Going after the highest bounty available. I have played a couple of these Defense of France 1942 games and they are fun. So, I figured why not do the battle game. First up is scenario 6, “The Rescue”. A 4 boarder with 36 French infantry platoons and support to start on defense with another 18 platoons plus tanks and half-tracks as reinforcements. The Nazi horde has 24 platoons with 15 tank platoons (PzlllG,J and lVF2). The Germans have 19 trucks and 18 SPW251’s so a lot of empty SPW251’s for fire support. The French have 20 L39’s as reinforcements so a lot of support there as well. These games all seem to have a lot of half-tracks so you can fling them in to battle if you have AT fire suppressed enough and they give a lot of firepower in assaults, etc. A little bit about counters here. I made my own France 42 counters which came out OK. You are supposed to use counters from Liberation 44, Burning Tigers, and Fall of France. I got mixed up a little on this first game and was trying to use Invasion 1944 which is of no help here. I pulled extra trucks and SPW251’s from South Flank. It is kind of helpful as they are SS and easy to identify and get back in the right game. The German counters from Burning Tigers and France 1940 are different enough that you can keep them separated. The game markers are the same so that might be an issue as you need a ton of them because of the counters and they can start dug in. Lastly, I pulled the German aircraft from Burning Tigers and confirmed that since this scenario is supposed to be September 1942 that I can use the HS129, Me210, and FW190 counters from there. I know that some of the AT factors are a little high for this period but this is alternate history anyway. I am usually a simulation kind of person, but I always find these scenarios to be fun. In this beast, the Germans have to exit at least 20 steps off the South edge before the end of turn 12 or the French get an automatic victory. It also starts before sunrise so there will be variable spotting. The gist seems to be that the Germans are first on the offensive trying to breakthrough and grab some towns, but then the French counter- attack and try to push the Germans back to the Meuse and control some bridges. A lot to bite off solo so it will probably take a while. The French set up first and string out all the way across the boards to try and not let there be much infiltration for the Nazi horde to get off the board. Then, hopefully the reinforcements aren’t too late and both regiments can form up and take it to the Germans. The Germans will need everything to attack and make a breakthrough and then keep integrity in their line to hold off the inevitable counter-attack. Both sides have strong OBA (French 4x14 and 1x20, German 4x16). The French get air support every turn and the Germans get it twice per hour. This could go 36 turns. Will be using overruns, smoke and illumination.

6AM-Night German PzlV backed by a company of infantry in SPW’s try and break the lightly defended right. An illumination shell exposes them and a French75 AT gun knocks out a step loss. German artillery lays some smoke and takes out a step of infantry with that gun. 6:45- Almost light There are 4 separate assaults on the French right. The Germans have 18-3 advantage on most as they have a lot of half-tracks in support. The French have first fire, but it looks like there will be some breakthroughs. (4) platoons of PzlVF2 have overrun the assaulted positions previously and are in the French rear. Not much to stop them until reinforcements arrive. French artillery has been pretty accurate and caused some demoralizations and disruptions which has split up the attacking force somewhat. As dawn approaches there is sporadic shooting across the line as units are able to start spotting each other. Not much concentration of fire at this point. French and German air support are going to get in the battle. The Germans still have a lot to do. Get those 20 steps off the board (have to be careful to keep enough firepower to stem the inevitable counterattack), and consolidate their left while occupying at least part of one town. So far Germans are ahead in steps 11-6.

7:30AM-French units are holding well in assaults. The line is broken, however in 2 spots. One was from a massive 48 point artillery strike and the other was a finally won assault. The Germans also withdrew from an assault on a 3 infantry because 3 half-tracks were getting mauled. That did get them on the other side of the line though. 3 Pzlll’s are assaulting a 75mm AT gun and the gun just got back to full strength so that will be interesting. The French have 2 airstrikes so far with an Amiot 143 disrupting an 88 in a town. Where else are you going to have an Amiot 143?!

9:15AM-The Germans did get the requisite 20 steps off the South edge of the map by 8:15. This was necessary as the massive French reinforcements can come on the board by then from the south edge and they would stop any stragglers. The French line never completely buckled so the combination of them, air strikes and OBA harassed the German units trying to get south. In the end, the Germans needed 2 Pzlll and 1 PzlV to exit to get the numbers needed. That may spell trouble as the French have massive armor on the way. Said armor has still not arrived and this may get troubling if they don’t show up soon. The Germans have been withdrawing back to start positions to prepare for the counter-attack. They have also been re-directing artillery into the left side of the French line that has units dug into open terrain. The French artillery is also pounding known German positions along the middle and left side of their line. Both sides are having to seek cover. The French are gathering a strike force from current units to move up the road on their right. This would ideally be done when reinforcements arrive and move from the right up into the German positions and try a left hook to roll up the flank and capture the road and enough bridges to satisfy victory conditions. The Germans must reset their line and keep the Panzers in the rear to thwart any areas of attempted breakthrough. Germans were on the attack, now on the defense, and maybe on the attack late in the day. Nice problems for both sides to figure out.

1145-The French reinforcements arrive at 1100. The French had to make some kind of attack because who knew if the reserves would ever show up in time. They moved from their dug in positions on the very wooded hills on the left behind smoke. They got in to 4 weak assaults on the front line and still are maintaining 3 of them. Not much action. The strong artillery on both sides eats up anyone in the open and so both sides have 34 points shed. The whole French plan had to change as the attack on the left was started and there is a road there that can be controlled and lead to bridge and town control. The time is getting short and these B1ter tanks are pathetically slow at 4 MP’s so road movement was the only way to get them to the line in a reasonable amount of time. This has allowed the Germans to swing over units for defense in depth. This is very rough country and easily clogged like the Ardennes. The slow French tanks may actually have an advantage here as no one will be able to move more than 2 hexes through these woods. This is going to be a gigantic whirlwind with a total of about 12 tank platoons and a battalion of mechanized infantry on the French side with 8 or so platoons of tanks and about half the amount of mechanized infantry on the German side. Add in brutal artillery and a smattering of air power and these next few hours are shaping up as great fun.

1300-The change of plan has been an abject failure. There are (5) assaults along the front going nowhere as the French forces are too weak and the terrain is too tough to get good odds. A real meat grinder. The French did get around the hills right along the riverbank but have been murdered by defense in depth. The French have 0 engineers so they can’t swing around in depth. Artillery fire on both sides has been devastating as many barrages by the French have been called in to close quarters out of desperation and friendly fire has been devastating at times. The French tanks are too slow to help, but have been holding their own against the F2’s. They have actually blasted most of them and demoralized the rest. The French B1ter’s are getting a nasty surprise the last half hour as an 88 that had been silent in the battle has opened up on them and wiped out 3 steps. There is no way the French are going to get the bridges or open a north-south road before the end of the game. They are also down 69-59 on steps lost. They have driven the German initiative to 0 which was needed for them to keep moving in the battle game. We will continue this one until the end as the Germans can win a major victory here if they can stay ahead in step losses and go back and grab a French town hex on board 27 or 31. Fog has been average and only one turn has gone to completion in the early stages of the game. This is a huge battle and units are strung out everywhere from all of the carnage.

Battle end- The Germans scored a minor victory. They knocked out 83 French to a loss of 69 of their own. They did not manage to re-capture a town hex on the French side needed for a major victory. The French did keep their hopes for a battle game victory alive by driving down German initiative to 0. Assaulting dug in units is really a crap shoot if you can’t wear them down first. The Germans had a heck of a time trying to root out holes in a thinly held French line at the start of the battle to get enough units off the board to avoid an automatic loss. Things seemed to be going the French way. Then the massive delay in reinforcements forced the French into a bad battle plan against dug in units in woods on hills and those units to a battle held on the rest of the game with first fire rolls. The French never got enough armor to bear to make a difference and the brilliant plan of using half-tracks to bolster assault fire did not make much of a difference this time. Units were too packed in to bring in heavy artillery fire to help the French advance. This was tried a few times and called off after a few deadly, friendly fire issues. Air power on either side was so-so. The German 88 in the middle of the field could not be taken out be artillery or air as there was a +2 leader there and he was dug in the woods. He devastated the slow moving B1ter tanks. FOW kept the French off balance. So: slow tanks, late reinforcements, strong artillery, 88’s, extremely tough assault defense, and perfect defensive terrain spelled doom to the French here.

https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/2843957/session-play-through