Author	plloyd1010 (France)
Method	VASSAL
Victor	Germany
Participants	treadasaurusrex (AAR)
Play Date	2022-01-22
Language	English
Scenario	FaoF009

When it comes to holding ground, the best holders are infantry, what the French get here is tanks. There are also a lot of open town hexes scattered around the map. There is the crux of the problem. The French have an inadequately supported attack force on a defensive mission.

The fundamental French plan was to hold a couple of larger town sections and shoot a lot of approaching Germans, then get out of the way. That sort of worked, but not enough. The Germans advanced down both east-west roads. The moved along the center ridge to take up a fire support position.

The northern force drove quick to the mid point of the road. The northeast villages fell without a fight. Some lucky hits with artillery disrupted some motorcycle and motorized infantry, but since that wasn’t the main part of the action, I let it go. When the Germans ran for the northwest town I had an opportunity. I had setup a defense of the middle town with clear, though weak fire zones to the north. When some German armor ran down the road, I let it go (low odds of a hit), but then some motorized infantry ran the gauntlet. I took the shots at the loaded trucks. An AT gun and a motorcycle platoon made it through to join the earlier armor. Of course that town was taken too.

The main action took place in front of the large, southeastern town. I had abandoned the northern arm of the town, as it was too exposed. An infantry block was placed at the end of the bottleneck and armor, and an AT gun covered the approach across and around the fields. I fully expected to loose the town eventually, but hoped to make its fall a Pyrrhic victory. The plan worked reasonably well. The porous nature of the town/woods approaching the bottleneck allowed my opponent to divert enough force to engage, but not flank the area behind the town.

German reinforcements had arrived via the northern road and joined the battle through a gap in the hills. This threatened the northern flank of my withdraw. The southern part of the large town fell to other German infantry as the tanks fought in front of the town. In the meantime, I also sent 2 tank companies to cause mayhem in the northwest town.

As the large southeast town fell, and attrition was telling on the French forces we called it as a German major victory. While I could have regained much of the northwest town, at least temporarily. With 16 turns more to go, the situation was irrecoverable for the French Army.

Had this been an open ground fight, I expect the French could have done better. As it is, the French are unbalanced on the armor side and have little staying power, especially for the required 30 turns. I would like to know how the shared play that resulted in a draw came about.