The $10 payment to the 'neutral' leader selector, Matt Ward paid immediate dividends when the French OOB came back with a pretty bland bunch. The Germans on the other hand, though only 5 leaders used, were all OK (all with a '1' modifier). After a 3 month plus sabbatical from the game, I looked for a 1 session balanced scenario (this one had 6 German wins v 5 French plus a draw) and it was Tony Langston that would be Le Roi Poule in this one against my Bosche! Here's the game summary.

The French wasted no time in sending two platoons of armoured cars forward to haut-Le-Wastia. These were to penetrate the stretched German line of the 2nd battalion, 14th Schutzen Regt that had lined the west side of the village. Therefore, they drove west up the main road and through a gap into the town. At this point the Germans were motionless, but worried not about these two platoons for the following reason. The French infantry followed up too slowly and the armoured cars were left on their own in the town. Now alerted to the attack, the Germans began to deploy for the oncoming attack, including shifting one whole company from the south of haut-Le-Wastia. Despite the darkness, the French infantry now had to advance to an alerted enemy and as such took casualties in the first 30 minutes (3 steps). The Germans began developing a strong and at the same time, flexible defensive two-tier ring whilst the French pushed at the north end of Le-Wastia. The Germans assaulted initially at locations they thought they could derive a noticeable advantage. But, despite this, the attacks failed to deliver important rewards. Nonetheless, the French did take even more casualties between 0530-0545 and for this the attackers did eventually force themselves into two areas of the village. This was where their armoured cars had penetrated earlier and also to its east.

Now the French took the initiative in assaulting town areas. But the Germans seemed content for this as they forced their enemy to carry out head-strong attacks whilst under a time pressure. Though the attack was brave, the defence was stronger than the bravery displayed and no cracks appeared. Over the following 90 minutes, the French desperation caused nothing more than a platoons worth of casualties on the Germans but sustained horrendous losses themselves. Worse still, they had made no serious inroads into the north end of Haut-Le-Wastia. Both French armoured car platoons were wiped out, one HMG platoon and the equivalent of 6 foot platoons also. For that, just the initially gained town area by the armoured cars was the only one disputed. The French had also risked close range light-weight OBA on the enemy but caused more harm to their own troops and gambled their mens’ lives. This was compounded by the fact that the French had already fouled up their initial plan by trying a compromise strategy rather than engaging a single-minded direction. Haut-Le-Wastia emphatically stayed German that evening.

Points scored were 36 for the Germans by eliminating 18 steps and holding 9 town hexes. Just 2pts for the French for losses inflicted on the Germans and with just 1 town hex that they were disputing, their were no town hex points at all. A convincing 36 to 2 win for the Germans.

Well, in the end, it turned into a drubbing for the French. Despite their poor leader group, I wouldn't have imagined that the scenaario was worth a 36-2 point difference. I think this may have come about as the French tried to bang their heads on a small front allowing the Germans to set up a two-tier line once the battle was under way in the town. For me there are two things the French can do. First, after German set up, they can deploy. The Germans can not move until an enemy unit is spotted. This is in the dark at a visibility of 1, 1 and 2 hexes. Therefore, they need (over the first 3 turns) to position themselves for an advantageous attack position. This will probably stretch to at least four turns as the Germans have to quickly re-deploy once they spot the French. Secondly, seeing the French with a 17 unit to 9 advantage, they should strive to stretch the Germans and once they have thinned them out enough, they can then use the extra units to grab the areas the Germans can no longer devote forces to. That said, the trick is achieving this in such an easy ordered way. As we all know, once the bullets begin to fly, the ease with which that can be completed dissipates quickly !