F 14 Campaign scenario observations

[Volcano Man]

Well, it is certainly not a bad idea; all I can say is try it out. You certainly can't expect a historical result if you did it, but I think the point is you are trying to avoid the historical result. ;) It would be interesting to see how two humans would manage the situation and, like I said, if need be I would consider adding in more wired bridges out west to... "gently deter" that option from being a golden bullet type action (if it turned out to be that).

A few other things to remember off the top of my head is that there really isn't that much time to go from the starting point to the Marne (and beyond), so any lateral movement would have to be quick, and from the sound of it a whole day could be spent doing just that, moving. 158 turns might seem like a lot of time, but 20 turns might pass before you can pull of what you want. It doesn't take much to block the path of an army; a defended bridge here and there, a screening force of cavalry at key road junctures, etc, you get the idea. The AI on the other hand probably won't manage to do much of any of that though.

Also, if you are moving the 2.Armee west to cover the gap vacated by the 1.Armee, then the French 5e Armee (which is a very powerful formation) will be free to disengage and do whatever it wants. This is certainly not desired, as the Germans must attack the 5.Armee all out immediately with all available strength, because you have to break it down while it is in a vulnerable disposition. If you don't do that then, well, who knows what will happen beyond the first day, but with a human controlling the 5e Armee -- it will certainly not just sit in the Sambre-Meuse angle and wait for you to trap it from the rear. The CdC, while fatigued, can and should also be sent to the west to help delay the 1.Armee, which it did, and if no attack is occurring on the 5e Armee, then the human should send the full 18e CA straight west to help there, and use it in the formation of the 6e Armee (which starts to form only 6 days into the campaign). So there is another two formations that you might not be thinking of.

In short, the allies did send whatever they could out west to try to contain a flanking maneuver, everything they did was out of an emergency to contain the German advance. What you see on the map as far as the allies are concerned is not how they will remain, but again it all depends on if you are playing against the AI or not. Doing what you describe might certainly be the ticket to defeat the AI though.