I have been following this thread for a couple of weeks now and can not resist throwing in my 2cents (in fact it got me to register here).
I've owned TFB for about 4-6 weeks now. I'm a forty year veteran of wargaming and suffer a bit from that curious deterioration of old age, which allows one to maintain the fiction that others are entitled to your own opinion.
Playing around with the game right out of the box, I confess, that I shared many of the concerns of the poster that decried the lack of flank attack modifiers and stacking limits on the attack. (N.B. there are wargames at the operational level that do provide hexside flank modifiers in their combat model; DBWII is one of the more obvious current examples.) I think legitimate arguements can be made both pro and con for such modifiers, depending on what else is in the model!
I decided to reserve judgement, thinking that some of my objections may be simply a symptom of not having learned the model very well. I've gained more experience now, some based on the hints provided by posts in this thread; and feel more or less happy with the model. One naturally has to look at the whole context of the model and view it holistically as odd features may not make sense in isolation, but in fact may be a reasonable design solution when looked at in the whole; and may appear on surface to be very different then other equally valid solutions that other game designers have arrived at.
IMO, the fact that one may make multiple attacks from different hexsides does in fact provide its own flank modifier as well as in some sense allow attacks at greater than the stacking limit (they are just made in echelon).
The model certainly puts a premium on correct combined arms usage to break out of WWI like stalemates, which were certainly possible in WWII.
Concering the France 40 scenario. I'm in the middle of playing what I think will be a successful German attack on France. I just took Paris, though the point total is still a major German defeat, but there is about a month left to go in the game.
I think I'm finally understanding the combat system. I followed E_Von_Manstein's advice. To which I'll add the following.
a) It appears to me that in order to ensure Hollands fall on the first turn, you must provide lots of ground support for the attack on The Hague, and its vital to do so on Rotterdam in order to eliminate the defenders by air attack (the paratroops that land next to Rotterdam don't have the MP's to actually attack; they can merely move into it if the defenders are destroyed out right.
b) My basic strategy was a two pincer thrust, I think this may be necessary as one doesn't have the historical surprise that the Germans had originally. Naturally one of the pincers is going through the Ardennes, as the units are placed there at the start. The other is an attempt to pierce through the Belgian plain. Here it is important to get a bridgehead across the river Dyle? on the first turn. If not the allies can put up a formidable defensive line behind that river, which shields most of the Belgium plane and will make slogging through difficult.
c) Pay attention to Manstein's hints in earlier posts about use of air assets and making liberal use of the breakdown feature; I am mostly fighting with broken down divisions where it counts.
I'll report again regarding some dates in the game and the results as I continue.
