F 14 Campaign scenario observations

[Dog Soldier]

With all due respect, I think you might be a little too timid of the BEF. Are they powerful? Certainly, without a doubt they are, yes. They aren't mythical though, and whether you engage them on the Canal du Centre or not, you will still run into them again along another canal or river between there and Paris. The sooner you engage them the better, you can't just keep avoiding them / running from them.

IIRC from reading about this campaign, it was a combination of good British marksmanship, fire discipline so to speak, and the German use of large blocks (literally!) of men when attacking. The blocks were left over tactics from the attack column formations of the Napoleonic wars. The British rifles were .303 caliber IIRC from memory and had a high muzzle velocity. Thus it was remarked by British soldiers at the Mons that "each bullet found two or more billets", a phrase that sends chills when you think on it's true meaning.

I suppose that casualty rates should be attributed to the difference in quality between the BEF and German 1st Army units to simulate this issue at Mons. The BEF quality will degrade from prolonged contact as Ed suggests. It was the lesson from the assault on the canal that caused the German 1st Army to then make the successful flanking moves that forced the BEF back to the Battle of the Marne positions. Sounds like the game has this quite correct.

After Mons the Germans did not attack again in "large blocks of men". At least I do not recall reading that they did. I am not certain of the formations used by the Germans in the Slaughter of the Innocents later that year. That disaster has been ascribed to a lack of training for the young German college recruits. Easily modeled by the quality of the units.

Dog Soldier