Author	treadasaurusrex (Germany)
Method	VASSAL
Victor	Germany
Participants	plloyd1010 (AAR)
Play Date	2022-01-22
Language	English
Scenario	FaoF009

This was a fun-filled, 6-session, online match that featured my gracious and hard-fighting mentor, leading the French side. I took the Germans in an extended holiday season play-through that was marred only by repeated deletions, and/or unexpected additions, to the counter mix once they began moving on the 4-board map. We had to replace a number of units that simply disappeared, and delete those that appeared in new positions on multiple occasions. For once, I think that this phenomena is due to more than my sloppy gameplay moves. In play, I noticed a frequent flicker on the map and sometimes on the turn track which prompted more saves than are typical for us. This seemed to happen more frequently after our 2nd session, at least on my screen at home, which is an Apple iMac. This may be an emulation problem in my uninformed opinion.

This play through was all about seizing & holding assorted Belgian town hexes and inflicting step losses. The final score was 102 for the Germans and 65 for the French, resulting in a major German victory in spite of my inept play. The 4th Panzer Division simply had more infantry (16 platoons) to bring to bear against an armor-heavy (only 5 infantry platoons) task force from the 3rd French Light Mechanized Division. The good news for the French was that their tanks (S-35s and H-39s) were markedly superior to their German counterparts and they had significant on board artillery assets (3 platoons of French 75s). The bad news was that it is very hard to hold ground in the absence of decent infantry support. Grinding German close assaults eventually told against the slowly weakening French ground troops and AT units. The French Commander was crucially constrained by having to hold ground with his armored units, resulting in most of his tanks becoming immobile pill boxes in town hexes. These were progressively pinned in-place by German close assaults.

Among the most memorable events that occurred in this play-through were: 1) two German Force Commanders were eliminated in combat by bombardments, not once, BUT TWICE, resulting in decapitation rolls and temporary command chaos, and 2) the French artillery proved itself deadly against the German 88mm platoon.

I give this scenario a 3, only because it was fun to play -- for the Germans -- though it is clearly unbalanced and too long at 30 game turns. We played this one without the FOW rule, but with consolidation, smoke, extended assault and strategic movement. My distinguished & venerable opponent conceded the game at the and of turn 11. This scenario would be significantly improved in terms of balance by reducing the number of game turns from 30 to 15, and adding at least 2 more leaders and 1 or 2 more infantry platoons to the French counter mix.