Author	treadasaurusrex (France)
Method	Face to Face
Victor	Germany
Participants	Chaco (AAR)
Play Date	2021-09-07
Language	English
Scenario	FaoF003

Having read the several AARs about this scenario, and playing it as the French on my first effort, I was expecting this scenario to be unbalanced and to get clobbered, no matter what the Germans did. This time, I made a number of additions and subsitutions to the French counter mix as suggested in my previous AAR. Sorry to report that even with a significantly improved French initial setup focused on the large town on Map 31 (Poncelle?) and the hills just north of the town, the clever and opportunistic German Commander was able to herd the rapidly diminishing French troops into a smaller and smaller area of the map by turn 10.

This time around, there were substantially more German steps lost, and the 2 French reinforcement contingents arrived on time to replenish earlier, heavy losses (4 steps of Cavalry, a single reduced strength HMG, and 6 more steps of weak French INF). In this face-to-face play-through, the Germans lost their armored car platoon to AT fire and 4 steps of infantry to French cavalry assaults. Having better French OBA artillery (2 increments of 8 - French 75s) helped force the Germans to spread out as they approached Poncelle over open ground. Confining use of the Germans AFVs to the north half of the two map boards made for a less impressive right flank attack, but it eventually provided a fine base of overwatch firepower to hold the French in place while German infantry and engineers steadily ground down the town's, badly outnumbered defenders.

Yes, it was an unrealistic to change the French force so radically, but the enhancements made to the counter mix did make for way better gameplay in my humble opinion. Even with the revisions, this one deserves a rating of 1.