"Warsaw Uprising" Topic

Any thoughts/suggestions/observations for a large 28mm game set in the Uprising?

I assume you mean the Polish Home Army rather than the Jewish uprising.

Have you done much reading on it? There are a couple of good books out there in English. There is also a book on The Dirlewanger Brigade with a chapter on Warsaw. You can get a lot of scenario ideas from the books.

Depending on the size of the game, you can have multiple objectives. A small game might be to take over a radio station or a police station. For a larger game another group might be tasked with taking out an armored car, while another group has to retrieve a cache of supplies, throw in a runner who has to deliver a message from point A to point B, etc.

I didn't see anyone asking to game atrocities.

I'll be sure not to stop by your house.

I would presume that he is thinking of the August 1944 uprising, rather than the earlier ghetto uprising.

Getting models for the 1944 Germans should be easy. Modelling the Polish home army, with their mixture of weapons and clothing (including captured German uniforms) would provide room for some creativity and model hunting. Wargames Atlantic seems to have 28 mm plastic sets for French resistance and German sentries that could provide fodder for some inspired conversions:

link

Since the fighting largely took part in urban environment, you will need plenty of buildings to fill the tabletop.

As for scenarios, how about staging one in the beginning of the uprising, when the resistance has the advantage of surprise and the Germans are scattered and disorganised? For example the uprising needs to capture two or three objectives on the table from German sentries, and then to hold them against counterattacks by German reinforcements.

Considering that the Polish Home Army (AK) forces tended to have issues with limited weapon and ammo supplies, it might be appropriate to give them a few appropriate special rules.

For example, those Polish fighters that start game poorly armed (e.g. with just pistols, hand grenades, knives etc.) might have a chance to loot weapons and ammo from German casualties. If you have spare plastic weapons, glue them on spare bases with some extra decoration, and whenever a German models falls a casualty replace it with an appropriate weapon stand. Polish looter moving into base contact with it might have a 50 % chance (4+ on D6) of acquiring a working weapon, otherwise the weapon might be damaged, out of ammo etc. Place the weapon base next to the weapons new owner, or use appropriately armed replacement model if you have one.

Keeping track of ammo for all weapons is unwieldy in games of any size, but it might be worth to do so for the support weapons, such as machine guns and mortars. Either assign a limited number of ammo counters at the beginning of the game, or have a random chance of running out of ammo any time the weapon fires.

As for modelling topics, the Polish resistance had also various improvised or home built weapons. In the military museum in Warsaw, there is on display a mini-catapult designed to chuck hand grenades, while elsewhere in the town there is a memorial plate for an underground workshop that produced local Sten gun copies. I have also seen somewhere pictures of an improvised armoured car built by the resistance, which might provide some modelling challenge for vehicle enthusiasts.

Here is the above mentioned vehicle:

link

Someone even makes a model:

link

I can see the distaste about wargaming the ghetto uprising but the 44 uprising is another matter.

I dont see the need to account for ammo in a long winded accounting exercise as rifles ammo would be the same as the germans , stens were 9mm as the germans. grenades are grenades. mortars would be stolen anyway.

you could use a random generator (set of playing cards) to create a shortage of ammo and thus have a mini raid to get ammo.say test every 3 to 5 moves.

the poles would have to hang on until the soviet forces ride to the rescue (fat chance) and that would be victory, the germans win if they wipe out or reduce the polish forces to a preselected percentage.

it would be classic street fighting WW2 style.

an added plus would be fighting in the sewers but that would be an interesting terrain build.

The movie "Warsaw 44" was pretty good for a visual feast, even briefly showing a Borgward Wanze for a bit. Amazon Prime used to offer it, but no longer does at this time.

I always thought of the Warsaw Uprising as a way to re-use a Stalingrad / Fall of Berlin terrain build, where at least the Germans' look wouldn't need to change much between settings.

79th and Griefbringer – just so and thanks; likewise Steve and Thosmoss.

Thanks for 79thPA for providing link to Kubus – that was the armoured car that I was thinking! Maybe not the most stylish WWII vehicle out there, but a testament to ingenuity. As for whether it would be worth building one for WWII gaming depends on how much Warsaw gaming you are going to do.

For those able to actually visit modern Warsaw, I would heartily recommend the military museum there. Haven't visited the uprising museum though would be interested if I ever get there again. Also, the Old Town that was destroyed by Germans post-uprising was rebuilt at some point, though otherwise modern Warsaw might bear limited resemblance to its 1944 counterpart.

And for musical inspiration, should I mention "Uprising" from Sabaton?

I've played the '44 Uprising, has some really interesting elements, as a "Mission Win" game…since you can't "win win" something like that.

Time-limited victory goals (you only have "x" turns to accomplish) could include

1. Help some people escape
2. Get critical information out of the city
3. Destroy a certain piece of german held infrastructure (phone exchange, etc)
4. Kill or capture a German officer, official, etc.
5. Engage and destroy a certain number of units, etc.

You could add an element of ammo in a semi abstracted way.
A modifier track where you gain by looting off dead Germans, vehicles or maybe some buildings. Lose when shooting. The higher up the track the more effective shooting is.

Or you could build a hand of cards. Polish army gets extra cards looting. Germans get extra cards by killing polish army. That sort of thing.

Why is the Ghetto rising offensive but 44 isn't?

Oppressed people rising up is oppressed people rising up.

Poles are **ng Great! Met with one, Ex RAF WW2..I was just a kid, but RESPECT! Relative may have dated submariner who problebenmy sank. UK… my Generation, anyway..,. WILL HOLD FOR POLES!

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I still think fighting back is noble. It would be analogous to gaming Masada.

No one has to be a Nazi, the game master could run it. Even so, I have gamed as Vikings, but I don't secretly want to plunder monestaries and ‘steal' women.

Regarding the 1943 Ghetto uprising, I think that it could be possible to design a game that would appropriately demonstrate the desperate heroism of the defenders. However, considering the very heavy asymmetry between the two sides, as the defenders were very poorly armed, this would be rather difficult to do as a conventional miniature wargame.

During the Ghetto uprising there were also actions by the Polish resistance against Germans outside the Ghetto, though these seem to have been quite minor ones.

As noted, there are difficulties with gaming either uprising as a whole. But there are lots of skirmishes between resistance forces and Germans which are much better balanced and would use much the same castings and terrain. Something to consider until you have enough of everything for the grand finale.