HMGs.

The rifle company TOE has platoons of 72 men, saber company TOE has platoons of 29 men, and bicycle company TOE has platoons of 53 men. At first glance the bicycle company TOE looks to be a good fit from manpower requirements but the squadrons of the motorized brigades only has 3 LMGs per platoon indicating the four rifle squad model is a bad fit.

Translating back into game terms, the current model I'm using in these scenarios is quite overweight in manpower and over by one HMG (assuming regiment MG company split between squadrons). The HMG is a non issue, easy to explain away. A 38% to 72% overage in rifles isn't.

While it is a bit of a micro detail past a certain point, I do think it has an in-game impact on the firepower of the squadron. With the data I have at present, I'm looking at doing the campaign core platoon TOE as:

u0:    unit 290 DMntd Troopers (HQ 4 men)
u1-u3: unit 285 Rifle Squad (with BAR, 19 men)
u4:    unit 405 wz.35 AT-Rifle (2 men)

Still overweight at 63 men but closer to 'correct' than the current 76 man platoons I've been using in the scenarios. Also I think given the way even decent morale/experience 19 man Polish squads seem to quickly rout, the separate (non combat) HQ unit would help to keep them online more as befitting an elite formation.

I'll probably use this revised TOE guestimate for the next scenario to see if it makes much (if any) real difference.

One another note, the Polish AA batteries seem to have been organized as four platoons of one 40mm Bofors and two machineguns each. There's some reports that, in at least some cases, the machineguns were mounted on vehicles (Fiat 508/518).

After over 71 years no doubt any details much deeper than what I've found so far are probably unobtainable.

[wulfir]

Originally Posted by Brian61

Hope this is of interest,

Thanks Brian, nice one!

I got a marginal victory, couldn't get that VH on the left most ford by the end of the game but stopped the main German advance on other points. Did not reposition many units. Had to be careful with the Polish infantry sections but other units, especially AT/G and HMGs, did beautifully...

Might be an idea to include a Forward Observer team...

[Brian61]

Originally Posted by wulfir

Might be an idea to include a Forward Observer team...

I believe I adjusted the force HQ unit to have at least 50 artillery rating in lieu of a separate FO. I did this for three reasons:

1. In general the Polish forces had poor maps.
2. The 10th Motorized Brigade's artillery battalion was missing an entire battery and presumably some support personnel.
3. The actions depict those of basically 1/8th of the Black Brigade, it should be assumed that at least another company is in action nearby calling upon the same battery.

Still, I'm definately considering your suggestion for the future campaign scenarios for medium and easy difficulty versions. If/when I manage to get it done, the campaign will be dynamic with each scenario after the first having three separate versions (hard/medium/easy) and dynamic routing where decisive victories move you to harder subsequent scenarios, marginals keep you at the current difficulty level, and draw moves you down a difficulty level. A marginal loss will immediately move you to easy level and a decisive loss will end the campaign. Also planning on having a BPR divisor for the final campaign score.

Long way to go yet,
Brian