5PD encounters minor setback in France

Having missed the first week of the campaign, light companies from 5th Panzer swarmed into France, making tremendous progress before being blocked by French forces under Le Nicque (bolstered by a truly unflappable platoon of British Guards, who no doubted caused the Frenchies to perform uncharacteristically well).

This was my first EW FOW game, and I must say I love it!!!! It's truly awesome. Playing the Germans, I learnt (a bit late) that manouver is key to victory. Static units like my 88s need to be carefully deployed as the rest of the force is highly mobile.

As it turned out, I could have deployed those deadly guns better. They didn't get much chance to shoot, but when they did, they easily disposed of their targets. But overall, my light tank company accounted for themselves really well, fighting the Anglo-French force to a standstill before being forced to fallback to regroup (how about that for well-crafted propoganda?).

I was slightly disappointed by my Stukas. French air cover was more effective than expected, driving away my Stukas about 5 times, but the couple of times the Stukas did come in they were pretty deadly.

It was also loads of fun to use the Pz I and early Pz IIC tanks. Being Armour 1 all-round, I really didn't worry at all about enemy firing into the flanks of those formations. The Pz III platoon were playing the role of heavy tank support for the company, and they were pretty effective as less mobile fire platforms.

Pz IIs are awesome! I might just see how I can form 2 platoons of those, as they are really effective tanks. The first kill of the battle (and the first kill by this brand-new army) was by a Pz II sneaking up the flank of a French Somua platoon.

There were a couple of short and sharp point-blank range tank melees. I think it's a valid tactic, but I need to plan and manouver those better next time.

My pioneers played their role really well. They were dug-in in forward positions on the left flank, and advanced with Pz IIIs and Pz IIs after the panzers and Stukas had softened up the enemy. Then they assaulted the enemy tanks, capturing the objective and promptly digging in to hold the objective.

Anyways, it was a blast! Had tons of fun, and learnt a lot from Le Nicque. Now I need to go find more Pz IICs!