France '14 - Driving the Wedge Feedback & Discussion

[BigDuke66]

Hi
Having played this scenario(1914_0818_01s: Driving the Wedge) now a few times I want to put my collected observations up for discussion.
Main source is the official German history of the First World War "Der Weltkrieg 1914 bis 1918" more precisely Volume 1 "Die Grenzschlachten im Westen" from 1925.


- Placement of Victory Objectives could be reconsidered because the Belgian Army except in Tirlemont did not put up much resistance but fell back and withdrew to Antwerp. Currently the Belgian Player seems to think he is forced to hold the frontline he starts in, but the real target should be to extract as much of the Belgian Army as possible, also because delivering a deceive blow to the Belgian Army was the goal of the German Army and an escape to Antwerp was not wanted.
Also on the 19th August II. Korps and 2. KD faced heavier resistance near and West of Aarschot but the rest of the 1. Armee faced only rearguards and reached a line that was running north-south several kilometers West of Louvain by the evening.
So in light of these two points maybe some victory objectives should be placed not only further West but also more between Louvain and Antwerp to simulate the importance of an open way to Antwerp for the Belgian Army.
What surely should be done is to add some clues to the notes so the Belgian player knows what options he has, just like in the Liege scenario.

- In conjunction with the above I recommend to extend the scenario by 1 turn to give more time for the Belgian player to escape to Antwerp.

- Let the 2. KD come in on the 19th as it was doing recon far North and West(Off map) on the 18th, it was ordered at 10.00 in the morning to advance in the direction of Aarschot and Brüssel but because of the great efforts and the heat of that day it stayed around Osterloo what is about 2km North-West of Eindhout what itself is just 1 hex off map to the north.
This will also make room to allow one division of the II. Korps to move along the North edge to Aarschot like it was historically ordered.

- Extend map 1 hex north so that a main road movement is possible to Aarschot to make it likely that the German player follows the historical order to move over Veerle to Aarschot.

- Overall II. Korps should be moved slightly back, and III. & IV. Korps even further this will allow the Belgiums on1 turns out of sight of the German forces to withdraw or optimise the defense.

- Place one division of II. Korps into a North-West march direction(Tessendorf) to make the German player follow the historical order to move over Veerle to Aarschot, because the II. Korps was ordered to advance north of the Demer.

- Although the 2. Armee didn't take part in this action it was marching in the direction of the southern end of the Belgian army, its forward corps reach Opheylissem(VII. Korps), Wasin(X. Reserve-Korps) and Branchon(X. Korps) on the 18th what is about 10-15km East of the southern part of the Belgian Gette line, adding these forces on the map will very likely bring the Belgian player to save the Belgian army rather than holding the ground to fight a futile fight.


Discussion of the above points is welcome, especially if someone could dig up a good source for the Belgians and their actions in this scenario.