Dragoons at Haut le Wastia - France ´40

From Skirmish Campaigns: France ´40 The Ghost division

A couple of weeks ago Magnus and I started to play a skirmish campaign that we been planning and
collecting models for awhile. Magnus been collecting and painting germans and I the mighty army of France. There are four books in the Skirmish campaign series that lets you to replay Fall Gelb. We started with France ´40 - the Ghost Division, with the intention to try and play all the mission and in the future all the four books. Some of the scenarios have alot of tanks, and our intention is to scale them down to half the amount.

The first scenario is called "Dragoons at Haut le Wastia" and recounts the fighting around the village Haut le Wastia, close to the Meuse river. On the 13th of May the French planed a major counter attack at the german bridgehead at Houx, but after some delays it amounted to nothing more than some probing actions. In the morning of the 14th, the french troops tried again to attack the german forces that had set up defences in the village. As the germans hadnt got anything across the Meuse in the form heavy support or tanks it came down to some motorcycle troops to hold Haut le Wastia and the bridgehead.
The mission was for the french forces to capture at least two of four buildings from the germans. To my disposal I had:

• 1 Platoon HQ
• 3 Infantry squads in trucks and buses
• 1 MMG

The germans were comfortly defending the buildings with:

• 1 Platoon HQ
• 2 Infantry squads

For some extra Fog of war we added our rules for blindes, the germans got one for each unit plus one for being veterans. As the French was regular they got one per unit. In short they work as this, the player may choose to start a unit as a blind marker. (You can see a brown one in the picture below) The blind can move 12" and isnt affected by terrain. If the blind hasnt been activated yet, you can choose to remove it and replace it with the unit its represents. Each time a unit activates it can choose to try and reveal a blindmarker from the opponent in its line of sight.

I went into the mission without caution, my three infantry squads mounted on their transports charged right into the square trying to hide behind their trucks as they dismounted. The first house they went into was empty so that was no problem. One house secured! The next one wasnt that easy as the german MG34s started to shoot at french dragoons. To make it safer to get around I tried to lay a smoke screen with my riflegrenades. But sadly the wind removed the smoke at the worst moment and much of my force was decimated by the machinegun fire.

I tried a desperat assault on the second house but the german lieutenant held the top floor of the house so by the end of the game it was contested. The gemans still held Haut Le Wastia.

We both had great fun, a real intense battle and we are looking forward to the next mission: Bottleneck at Onhaye. Where the germans are trying to breakthrough the french line with their panzers. The only AT assets the french has in that scenario is the formidable 47 mm gun, Merde!