France 40 as Allies

May 9 2015

Tags

Wild game which swung to German then back to Allies.

If the Germans cross at Sedan on turn 1, it's a totally different game than if the French are able to hold for their turn 1 movement.

Getting that foothold at Sedan with no loss of forces allowed the Germans to punch the shit out of the defensive line. In four turns, everything between Sedan and Charleville wiped out.

Also, I didn't play with 2 panzer division stacks, and that makes a really big difference.

I've tried to maintain a line but next time I think the French need to pull way back as fast as possible to preserve units. Otherwise they just get chewed up. Basically, if they get through at Sedan, it seems pointless to try and hold a line, the Germans will just punch holes in at will.

However, at turn 5, Germans exited a panzer division and 2 mech regiments in southeast and east. This feels early to me, I may be able to cut them off from supply by the end of the game.

Between capturing GQG units in a zoc, and infantry units, the French can't get away, it costs 2 mps to leave a zoc.

Germans got a lot of DS results consistently getting 5:1 and 6:1 attacks.

However, around Turn 5 or 6, the Germans got sidetracked around Namur and chasing some French units around the western edge of the Ardennes. This turned out to be good news for the Allies, who were able to recover a defensive position to the west and preserve the north to south rail connection.

Additionally, the Allies were able to cut off supply to exit hexes previously closed off by German units.

Even better for the Allies, a last minute German rush to attempt to put the exit hexes back into supply allowed the Allies to cut supply to 10 mechanized units.

So the game went from looking almost hopeless for the Allies to a crushing defeat to the Germans.

Final score: 20 to 6

What to play next?

Deciding what to play next is always a tough call when faced with a closet full of games, all of which were purchased with intent to play. Here's one I'm dealing with the decision.

Something New: this means both something new to me and a game which has been published recently, within the last two or three years.
Something Classic: I've acquired a number of games properly considered "classic" which haven't yet been played. The current example would be PanzerGruppe Guderian.
Something Again: mastery requires constant practice, which means playing games many, many times to allow nuance to appear.
Something Vietnam: as I'm on a Vietnam binge. I don't have all the Vietnam games ever published, but I can say that I have a lot of them, and probably more than most people.
Something Obscure: as it's fun to poke around in the dustier corners of game design.
Something Different: break away from the same old publishers and try a game from one of the new kids on the block. Or, conversely, dip into legacy with a classic tried and true.
Something Light: once in a while it's nice to actually finish a game all the way through in one sitting, in an hour or two.
Something Heavy: if possible, it's nice to set up something big and complicated which can be left out for days or weeks or even months, for a leisurely stroll through a very large or long game.

There are surely many more ways to choose, but the above method keeps me busy enough, helps me get both breadth and depth into my play, and provides me with a sense of progress.

The odd man out

When there is an odd man out:

Have a solo game ready to play.
Keep score or advise on a game in progress.
Referee a game in progress.