Early War Polish - FT-17 platoon

My order of FT-17 tanks from PeterPig arrived today. I ordered these a few hours prior to becoming aware of the Maelstrom Games sale on FoW products -  so these were actually planned while the other stuff was bought on a whim.

I love these tanks, just the look about them makes me smile. The rules for them are  quite poor - being slow and unreliable which just makes going on the double out of the question. The one man turret cannot fire main guns while the tanks is moving. So really, they are only meant for infantry support. Interestingly enough they are still Rate of Fire 2 for the light AT guns - even though the AT rating is measly 4 they have firepower 4+, this could be good enough to pick apart paper thin armor of enemy halftracks and Panzer I and II.

This type of tank did good in the Polish - Bolshevik war 1919-21 but in 1939 no one in the Polish army intended for these tanks to be used to counter German Panzers. But the extreme lack of armored vehicles pressed a few of these "veteran" tanks into action.

The Blitzkrieg book only allows one single platoon, no matter which variation of the Polish army list you are playing, though I would love to have another platoon. Maybe I'll get one more in the future when the rest of my Polish army is painted up.

The idea behind the purchase of these tanks was that if me and Widgren (and perhaps others at the club) will play a September 1939 scenario - then I would like to adapt my army list around historical battles and depending on the type of scenario. If there will be a counter attack then I'll use 7TP tanks. In a defensive scenario the FT-17's. Ambush scenarios - TKS tankettes and so on.

The models are all metal, and were superbly cast. I highly recommend PeterPig. These FT-17's were just £4 / tank!

I spent sunday assembling the rest of my Tank Company box, so expect some 75mm artillery next and 10 7TP's that will follow.



There will probably be a guide/review of Malifaux and the expansion Rising Powers this week as well so stay tuned!