Turn #4

Spotting

All the French Tanks can be seen. Most of the Germans can also be seen.

Command Phase

French Commands – The Tanks have Fire commands while the infantry, coming from off board, have Move commands.

German Commands –

Initiative Phase

French Initiative – 76 – 20 = 56

German Initiative Roll – 23

French win Initiative.

1st Air Phase

None.

Combat Phase

French Fire #1

French Fire #2

The 75mm Gun fires into the corpse of the PzIIC #2. Char B1-Bis #7 also fired into PzIIC #2.

Henri, look. The Hun tanks ARE firing on us.”

“Those bastards. Let’s show them what real firing looks like… OK Marc’s tank is also firing on those #&*@^#&@^%.”

BOOM, KABOOM.

“Uhhmm, OK that did it.”

“Actually, it kind of over-did it.”

Same two French tank guys in Char 1-Bis #6

French Fire #3

The 75mm Gun also fired on the burnt-out wreck of PzIVD #1. Also due to the fact that the French tanks have NO radios, they all have to fire on the same hex. Since there’s no other targets in that hex, we will just assume, they aimed for the PzIVD that just had its turret blown off.

German Fire #1

German Fire #2

German Fire #3

Instead fire at Char B1-Bis #5

German Fire #4

Movement Phase

German Movement – PzIIIF #1 and PzIIC #3 move closer to the French Behemoths.

Neutral Commentator: This brings up a minor issue that crops up with the Solitaire system. There are times when you roll for the enemy command and what you roll makes no sense. For instance, a unit is adjacent to a unit and is given a Move command when a Fire command would be more realistic. In cases like this I think you can handle it one of two ways. First, you can ignore the random roll and assign the enemy unit whatever command you think is more useful. Or, secondly you can just accept that command and find a way to justify it. In this case, had I been playing the Germans, I would have probably never fired and tried to maneuver to the rear or rear-side of the Char B1-Bis tanks. Or avoided them altogether and headed for the French Infantry.

Here’s the map after all the French Moves.

German Comment: I only moved the French Infantry in trucks 8 hexes instead of the full 12 they could have moved. I’d like to say I did this because I wanted to keep the trucks close to the H-39 tanks as part of my combined arms strategy but, quite frankly, I just forgot they were on a paved road.

2nd Air Phase

None.

Adjustment Phase

Neutral Commentary: Normally during this phase you would adjust turrets. In regular FTF games we would forget to do this, so we’d just adjust them on the fly (as long as we weren’t breaking the Turret rules). This is even worse in Solitaire games as you have more units to do things with. So, you’ll see the Solitaire units adjust during the turn sometimes. As long as you don’t break the TT (Turret Turn) rate this shouldn’t have any effect.

None.

Turn #5

Spotting

The French tanks are all spotted (not that their hiding) but the French infantry wing (with their 3 H-39 tanks) are not spotted.

Command Phase

French Commands – The infantry company will keep moving while the tanks in the rear will move away from the German tank directly behind them. The other 3 Char B1-Bis tanks will Fire.

German Commands

Initiative Phase

French Initiative – 8 – 20 = -14

German Roll – 72

German wins Initiative.

1st Air Phase

None.

Combat Phase

German Fire #1

German Fire #2

German Fire #3

Instead fire at Char B1-Bis #6 (Again. I mean really why are the Germans picking on Char B1-Bis #6).

German Fire #4

French Fire #1

French Fire #2

French Fire #7

Movement Phase

German Movement – Damaged PzIIC #2 valiantly rushes towards their doom as does Hidden Unit #7. Here’s the map right after PzIIC #2 completed his move and Hidden Unit #7 moved into the open.

French Move – Char 1, 2, 3 and 4 Move and are fired on by Hidden Unit #2.

Neutral Commentator – When the first set of French tanks appeared 8 hexes from Hidden Unit #2, they were not fired on as Hidden Unit #2 was Entrenching. However, when the first set fired they should have been fired on with OW at that time. We missed that. Instead we’ll just say that the guys in Hidden Unit #2 were waiting for next group of French to move and will fire now.

2nd Air Phase

None

Adjustment Phase

The H-39s adjust their turrets.

French Comment – I know bringing the infantry up close might not have been the best idea, but I need that group in hex V9 (the Stonne Village hex closest to me) to concentrate on the infantry so the Tanks can take them all out. Those H-39s should be able to do the trick. The Char B1-Bis tanks will just destroy everything in sight.

Neutral Comment: I’m not sure I would have brought the infantry up that far as I’m pretty sure all the Germans will concentrate on them. The good news is that they’re in Medium cover so they might (?) be safe. On the other hand, you’ve got to get the infantry into the fight sooner or later.

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Panzer Expansion #4 Solitaire Scenario #46 Replay Part 1 — Introduction and Turns 1-3