France First Campaign Game

[Greyshaft]

Having reached the Ruhr as the USSR in Barbarossa I have decided to try being a German and to see if Sea Lion is as easy as some have claimed. I have glanced over the naval rules but don't yet pretend to understand them. Fortunately others have trod this path before me so I will stand on their shoulders and reach across the Channel. The best Campaign Game to achieve this seems to be the Western setup for the Germans. If I can crush France quickly then it will be possible to send forces back to settle the Poles while I build up the Navy for Sea Lion. That's my theory anyway.

The Campaign fizzes from the start when I find it impossible to declare war on Belgium (I was planning to ignore Holland for the present). The game tells me that I must declare war on the leader of the alliance ... but if Belgium is part of the Allies then I would already be at war with them. Historically they were still neutral so surely they are an alliance of one country? Are they allied to Holland? No. All very puzzling but I will leave those problems to the diplomats for the moment and I commit my troops on a frontal assault across the Maginot Line. We succeed in puncturing the French defence and my army marches towards the gap in their line.

My four subs start moving to sea and I recall the Graf Spee home for R&R - I will need him for Sea Lion. Most of my PP go to reinforcing my air force.

[Greyshaft]

I am keeping FoW off for this game so I can comment on the enemy troop dispositions. I will balance that advantage by mentally selecting my next turns objectives before Allies move and attempting to resist temptations to slip a unit between unexpected gaps in their lines.

In the Allied turn the French move units into Belgium so it appears that Belgium is part of the Allies alliance... so why couldn't I move my units into Belgium territory? To add injury to insult two of my submarines moving through the North Sea are sunk by the Dutch navy. We shall push southwest and attempt to extend the allied line until it is so thin that we can cat off and destroy pockets of enemy troops. If this succeeds we will all be home by Christmas.

[Greyshaft]

In the Baltic the Polish Wicher attacks my convoy but is sunk by my navy (Schleswig Holstein and Nurnberg). Further south the Polish army advances into Germany which triggers the release of two frozen German Corps near Breslau. This is small potatoes... I have other work to do.

The 3rd Panzer XX enters an unoccupied Dijon and I take care to ensure that the rail line (thick red line) is fully garrisoned to keep the bullets and saurkraut flowing to the boys at the front. The BEF makes an appearance in the northwest but come out the loser after a brief encounter with my 18th Panzer Corp. I will not pursue them except to gain control of the rail line - my strategy is to push westwards through Dijon.

I still cant move into Belgium or Luxembourg... grrr

[Greyshaft]

The French suddenly realize that Dijon was strategically significant and send waves of TAC bombers against the 3rd Panzer XX (4-5) but the only land unit in range is a humble 1-2 Corp which wisely decides to just sit outside the city and taunt us a second time. Our units turn north and the French line melts away under the repeated assaults of Panzers. Metz fell to us this turn and we will now take Reims (1) to pocket the remnant of that French line then push northeast onto Paris(2). Orleans is well guarded with seven 1-3 INF Corps but their turn will come.

The Deutchland and the Graf Spee have linked up northwest of Britain and are making good progress back towards Kiel.

[Greyshaft]

The French anticipate my trap and pull back to the north. Unfortunately for them Panzers can advance faster than men can march and the French are mulched into the soil. A daring French lunge north from Strasbourg gets halfway to my airfields before it is stopped. On the subject of air I have a confession to make... my fighters have been casually groundstriking allied air forces without allowing for the benefit I have by playing without FoW. So I now introduce a new rule for my air force that only fighters at full strength may attack enemy aircraft.

In the east we counterattack and kill a Polish XX but they have plenty more. That front does not concern me for the moment. I think it will take them the rest of the year before they become a serious threat.

I forgot to mention that at the end of last turn (24th September 1939) Italy joins the Axis so I have more to do now.

[jjdenver]

Thanks a lot for the AAR Grey - really looking forward to it. Even if the game has some serious bugs and flaws it's still fun and the Macro AAR and this one are terribly interesting - great job!!

[Razz1]

Which scenario is this?

[Rasputitsa]

The 1940 German attack did break through the Maginot Line extension, but as AFAIK the main Maginot forts were not attacked, however, the Germans dealt quickly with other forts, such as Eban Emael.

I am playing the Fall Gelb scenario now and have managed to capture some of the Maginot hexes starting from the Ardennes, at the exposed flank, and moving down the line. I did need a major assault by concentrating full strength INF Corps with air support. So far I was happy with the way it worked out, it only became easy when sections of the line were isolated and lost supply. This is against the AI, which managed several countervattacks out of the fortified area and reinforced it's positions when it could.

I felt that the game was realistic and I had taken significant losses, there was no quick victory.[:)]

[Greyshaft]

I've halted this AAR until I can figure out why I can't attack Belgium and Holland

EDIT: Apparently I can't attack BeneLux until the first patch is released
When that happens I will restart the campaign
This is Grand Campaign with free German setup for Armor

[jjdenver]

In a PBEM game of this early start scenario the Germans were able to attack Netherlands and Belgium on turn 2 or 3 - not sure why it's not available for you vs the AI.

As a side-note if you try this scenario PBEM I think it's an unstoppable German strategy to go France first then Sealion. The French and British just get too little income to stop it, so probably this isn't a great scenario for PBEM play.

Maybe I'm wrong though - hope so. But I'm sure that a conquest of France with this scenario can't be stopped. The German armor rolling through Belgium into France is just too much to even slow down with the early start and the very limited French income and you can expect Paris to fall by October end most likely. However I guess Vichy isn't offered when the Germans get to Paris this early so Germany has to take all of France - very easy to do vs the limited French forces and income but it will probably take them until Dec 39.

[henri51]

???...