The German 5th and 7th Panzer Divisions exploited a rift in the French 10th Army's line. Despite Allied efforts along the Andelle River, their defenses crumbled, revealing a glaring vulnerability. In the early hours of June 8th, the German 5th Panzer Division launched its attack, swiftly overwhelming British positions and plunging the battlefield into chaos. By approximately 1600 hours, the lead German units encountered a determined British blocking position six kilometers north of Rouen. Major Syme, leading a makeshift unit comprised of Territorial Army troops, put up a valiant rear-guard fight.
Attacker: German (5th Panzer Division)
Defender: British (Provisional Battalion, Beauman Division)
Note that horrible mistakes were made in our playing, so the feedback it likely not representative for this scenario!!
I played the Germans. First thing I got wrong was the exit area specified in the VC. A15 to J15 ONLY, i.e. West of the Pond ONLY. I believed that P15 & Q15 would also be an option, which was wrong. Next mistake: I set up the German tanks on board instead of having them enter in Turn 1. Misled by my original VASL file (I have corrected the version available here in the Scenario Archive by now.), my opponent believed in the exit possibility of P15 and Q15 as well.
Due to these blunders, I set up entirely in the eastern half aiming at exit via P15 & Q15. We only noticed the tank setup error after a short while into the game.
Because we did not want to start over, and my tanks had all moved into the K11-Q7 treeline, we decided to "counterbalance" the delay that this would impose on my moving to the other side against setting up the tanks onboard.
I was able to overcome 1.5 squad equvalents, an MMG, the ATR, and one British Leader at the cost of one PzII, a German HS and some time. The German infantry shifted from the east to the center, where most of the British forces were deployed. The British ATG was lurking in H13, which was bad for me as I had sent the remaining PzII into the central Stream passing three bog checks altogether. The PzI reversed out of Q7 Woods to move to H7. The area around the bridge had been poisoned with AT mines (which we also botched by only placing them onboard after game start).
Improbably, I was able to pick up the AT mines in two hexes with infantry, surviving low PF @ -2 shots. Then the PzI charged through the third AT minefield along the Woods Road and broke thorough, gacking an OVR en route. The attempt to foil the mine clearing and stopping the tank allowed my infantry to gain a foothold west of the stream. Some melees in the center neutralized some of his and my units for a while, which hurt the British more than the Germans.
In the end, it came down to whether a few British HS in the F14 Stone Building would be able to stop my Germans, mostly hunkered down in the D13 stone building to exit. The PzI had already escaped by the time. My opponent was very unlucky not to his the remaining PzII when it emerged from the Stream to rush for the exit, though the accompanying armored assaulting infantry was stopped. So two tanks (with AL) were out for 12VP. I needed to exit only 3VP of infantry now. Once more, bad luck for my opponent when he malfed his remaining MMG. After that, I could exhaust the firing options and impose target selection limits which guaranteed that I could exit the remaining 3VP.
Still fun scenario despite having gacked so many things. But our playing is ill suited to learn anything from it for a "normal" playing. By gut feeling, both of us believe that the Germans will have an edge in this one.
2025-12-04
(A) Andy Bagley
vs
Mike Grogan
German win
3 hrs
Good little scenario with plenty of options for both sides. As the Germans I chose to send my main attack on the West side with just a couple of units flanking on the East edge. The British chose to fall back from the woods line rather than face heavy fine, but couldn't quite put together a strong enough defence to hold back the German advance. In the end they weren't able to defend both sides of the board strongly enough, and the Germans achieved their 10 exit VPs (including one tank going off in reverse!) on their last turn.
