In this follow-on scenario the Germans are again knocking in the Luxembourgian doors. But this time the French answer the call to help defend the towns. The Germans must clear the four doors from the road and clear the towns of Luxembourgers and French. The defenders must prevent the Germans from

The Germans have lots of firepower, to include some minor armor and a truly nasty OBA offering. The French are fairly numerous, but weak in firepower. The Luxembourgers are very weak, poorly led, but at least have atrocious morale. Two thirds of them start in the eastern town, the other third hidden in the western town. Two roadblocks on the east, two to the west.

The Germans come in with full intent of seizing the eastern town as quickly as possible while sending one platoon of engineers with plenty of infantry support towards the western pair of roadblocks. The French come in from the south, and are way too far away to save the eastern town. Unfortunately for the Germans, the Luxembourgers choose this time and place in history to defend at all costs, and force the Germans to spend eight turns clearing the town! Some forces have already moved west, to include one tank heading to the town, but the infantry are headed to the roadblock.

Meanwhile, German tanks enter the western town, and hit the hidden troops, who inflict a step! Then the French cavalry move into the town as well. The antitank guns set up on the north end of the big woods, forcing the other German tanks to maintain cover in the town and not move west to assist. Some cavalry also take position in the woods and behind fields within charge distance of the western roadblocks. The Germans send infantry to assault the ATGs, and the covering cav needs to assist the defense. The guns die, most of the cav dies, and the rest runs. But the advance of the tanks is delayed by just enough time to make a difference. Supporting infantry is in the western town supporting the damaged tanks, but make little headway.

The Germans manage to take the eastern town on turn eight, eliminate the last of the roadblocks on turn ten, and move forces to the western town by ten. The Germans are contesting one town hex already, and on turn eleven the Germans move towards the other two hexes. The northern approach goes well, but to the south the French opfire shakes two of the approaching platoons, effectively eliminating any threat of assault. Turn twelve ends with one hex French controlled, and the other two hexes both end contested, albeit with the defenders pretty shaken. Step losses are four for the Germans, and 15 for the allies. With one town infested with defenders and the defenders taking more losses, the scenario ends in a draw.

I rate this one a four. The Germans have significant firepower, but a very aggressive set of victory conditions. The allies have little offensive firepower, but significant staying power. I suspect the draw is a highly likely outcome. The allies probably do not have a great chance of winning due to the loss requirement. But with only twelve turns the Germans are very hard pressed. Fifteen turns would possibly make this a very German slanted scenario, twenty definitely so. But overall the offensive and defensive challenges make a decent little scenario, better than the previous one.

Errata note: The scenario instructions do not include the setup instruction to use the four roadblocks for the Luxembourgers. The special rules and victory conditions do both call out the doors; they are only missing in the setup instructions.

This second scenario in the Fall of Luxembourg series is essentially the first scenario with twice as many troops. This time, the Luxembourg forces are augmented by a squadron of French cavalry with attached artillery. The Germans bring two battalions of infantry along with a company of light tanks to the fray.

The victory conditions are very much the same. The Germans must clear the road and secure the villages. The Germans were abit more aggressive this time, and inflicted serious losses on the French/Lux troops (all of the Luxembourg troops were destroyed) but the Germans took a large share of casualties themselves. Most importantly, they suffered casualties in the engineer platoons, resulting in failed morale which cost them significantly. Instead of clearing obstacles as they were assigned to do, the engineers participated in several assaults, sustaining casualties in the process. Too much time was lost in the recovery of morale and getting back to the task of clearing the barricades, thus causing the Germans to fail to meet their objectives.

1940: The Fall of Luxembourg, scenario two: Spahi Support

I played the first scenario months ago but I figured I needed to finish this mini-series off and besides in this scenario the Luxembourgers get some French help.

The Germans get some off-board artillery help from a nice 3 x 16 group, which really made a huge difference in this scenario. The German Engineers took out all the roadblocks and the army took control of all the town hexes but one, as the French cavalry managed to slip in some units on the last turns that the Germans didn’t have enough time to dislodge but the Germans only lost 3 steps to the Allies 16 steps lost, making this one a Draw.

Two of the German step loses were from losing a step of Pz Is to a French 25mm AT Gun. If the Germans had a couple more turns, they would have won a complete victory as they pretty much had control of the whole battlefield.

Author	treadasaurusrex (France, Luxembourg)
Method	VASSAL
Victor	France, Luxembourg
Participants	Chaco
Play Date	2021-12-05
Language	English
Scenario	FaLu002

This enjoyable, but unbalanced, play-through was completed in only 2-sessions, without using the FOW rule. I played the Luxembourg & French side online with a playful and industrious PG opponent leading the German invaders. Fortunately, the Teutonic invaders failed to inflict unsustainable casualties on the brave Luxembourgese and the allied Spahi cavalry. Instead, through hot die rolls and the blessing of the PG fates, this turned into an unlikely, and very close Allied victory!

As has been reported by others, German engineer units successfully removed all the roadblocks and the infantry battalion seized all but 4 town hexes in the westernmost town. This was a costly undertaking as they lost one platoon of engineers, 3 platoons of infantry and a pair of Pz-I tank platoons (lucky, ling-range 25mm AT Gun shots) in the process. On several occasions, French Spahi cavalry managed to slip by the advancing Germans and were able to mount 3 cavalry charges that eliminated an HMG unit, a half-strength infantry platoon, a Captain, and the German commanding officer. This last loss caused a good deal of havoc and chaos among the remaining Germans, which was fortunate for the Allies as there were only 2-half-strength, disrupted Luxembourgese Militia units remaining, and a smattering of Spahi cavalry units with two surviving AT gun emplacements.

In spite of the victory for the beleaguered Luxembourgese and French, I give this one a grade of 3, due primarily to the unbalanced nature of the scenario. I think that it was not properly play-tested and the setup directions are incomplete. There are no instructions as to the placement of the Luxembourgese roadblocks and no sign of the company of Gendarmes that appear in the first (historical) scenario. It is suitable for SOLO play, but not for shared play, except by masochists.