This was played via Skype with Wayne Baumber in a singke session. Wayne took the Germans and I was the French. We werelooking for shorter scenario ghan our previous play that took several months to finish. This one did the job, although a bit more historical than a balanced game. As the French hou need to stop the Germans from crossing the river over the bridges. There forces are just infantry with come AT and OBA support. There are some DRGs that provide mobility to the French but it will come down to stopping the Germans with just rifles and grenades.

The Germans have five companies of infantry with HMG and mortar support. A armored scout car and modest OBA will help dislodge the French along with the possibility of aircraft. The Germans will have to force the bridges as the engineers did not make it to the front line in time for the fight. The terrain will give them some cover through all the town hexes to the west on board 30. The French will need to setup with a strong hold on the bridges to delay them from getting over and racking up VP's for exiting the board.

As of the morale and the leaders, the morale was good but the leaders on both sides where quite outstanding. We used the ILS in PG-HQ and found that this generated all the leaders with at lest a positive combat or morale bonus, the Germans had three leaders with +2 modifiers. I could not have flipped the leaders any better for both sides. This did have a significant influence on the game as morale was not a big effect as it usually is. All losses were a result of direct step losses.

With the French setup, I put them right up on the bridges or next to them to cover them. If the Germans were going to close on them, they would have to brave significant fire. But once they breakthrough it would be tough to stop them.

The Germans begin with move on from the south, advancing in three groups. One at the north-south road, one to the west of the road and one to the far west edge of board 30. Within a couple of turns they had advanced in the town toward the four western bridges. A group of four HMG's provided the backbone for the advance. As they closed on the French units guarding the bridge the French opened fire without much success. French snipers had noticed that that the German leaders were sending the troops forward then advancing later. Seeing this the held their fire until the officers advanced successfully killing one German Captain. This broke the German chain of command and slowed one segment of advance. But this did not dismay the German leadership as they continue to shift me forward and then advancing. Methodically, the HMG's advanced to a point that would provide overwhelming fire but they need a leader to direct them. The German Colonel saw this as a chance to get into a good command position and moved forward. But the French snipers were tracking him and as he advanced to the HMG's on the river bank a shot rang out killing the Colonel. This brought German attack on the town to a halt for the next 30 minutes.

When they recovered they continued to advance and the French needed to develop another strategy as the Germans were about to assault the bridges and could easily win the assaults. The French started to slowly peel back from the bridges hold a line one hex back from the Germans. As the Germans closed the French took very calculated OP fires with some success in getting hits, but the Germans were able to shake off the morale checks with the help of the positive morale leaders. There was some key demoralizations but the Germans kept coming. Peeling back one more hex they slowed the Germans to 1 hex per turn or even 1 hex every two turns which would be key to keeping them from exiting, but they could not hold all the bridges. They would have to come up with another way of keeping the bridges.

An opportunity can about when a daring S.Lt. decided to dash over the bridges with this DRG unit. Finding a seem in the German line they were able to temporarily recapture two of the bridges and get to the south side of the river. This could tie down units on the south side trying to hunt them down. It did help as it was able to contest one bridge at the end of the game.

But the Germans still crossed and did get into assaults across the river although the French were waiting for them. In one assault the Germans looked to finish off a disrupted reduce INF, but wound up be caught in an assault for four turns before finally killing them. A second one on one of the bridges was still contested at the end of the game. These help strip off units from being able to get off the board at the end.

The French continued to give ground in the German advance until they were two hexes away from the north edge of the board, but the line held and the Germans were delayed. But this was not enough to win the game for the French. With most Germans over the river the French would not get many VP's for delayed units. As for bridges, they were mostly in German hands with two contested. This gave the Germans a 16 to 7 edge and a minor victory.

As for the play, I enjoyed it even with the loss as I was able to practice my delaying tactics with weaker forces as well as getting a new appreciation for what the French units can and cannot do against the Germans. Wayne was a little frustrated with the delays that the French were able to create against the powerful German force. But in the end a win is a win.