This was my first foray in to the what if world of PG. I made the counters and pulled the boards and began the setup. This is a big scenario. Roughly regimental size for both sides, I think.

The French come from off the map on the first turn while the Germans have an infantry force to set up at least 6 hexes away from the french entrance. They have a large combined reinforcement group available after turn 3 coming from the opposite side.

The Germans need to go through the French at some point to try and get 20 steps off the map, but otherwise this is a step loss victory in a meeting engagement.

The Germans begin in strong positions in towns, woods and dug in on hills. They have some good firing zones, but the French can advance many units through a fair amount of cover.

The German strategy is fairly straight forward. Maintain a continuous front and pick off as many targets as possible with strong (4x16) artillery and (2) 88's on the hills. Strong, dug in MG positions at 2 key road intersections also help to slow French maneuver. They will bring in the armor group as needed along 2 main roads thar cut the boards in about thirds. Some of these units will need to exit. Hopefully, as the French form up their line and attack, there will be some areas for the armor to punch through and get off the board.

Te French want to be fairly aggressive to get some of the high ground so they don't get beat up by continual fire. They have very strong OBA (2x20 and 6x14). They hold back a large reserve force of combined arms, especially armor. They have about 18 platoons in reserve. This is to be able to counter the German reserve force.

Fog was about average during this game. A few short turns and some that made it almost to the end of both sides activations. These are potentially very long turns. I have been very busy, even during the stay at home as I worked. This game took about 3 weeks to complete.

The Germans were at the advantage for most of the game. They kept knocking out the French as the French tried to take some forward positions. There is a 20M hill almost midway in the line that the Germans were raining down fire on the French. The French mounted a combined arms attack there, but the German armor swarmed the hill and repulsed them.

As the German armor (Pz747, PZ3, and Pz4F2) were arriving on the scene, the French threw in a large chunk of their reinforcements. (S35, S41, S42)

The French had the numbers, but had to get there and fight their way up the hill. The Germans had the advantage of Armor Efficiency so it was pretty even. This hill was covered with tanks and the Germans also had an 88 to help. The French sent some S35's way around the Germans right flank where there was a hole to establish some crossfire. The Germans initially wiped the floor with the French as they knocked out a total of 8 French platoons. After a couple of hours of fierce fighting the French had enugh numbers to start to push the Panzers back off the hill. When they did this that was the turning point of the battle. They were about 25-30 steps behind but made up ground all the way to the last turn. They knocked out 12 German tank platoons in the process by surrounding them. That hill battle was the key.

Ended up a draw with the Germans only exiting 9 steps. Te French got 10 points for allowing less than 20 steps to exit. Step loss was German 71 to French 68. 4 point /french victory for a draw.

This went down to the last turn. There was a massive, 3 hour plus armor battle at close range between 2 equal forces. That's fun right there. Throw in gobs of OBA and a lot of APC's getting blasted and you have a winner.