von Marwitz
Forum Guru
J44 / ASL238 Audacity - AAR

Just finished playing this old classic which happened to be featuring recently in a tournament and has thus seen a number of playings on VASL.
When I came across this scenario a while ago, I wondered why I have not played it before as it has a nice little size and appears to be very balanced according to ROAR with 76 French wins vs. 82 German ones. The reason was probably that the SSR eliminate one of the hills and I dislike to imagine things away that are printed on the map. VASL solves that problem, even providing a scenario specific overlay for the purpose which makes it visually appealing.
The action is set in Norway in late May 1940, but it features no Norwegian troops. Instead it is a number of Germans defending a village which is attacked by the French, some of which start on board while the rest trickle in throughout Turns 1 to 3. The objective for the French is to Control a number of building hexes at game end while avoiding to suffer a certain number of CVP which would result in an instant French win.
The German force of 8.5 squad equivalents is partly elite, partly 2nd line with some light SW (part of them French MG) at their disposal and a 37L PaK along with 4 AT mines, not to forget a powerful 9-2 Leader. The French start onboard with 6 Elite squads and a 7-0 but these are prescribed to set up in locations that can be put under fire by the Germans or are even ADJACENT to them, which is a bad thing as the Germans move first. 11 more squads, most of them elite. A platoon of two H39 tanks back up these reinforcements, some of which have to enter as passengers of three trucks.
EC are Mud, which slows down the French movement considerably. The one road moving towards the village is considered paved for movement purposes and is thus free of the risk of Bog which can occur elsewhere. One strange tidbit is that French Infantry suffer Captured Use penalties when using any MG (even their own French MGs, which effectively reduces their Breakage number to 9), while the Germans can use French MG without such a penalty. Important is furthermore, that Alpine Hills (B10.211) are in effect, i.e. equal elevation hill hexes block LOS through but not into them. All buildings are single story.
Setup is sequential with the 'village' Germans setting up first, followed by the on-board French, succeeded by the 'hill' Germans, and finally the French Turn 1 reinforcements. But remember - the Germans move first. A fact which I promptly forgot as it seems counterintuitive with the French attacking.
Situation at Game Start:

The good thing is that the French know AT Mines can only be 'within' the village i.e. on hexrow M and eastwards. The bad thing is that the onboard French forces can be shot up and pushed around royally by the Germans. One Group of French is limited to a short stretch of muddy road. The rest is limited to hexes I1, K1, and L4. All of these can be pasted by the 'hill' Germans - which happen to be the most nasty ones: 9-2, 2x468, 2xLMG, for which my opponent has selected the best spot IMHO with K7. That said, the French 'options' before the start of the game are extremely limited - to shitty options on top of that...
Nevertheless, here follows my French 'battle plan' (which has the one fault being based on the premise that I thought the French rather than the Germans would move first...). Analyzing the battlefield, I quickly realized that from the hill, the Germans can elect to see any of my French units. My French start in Control of three building hexes (I1, K1, and L4). The question is - how long can they maintain it? L4 is extremely exposed as the Germans can set up ADJACENT with the advantage of being concealed. So putting any French into L4 is a gamble. I reasoned that if my French shoot first, it would become a gamble for the Germans to set up in M5, too, because a lucky shot could reduce a key position as the opening move. This is the only reason why I placed 1.5 squads there. When I realized that the Germans moved first, this positioning was, of course, total folly, as my French were not concealed and exposed to Point Blank fire with no place to rout to. The Germans, on top, had all reasons to man M5 strongly as this is a very important building. If their opening shot from M5 to L4 proved insufficient, they could still 'finish off' any unbroken French by fire from the hill. Having said that, putting any French in L4 is a total waste as they are likely to go down immediately. This leaves K1 and I1. Both hexes can house three squads each and the 7-0 leader in of of the Buildings. However, from the hill, the Germans can attack K1 with a 14 @0 shot which will likely reduce some of them. It might not be obvious, but I1 has a TEM of 3 (cumulative terrain Woods/Building), so it is a marginally safer position.
It dawned on me that the at start French 'in buildings' force of respectable 3 elite squads and their 7-0 might find themselved eradicated more quickly than you can say 'baguette'. From the German perspective, I would shoot up any L4 Germans from M5 right from the start, then to capture any surrendering brokies. The 'hill' Germans would shoot up K1 not unlikely breaking some of the French in there. From M1 and M2 the Germans Assault Move up Concealed to L0 and L1 threatening K1 by either advancing fire or going into CC with any survivors Concealed while any French brokies would be pushed to the west with not much space to go and hide. In the second German Turn, the 'hill' Germans would take care of I1, while the L4/M5 Germansfrom their building cover the flank of the 'hill' Germans. From K1 the Germans push further west where the French would be in deep trouble with many brokies and surrenders would soon follow. That way the French would lose 3 Building hexes and the Germans would gain a number of CVP early while the French wade through the sticky mud across open ground into a hapless attempt to avoid general disaster. Now wait - unfortunately, I was commanding the French here, not the Germans...
Erm, all right. So 'somehow' I needed to avoid the above disaster. So I developed the 'plan' to roll low on my morale checks. The road, offering the sole opportunity for quick movement, would probably have to be avoided because the Germans would take precautions in their first Turn to cover it. Thus most French Turn 1 reinforcements would likely skirt the southern edge of the C6 Woods trying to gain the hill. At the same time, the onboard French beginning on the road could only attempt to stay out of harm's way for the time being because neither suitable rally terrain nor a leader were around. Maybe my French should have left this damn place to the Norwegians...
Situation at the End of German Turn 1:

German Turn 1 began with my being shocked that it was indeed German Turn 1 and not French Turn 1. The French fired away with a 28 @+2 shot from M5 to L4. Surprisingly, only my 458 there broke and was subsequently taken Prisoner while the 248 HS survived unscathed. K1 was duly shot up by the 'hill' Germans. In the DFPh, my valiant surviving HS in L4 improbably even managed to break the German 7-0 and 447+LMG(f) in M5. My broken squad in K1 by some artistic routing (knowing the Germans in M1 to be Dummies) contrieved to avoid capture by the Germans for the moment. The Germans had moved a considerable number of unit forward onto Hill 543. Luckily, I could be quite sure that at least some of them were Dummies.
Situation at the End of French Turn 1:

In my French Turn 1 my valiant HS in L4 tried to shoot the Germans in M5 but to no effect. It would be broken by German Defensive Fire and surrender soon thereafter. In I1, a rather intimidated 7-0 with 248 held on, not feeling positive about their future fate. The three French squads in the Shellholes on the road moved onto Hill 534 as there was basically no where else to go and taking pains to stay out of LOS of any Germans. The reinforcements entered from the west, being slowed down by the Mud. the one attempt I had made for movement on the road was thwarted by a well aimed MTR round despite the muffling effects of Mud on its effects DR. My French had no real clue at this point, how they were supposed to ever even reach the village.
To be continued in a subsequent post...
von Marwitz

Just finished playing this old classic which happened to be featuring recently in a tournament and has thus seen a number of playings on VASL.
When I came across this scenario a while ago, I wondered why I have not played it before as it has a nice little size and appears to be very balanced according to ROAR with 76 French wins vs. 82 German ones. The reason was probably that the SSR eliminate one of the hills and I dislike to imagine things away that are printed on the map. VASL solves that problem, even providing a scenario specific overlay for the purpose which makes it visually appealing.
The action is set in Norway in late May 1940, but it features no Norwegian troops. Instead it is a number of Germans defending a village which is attacked by the French, some of which start on board while the rest trickle in throughout Turns 1 to 3. The objective for the French is to Control a number of building hexes at game end while avoiding to suffer a certain number of CVP which would result in an instant French win.
The German force of 8.5 squad equivalents is partly elite, partly 2nd line with some light SW (part of them French MG) at their disposal and a 37L PaK along with 4 AT mines, not to forget a powerful 9-2 Leader. The French start onboard with 6 Elite squads and a 7-0 but these are prescribed to set up in locations that can be put under fire by the Germans or are even ADJACENT to them, which is a bad thing as the Germans move first. 11 more squads, most of them elite. A platoon of two H39 tanks back up these reinforcements, some of which have to enter as passengers of three trucks.
EC are Mud, which slows down the French movement considerably. The one road moving towards the village is considered paved for movement purposes and is thus free of the risk of Bog which can occur elsewhere. One strange tidbit is that French Infantry suffer Captured Use penalties when using any MG (even their own French MGs, which effectively reduces their Breakage number to 9), while the Germans can use French MG without such a penalty. Important is furthermore, that Alpine Hills (B10.211) are in effect, i.e. equal elevation hill hexes block LOS through but not into them. All buildings are single story.
Setup is sequential with the 'village' Germans setting up first, followed by the on-board French, succeeded by the 'hill' Germans, and finally the French Turn 1 reinforcements. But remember - the Germans move first. A fact which I promptly forgot as it seems counterintuitive with the French attacking.
Situation at Game Start:

The good thing is that the French know AT Mines can only be 'within' the village i.e. on hexrow M and eastwards. The bad thing is that the onboard French forces can be shot up and pushed around royally by the Germans. One Group of French is limited to a short stretch of muddy road. The rest is limited to hexes I1, K1, and L4. All of these can be pasted by the 'hill' Germans - which happen to be the most nasty ones: 9-2, 2x468, 2xLMG, for which my opponent has selected the best spot IMHO with K7. That said, the French 'options' before the start of the game are extremely limited - to shitty options on top of that...
Nevertheless, here follows my French 'battle plan' (which has the one fault being based on the premise that I thought the French rather than the Germans would move first...). Analyzing the battlefield, I quickly realized that from the hill, the Germans can elect to see any of my French units. My French start in Control of three building hexes (I1, K1, and L4). The question is - how long can they maintain it? L4 is extremely exposed as the Germans can set up ADJACENT with the advantage of being concealed. So putting any French into L4 is a gamble. I reasoned that if my French shoot first, it would become a gamble for the Germans to set up in M5, too, because a lucky shot could reduce a key position as the opening move. This is the only reason why I placed 1.5 squads there. When I realized that the Germans moved first, this positioning was, of course, total folly, as my French were not concealed and exposed to Point Blank fire with no place to rout to. The Germans, on top, had all reasons to man M5 strongly as this is a very important building. If their opening shot from M5 to L4 proved insufficient, they could still 'finish off' any unbroken French by fire from the hill. Having said that, putting any French in L4 is a total waste as they are likely to go down immediately. This leaves K1 and I1. Both hexes can house three squads each and the 7-0 leader in of of the Buildings. However, from the hill, the Germans can attack K1 with a 14 @0 shot which will likely reduce some of them. It might not be obvious, but I1 has a TEM of 3 (cumulative terrain Woods/Building), so it is a marginally safer position.
It dawned on me that the at start French 'in buildings' force of respectable 3 elite squads and their 7-0 might find themselved eradicated more quickly than you can say 'baguette'. From the German perspective, I would shoot up any L4 Germans from M5 right from the start, then to capture any surrendering brokies. The 'hill' Germans would shoot up K1 not unlikely breaking some of the French in there. From M1 and M2 the Germans Assault Move up Concealed to L0 and L1 threatening K1 by either advancing fire or going into CC with any survivors Concealed while any French brokies would be pushed to the west with not much space to go and hide. In the second German Turn, the 'hill' Germans would take care of I1, while the L4/M5 Germansfrom their building cover the flank of the 'hill' Germans. From K1 the Germans push further west where the French would be in deep trouble with many brokies and surrenders would soon follow. That way the French would lose 3 Building hexes and the Germans would gain a number of CVP early while the French wade through the sticky mud across open ground into a hapless attempt to avoid general disaster. Now wait - unfortunately, I was commanding the French here, not the Germans...
Erm, all right. So 'somehow' I needed to avoid the above disaster. So I developed the 'plan' to roll low on my morale checks. The road, offering the sole opportunity for quick movement, would probably have to be avoided because the Germans would take precautions in their first Turn to cover it. Thus most French Turn 1 reinforcements would likely skirt the southern edge of the C6 Woods trying to gain the hill. At the same time, the onboard French beginning on the road could only attempt to stay out of harm's way for the time being because neither suitable rally terrain nor a leader were around. Maybe my French should have left this damn place to the Norwegians...
Situation at the End of German Turn 1:

German Turn 1 began with my being shocked that it was indeed German Turn 1 and not French Turn 1. The French fired away with a 28 @+2 shot from M5 to L4. Surprisingly, only my 458 there broke and was subsequently taken Prisoner while the 248 HS survived unscathed. K1 was duly shot up by the 'hill' Germans. In the DFPh, my valiant surviving HS in L4 improbably even managed to break the German 7-0 and 447+LMG(f) in M5. My broken squad in K1 by some artistic routing (knowing the Germans in M1 to be Dummies) contrieved to avoid capture by the Germans for the moment. The Germans had moved a considerable number of unit forward onto Hill 543. Luckily, I could be quite sure that at least some of them were Dummies.
Situation at the End of French Turn 1:

In my French Turn 1 my valiant HS in L4 tried to shoot the Germans in M5 but to no effect. It would be broken by German Defensive Fire and surrender soon thereafter. In I1, a rather intimidated 7-0 with 248 held on, not feeling positive about their future fate. The three French squads in the Shellholes on the road moved onto Hill 534 as there was basically no where else to go and taking pains to stay out of LOS of any Germans. The reinforcements entered from the west, being slowed down by the Mud. the one attempt I had made for movement on the road was thwarted by a well aimed MTR round despite the muffling effects of Mud on its effects DR. My French had no real clue at this point, how they were supposed to ever even reach the village.
To be continued in a subsequent post...
von Marwitz
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