Soviet Pursuit of the Poles in 1939

A quick game organised by Richard using models and figures from his collection.  The Blitzkrieg Commander scenario is Pursuit with the Soviets after the Poles in 1939.  I took the role of the Russian commander and that shows in the bias of the following pictures.

Soviet BT-5s were sent in first as part of a left flank attack.

On the right a group of conscripts march on to the battle.

In the centre another group on conscripts cautiously advance.

The Soviet armour engages with the Poles, coming off worse in the third turn.

The Soviet right flank march on.

The Soviet commander deploys his mortars.

In the centre the Soviet force is very tardy.  The KGB make a note of the commander's name.

Turn five sees the Soviet air strike, targeted on the Polish infantry withdrawing over the bridge.  As it turned out it was too early to be effective as only a few Polish units had reached the bridge by this time.

The Soviet centre force (in the background) has finally hurried up (they threw two double ones in a row for their CV check), but that was as far as they got.

The armour battle, while bloody, has been resolved in the Soviet's favour.

However the Poles escape, bloodied, but defiant.  The NKVD shoot the central Soviet commander in order to "encourage the others".  The recon armoured car had been very effective in coordinating the Soviet mortar fire.  By the time the infantry gun got into action there were almost no targets.

Given the nature of the scenario, all the action was with the command roles to see who could keep moving the most.  So the game was more like a race.  I was concerned about the fixed number of turns and table size, but it all worked out well, although the Soviets might have been wiser to flank march their infantry.