A timely arrival of the german reinforcements and 2 well placed german 88's did the trick for the germans. What followed was an exciting cat-and-mouse play between the 88's and the (slow) french tanks. The french lacked the infantry to seriously threaten the 88's while the tanks were sitting ducks trying to come up close, even despite their heavy armor. I think this is my first 5 for a scenario and well deserved, although one 88 less or some more french infantry would balance this scenario some more.

This is a very interesting scenario where both sides are infantry poor. The Germans initially have a firepower advantage that will erode as the French tanks come up, but comes back when the German reinforcements come in. The French tanks are slow and thus they will telegraph their avenue of approach. But the Germans do not have enough to cover most objective and they must hold the bridge. So, I decided to have the German armor delay back and the 37mm ATG plus and engineer platoon hold the center of the ridgeline; this position was protected by mines. The rest of the mines were set up to further slow down the French advance.

The French decided to go for the northern objective towns on both maps with supporting attacks in the center and south to keep the Germans pinned. The R35 battalion easily pushed back the German tanks and captured the objective on Board 31. Then they pushed to the NE pushing through the woods to attack the big town on the north end of Board 29 which was defended by a German engineer platoon and reinforced by a motorcycle platoon. Without infantry the attack was slow as it had to be done by firepower and not assaults. The only French rifle platoon and reduce HMG platoon were brought up to help by they fell back under fire. It took awhile to rally them so they could assist in the assault. In the sought the R35 got bogged down by a 20mm AA gun that would not break. In the center, the Germans fell back late in the game to protect the two small towns. There was never any threat to the bridge as the FlaK 88s were protecting it from the east side of the river high ground. These 88s prevented the French from surrounding any town as exposure to their fire was instant death for French tanks.

The end game was a series of assaults and the Germans could not be broken in the town. And the one time they did, they rallied and came right back in. On the last turn, the French assaults as many German town hexes as they could to deny those points tot he Jerries and this worked. The French won a major victory 40 to 28.

This scenario was fun. it played relatively quickly for the size and number of turns. It was interesting to deal with each side that was not really equipped for this battle, but sometimes you have to do with what you have at hand.

Let me start by saying this is such an odd matchup of forces and unique unit types, it become a real puzzle how to engage and the terrain in another factor, the victory conditions and reinforcements coming on the map for both sides at variable times makes this a very fun scenario to play.

First the French attack the first group of Germans, then the German reinforcements come on and then the French pull back to regroup until their first group of reinforcements arrive, then they go for an all out attack, then their third group of reinforcements arrive. The French manage to take some victory objectives now but they have lost too many steps in the form of R35’s and a few other units to make a dent in the Germans victory conditions. The German had to shift units throughout to battle, to plug holes, keep certain victory objects and just survive in some areas on the map. These odd ball units have to spread out to defend and attack. Very fun scenario to play, even if the Germans won a major victory, I recommend this one.

If I could, I would rank this one a 4+, just a little short of a five but maybe it is for me.

I guess I'm the only one who gets a minor French victory out of this one. I sometimes resort to some different tactics than others. When playing solo it seems harder to win as the attacker most of the time.

This scenario provides the one thing that generally is lacking for the attacker, time. There are variable entry for reinforcements and the terrain is very dense, so those variables provide a lot of room for surprises. On my play the Germans got their reinforcements right away whie the French had to wait a while, especially for the last 4 armor units.

The Germans basically gave up half the territory to start as there was too much to defend and it was too open. They strung a continuous minefield across the open territory in front of some very favorable slope/woods terrain. Dug in some AT units in the flanks and everyone else was in cover/dug in. The french advanced their numerous R35's slowly through the roads staying to the left side of the German line. The exception were the non armor and 3 platoons of tanks which were on the right side of the German line. The very slow R-35's on the left made it to the minefield and tried to sneak by through the the minefield and woods. They were attacked effectively by German AT fire and retreated after losing 3 steps.

This where the longer game length came in to play. The French went all the way around to the German right with all but 5 steps of tanks. They left some armor on the left with a leader to wait for disrupted units to recover, guide them to the right when ready and keep some threat on the left so the the Nazi's couldn't move everything to the right flank.

Then there was a long, slow period of a couple of hours as the Germans positioned their units in to killing zones and protection of the many town hexes. As this was going on the French were slowly moving the R35's through the woods in one big group, one hex at a time to engage the Germans. There were some fierce exchanges as the R35's didn't have all that high of firepower. They did have numbers and staying in cover eventually started to pay off. As they finally started to make some headway towards the main town, (After finally taking out an 88 guarded by infantry and MG units) The first reinforcements arrived. The were able to go to the left flank and skirt past the edge of the minefield. This flank was guarded by an 88 battery, but the French maintained cover and hid right under the slopes as they advanced.

Fast forward to the end game. The Germans had an excellent crossfire kill zone set up, but numbers, plus cover and a few 11's and 12's allowed the destruction of the final 88 and that was the lynchpin of the defense. The last hour saw the French gain just enough control and knock out a few more units to get a 7 point victory. They were behind the whole game until the last hour.

A lot of fun!