Tuesday 17 December 2019

Blitzkrieg Commander Errata and Polish Ramblings.

I have just spent the best part of 2 days worth of painting figures updating Blitzkrieg Commander IV with both the rules and army lists errata. I nearly lost the will to live!

To cap it all the book began to disintegrate! I have seen comments elsewhere regarding pages coming loose. I feel spiral-bound rules is the way to go these days. They may not look as good on your bookshelves but they are more practical for wargaming purposes. Being able to lie flat on the table and more rugged is ideal for our requirements. 

Errata is frustrating and this is where pdf rules come into their own. I do prefer though the printed variety but acknowledge the ability to download updated rules is more convenient. 

BKCIV gained a good deal of praise for the extensive army lists contained within the rule book which is no small feat for WW2. Here again I do wonder if it would have been more practical to download updated lists printing off only what you require. This exercise though has fired up my interest in getting some WW2 stuff onto the tabletop. 

On the subject of WW2, I recently listened to a podcast interview of Roger Moorhouse, the author of a new book "First to Fight: The Polish War 1939". 

  
It was a fascinating interview and dispelled the myth that the Poles were reduced to cavalry charges against German armour. This was pure Goebbels propaganda designed to show the Poles as being inferior in every way which has stuck through time. Far from it. The Poles had a professional and reasonably equipped army that was far from the push-over Nazi Germany liked to portray. Had it not been for the Russians stabbing them in the back they would in all likelihood have held out for longer with ramifications for the rest of the war. 

I have yet to buy this book but is very much on my purchase list for the near future. My only concern being that it may will drag me off into another WW2 project!!!

When I was a young boy in the 1960's, a close friend of the family was a Polish ex-servicemen. I only ever knew him as Uncle Woj and although not related he felt like an Uncle to me. His wartime history is mind-boggling. He was an officer in the Polish army when Germany invaded. His home and family were in the area occupied by the Russians. Having fought both the Germans and Russians he became a member of the Polish resistance before being captured by the latter and transported into a POW camp deep in the Soviet Union.

When Russia changed sides they released all the Poles from captivity but provided them with no transport or provisions. Uncle Woj walked across Russia eventually making it to the UK in an emaciated state joining the Free Polish Army. He fondly recalled how some British troops taught him to speak English - but only swear words! He walked into a pub and cheerfully practised his new-found English only to get a thumping for his troubles! 

He went on to fight in Italy being with the first Polish troops to capture Monte-Cassino. He also fought in north-west Europe but my memory is sketchy as to where. Throughout his time in the Free Polish Army, he and his comrades fought for the freedom of their country only for it to be handed into the hands of another tyranny. He never harboured a grudge and I remember him as being one of the nicest mild-mannered men you would ever wish to meet. What he and his mates went through beggers belief. Real heroism rather than the over-hyped word of today. I have memories of him joining in with my early wargaming, consisting of lining up soldiers on the floor and rolling marbles at them. My only regret was that he did not live long enough for me to grow to an age where I could have fully appreciated and taken more interest in what he did. 

And finally on a Polish subject, did any of you watch that dreadful BBC production "World on Fire". I saw the trailers which sparked my interest. WW2, Poland, sea battles, Sean Bean, what's not to like? The opening scene was encouraging with lines of Panzer I's and II's ready to invade. That was the high point! The BBC soaked up Goebbels propaganda and even magnified it. The American journalist reporting back that they were equipped with pedal cycles against armour and scenes of Polish troops taking their own weapons, including shotguns to war. After a couple of episodes I found myself fast-forwarding to action scenes in the vain hope there would be something worth watching.

I got to the Battle of the River Plate. They clearly have learnt nothing from HBO and others on how to create credible and exciting battle scenes. Firstly, HMS Exeter! You really would have thought that it could not have been that difficult to compile a CGI recreation of the actual ship. But no, this is the BBC. The ship they depicted was decidedly weird not helped by poor CGI. I have no idea what it was supposed to be. And then there was the action - confined almost entirely to one of Exeter's turret barbettes. 

I really cannot tell you anything of the story after this as I had given up. It ended in France in 1940 indicating the story will continue in Series 2! I think I will give that a miss. This is a crying shame as I have always thought that the wars we research as part of our hobby are festooned with fantastic stories, larger than life characters and human nature at its absolute best and worst. Indeed, an epic could be made depicting the life of my Uncle Woj!

14 comments:

  1. Jon, my BKC IV shed a couple of pages from the perfect binding. I very carefully took a knife to the binding and cut it off. I took the now loose pages to Rymans (UK stationers) and they spiral bound it for me. I now prefer this to the original binding. I agree that the errata that has followed this is an unfortunate pain. The upside is that once learned, there is a LOT of situations that can be covered.

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    1. Thanks Norm, I will bear that in mind regarding getting it spiral bound.

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  2. Well I still use BKCII as I know it inside and out and it works for me. I keep meaning to add in bits from BKCIV that are good, but frankly forget!

    Thanks for the 'heads up' on the Polish book as there is so little in English for this important campaign. I have Zaloga's excellent book, but that's about it. Definitely one to get in the New Year.

    I have a 10mm Polish force (I helped with the research) and given that I'm finally getting my WWII Germans painted, I might finally get around to these for some '39 campaign games. A train awaits conversion at work to make into an armoured one, which always looks great on the table. So many projects, so little time!

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    1. Given the great reviews it looks like it is definitely a book worth getting. I am still in the foothills regarding collecting my 6mm WW2 stuff so Poland may have to wait for a while but I sense it will be one I add to the list for the future. A few years ago I saw a superb 20mm game at the Bovington tank museum show which amply demonstrated the possibilities for playing this theatre. As you say Steve, so many projects, so little time!

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  3. Aside from the relatively short time that Poland/Lithuania was a great power during the 16th and 17th centuries, and the past few decades, the Poles have endured much oppression and foreign domination. A favorite joke related to me by my freind Joe, himself of Polish descent, told on the first day of a course in Polish history:

    You're a Polish soldier, and you have a German coming at you from the left, and Russian coming at you from the right. Who do you shoot first, and why?


    The German.



    Business before pleasure!

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    1. Like it. The Poles have certainly had a rough time of it but no easy pushover.

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  4. Jon, I received a copy of BKC IV a while back but know nothing of any rules updates or errata. I don't like pdf rules for the simple reason that I have dozens of rulebooks and hundreds of rule sets in board games. Publishers merrily produce updates, Living Rules and errata online but printing these out is a massive undertaking.

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    1. I do have some rules in pdf format and some in both. I too prefer the printed format for ease of reference and I also find them easier to read. I find Army lists as pdf's more practical as only the relevant list needs to be printed. And of course any updates are only a case of downlaoding the latest version.

      The rules and army lists errata can be found on the Pendraken Forum along with a host of optional rules.

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  5. Thanks, Jon, I found them. You are right about Army Lists being better as pdfs.

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    1. It is nice to have them in the rulebook but if they are going to be subject to revisions pdfs are the way to go, or at least offer them as an extra. I can see many revisions to come, whether that be correcting errors or adding data.

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  6. Jon, regarding your comments on "World on Fire" I will simply make an observation on the BBC's approach to history which is partial, personal and based on a very limited involvement with a single programme. The programme in question seemed to me in important particulars as tosh. I happened to know one of the two main historical advisers and apparently four things were pertinent. The programme, whenever set, had to be "relevant" to today. Historical accuracy was to be subordinated to "narrative flow". Difficult questions involving disagreement between historians were to be avoided for fear of "confusing the viewers". Finally, where myths were widely accepted by the public they were not to be disturbed even where new evidence showed them to be wrong. I happen to mention the BBC but I'm sure they are no better or worse than other organisations.

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    1. That would certainly explain a great deal Kevin. They clearly learnt nothing from Band of Brothers although other programme makers are not immune to this nonsense. In the bubble in which they inhabit they assume their viewers are thick! I cannot recall who it was now, but a few years ago I listened to the interview of a TV producer in which they discussed the eclipsing of the BBC in the UK and Cable channels in the US by independents such as HBO. He explained that the older established channels made TV or films by committee which could be a real headache for the director. HBO, Netflix, Amazon etc. tended to give directors, screenwriters and so on free rein which in turn attracted the most talented and resulted in superior productions.

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  7. Was " World on Fire" meant to be serious then, I watched 20 minutes of two episodes and gave up each time although Mrs Little thought it was ok but mentioned that people learnt a second language remarkably quickly.

    Regards

    Peter

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    1. Lol. I struggled for a while dearly hoping it was going to improve. I thought that surely they could make the Battle of the River Plate exciting to watch given the way CGI technology has developed. Ah well, at least '1917' looks good!

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