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Hi guys.

Just a quick on... my history is a little rusty so could someone help me differentiate what themes i could do witha poland force in bolt action please?

Im not looking for just one option but id rather have some historical meaning to it if you know what i mean

I’d say your first step in making an army is determining what kind of Polish army you want to play. From what I seem to remember (feel free to correct me if I’m wrong):

Your first, and most authentically Polish option, is to make an army representing Poland’s army in the desperate defensive battles of 1939, as they bravely fought against the Germans, Russians, and to a much lesser extent Slovaks. After the fall of Poland, the Polish Government in Exile hightailed it to France, where a number of Poles continued to fight Germany during the fall of France. Despite the stereotypes of a bumbling and foolhardy defense, they fought hard against overwhelming odds, and many of the survivors of the doomed defense would, by wars end, find their way across Allied lines to fight once more. There is no official list for the Polish Army, though all of the stuff under the ‘Polish’ tab of the Warlord Games site would be appropriate for this period, and I suspect they’ll see rules in the upcoming ‘Armies of the Allies’ expansion book. The September Campaign is a pretty cool fanmade Flames of War supplement that covers the fall of Poland; while the rules aren't applicable to Bolt Action it does contain a lot of distilled information about the campaign and it's relevance to wargamers.


Option two is the Polish that fought alongside the British later in the war. In 1941, pursuant to a treaty between the British and the Russians, 80,000 Polish prisoners (Ander’s Army) were released from the soviet deathcamps and transferred to the British in Iran, eventually forming the Polish II Corps in 1943. They joined up with the British 8th Army (who had recently won the fighting in North Africa) and fought their way up the Italian peninsula. They were reinforced by freed Polish POWs and Poles who deserted the Wehrmacht to join the Corps. Oh, and they had this guy . As far as I know, they were organized like the British and fought using British equipment, so for all intents and purposes would use British models, and the rules from Armies of Great Britain and the Commonwealth.

There was also a Polish I Corps in British Service. Unlike II Corps, I Corps apparently didn’t fight as a single cohesive unit, but it did encompass the 1st Armored Division, who fought alongside the Canadians during the Normandy invasion, ultimately helping close the Failaise Pocket. It also encompassed the 1st Parachute Brigade, who fought in Market Garden. As far as I know, they were organized like the British and fought using British equipment, so for all intents and purposes would use British models, and the rules from Armies of Great Britain and the Commonwealth.

Hope this helps.

Wow thankyou so much

Just to get d9wn to the top and tails of it...

I can use any polish models i like basicly for the early war...

Or... use british models/rules

For early poland is there any m9dels on warlords list that would he a DEFINATE no... ie wouldbthey use tanks or just cavelry etc?

 Lordjig6 wrote:
Wow thankyou so much

Just to get d9wn to the top and tails of it...

I can use any polish models i like basicly for the early war...

Or... use british models/rules

For early poland is there any m9dels on warlords list that would he a DEFINATE no... ie wouldbthey use tanks or just cavelry etc?

All the models I've seen Warlord make for Poland are purely for Early war, since that's the only time they really had an official army. After that they were working alongside other armies and borrowing their equipment since their country had been occupied from the beginning of the war. The only models I see that wouldn't be for an early war army would be the Polish airborne troops. All of the tanks I can see are early war ones, so they should be fine. I would still do some research, as I play Germans, not Poles. Make sure you read up on any vehicles you plan on buying, and make sure they're right for the time period you're wanting to do.

They should be getting a list soon, either in the Allies book coming out, or as a PDF.

Awesome thankyou. Thats november right?

I believe so. Warlord has been releasing the books at a very fast rate so I'm pretty sure it'll be out before the end of the year.

In the meantime, you could probably run a generic list with the models. After all, an MMG team is an MMG team regardless of army, anti tank rifle teams cost the same across armies, Regular infantry always cost 10pts a model, etc.

Ah fair enough. Wellni dont know how to play yet so its plenty oftime for me to maybe learn and build a core 500pt army thankyou gents have been a great help

FOR POLAND!

If you looking for more "polish history & Army Building " info their some great printed material and a few PDFs thru Flames of War/Battle front that you could use. poke around their web site an see what you can dig up like these...

http://www.flamesofwar.com/Default.aspx?tabid=108

1st Polish Armoured Division
Fielding the 1st Polish Armoured Division in Flames Of War.


Polish Forces, Italy 1944
A history and official Intelligence Briefing for fielding Poles in Italy in 1944.

For my 1939 Poles, along with the usual Polish troops, Im doing 10th Motorised Brigade too...



1916 Stalhelms and black leather trenchcoats! Whats not to like!

And people think the Gestapo had the only keen sense of fashion during WWII!

Gordon Studios sells 28mm 10th Motor troops.

Awesome. Ill have a look now. Cheers guys

If you are going to play Bolt Action, I shouldn't worry about history.

 marielle wrote:
If you are going to play Bolt Action, I shouldn't worry about history.

You sound old...

 Dullspork wrote:

 marielle wrote:
If you are going to play Bolt Action, I shouldn't worry about history.

You sound old...

You'll be as old as me one day.... if you're lucky.

 marielle wrote:

 Dullspork wrote:

 marielle wrote:
If you are going to play Bolt Action, I shouldn't worry about history.

You sound old...

You'll be as old as me one day.... if you're lucky.

I'm sure I'm older than you think,

The thing is, this was a really useful thread, short as it was. I've been getting into the game myself and one of my fellow gamers was considering it as well - but wanted to play Poles. Now, I'd never really considered the possibility that he could do anything but an early war army, but this thread lead me to a bit more information than I had previously. That led me to do some research, and I passed this info on to the interested party. Everybody learned something interesting and useful about history.

But, to you, that doesn't matter. Clearly you don't like the game so a good, steaming, thread-crap was what you wanted. Hope it was satisfying.

Not sure anyone's mentioned it but he Polish army did use cavalry in WW2, their most famous moment being

[url]Not sure anyone's mentioned it but he Polish army did use cavalry in WW2, their most famous moment being

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charge_at_Krojanty[/url]

I feel this would make an interesting force to represent on the table top, since it makes a nice change from the tanks and infantry. I'd it myself for Rapid Fire if I didn't already have too many armies for the period.