The French established their defensive line along the river and in the woods near the German bridgehead. The initial darkness helped the German forces advance to the river unmolested. The French commander ordered his right flank to push the bridgehead back into the river. They had some initial success, even capturing the town adjacent to the German setup hexes. Unfortunately it took them long enough that the Germans were able to get more troops across, who started wearing down the French forces. Both sides rained down OBA into adjacent hexes, with only a few ineffective friendly fire incidents. The German engineers worked to create several other crossing points along the river, hoping that too many targets would lead to some success. In the end this worked, but a lot of German engineers died on the banks of Meuse at the hands of the OBA and HMG's as the sun rose and provided better spotting.

Rommel's troops were able to the roll the right flank of the French and pushed onto Board 26. This was helped greatly by an initiative roll that gave the Germans 3 activations which they used to hammer the French defenders. In hindsight they should have sent more troops North and crushed the French center, but they misjudged how stubborn the French would turn out to be. The Germans had good luck pushing through the forest, but paid dearly trying to clear the towns and roads with entrenched or dug in troops. The French had some fantastic "first fire" rolls on entrenched assaults and their OBA hammered the river crossings, or any Germans who moved to assault the northern town. The Germans made good use of the PZII, which was the first armor to cross the river. It was finally reduced during a town assault a couple hours into the battle. The other German armor eventually crossed the river and, when combined with an engineer, infantry and leader, started taking town hexes. The French were doomed, but not fast enough for the Germans to win. The river was hard to cross and the German attack was slowed as units could not clear the river, then were pounded by artillery and HMG's. Two of their trucks and AT guns spent several futile hours failing to get across. In the heavily contested center board area there were German infantry and HMG's who struggled with the same problem.

The French need to continually disrupt the Germans crossing the rivers, and watch for good opportunity fire chances. The Germans are forced to be aggressive from the beginning and need to coordinate combined arms assaults to clear the town, especially if the French resist the urge to assault back against the Germans sharing the town with them. A defensive posture and some good moral rolls (or strong leader if you draw well) can really slow down the German advance. Remember that the French are denying the towns and roads to the Germans, they do not have to attack or expose themselves unnecessarily. The German armor is pretty safe until it assaults, but that is a risk worth taking to make sure your attack does not bog down.