Re: stonne 5/40
I ended up trying the same scenario, and did not find it particularly difficult.
The attack from the top of the town came under fire from a 37 mm anti-tank gun and a couple of infantry squads. Anti-tank gun managed to damage one of the French tanks, knocking out the main gun, but after a couple of rounds of shooting it was finally spotted and destroyed. German infantry initially managed to inflict quite some casualties on the French infantry platoon, but once the ATG was dealt with one of the tank platoons started pounding the German infantry and after a couple of rounds the approach to the town itself was secure enough for the infantry to move to the edge of the town. In the meanwhile the second tank platoon spotted the German reinforcements advancing from the left - a few turns of shooting and all of the halftracks were burning on the road. Since there was little chance of damaging the StuGs at this range, I decided to ignore them for the time being and instead sent this platoon to support the attack on the town. Slowly and methodically the infantry and the tanks advanced into the town, with the infantry in the lead to spot the enemy, and the tanks immediately following up and pounding the defenders with their guns.
The attack from the right along the road went quite smoothly, though the German MG section managed to cause a bunch of casualties on the infantry advancing quickly along the road. However a moderate usage of smoke helped to cut down the losses and to cover the advance, and once the location of the MGs was spotted the tanks dealt with it quite swiftly - as well as with the single rifle section that was spotted a bit later. Eventually the tanks and the infantry advancing from this direction got to the edge of the town and started their own methodical advance from this direction.
In the meanwhile the StuGs had managed to make it to the town, and were engaged by my tanks at the close range. Their stubby L24 guns were not a particular threat to the French armour, though they managed to take one of my light tanks out with a point blank shots. In the meanwhile the French crews kept up rapid point blank fire with their equally puny 37 mm guns - eventually their rapid fire managed to find the weak spots in and two StuGs were left burning, with the third one ending up being blown apart by a flanking shot from one of the heavy tanks that had managed to make it up to the town. In case things had got tough I would not have hesitated to use my infantry to engage the StuGs in a close assault in the confines of the town, but this ended up not being necessary.
With the StuGs out of the play and all of the tanks and most of the infantry having reached the town, it was quite straightforward to roll over the rest of the defenders in the town with a swift attack. Once most of the victory hexes were under my control, the German infantry remaining on the left side of the town tried a counterattack, but this was quickly dealt with by the well-positioned French tanks.
Artillery did not play much effect in this game. The French 75 mm battery initially tried to pound the middle of the town, probably to little effect. Once the infantry started to advance into the town, I called off the fire as there was too high a risk to hit my own troops, and the guns would in any case have only limited effect against enemy in good defensive positions. The single German infantry gun did not achieve much more, firing in the general direction of the French infantry advancing from the top, and it was eventually dealt by one of the French tanks breaking through the town. Had this gun been firing at the road on the right, it might have been able to slow down the bunched up infantry advance along the road.
Perhaps I should try olaying through this as the German commander next.
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