Attention 2nd printing Fall of France owners

[Matt W]

Let me echo Daniel's comments. There are many scenarios where the defender has limited options and once set up primarily rolls dice and hopes for the best. Many of the desert "boxes" work that way and much of the island war seems to play out that way. I have found that there are far more meaningful options using the fourth edition assault table for the defender and that makes the games much more interesting. Don't get me wrong, they are a substantial change and make the game play very, very differently but in certain circumstances that can be a good thing.

The fourth edition table puts a premium on the attacker's ability to prepare a hex for assault (lowering the morale state and, if possible, the morale of the defenders becomes key). Attacking good order units in prepared defenses or defensive terrain (e.g. towns) is not a "sure thing" without having disrupted or demoralized the defenders ahead of time (and even then they can come back). In addition, the increased ability of small forces to cause morale failures or losses to the attackers makes such assaults far riskier than in the 3rd Edition. Again, this is probably not much fun for the attacker but the defender has far more options.

In the current game that Daniel and I am playing I am hopelessly outnumbered but in several tactical situations my ability to counterassault has given me the initiative by freeing up my forces. This probably would not have happened in the 3rd edition, certainly not with the frequency that it has occurred in this play.