This is an interesting scenario. A smallish French force, mostly infantry, has to seize several villages from a German recon force before a much larger German infantry force kicks them out. Speed is key here, as the French 3-3 INF cannot keep up with the German 5-3 INF, especially when they are outnumbered 2-1 or more. So, I rushed forces up the middle, splitting a few platoons off to take the outlying villages, with the main force trying to take as many town hexes as possible and eliminate the recon force. The lone French DRG unit went to take one last town hex and then flank the Germans. This didn't work well, as they motorcyclists were demoralized after taking the town hex, and played almost no part in the rest of the battle.

Meanwhile, in the center, the French did grab a lot of town hexes, and got up to the towns in relatively good order, however they could do nothing to the Germans in melee. Even when I had 3 INF in a hex with a leader against a single German INF, the French couldn't do more than tie them up. The Germans outrolled the French for the most part, and the bottom line is that rolling assaults on the 5 column (9 +1 columns for leader -2 columns for town) doesn't do much. So, by the time the German reinforcements arrived, many of the French troops were tied up in melees. The German reinforcements ground forward, using their superior firepower to shoot up and/or assault the French out of the towns. I called it when the Germans hit major victory territory, about 4 turns from the end, because the French had taken heavy casualties and had little to no counterattack potential left.

This isn't a bad scenario, it was a bit tense to see if the Germans could push the French back, and a few different die rolls in the early going could have left the French in a much better defensive position. Still, the numbers game doesn't work in the French favor here, so a French victory will be tough.