I’ve decided to try the published version. Both the OB and terrain have been heavily modified so that it doesn’t bear much resemblance to the historical action. Using map 30 gives an unnatural urban feeling to that scenario and since they have deleted the “watergands” rule (sort of swampy terrain), it also wipes out the specific flavour of the terrain around Dunkirk with its canalized ways of approach. However, if I write down historical scenarios, they obviously do what they want with them. I’ve played the scenario straight except for the 20mm AA en portée which is an obvious mistake : the French were provided with AA autocanons which were old de Dion-Bouton trucks armed with 75mm AA guns. Thus I replaced the 20mm portée by a 75mm AA en portée on a truck. Since the victory conditions are based on German control of both bridges and combat to maintain at least one undemoralized French unit within three hexes of those bridges, both the French set up and German advance concentrates on the two bridges. The GrossDeutschland advance was pretty easy due to night conditions (visibility = 1 hex). At the end of turn 2, the combat was about to begin around both bridges. At the end of turn 4 (visibility is two hexes), the Germans are assaulting the French in front of the northern bridge. In the south, the French choose to fall back behind the river to gain time since opportunity fire is hampered by the numerous town hexes. Almost daylight. At the end of turn 6 (visibility is 6 hexes), the Germans are still entangled in lengthy assaults that don’t seem to reach a quick conclusion despite their superior numbers and strength. In the north, the stuG platoon is trying to skirt the defence along the canal while French determined MG fire disrupts the advancing German infantry. In the south, the engineers helped some grenadiers to cross the canal to bypass the bridge bottleneck. Half of the scenario is already over. End of turn 7. In the south, murderous defensive fire on the advancing Germans has demoralized the units that just crossed the canal. The assaults around the bridge are so slow to resolve… In the north, one of the French garrisons in front of the bridge was eventually wiped out. End of turn 8. The French defence is collapsing but scattered units still threaten the German victory conditions ! If they manage to hold their ground for a few more turns, it will be difficult to prevent them to stay inside the southern bridge perimeter. An all-out assault is declared for all German units. End of turn 9. Not enough Germans to cover all the ground and force the French to fall back far enough. End of game. Despite excellent artillery shots and a successful assault by the StuG platoon, some French dragoons used their fast motorcycles to bypass the German lines and give the victory to their side. I had quite a good time with this quick scenario and Doug certainly is a brilliant developer to be able to give the scenario such a nice balance and capture the spirit of that fight between so different forces. History : 0 - Playability and balance : 1

French set up on both bridge hexes and with units on the eastern side of the bridge. Germans split their forces and assaulted both bridge hexes. The southern bridge held out longer due to the presence of an 11-1-2 French leader. With four turns to go both bridges had been cleared but it looked like the French would hold on. The Germans then assaulted the units on the eastern side of the river and due to some very good rolling, were able to eliminate all French units on the second to last turn. All in all a very close scenario, although there's not a lot for the French player to do. It might be best as a solitaire scenario.

Looking at the scenario statistics I don't feel bad about losing as the French, but then again I do...

I read the victory conditions carefully and noticed that, not only do the Germans have to take both bridges they have to clear the French away from within three hexes of each bridge. So I assumed that the best thing would be to defend both bridges with enough force to get the Germans caught up in assaults. While the Germans were only able to complete their victory on Turn 11 of 12, it was clear that with any decent rolling it would have been over quite a bit earlier.

I think the best approach may well be to defend only one of the bridges and to permit the Germans to attack on both shores. In that manner the French will have enough force to delay the Germans on the west bank while protecting themselves from the later arriving Germans on the other shore. Even better, use some troops in the woods on the west bank near the bridge to threaten the bridge tying down a number of Germans in a search and destroy mission while using the bulk of your force in the urban terrain to the south.

In any event, my defense was, in retrospect, pretty darn uninspiring. I give this one a "3" but with a better defense concept it could rank higher.

Author	ACav (France)
Method	VASSAL
Victor	Germany
Participants	treadasaurusrex
Play Date	2023-05-12
Language	English
Scenario	FaoF038

This scenario took us 3-sessions to complete and I led the forlorn French side. Not much to say as this was the usual Fall of France German steamroller scenario with another crushing defeat for the outgunned Frenchmen. Both sides drew pretty bad leaders and we managed to throw 12 combat 7-de rolls before we finished.

The Treadasaurus demolished the hasty French defense and eliminated all the defenders before time elapsed. Both bridges were taken. I was surprised that this was closer than I expected. No question that this one is better as a solitaire scenario.