Author	treadasaurusrex (United States)
Method	VASSAL
Victor	United States
Participants	Capt. Chaos
Play Date	2023-04-14
Language	English
Scenario	AAAD002

This was an introductory 5-session play-through with the crafty & cunning, Capt. Chaos, leading a reinforced, French battalion in the vicinity of St. Cloud. I led attacking elements of the, very green, US 1st Infantry Division (the bulk of the 18th Infantry Regiment). We played with the Smoke/illum, consolidation, strategic movement and excess initiative optional rules. We ignored the FOW optional rule in this encounter. In addition, we experimentally used the following two house rules: 1) Road Movement for Mechanized & Foot Units All FOOT & MECHANIZED units may move on roads at the rate of 1/2 a Movement Point (MP) per road hex, just like MOTORIZED units, 2) Dug In Units are Automatically in Limiting Terrain in Desert Games Unless prohibited by special scenario rules, ALL units that are dug-in on hill, slope or wadi & gully hexes are considered to be in limiting terrain and are spotted if enemy units approach to within 3 hexes, or 4 hexes for reconnaissance units – unless they fire or move.

The initial session (game turns 1-3) featured a rapid American movement to contact, under intense small arms & artillery fire south of St. Cloud on the two adjacent 20-meter hills on Map 79. Simultaneously, a single American infantry company also moved to the west in the northern sector of the same map to establish a presence on the large 40-meter hill mass north of St. Cloud. Surprisingly, the French Foreign Legionnaire Police, deployed as forward skirmishers, fought hard and very well from the start. They outperformed the French regular infantry, throughout this play-through. During the third turn, the senior French leader was captured in a surprise attack on the northern hill mass. This decapitation had no visible impact on the defenders, and was soon forgotten as French artillery battered the US company responsible for the capture of their leader. US forces closed to decisive ranges in the south and began to menace the garrison of St. Cloud as the westernmost of the adjoining hills was secured. By the end of this session, step losses stood at: 1 for the American attackers, and 4 that had been lost by the Vichy French defenders. This reduced the French initiative to just one. The victory point totals, favored the French by 10 to 4. SIX combat 7-die rolls were thrown by the French side.

The second session (game turns 4-5) was a grim episode for the French defenders with 5 additional step losses and another leader captures were recorded in fierce fighting on the two adjoining 20-meter hills south of St. Cloud. The French initiative level fell to zero during game turn 4. A single French Foreign Legionnaire Police platoon – ably led by a Sous Lieutenant, and deployed as forward skirmishers – managed to hold their advanced position until the very end of game turn 5! The other platoon of Legionnaire Police on the far, NE margin of the same hill also stubbornly held out. The Americans created a substantial smoke screen to obscure French observation of morale recovery operations on the western hill, while they also prepared to move into assault positions as the sun began setting in the 5th turn. The victory point totals, still favored the French by 10 to 9. Only TWO combat 7-die rolls were thrown by the French side.

The third session (game turns 6-8) featured the collapse of the last French-held toehold on the southeastern hill and the slow-motion surge of the Americans in the south under cover of growing darkness and another smoke screen. At this point, the US force began splitting into 3 advances thanks to the decreased visibility, in spite of the town garrison’s multiple illumination rounds, and a growing volume of defensive fire. The three American prongs now menaced the east, south and west margins of St. Cloud. Total step losses were ended at 14 for the Vichy French, and 1 for the attacking US side. The updated victory point tally was now 10 for the French, and 14 for the Americans. A new record of 14 combat 7-die rolls (including 8 in a row) was set by the French Commander, with 3 more by the American player, for an overall total of 17 in a single 3-turn session!

The fourth session (game turns 9-11) featured a close-range, three-sided, American attack on the newly-surrounded garrison in St Cloud. This generally went badly for the attacking Yanks, as frequent bad morale rolls disordered the converging American thrusts on both the east and the western margins of St. Cloud. By the end of this 3-game turn session, step losses totaled: 2 for the Americans, and 18 for the defending Vichy French. The combined total of combat 7-die rolls was EIGHT! The victory point count was now 11 for the French and 18 for the men of the Big Red One, or a minor victory for the brittle-morale, Americans.

The final session (game turns 12-14) featured the continuing series of adjacent-hex firefights and fierce urban fighting in, and around, contested town hexes 0611 & 0511. The Big Red one was not able to clear the entire town of St. Cloud, but was able to contest two of the 3 town hexes. French resistance was tremendous and ground was gained very slowly as the GIs gradually surrounded the town. Final tally of steps lost was: 21 for the Vichy French and 2 for the advancing Americans. The final victory point total was: 5 for the French, and 21 for the US side, resulting in an American major victory.

I give this fun-to-play scenario a well-deserved 5.

Needed to wait to play this one until I could use a table long enough for the double board length. The two boards from scenario one are still there but another board is added to give the US troops room to approach from 2 directions, so I split the US force into 2 full battalions, giving each an engineer, one lead by the LTC, the other by the Major, and arranging them in order that the whole battalion could be moved as a group on the commander's initiative, letting the mortars trail behind once they were within 10 hex range of the town or the hills to the south of it. The French and Tunisians set up with the big guns in the northwest hex of the town, the Police and the Commandant in the southern hex with the AT gun, and an infantry and HMG with a Sous-Liutenant in the southwest hex, placed the mortars on a hill to the town's east, an outpost with the Sergeant, an infantry and HMG on the southwestern hill and the rest of the infantry with the remaining Capitaine and Sous-Lieutenants on the lager southwestern hill closer to the town, figuring they would block the battalion coming up from the south. The setup seemed okay, but luck was certainly not with the French dice this game. Even with the low US morale, they have to be hit before they can be demoralized or destroyed, and there were a few US platoons straggling after being demoralized, but the only US loss for the game was one of the Captains, while the southern force succeeded in getting onto the big hill and engaging in assaults and the western force succeeded in getting first a foothold in the town and then taking it completely. The surviving French (the really good 10-0-2 Capitaine seemed to be unstoppable) tried to move around the north side of the town and assault but in the dark, they were gunned down when adjacent to the town, leaving the Capitaine all alone again. Another force, lead by the sergeant, had succeeded in dragging the slow HMG and an Infantry unit to the south side of the town but suffered the same fate, losing all the troops while a demoralized Sergeant wandered the fields in the dark. The remaining 3 single step French infantry kept failing morale checks and were really in no position to assault anything for at least 2 turns if they had succeeded. The darkness helped the French more than it did the US troops as it allowed them to get close to the town in that last few turns before getting killed, where had they tried that in daylight, they would have been feeling the pain facing the US HMGs over 2 turns of fire instead of just the one. Really good scenario and like so many, one that could have changed drastically with a bit better luck to the one side. I gave a 4 because the outcome was pretty evident from turn 8 on after the US had completely taken the town, but there was still a chance for the French to contest at least 2 of the hexes so played it out to the bitter end.

After the 1st Battalion was rebuffed by the Vichy French 16th Tunisian Infantry Regiment in the town of St. Cloud on the morning of November 8, 1942, the 2nd Battalion, 18th Infantry Regiment of the 1st Infantry Division renewed the attack at 1530 hours that afternoon. In the interim, the French forces had been reinforced and added units from the Service d’Ordre Legionnaire to help repel the invaders. The French set up with strength in St. Cloud and infantry positioned on the hills SE and south of the town. Mortar platoons and artillery were also located on the hill south of town. The US attacked with infantry from the east just north of the road, with HMG and mortar platoons on the hill south of the French position on the closest hill to town in that direction, and held two groups of infantry/engineer platoons behind the west edge of the far south hill waiting for an open field to advance. By 1600, the US forces had secured the hill north of the city, but fierce fighting ensued on the hill to the south. By 1630, both French wagons had left the hill without their corresponding artillery, and the French infantry platoons were being challenged. Major Cunningham’s USA group of Infantry assaulted the French artillery positon, and one of the gun crews abandoned their weapon. However, Capitane LaForge bravely held his ground with the other 75 mm gun until an assault by the Major’s group finally forced him from the hill at 1645. As the sun fell, visibility allowed the US troops to close on St. Cloud, and the brave Capitane and his remaining troops fell at 1745. By 1800, the US had the town surrounded, and assaults were underway in the NW sector of the town. Both the Major and Lt. Colonel Gates were present with the troops, and the Lt. Colonel and the French Commandant faced off to a draw in one of the final assaults. By 1845, the US had engaged the town’s defenders in all three sectors, but the invaders were unable to clear the town completely in any of the three sectors.

By scoring standards, this appeared to be an easy major victory for the Americans, as the objectives involved the respective step counts of the nations, and control of the three hexes of St. Cloud. Since all three hexes of the town were under assault, there were no VP’s for the town. The French had lost 21 steps to the Americans 4 leaving a differential of 17, and a clear major victory for the USA. This outcome was somewhat similar to the actual historical outcome since the USA never was able to take the town of St. Cloud on the first day of battle. General Terry de la Mesa Allen finally decided to forego capture of the town rather than bombard it after the first two attacks, and the 1st Infantry Division just moved around the town towards Oran. The scenario seems difficult for the French to hang on against overwhelming odds in terms of unit quantity; while their morale is slightly better, the US had a Lt. Colonel with a 2-point morale modifier that really helped to rally the American troops. The USA also gained initiative on 12 of the 14 turns giving a decided advantage; in one case, they had four action segments before the French could respond! Once nightfall occurs, the US has the advantage of movement to within three hexes of town without detection, making it difficult for the French to prevent US entry into town and the subsequent loss of control. This creates a victory condition based on steps lost, and the US advantage in both firepower and OBA are tough for the French to match.

This is a good basic infantry scenario and both sides have many set up options which makes it interesting. The French set up with defenders in the town and small dug in contingent on each of the three hills surrounding the town to slow the American advance.

The US chose to attack by battalion with one battalion attack from the NE to take out that forward French position and proceed to the town. The other battalion attacked the SW French hill position and proceeded to the town. The attack started quickly as both sides were in contact from the start. It looked like the US was going to bog down on the hill fights but after an hour of fighting they broke the SW position and just by passed the remnants of the NE one. The pulled their SE defenders to the east of the town in a hasty defense.

The southern US battalion reached St. Cloud just before dusk and started firing artillery and machines guns to soften up the defenders then assaulted. the north battalion had trouble reaching the town until late in the fight. The US kept up the firepower and due to the 2 Morale factor LTC in command they weathered the French guns and small arms fire. The French had no leaders with morale factors and this hurt as once broken, they could not seem to rally. By 1830 the fight was over with the French launching a desperate counterattack in the town "pour la gloire et honneur de France." The US won decisively.

Author	goosebrown
Method	Solo
Victor	United States
Play Date	2022-04-08
Language	English
Scenario	AAAD002

The Americans came back in the afternoon with some friends and attacked St Cloud from the South where they almost had success in the morning. The French had freshened up and placed some infantry guns in position on the southern heights just waiting for the Americans to come back.

The Americans used their mortars well to pin down the outlying French posts and over an hour of artillery dueling, drove them back to St Cloud with moderate losses while on the left flank of the southern ridge moved the entire battalion to contact with the French in the town while all the HMGs worked to pin down the infantry guns and mortars. The attack went in like a bus on Fifth Avenue, slow with some stops to take care of business, but in the end unstoppable.

After the first hour, the French progressively collapsed in a combination of direct fire, bombardment and assaults. The last units crumbling and routing off the battlefield two hours after the battle began and Terry de la Mesa Allen was left in control of the battlefield with only one step lost and a mess of stragglers that needed encouragement to get back into ranks as the battalion set up a defensive perimeter.

Major victory for the Americans, but hard fought. If the French had the firepower of the Germans, the result would have been different and Allen knew it.

An Army At Dawn, scenario two: Doubling Down

I wanted to finish my campaign against the Vichy French as there are four scenarios, two in La Campagne de Tunisie and two in An Army At Dawn and this was the last one I hadn’t played yet.

The French setup defending the town of St Cloud on map 79. Most of my French units either setup in the town hexes or adjacent but a few in the overlooking hills. The American decided to divide their forces in half, with half attacking from map 78 and the other half attacking from map 77. The Americans have a nice size force to attack with, the problem is their morale of 7/5, which is hard to recover from.

In this scenario, both sides need to really use their on and off-board artillery and mortar units, which cause much damage. With only 14 turns, I decided the American needed to do an all-out attack regardless of casualties as each town hex is worth 3 points and with the French starting in control of these, they are already sitting on nine points, and each side gets point for eliminated enemy steps.

The American push forward and take their initial lumps and of all the bad luck lose their commanding leader or LT COL on the first turn. About half way through the scenario I thought about giving in as the Americans but a few turns latter after much frustration I was finally able to make a few assaults and take control of 2 out of three town hexes. By the end of this scenario the Americans had 15 points to the French 9 points for a minor American victory but it was a struggle.

So my campaign against the Vichy French and the four scenarios was; 2 American Victories, 1 Vichy French Victory and 1 Draw. A fun mini campaign.

This scenario, being a continuation of scenario 1, placed an emphasis on an approach from the East. As such, I set up a primarily Eastern defense, allowing for a secondary front to the South. The Americans had the option to go for broke from the East or split their forces and come in from the South and East. It seemed to work out better for the Americans with the split. The French Arty was kept in the NE sector and didn't do much harm to the Americans. The french do OK in the town but are forced into a problem if they are forced off the hills or out of the town. A good scenario!

This was a replay of the situation in Scenario 1, but with additional forces and a little more real estate. The Americans massed most of their nearly two battalions in groups in the southern hills, with mortars and a company of infantry east of town. The French defend the heights south of town and the plain east of town with dug-in reinforced companies, holding the rest in town.

There is less to describe here as the battle developed and ended quickly in a massive American victory. The Americans swept up from the south, HMGs and artillery badly disrupting the French defensive line so that the bulk of the American infantry swept right past and engaged the town. In only about 2 hours the American assaults cleared the town, and French stragglers from all over their defensive positions were routing to the north. The Americans suffered only a platoon in casualties. American leadership was better this time, and initiative went their way.