This 3-session play-through was in-person and face-to-face. I once again played the Moroccan side versus the mighty German 7th Panzer Division, The resulting play was mostly the same as in the previous Fall of France play-through resulting in a victory for the hard-fighting, French Colonial troops from Morocco.

Having already played this scenario in another guise, it was significantly easier for both sides to manage this time around, with much less, tedious rule-checking, better die rolls for the Moroccan infantry and HMGs.

For more detail, please see my AAR for 1940: Fall of France, Scenario 52. I respectfully refer the reader to Schoenwolf's thoughtful & well-written AAR for this scenario in which he discussed the several deficiencies this, not-thoroughly-play-tested scenario, contains.

Late on the night of May 28, 1940, units from the 1st Moroccan Infantry Division found themselves trapped in the Lille pocket caused by the fast-moving German blitzkrieg. They moved directly west from the suburb of Canteleu in an attempt to break through to the Allied beachhead at Dunkirk. However, they needed to get past the 7th Panzer Division, which had a picket line extending north and south of the central village. The Moroccan troops advanced along the central east-west road and on the south flank. They were spotted by German units in the town at 2315 hours and a major firefight lasting over 4 hours began. Allied units were spotted shortly after that by a German SdKfz.222 on the south flank. The Moroccans were slowed in the center, but moved north around the town; they managed to find gaps and continue to break through the German lines on both flanks. At 0145 hours, a Moroccan infantry platoon was eliminated on the north flank by German motorcycle troops, but 7 infantry platoons broke through on the south flank and were on their way to Dunkirk. Allied units continued to exploit the gaps in the line on all fronts, with approximately half of the units escaping the pocket. The Allies considered this rescue of the troops to fight another day as a major victory.

This scenario is played over three maps with two objectives for VP’s: step loss and Moroccan unit exit. It was played using 4th Edition rules and the red Moroccan units produced by Avalanche Press. Unfortunately, it does not play out very well. Although historical accuracy is presumably attempted, there are two major issues with the way the current scenario plays out: 1) the units for both sides should be hidden, which is very difficult to do in the PG environment. This scenario would be a lot more balanced in a computer model, e.g. Tiller Series, with total fog-of-war, where the German units would have the element of surprise. A 2-hex visibility range is used to reflect the nighttime situation, but the unit movements can be clearly seen by the other player, so there is no secrecy in the attempted breakout; it would be somewhat improved if the Germans could be hidden at the start; 2) the German player has so few mobile units that it is virtually impossible to form strong enough fire groups to halt the Moroccan exodus until at least some of the latter units have left the map and shifted the balance of power. The Germans have 9 mobile units if their HMG’s are placed on trucks, hardly enough to cover a 17-hex swath. One of these is a single mortar, firing on the “5” column with night vision, and the 75mm IG is easily avoided. Firepower is further compromised by the 1-column shift for night visibility. Consequently, the Moroccan “tide” is difficult to stop or even inflict significant step losses to compensate for the units that can exit the board. In this playthrough, the Allies lost 9 steps to 5 for the Germans, but exited 21 VP’s worth of units (8 ESC, 1 HMG, 1 75mm, and 1 Reduced ESC), making the final VP total 26 (Moroccan) versus 9 (German), a “major victory”.