Tactics in 1940: The Fall of France
Scenario Thirteen: Lords of Steel, 14 May 1940
Part Two: 0800-0845 Hours
By Doug McNair
February 2010

Two days after the New Orleans Saints’ stunning victory against a (reputedly) superior force, it seems only right to give their French brethren a chance at a similar upset in Part Two of my replay of the Lords of Steel scenario from 1940: The Fall of France.

At the end of Part One, France had taken one of the three northern villages from the Germans and was busy assaulting a second one, but had failed to isolate the third village or cut the road leading to it from the north edge. This is a major threat to the French, because if German reinforcements arrive on Turn 0800 and get initiative, they can stream down the road with only minimal interference and quickly put themselves in a position to threaten the French left flank. They’ll have plenty of enemy firepower to deal with from French tanks and HMGs, but their superior morale will be a serious problem for the French trying to hold the line against them.

The battle continues.

Turn Eight: 0800 Hours

This is the first turn on which the Germans get to roll for reinforcements, and they roll a 6. With Prussian precision, the German reinforcements arrive at the earliest possible moment, and their leader draw is 100 percent Prussian as well. All the German leaders drawn give combat bonuses, two of them give morale bonuses and one of them gives a +2 morale bonus. The French now have a real fight on their hands.

Then two German ENG platoons supported by a PzIIIF unit enter at the northeast corner of the board and head for the weak French right flank and the lone French AT gun (which is currently loaded on a CK transport). The Lieutenant commanding the AT gun spots for French offboard artillery against the Germans, but the roll of 5 just barely misses.

Then the rest of the Germans enter on the northern road, sending their reduced PzIVA unit forward to secure the road ahead of the advance and putting their unarmored Bufla self-propelled artillery (their best weapon against the French tanks) in the woods where it can’t be spotted by any French leaders

With the Germans moving toward their weak right flank, the French must eliminate the Germans already behind their lines if they are to have any hope of forming a secure forward perimeter. So they start by assaulting the disrupted Grossdeutschland HMG in the southern village, attacking with tanks and infantry. Both sides roll on the 5 column but the French do better, rolling a 5 for an M1 result. But the Germans roll snake eyes and hold morale. They respond by recovering morale, and now the French in the village are up against a 10-strength HMG. Then the lone French tank leader jumps into the assault on the German AT gun just behind the northernmost village, and the 3-high French stack attacks on the 9 column and rolls a 4 for another M1 result that demoralizes the AT unit and its wagon!

The German armored car fails to recover morale, and the vulnerable French AT gun backs up to the road in the woods while its leader tries and fails to rally the demoralized troops there (who don’t have to flee because they’re already in a safe hex). The German Sergeant in the as-yet unmolested western village then spots for German offboard artillery (which is available now that German reinforcements have arrived) against the two French HMGs at the southern crossroads. German optics rule, and a roll of 11 on the 16 column causes an M1 result. Amazingly, the low-morale French Lieutenant and one of his lower-morale HMGs hold morale, while the other is only disrupted. The HMGs pull back slowly toward the protection of the southernmost villages, and the western German AT gun fires and misses the French tanks massed point-blank against it. One of the two tanks stays to cover the left flank and fires point-blank at the AT guns (no effect), while the other skirts the German position to the right (remaining at a one-hex distance from the Germans at all times thus not needing a tank leader to do so) to move up the road toward the French right flank.

The turn then ends on recoveries, with a French INF fleeing toward the French right flank, the disrupted German Lieutenant failing to recover and the demoralized German AT gun in the assault hex south of the northern village also failing to recover and thus being eliminated along with its wagon (the crew abandons the weapon, and transports alone in an enemy-occupied hex are eliminated). The French score 1 VP for killing the German AT gun, and the road to the northern village is now clear of Germans and open to French movement.

The score now stands at France 15, Germany 4.

Turn Nine: 0815 Hours

The French keep rolling well and win initiative by two activations. The HMGs pull back to the cover of the southern village so the Germans can’t hit them with artillery anymore. Then the stack that just cleared the road south of the village activates, with the tank leader moving to reinforce the northern village while sending another tank to bolster the right flank in the woods, and the infantry moving to assist them while their disrupted Lieutenant recovers.

The German left flank wastes no time advancing on the French right, moving directly down the eastern board edge to keep the 40-meter hill line between them and the French unit most likely to fire at them with opportunity fire. French offboard artillery hits the advancing Germans again, and this time scores an M result that disrupts one of the advancing ENG units.

German offboard artillery then hits the lone, leaderless French INF unit blocking the road to the French left flank, but rolls a 7 for no damage! The French INF pulls back one hex down the road so the Germans can’t assault it this turn, forcing the Germans who were preparing to assault it to hit it with opportunity fire instead. The 3-high stack of Germans fires on the 22 column and just barely misses an X result, rolling a 5 for an M2 result that demoralizes the INF. That causes the other German Lieutenant to send the Bufla after the demoralized French while taking his two ENG companies toward an assault position against the French commandant in the hilltop village. Opportunity fire from the Commandant’s INF unit disrupts the German LT but neither of his ENG units.

The French AT gun moves back to the protection of the southern village while their Lieutenant remains in place to try and rally the demoralized French right flank. Both demoralized French INF units fail to recover, but only one has to flee since the other is already in a safe hex (where the other unit flees as well). The German left flank’s tank support advances behind their ENG units, and the French are forced to turn their assault on the now full-strength Grossdeutschland HMG in the central village into a holding action. Their leader exits the hex along with an INF unit and moves toward the crumbling French right flank in hopes of rallying it. The German HMGs assault the remaining French in the hex with them, and the French INF holds morale but the tanks supporting them are demoralized. The tanks fail to recover morale and flee the assault hex, and the turn ends on recoveries and ineffective fire from both sides. Most significantly, the disrupted German LT who fled the assault hex with the German HMG recovers to good order.

Turn Ten: 0830 Hours

The French keep excelling at their initiative rolls, and beat the Germans by 9 to 4 and therefore two activations. The Commandant in the northernmost village activates along with the tank and INF in his hex which fire point-blank on the Germans about to assault them, but the Germans all pass the M morale check. The Commandant also activates the neighboring LT, moves him into the village and then heads south himself to take charge of rallying the French right flank. Then on the second activation, the Lieutenant south of the village sends the INF that he just left the HMG assault hex with back into the hex, and then heads north to take command of the undemoralized units holding the French right. The demoralized tank that fled the assault hex with him rolls a 5 and recovers morale!

The German left advances to an assault position on the demoralized French right, and opportunity fire against them is ineffective. French offboard artillery hits the lead unit and the German LT, and the M result demoralizes the ENG!!! With the other ENG disrupted the attack is effectively blunted except for the German tank support, which moves up to point-blank firing range on the still-demoralized French.  The French do not want to try to recover morale without a bonus from their now-adjacent Commandant, and since he can’t help them recover till next turn they hope very hard for a Fog of War roll to end the turn before they have to recover.

The French HMG in the lower village fails to recover from disruption but the AT gun with it unloads and unlimbers. German offboard artillery then hits the demoralized French right. They DO get the +2 morale bonus from their neighboring Commandant on the morale check, and because of that the Lieutenant passes and neither of the demoralized INFs suffer step losses from compound demoralizaiton. The French right holds.

Tank fire from both sides is ineffective except for a disrupted German wagon, and the disrupted German Lieutenant then sends his two ENG units in to assault the northern village while himself recovering to good order. ENG units give a +1 column shift in town assaults so both sides fire on the 9 column, and the French all pass their morale check while one of the German units becomes disrupted.

Then the demoralized French INF on the northwestern road fails to recover morale and flees into the woods, thus opening the road for the Germans to move toward the French left flank. They do so, with the Bufla moving to the northwestern village where it can fire on the now very vulnerable French tanks blocking the road next turn (the tanks having already fired at the neighboring AT guns this turn).

If the Germans get initiative next turn, the Bufla will likely wipe-out the French tanks on the road and send German tanks and Grossdeutschland infantry streaming through the gap. So the French Lieutenant on the northern line sends and INF unit south to block the road behind the tanks. The French then catch a break, as the turn ends on a Fog of War roll without their demoralized right having to recover morale or the HMG in the central village being able to attack the French troops holding out against them there!!!

Turn Eleven: 0845 Hours

The German stack in the northwestern village then activates, and the Bufla fires at the French FCM36 tanks on the road. Its firepower of 8 vs. the French armor of 4 gives it a +4 dieroll modifier against the tanks, and it rolls a 9 + 4 = 13 to obliterate all the French tanks. That gives the Germans 4 VPs (tank steps count double), and then the Grossdeutschland INF unit stacked with the Buflas advances along with a Sergeant and a PzII tank unit toward the French INF holding the road behind where the tanks used to be. The HMGs in the southern village plus the INF unit holding the road open up on the advancing Grossdeutschland INF with opportunity fire, and the INF manages to disrupt the Grossdeutschland unit two hexes away, leaving only the PzII tank to advance adjacent to it. That helps, but with no way to stop the Germans from concentrating forces on their left flank the French begin withdrawing from the northern village to avoid being pocketed there. The one French tank unit with a tank leader withdraws from that hex while the INF unit and a Lieutenant remain behind as a rearguard. The Germans then hit the southern village with offboard artillery to try and take out the French AT gun there, but they only roll a 7 and do no damage. The French AT gun then fires at the PzII unit on the road but misses on a modified 8. The remaining German ENG units then move down the road to join the Grossdeutschland INF.

French offboard artillery hits the 3-high stack of German infantry on the road, and the Sergeant with them becomes demoralized but the Captain and both ENG units pass. But the Grossdeutschland INF becomes disrupted again and thus demoralized, so the German plans for a massive fire team to shoot through the PzII tanks in advance of a tank assault is prevented. The German HMG in the central village responds by assaulting the two French INF units holding the hex against it, and one French INF becomes demoralized while the other holds morale. The German Lieutenant then jumps into the assault on the northern village, and with a +3 column shift bonus for higher morale, a leader and ENG units in a town assault they fire on the 13 column versus only 5 for the French. Luckily the French roll much better than the Germans and both sides score an M1 result, with the French all holding morale while the good-order German ENG unit becomes disrupted.

The French right then starts pulling back to the road while the ENG units on the German left try to recover morale and the PzIIIF tank unit with them fires into the French holding the line in front of it. The tank fire is ineffective and neither German unit recovers, with the demoralized ENG unit failing to recover and fleeing.

The turn then ends on redeployments and recoveries, with the reduced PzIV tank unit advancing to an assault position on the northern village and the German armored car finally recovering from disruption. 

So with the scenario just past the halfway point, the French flanks are weak but holding while the center is executing a pretty decent fighting withdrawal. But they’ve lost an entire tank platoon to the German Buflas, putting the score at France 15, Germany 8. That’s still just barely enough for a French Major Victory, but only if they can maintain that lead until the end of the game. Can they inflict enough step losses on the Germans to compensate for the town hexes they will almost certainly lose to the German advance? Tune in next time and find out!

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