Poland (Faction)

A large country in eastern Europe

In War of Tactics, Poland is a minor Allied faction with great ambitions for it's armed forces. It can be argued, had the duo invasions of Poland in 1939 by Germany and the USSR been postponed half a year, Poland could offered more resistance than it already did. This is because Poland was experimenting and planing for reequipping it's forces on a somewhat large scale and had a lot of projects in development, such as semi-auto rifles, medium tanks, naval expansion with domestic production and several prototype aircraft were in development.

While Poland was effectively defeated in 35 days (with goverment and forces in excile, fighting on the side of the allies) *War of Tactics*'s version of Poland is much more capable of defend itself while also aid it's allies via troops in excile.

## Infantry

Polish infantry does not disappoint, they are best suited either for attacking with unique cavalry or infiltrate and ambush as they have 2 types of militia available.

Although not equipped with the most modern of weapons, they only have a few gaps in their arsenals. Many of their weapons are copies or improved versions of foreign designs. Poland even has acces to paratroops equipped solely with british equipment.

The infantry consist of the following unit:

* Buntownik - Civilian Rebels with limited arms.
* ZWZ/AK - Underground Militia with captured and supplied equipment
* Strzelcy - Professional infantry based on the 1939 regular army.
* Uhlan - Elite cavalry infantry with benefits over regular cavalry units
* Spadochronowa - Expensive paratroopers with british equipment.
* Inzynier - Regular engineers

### Pros & Advantages

* Poland can deploy 2 types of Militia units, either Buntownik who are cheap rebels but with a limited armerment and face some restrictions, or ZWZ/AK who has an expanded arsenal and War gear available.
* Uhlan cavalry, has improved norms over regular cavalry units.
* Poland as an ally in multiplayer, gives an economical boost to it's teammates infantry by 5%. This allows players to overrule the restrictions for the match in question, in case of several Polish players, this boost stacks additionally.

### Cons

* Paratroopers are available but expensive and count as professional (rather than elite) infantry and have a small arsenal.
* Lacking modern AT measures for the domestic Professional and Elite infantry.
* Due to in-game termonology, Strzelcy do not have LMGs available.

## Armour

While not exactly the most tank developing faction, Poland does poses several imported and domestic AFVs. It also has several projects and prototypes available.

Poland usually take one design and then evolve it, either till it reaches a dead end, or till it becomes a real competitor amongst counterparts. The Vickers 6-ton is pushed to the 9TP standards, Cardon-Loyds become everything from Tank hunters to SPGs via the TK-serie, Outdated tanks get mounted on tailroad tracks for better mobility and trucks become armoured cars.

This doesn't change the problems polish players will almost always face on the battlefield:

* Often outgunned.
* Only various prototypes and projects stand a fair chance against competing models.
* Outdated relics from the conflicts in between the wars.

It is not uncommon for obscure designs or outdated relics to be spread over the polish arsenal.

### Pros & Advantages

* Poland has a lot of development "mercy" applied for the sake of balance.
* Lots of imported armour available, Including captured equipment.
* Some captured equipment is available, though they are one-offs.

### Cons

* The newest and toughest prototypes are outdated by the time they would be deployable.
* The majority of the armoured forces are made up of tankettes and tankette based AFVs.
* Many units only have MGs available.
* The armoured core is lacking components such as modern Recon and support vehicles.

## Artillery

Polish artillery is a mixbag from other countries, namely french, british and swedish guns but with the exception of Bofors cannons, they all have common traits: they're outdated. With the majority of guns being from the previous war.

Poland does have domestic guns including modern (by 1939) AT-guns and autocannons. However, Poland can rarely rely on these as they are one-offs. There is a large selection of Dual-purpose guns available which will then be able to compensate for this and help defeating enemy tanks as well as deterring hostile planes.

The heavy guns follow the previous statement, outdated relics from the previous war, a mix of different nationalities with a few modern design. It also include some fortress guns and naval artillery which may play a great role on the defense.

### Pros & Advantages

* Wide selection of Medium guns as well as underground weapons such as improvised mortars.
* An early customer of *Bofors* with acces to their 37mm and 40mm cannons

### Cons

* The majority of guns are either outdated, one-offs or expensive.
* Lacking modern equipment such as MGs or light artillery.

## Airforce

The Polish Airforce leave some to be desired. Not only does it have a somewhat small selection of aircraft of the different types compared to other factions, but they're also somewhat subpar both in firepower and speed on average.

There is a silver lining for polish players, the faction has many prototype aircraft available, some are either cheaper than enemy counterparts or have excellent characteristics for their intended role.

The polish airforce is somewhat "stiff" to play as individual aircraft rarely accel outside of their intended role:

* Recon are rarely able to reliably defend themselves and aren't fast enough to redeploy
* Fighters rarely have bombs worth mentioning.
* Fighter bomber cannot preform fighter tasks as they rarely have offensive armaments.
* Bombers have somewhat light payload and slow movement.
* Transport aircrafts are defenseless and have limited pass capacity.

### Cons

* Aircraft have somewhat stiff characters with limited characteristics
* Default aircrafts never really have an advantage over enemy designs.

## Trivia

* The 5% economical boost for allied infantry in multiplayer, represents how polish troops would continue to fight from exile. Enough soldiers/sailors/citizens would find themselves in the UK to have polish units in branches of the army, navy, airforce and intel.
* Poland is perhaps the playable faction to contain the most units confirmed to be fictional but fit into the era and where models are available in scale 1/72.
* In the development of the game, Poland was the first "Minor faction" to be separated from the *Sek. Nation* factions and become it's own faction.