This small fight pits a dug-in Luxembourg defense force against a battalion force of infantry and engineers with mortar and oba support. Luxembourg have no heavy weapons but defend 4 roadblocks, being the steel doors that are to slow down the Germans. I set up the roadblocks on east and west sides of the hill mass in the middle of board 25, 2 on the ground level and 2 on the hill, and had the dug-in troops adjacent in light wood, giving the Germans a -2 to fire between shooting uphill, into the woods at dug-in defenders. Germans swarmed into action, getting one stack of infantry and engineer onto a roadblock on turn 2 while the rest of the infantry and enginner stacks skirted the defenders to the south to come up on the western roadblocks. The Germans gave the eastern defenders some innefective DF and bombardment while the defenders returned fire just as innefectively, and the first demo charges failed to go off, making the Germans sweat just a bit. The western defense actually seemed to know how to hold their rifles as they disrupted the German stack for a few turns. Slowly, the western road blocks fell, and on turn 10, the second eastern roadblock also fell. The Germans were able to push back 3 platoons of defenders to keep them from being able to put an undemoralized unit next to an east-west road hex by the end of the game. Had one defending leader passed a morale check in time, the defenders were still within range to get that unit next to a road, but with no leader to motivate them, they were stuck watching the Germans regrouping. The eastern attack force had started to fall apart under demoralizing results but between the German units, they just managed a win. In the leader selection, all the Luxembourg leaders came out 7-0-0 except the Major, who was an 8-0-1. The Major fell and actually caused a turn or two of leadership failure until the Captain took over. Even with the poor leadership, the luck of the dice went with Luxembourg more often than I would have thought. Twice, a stack of a 2-3 and a 3-3 demoralized the attacking stacks in assault, and both stacks took several turns to regroup. In the end, a much better game than I thought it would be.

In this scenario the Germans are tasked with clearing the east-west road (and adjacent hexes) of both Luxembourgian troops and the steel door blocks. To stop them Luxembourg fields a small, poorly led force with weak firepower. What they lack in size, leadership, and firepower they make up for with abysmal morale. The defenders place the doors in pairs, one to the east and one to the west. The eastern doors are guarded by the majority of their troops, with a reserve force guarding the western pair. The Germans bring their numerous troops, backed up with artillery, onto the east edge in three groups. The north and south groups each mainly contain a door hunter group of two inf and one eng, which can blow up the roadblocks. The south also contains the mortar group. The center is the heavily armed force, with two door hunter groups and another stack of two HMGs.

The Germans bring on the north and south forces, and then ease in the center trying to draw defender fire. The defenders don't bite, and the Germans finally charge the first roadblock. The hidden defenders adjacent open up with opportunity fire, and roll nothing but sixes and sevens. Early on this is a theme, and allows the Germans to get into assault range easily. Which spells doom for the Luxembourgians. A little prep fire followed by assaults leaves the poor morale defenders in shambles. Soon multiple demoralizations are removing counters at a terrifying rate. The Luxembourgians get lucky only twice. One solid step loss to an eng, which never recovers from disruption for the entire game. Second, the first German eng charging the first roadblock doesn't manage to blast it until turn 7. But the entire eastern defender force is obliterated, or runs away to be later obliterated while tired by arty.

The north and south hunter groups move towards the western roadblocks. The defenders here are made of heartier stuff, and manage to make up for all those six and seven rolls. Consecutive snake eyes takes down an entire German inf platoon, but there are too many targets, and on turn nine all four roadblocks are blown, one unit of defenders is running with the Capt, and one is desperately holding an assault hex adjacent to the road. On turn ten both remaining Luxembourgian units are destroyed, and only the Capt and a Lt manage to escape the carnage.

I rated this a three because with a different set-up and a little more luck the defenders may have managed to retain at least one roadblock on or one unit adjacent to the road through turn 12. But that would only have brought about a draw. The defenders need to lose fewer steps than the Germans in order to win. A mobile defense is the only time-buying opportunity, but in defense of a fixed location even a small poorly armed and led force with low morale will eventually need to turn and fight, and for Luxembourgians that spells doom. Leaving your dugouts to be mobile when arty shells are dropping all around means getting anchored in place with no first fire during the inevitable assault, and you die. I can see a possible draw, but I can't see where the Luxembourgians can ever hope for a victory. Best to just lock the doors and stay at home.

This introductory scenario pits a small German force against the entire Luxembourg counter mix, essentially a battalion of infantry with an attached Engineer company against a mixed battalion of Luxembourg regulars and militia. The Germans are tasked with clearing the road of all enemy troops and obstacles in the way of their advance.

The Germans advanced on a broad front and quickly engaged the Luxembourg troops but caused relatively few casualties. The brittle morale of the Luxembourg troops allowed them to flee more often than not, and prevented them from regrouping effectively. Unfortunately for the Germans, they were unable to corral the fleeing Militia and Gendarme platoons. While they were able to inflict sufficient casualties to claim a draw, the scattered Luxembourg troops were able to maneuver themselves astride the east-west highway, securing a draw for this match.

I will likely play this again and try a different tactic with the Germans. The Luxembourg troops really have no chance of winning; fighting for survival is really their only hope. An increased level of German aggression may tip the scales in their favor.

1940: The Fall of Luxembourg, scenario One: Unfriendly Neighbor

I knew eventually I would get around to playing one of these scenarios. Pretty much a road clearing scenario with big roadblocks. The Luxembourg units block the Germans but are pretty weak and were lucky to eliminate one German step but Luxembourgers lost 7 steps. The Problem was by the times the Germans got through all the weak enemy opposition and cleared every roadblock but one, that one had two German Engineer units on by the last turn but both rolled under the 5-6 dice numbers required to eliminate it. So this game ended in a Draw. Maybe another turn would have done it.

Author	treadasaurusrex (Germany)
Method	VASSAL
Victor	Germany
Participants	Chaco
Play Date	2021-11-18
Language	English
Scenario	FaLu001

What an awful scenario . . . perfect for classic bullies. There is no way that the Luxembourg forces can do anything but die for their country. We played this one through via VASSAL in just one session. My gallant opponent really wanted to try and stem the godless Teutonic tide, and I did my best to accommodate this desire in my own inept way. We also used the FOW rule which did help slow down the Germans, as did my poorly-coordinated attacks.

As others have mentioned, this introductory scenario matches a battalion-level German infantry task force and a combat engineer company, against the entire Luxembourg counter mix. The Germans must clear the road of all enemy units and obstacles. The German movement to contact was on as broad a front as I could manage, and in no time the Luxembourgese were decisively engaged. Poor morale and a great deal of active fleeing plagued my opponent throughout this play through, and often prevented decent regrouping.

Alas, the Luxembourg side has absolutely no chance of winning this scenario. Perhaps it is historically correct, but it is hopelessly unbalanced. I gave it a 2, but it really deserves a 1.