French set up in the two towns having the 75mm artillery piece and the mortar as their hidden units. Germans divided their forces with a small group advancing north from the west side of the board toward the small town while the bulk of their forces moved north from the middle of the board toward the large town. As the tanks approached the large town the French 75 revealed itself and eliminated a PzII. The Germans then retaliated with OBA and demoralized the artillery unit. As the game progressed the Germans suffered from a few turns ending early due to FOW which meant they didn't have time to move their western force toward the small town. The Germans eventually did approach both towns but didn't suffer casualties in either case as the guarding French units had been disrupted by artillery and mortar fire. The Germans began assaulting in the large town and gained some measure of success, but the French held on till the last turn. In the west the FOW rolls and some hesitation on the par tof the Germans waiting for the French defenders to be disrupted before advancing meant their attack didn't start until late. At the end of the game both hexes in the small town still had assaults going on, giving the French a narrow victory. All in all a fun, close scenario that may work best as a solitaire game because the French player doesn't appear to have much to do apart from recovering units and providing defensive fire.

The Germans won this battle with only one step loss, while the French lost every combat unit, much like the name of the scenario. The attackers were effective in mounting an assault from the SW of the main town, while also attacking with 3 platoons from the SE. Meanwhile two platoons heading north to commence an attack on the smaller town. Eventually all resistance ended via assaults in the main town, and the 3 tank platoons and motorcycle unit raced NW to assist in the assault. All resistance ended on the second last turn, so it was a reasonably close result in the end.

Author	plloyd1010 (Germany)
Method	VASSAL
Victor	France
Participants	cjsiam
Play Date	2022-09-01
Language	English
Scenario	FaoF049

Old fans of Squad Leader recognize the title. First, the scenario parameters. This game was played double-blind and with my rewritten rules. Part of the reasoning for this scenario was to familiarize my opponent, with the horrible l'accent français d'Hollywood, with the mechanics of double-blind play. The German objective is to capture all the town hexes. (Squad Leader fans should know exactly where this is going.)

The German advance was primarily on foot. Not knowing where the French 75 is at this point, driving loaded trucks around would be a bad idea. The large town is quickly surrounded. Heavy fire is pouring into the southern section of the town. My motorcycles run through the small northern, just to make sure I don’t lose on a technicality.

Assaults on the south end of the town begin predictably. That is gain a disordered lodgment, then morph to a more effective infantry-HMG-armor assault team. Escadrons try to steady the French defense, and are partly successful. Mostly events are going the German’s way.

There is one sequence of events worthy of special attention. My motorcycles have taken position on a hill, overlooking the north end of the town. In the town below is a platoon of French reservists. A German assault begins in the hex just south of the reservists, which now splits the town into 4 sections. The French leader pulls the reservists to assist in the defense. The next round of assaults demoralizes the escadron and leader in the hex, the reservists remain in good order. The reservists are sent out of the assault hex, to the last French controlled hex in the center of town. The escadron rallies for a moment, allowing the reservists to get away without the free shot being used against them.

The bedraggled reservists sit in the center of the town with a tactically wise, but otherwise incompetent sous-lieutenant. An infantry platoon supported by an assault gun, bears down our Frenchmen. With a good & bad luck equation, they hold! The Germans call in an HMG to help. With worse and better luck, the assault gun is demoralized and the HMG disrupted, and the reservists are still there! The last turn has the Germans trying to rally the assault gun, in hopes they flee, but they rally (blocking reinforcements). The next, obviously weaker assault goes nowhere.

The game ends with the Germans controlling all but 1 town hex. That hex last is deputed by an angry French reserve infantry platoon.

Pavlov? Sgt Jakob Pavlov occupied an apartment building in Stalingrad with his platoon when the 6th Army attacked on Oct. 20, 1942. When the Germans withdrew, 2 day later, Pavlov and his men were still there, still interdicting the intersection they were looking over. History pre-peats(?) itself.

Author	treadasaurusrex (Germany)
Method	VASSAL
Victor	France
Participants	tlangston28
Play Date	2022-01-09
Language	English
Scenario	FaoF049

This was a shared, 2-session, online play-through of a 12-turn scenario. I played the Germans of Kampfgruppe Koll, which was a battalion-sized task force with limited OBA against a very experienced and tactically-proficient opponent leading a French Recon Squadron holding a small village and a larger town on Map 31. This was a relatively balanced scenario with fatally flawed victory conditions, that we played without the dreaded FOW optional rule, but with a portion of the smaller French force in hidden locations at the start of play.

The German movement to contact was split into 2 separate task forces starting from the south edge of the map, one aimed at the small 2-town hex village very near the north map edge, and a bigger force aimed at the larger 6-hex town settlement was SE of the northern village. Due to the lack of time, the Germans moved fast, and probed fast, while in the process, exposing themselves to the accurate fire of a French 75 hidden in the larger town. By the end of game turn 3, both towns were the scenes of fierce, close assault fighting that lasted the rest of the match. My opponent had great luck with initiative, morale and recovery die rolls, I did not. Conversely, after an erratic start, I seemed to have better combat die rolls as the game went on.

The step losses suffered by both sides were: 5 for the Germans, and 11 for the French. The final result was a hard-fought & costly French victory that was decided on the very last game turn!

IMHO, the victory conditions for this scenario should be revised as all the French side was required to accomplish was to maintain an active, flexible defense as my opponent ably did, while holding a single town hex with any non-demoralized combat unit! At the end of this scenario, all town hexes were occupied by the Germans, save one. The French were able to maintain a death grip on the only remaining town hex in the northern village. This location was in a contested assault hex occupied by 2 half-strength infantry platoons, one was a demoralized (RES), and the other was a disrupted (ESC) with a French Sous Lieutenant commanding the garrison. This valiant garrison had staved off numerous close assaults for more than 8 turns at that point.

This scenario's victory conditions should have a step loss limitation for both sides in addition to the geographic objectives as there is no way to play for a draw. I suggest that the French side have a limitation of not losing more than 10 steps by game end in addition to the holding at least 1 town hex. The step loss limitation for the Germans should be 8 or so steps.

Oh, so close . . .