1940 The Fall of France, scenario #7: Race to the Meuse

I have wanted to play this scenario for years but haven’t because I couldn’t setup seven maps lengthwise but I finally decide and found a way round this by placing two the center maps above and placing block markers where the units would enter the maps above and where they would reenter the maps below. It worked very well, as maps 28 and 27 were put above and the block counters were good reminders.

This was a long 52 turn scenario and many others have already written detailed AARs, so I won’t go into great detail, especially since I played this one out over 1.5 weeks offend on. The massive German forces trying to enter took a long time and figuring out where I wanted to defend as the French Player and with what units took a lot of thought and after playing this scenario I would have done some things differently on both sides. I shouldn’t have used my French armor, the H35 to defend and sent them west as each step is worth two points and I shouldn’t have sent my German armor against the Meuse River with those French Anti-Tank Guns pounded out a few more victory points.

Most of the battle is centered around the East-West road and all the clear hexes are wood making movement west a slow painful event. Deciding which French units to sacrifice and block the main road holding the Germans up leaves a lot of interesting choices which could make this a good replay scenario. By the end of the scenario in my game the Germans had 59 points to the French totals of 66 points, making this scenario a Draw. It was a real struggle and both sides made some mistakes but the Germans made a few more.

Rating this one is difficult because of the setup mentioned above, the 52 turns and the one main avenue of advance. I guess for me it is a 4 out of 5 but a fun scenario I would recommend playing at least once.