France '14 AAR Uncovering the Enemy's Hand!

[Mr Grumpy]

Iverny, France, 5th September 1914: As von Kluck was executing his shift in direction away from Paris, he left behind his only remaining reserve formation: the IV.Reservekorps. His orders to the IV.Reservekorps commander, von Gronau, were to screen 1.Armee's flank against any "minor" threat from the direction of Paris. When von Kluck issued this order he was thoroughly convinced that he had already enveloped the allied flank and no serious enemy threat was located any further west from his position. On September 5th, von Gronau began to notice heavy enemy activity to the west and, although he was unable to completely ascertain the situation, he quickly came to the realization that it was much more than a minor threat. Von Gronau, a bold and able commander, made the fateful decision to launch an attack in order to properly gauge the threat. Thus, the Battle of the Marne began one day earlier than the French planned. As von Gronau's troops conducted their reconnaissance in force, it would ultimately uncover the enemy's hand and provide an early warning to 1.Armee of the impending attack, thus allowing von Kluck to avoid disaster and reinforce his right flank.

This is a small 5 turn scenario, the French side was played by Checkmate King2 (Chad) and Foul. (Darran) played the Germans, the AAR will be from the German POV only.

Setting the scene



As explained in the scenario description Von Gronau's IV Res Corps is conducting a reconnaissance in force to ascertain the strength of the French forces approaching from the west, the key ground in this encounter will be the high ground to the east of St. Souplets and Penchard (see image above), defenders have a huge advantage when occupying high ground due to the defencive benefits and the ability of MG and especially field gun (FG) units to project their firepower over several hex's.



Von Gronau's IV Res Corps consists of two divisions (7th & 22nd both C quality) and weak elements of the 4th Cav Div which are covering the flank to the north.
The French forces consist of the two divisions of Group Lamaze (56e DR mostly D quality with a couple of C quality battalions and 55e DR all D quality), their best troops are in the independent Moroccan brigade to the south east, all of these units are B quality.



The Germans move first, over the 5 turns they need to take more than 250 points in VP hex's or French loses to achieve a minor victory.