Some neck, some chicken

[John B.]

Well, I really can't get enough of the British Empire so here I am defending the West against the Nazi onslaught. In the opening turn RB attacked in Holland and Belgium and there seems to be a mysterious appearance of armor coming over the river at Sedan. Heavy casualties are reported on both sides up and down the front.

I abosoltly promise that I will not use historical hindsight to rush troops to prevent a German breakthrough at Sedan. If I happen to concentrate there then the only logical explanation is that I'm a better general.

The plan is to have Holland hole at at the Hague, Amsterdam, Rotterdam. They have a chance of giving up on turn two so any losses they cause are a bonus. As Brussels goes so goes Belgium so that's their job. The French are moving to the front.

The sound of exploding bridge resonates across western Europe.

[John B.]

Turn two the craven Dutch give in. What's a little terror bombing anyway. This nets the Germans 100 VP and is not entirely unexpected. French move reserves up and I've decided to let the BEF just sit and accumulate supplies and, hopefully, pull itself together a little bit.

[John B.]

Turn 3. THe Germans push to the gates of Brussels. The Belgians take heavy losses but hold firm and Brussels is still in Allied hands. The French move up and get two divisions into the city and reserves are behind the line. The British continue to resupply and hold together but don't seem to have improved much. Lots of German bombing and two German furballs wipe out allied air units

No allied attacks. I don't think these would really get me anywhere at this point. The only upside is that the Germans in the front lines look just a little tired.

[John B.]

Turn four and almost all of the fighting is concentrated up near Brussels. The Belgian troops have been steadier than expected while timely reinforcement from french divisions set to tactical reserve seems to have saved the day. Not much on the Sedan front. This is fine with me as my troops dig in.

Meanwhile, the Brits seem to have figured out that if they never actually resupply and never organize themselves then they're never going to have to get into the fighting.

[John B.]

Turn 5 saw the Germans attempt, and fail, to take Brussels. They had one attack with no allied casualties and some losses on the German side.

[John B.]

Overall there have not been a lot of German attacks in the game. And, thus far the allies seem to be holding their own.

[John B.]

Allied losses thus far. Not too bad (but I don't know if Dutch units that surrendered are included in these totals).

[John B.]

More allied losses.

[John B.]

And tanks. Hardly any tanks lost thus far.

[John B.]

Happy to keep city fighting around Brussels for as long as I can and to use and many Belgian troops as I can. I've identified 5 panzer divisions fighting up there so I think RB only has five more such divisions lurking somewhere.

The Brits are making progress in organizing and resupplying.

RB may be pushing through the Maginot line in the south. It's hard for me to watch the replay so I'm not sure. Right now the French army continues to be released so they are slowly moving to the front and taking some air interdiction along the way. Trying to keep reserves behind the front and units in Tactical reserve (I'm honestly not 100% sure what the difference is) but the reserves seem to have prevented some German victories thus far.

This turn I did two bombardments that caused a few German casualties and the Belgian division retook an empty Namur just to be annoying.

[John B.]

We've got another turn under our belts and RB is continuing the grind in Belgium trying to take Brussels and he has pretty much pushed through the Maginot line (helped by my lack of attention to that front) but failed in his attempt to take Metz. Starting this next turn there is a chance Belgium will surrender which would really open things up in Flanders. The Brits are getting rested and taking replacements so they should be in position if the dam breaks up there to try and hold back the Germans.

In the Metz area there were a lot of French divisions behind the lines that have now moved to the front and I continue to dig in near Sedan. Assuming the Belgians don't quit right now I have to say that I think the game is proceeding pretty nicely. No allied attacks yet, just some bombardments on his over stacked hexes.

[John B.]

Here is where the VP hexes are compared to the front line.

[StuccoFresco]

I don't know, if the belgians vanish it doesn't seem easy to plug the resulting hole in the front.

[John B.]

Thanks for the words of encouragement given that the Feckless Belgians just announced that they are packing it in. But, the Brits are now well rested and so moving into Flanders. I'll have to see how it all turns out.

The Germans did not make much progress this turn. Both Brussels and Metz held but if Belgium is leaving then Brussels is doomed. I did launch one counter attack that beat up three German divisions right around Brussels so I hope that can slow things down a bit. Otherwise, I basically did some bombardments and moved up more reserves.

[John B.]

The game is still on, there was just a slight pause for other things.

We are at the half way point and I can't say I'm too disappointed. There is a meat grinder going on at Metz with France currently in possession of the city and the Germans have finally taken Brussels. But, given that by this point historically the allies had already been split in two and Dunkrik may have happened (I'm too lazy to look it up right now) I'm not too disappointed. The game says I'm only winning a marginal victory. We shall see. This screen shot is from the start of the allied turn. I did a bunch of bombardments and roughed up a German division that had advanced too far past Brussels. The Brits are deployed and ready to take over when the Belgians disappear.

[John B.]

Almost all of the action this turn was in the vicinity of Metz. RB took a few more hexes of the Maginot line but held off all attacks in Belgium. Interesting choice. Metz is the prize down there. I tried to push the Germans away from one of the hexes he has next to Metz but, only two out of the three German infantry divisions retreated and, sadly, I took my units out of fortified mode for the attack so we'll have to see if he's too weak to push my troops out of the city.

[StuccoFresco]

How do the individual combats go? Are the Germans able to win fights or are you able to match them evenly?

[John B.]

Hi Stucco, based on a non-scientific analysis it seems to me as if the allies have the slight edge on the individual combats. Here are the results from the latest turn. This was more lopsided in favor of the allies than I've seen usually.

[John B.]

Then, during my turn I had a couple of very nice attacks that pushed the Germans back in a couple of places. However, at the very end of the turn I pressed my attacks and took some heavy damage.

[John B.]

Infantry and artillery losses to date. Nothing too awful here.