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This was a 5-session battle with the fierce and clever Treadasaurus playing the attacking Boche of the 3rd Panzer Division. I was the French Commander of a large but clumsy, motorized force in this epic fight. We used the FOW, consolidation, excess initiative, smoke and tank riders optional rules in this see saw fight. Some 14 turns of this advance and retreat fight were shortened by fog of war die rolls. The French drew some very poor leaders compared the the set that the germans had. In the end, the German side prevailed in a major victory -- but it was very close and only decided in the last 3 turns. I lost count of the number of costly French counter attacks and the casualties sustained! French artillery did a great job in this one and many German casualties and morale problems resulted. Most any Boche advance in the open was met with heavy OBA bombardments. The French lined were stretched very thin and there was very little scope for maneuver compared to the Germans as the game went on. I think that the final steps los count was more than a combined 74. The only hope for the Germans was too get as close the the FREnch units as possible and fight at close range. By the end all 3 German pioneer platoons had been eliminated, mostly thanks to effective fore laced on minefields. My opponent's well-known dislike of units with AT factors often led him to expend considerable effort in destroying them one-after-another. This paid dividends for the Axis eventually, when the advancing armor was able to carve out the required 5-hex wide corridor in combined arms close assaults. Most Luftwaffe air strikes were ineffective. In contrast, Axis OBA was often very effective, especially against dug-in infantry formations, and town garrisons. There were many decision points ninths scenario. As time went on, more and more decisions for the French Commander were between two evils for the brave-but-doomed French troops in the town hexes.
I give this riot of a game a rating of 4. We began playing in January and finished today after many hours of fun and entertaining banter in the forests and blood-soaked towns of La Belle France.
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This is a well-titled AAR, as this was a bloody and undecided encounter until nearly the end of play. Given my opponents skill in creating defense-in-depth situations, and in managing counter attacks, it easily could have ended in a draw. The German side was favored by the PG fates forte majority of the last 8-9 game turns. Keeping the end-to-end corridor free of undemoralized Frenchmen was a considerable task and not for the faint of heart.