France'40 - Take Two - The End

And here's me thinking there were six turns to go...

Turn 9

The Germans catch up with the Allied defenders of Valenciennes in the north.

 In the south the French are being roughly handled.

 Hitler says Halt!

WTF!

As it turns out this was the last turn (Turn 10),
even without the halt,

 the panzers would never have made it across the map.

The focus is on taking Valenciennes

 In the south the French are pushed aside, 

but the panzers seem to have run out of the will to race forward.

 Allied counter attacks on the last turn.

That is Rommel under that 2-1 counter. 
Monty is attacking. 
Monty fails so its a morale boosting Rommel tactical victory amidst a strategic fail.

Most of the big picture 

(there are still more hex rows beyond those at the top of the image).

The Allies had 10 VPs as their line to the north was not cut.  The Germans had 3 VPs (from the occupied entry hexes (middle of the right hands side of the image).

There is an option to play on a further four turns.  That would have seen a major pocket formed round Lille and the panzers reaching the coast.

France'40 - Take Two - Part Two

Playing three GMT WW2 games at once is not necessarily a good idea, as although they all use the same system, there are differences and these can play with your head!

But on with the campaign (I'm the Wehrmacht, Richard is the Allies).  Our previous session (20 March) had resulted in three pockets by the end of Turn 4.

 The pocket at Namur is ignored as it is sure to get bigger.

 On the southern flank, one pocket is liquidated, while the noose around the other is strengthened.

A simple decision process as one pocket was weak and the other strong.

 The strong pocket attempts to breakout, but the panzers hold firm.

 In Namur the French fight through to link up with the other defenders.

Work now goes into reducing the Namur pocket.

while the panzers, lead by Rommel, push onto Charleroi. 

 The farthest advance on Turn 6.

8th Panzer in the lead.

 Total annihilation of the southern pocket.

 More French units are surrounded to the west of Namur,

 but they are trying to get free.  

Not going to happen.

 German attacks on the Namur and Charleroi pockets.

While destructive, it ties down a number of panzer divisions that should be heading west.

This could cost the Germans victory.

 In action again, 8th Panzer leads the dash westward.

Note De Gaulle in the top left hand corner of the image.

 The Germans attempt to secure the southern flank,

but even at maximum odds it is hard work.

 Turn 8 

Are the Germans getting bogged down trying to take Namur
and clear the Charleroi corridor?

 Their push west looks a bit thin,

but interestingly has a number of infantry divisions to the fore,
along with 8th Panzer.

 The 1st Panzer attacks De Gaulle at St Quentin.

 The French counterattack against the German southern flank.

The big picture.

The Germans have captured the important road junctions of Cambrai and St Quentin.

More importantly their panzers are now free to move forward through Maubeuge.

The defenders of Namur are on their last legs.

At this stage the game is turning into something of a race.

France'40 Solo on Vassal

Well, with COVID19 it looks like face to face games ain't gonna be very frequent for a while.  Let's see what fun I can have with France'40 on Vassal.

The Germans launched four attacks.  All were successful, but with losses to both sides. The French tried a desperate defence of Charleville but failed, with losses.  Two GQG markers failed to stick in the south.

The French start to move reinforcements to the front.  The 2nd Army makes a counter attack towards to Sedan.  It causes losses to both sides, but the German determined defence holds.

On the second day the Germans launch seven attacks. Rommel has a 7 to 1 attack and throws a one.  He rerolls and gets another one.  At least he's advancing. Overall the Germans suffered four step losses. At this rate they will run out of fighting power pretty quickly.  At least they have a sizeable bridgehead at Charleville and Rommel is also across the Meuse.

In the north the French pull back to the Dyle Line.  In the centre they try and form a line.  In the south they counterattack just to the west of Sedan, inflicting a further loss on the German motorised troops.

Day 3 sees seven German attacks.  These produce mostly French retreats.

The French counterattack against Rommel in the North, inflicting losses and pushing the Germans back.  It could get interesting...

Day 4, May 16, the Germans make six attacks.  Two to the north of Namur, successfully breaking through the Dyle line after the failure of a French desperate defence.  Three to the centre, creating a large hole in the French line, and one to the south to secure Sedan.  The panzers are heading east!

This has also been the first turn that the German attacks have produced some Full Retreat outcomes on the French.

The German supply lines through the Ardennes are possibly vulnerable to some bold French counterattacks.

The French attack in the north to try and contain the Dyle Line breakthrough (they were lucky in that this is where there reinforcements turned up).  They also make an fruitless attack against 6th Panzer.  They have moved to block the road network north of Charleville, but really need to get their troops free from GQG paralysis in order to mount an attack towards Sedan and Charleville from the south.

De Gaulle has arrived and he's immune to GQG indecisions.  GQG is the French High Command, (Grand Quartier Général).

Day 5 and the Germans launch eight attacks, two of which are automatic defender shattered results.  Their attacks have broken the Allied lines in multiple places.

De Gaulle counterattacks, but to no avail.  The attack towards Sedan was slightly more successful.  Allied reinforcements arrived to the north and south east, just where they were needed.

Day 6 sees a further eight attacks, including another automatic as the Germans fight to secure Sedan, mop up some pockets and try to breakthrough north of Namur.  The French suffered heavy casualties defending their positions.

The French start a staged withdrawal from the Namur salient.  Units freed from GQG incompetence attack north.  This opens up the way to Charleville, but right into the jaws of the Wehrmacht. De Gaulle pulls back to try and form a new line in the west.  Good luck.

Day 7 and the Germans make twelve attacks, two of which are automatic. 1st Panzer captures St Quentin.  Mauberge is occupied in the north.  While the attempts to pinch off Namur failed, the city itself was captured.  A disaster of a turn for the Allies!

There are no French attacks.  Allied forces arrive in the nick of time to store up the north and south east.  The focus for the remaining units is to secure important cities controlling rail junctions.  The Germans have an infantry division not far from the the lead 1st Panzer Division (it is with the Gross Deutschland Regiment).  As a consequence Hitler is quiet relaxed about the rundown state of his panzers.

The Germans launch eight attacks on the eighth day of the offensive.  Laon is occupied by 13th Motorised. 2nd Motorised captures Douai after Rommel takes Cambrai.

De Gaulle surrounds 1st  Panzer, but it conducts a determined defence and holds on.  The isolated units around Namur start to perish.  The only bright news is the 87th African Division, with its attached 17th Tank Battalion, manage to breakout of its encirclement.

Another eight attacks on the following day see the Germans capture Reims, Soissons, Amiens and see them placed perilously close to cutting the north south railway line.  They have also started blocking entry hexes (which provides additional victory points).

Three much needed British units arrive in the north, however French reinforcements come on in the south east.  The Allies strike out through the gap separating the lead German units from the bulk of the army, seriously threatening their supply lines.

And in turn ten, the last turn, the Germans make ten attacks, two automatic.  Critically, they are able to cut the north south rail line in two places.

The French launch four attacks.  Maybe they can clear the Germans from the north south rail line?  The GD regiment is destroyed, but the 1st Panzer hangs on around Abbeville.

The Allies get two points for having destroyed two German units.  The Germans get five points for having blocked Allied entry points.  The Allies can not trace a rail or road line from north to south.  The Germans get ten victory points for that. While some German mechanised units would be out of supply next turn, this has happened too late for them to become isolated and provide any additional victory points to the Allies.

Result 15 to 2 German victory.

Let's see that again.

France'40 - Take Two

Richard and I restarted our France'40 game.  I expected things to be much the same.  They weren't. For this AAR I have concentrated on capturing the attacks. As per the last game, I am the Germans.

In the images the combat odds is given by the chit.  The plane indicates an additional shift.  On the first turn multiple planes can be applied to a single combat, after that it is just one per combat.

 Turn One attacks in the North.

Rommel with the 7th and 5th Panzer tries to cross the Meuse.

While further north there is a clash of armour.

 In the South four panzer divisions try and force crossings at Sedan and Charleville.

 Turn Two and the Germans try and expand the Sedan bridgehead,

while still trying to cross at Charleville.

 Rommel is still trying to cross the Meuse.

An automatic attack starts to eat away at the defences of Namur.

 The French throw in a counterattack against Rommel.

Rommel holds.

The French attack 2nd panzer which is threatening to breakout from Charleville.

The Germans retreat, safe in the knowledge that they have two more division ready to advance.

 Turn three and Rommel tries to breakout south of Namur,

while 3rd and 4th panzer try to breakthrough north of Namur.

The infantry maintain pressure in the centre.

Rommel has a dismal time, even with his reroll he still gets a one which is not enough to breakout.  The other panzers were also thwarted, this time...

 In the south the Germans keep attacking around Charleville.

 Turn Four and the Germans launch devastating attacks 

that will lead to the encirclement of significant French forces.

 And in the North much the same thing happens,

 A desperate French counterattack fails to rescue troops trapped on the Dyle line near Namur.

 The French counterattacks in the south also fail to free their trapped units.

I should point out that much of the German success has been because of the GQG markers that represent confusion in the French high command as to what is actually going on.  The German player places them, but then rolls two dice and removes the associated counters.  As the game progress the counters are slowly retired.  The counter stops those French units attacking, limits them to two hex movement and means the stack cannot split.  In the above image, GQG 2 and 4 have really reduced the French counter attacks before they even began.

 A flash bird's eye view of where we finished up the day's session.

There are three out of supply French pockets.

The question for the Germans is should they mop them up or attempt to press on?

A not so flash somewhat shaky aerial photo of the same situation.

France'40 is another excellent GMT WW2 operational level boardgame.  Highly recommended.