It was time for another micro armor rule play test. We had been doing late for up to now, so I thought it was a good time to switch things up a bit. So, from Belgium 44, I shifted to Belgium 40! One of my buddies has a nicely painted French army, so it would give us a chance to use it. I could see how early war tanks interacted with each other and how infantry would hold up to tanks when they had a limitation in AT assets. I figured I would start with part of the battle of Hannut, as this was a reasonably large tank battle (largest to that point), with a good selection of armor on both sides.
So, I looked up the OOBs for each side and figured that would work well. The terrain is mostly flat (there is a gentle slope from the front lines to the rear, but I decided I would not worry about that. I am unclear on the tree lines for the original battlefield, so I added these around to break up the site lines. Those, a few Forrests and the towns would provide the majority of site blocking terrain.
I got to my FLGS a bit late, so set up started a bit late. I managed to get everything set up, before the players drifted in. Unfortunately, I had a few last minute cancellations, so I had to make do.
The French forces would represent elements of the 4th DLM. A couple of armored regiments (one understrength) of S-35s and H-39s, a recon infantry regiment and some independent companies from the 4th. The formation was supported by one battalion of 75mm artillery on board (the first game with onboard artillery) and three battalions of off board artillery in “General” support (these would have to roll each turn for availability. The French would be set up in their historical starting positions and would be dug in, camouflaged and have registered artillery. The armor would start the game unmounted, so would have to pass an order check to reorganize and remount.
The German force would contain a recon battalion (on table), and armored regiment of two battalions (Pz-Is, IIs and IIIs) arriving on turn one. The motorized infantry battalion would arrive on turn two and the other armored regiment would arrive on turn four. There was also a couple of independent companies. The force was supported by one battalion of 105s (off board in direct support) and two more in general support. The Luftwaffe would provide eight flights of Stuka (no more than four a turn) and would also have two flights of HE-111s providing preplotted strikes (lasting two turns).
The game started with the Germans failing their initial order rolls and the French getting most of theirs! The French started sending their forces forward. On the next turn, the Germans arrived (minus the infantry) and went straight into the assault against the French forward positions. The attacks were mostly success and pushed the French out of the forward positions, shoot up the battalion in the process. The Germans got the better of the losses, but still struggled more than they had hoped.
The next two turns the French armor arrived and started taking positions to block the German attacks. The Germans engaged the French armor, but kept the range and both sides held their ground. While the armor held on, the Germans tried to grab the next town against the sole French AT company, but the French infantry was able to move forward and support the defense. This arrival blunted the German attack and caused some heavy casualties.
Unfortunately, we ran out of time and had to end again. The Germans managed to take one of the three objectives, so it was a French victory. It was clear the French quick reaction (and slow German reactions) would enable them to hold the other objectives long enough. So, we had an un historic French victory!
I would like to try the scenario again with more players and an earlier start. I hope to set that up as the next game!
- Manteuffel