First Steps with Armored Knights: Guderian Crosses the Meuse

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I purchased a copy of Grognard Simulations' Armored Knights: Guderian Crosses the Meuse (GCtM) from the Mark Ruggiero estate recently. I have my commitment in on the upcoming Armored Knights Case Blue - Don Bend and will be helping playtest AKCB Stalingrad at ConsimWorld this summer.

I figured I needed some practice ahead of time, and GCtM has a compatible game system in a single map game.

I have the map under plexiglass at the office. I marked it up with the setup formation boundary lines and German limit of advance line.

I tried a single turn exercise between a Panzer division and the French 5 DLC. The German setup is about right, though with the wrong division, and the French are setup OK-ish.

This second picture shows the end of the German Ops phase in the first turn. 5 hasty attacks were delivered by various stacks of Germans, pretty much blowing through the French. The French lasted about as long as I expected but they did prevent the Germans from rushing the bridges across the Meuse on that first turn.

This game system really allows for a fluid, dynamic application of force by the phasing player. A stack or group of stacks can move, Hasty attack, move and Hasty attack again under the right circumstances. Zones of Control are not sticky; instead they cost additional movement points to move through. This makes sense with the scale being 1000 meters to the hex. In AKCB the scale will be 2.5 kilometers per hex with the same soft ZoCs, so this is good practice.

I also tried just driving the Germans around the map. I started with the HQ units alone and then included some tactical units as well. In this "Sunday drive" , the Germans easily make it across any bridges on turn one and cross most of the map to the west exits in the turns of the first day, even in tactial mode, let alone using faster Exploitation or Strategic movement modes. In this game system, the defender needs to keep a coherent front if they can, or else the attacker can flank and bypass with ease. In GCtM, logistics are not an issue for the Germans, as the map is small enough that the XIX Corps HQ can supply the divisions anywhere on the map from a central location. I am eager to experience the logistical challenges of the Germans in AKCB on the steppes.

Coming up I intend to play a series of vignettes in GCtM

  • How quickly and successfully can the French blow all the bridges across the Meuse, particularly in the face of all three Panzer divisions?
  • River crossings, both opposed and unopposed, including raft assaults and pontoon bridge building
  • Germans attacking prepared positions. The French can pick their ground to the west of the Meuse and have a useful number of Hedgehogs and Fortified Hedgehogs
  • Withdrawals to secondary positions by the French
  • French counter attacks

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