Plan XVII it is, then!!
It is August 1914, and one French and one German division clash in a vicious encounter to the west of the French frontier.
This game was created using the Great War Spearhead Scenario Generation System. It was fought between Nick and Robin Sutton in Christchurch, New Zealand in December 2011.
The armies were all composed of Irregular 6mm figures and guns.
It's August 1914, and the German Army is pushing west in to France. The French Army, true to Plan XVII, is advancing east to meet them, and they have met here on this field of battle. The French army plans to hold them on the line of the river (admittedly running low at the height of summer). The German Army is intent on securing the crossings over the river before nightfall. On this short section of the river a French Division goes head to head with a German division in their attempts to reach their objectives.
The French Division commander advanced his division en masse towards the crossings, hoping to apply maximum force at the critical points on the battlefield.
Unknown to him however the German Division commander had found crossings further south, and three of his regiments had made the crossing earlier in the night. One of these, the 4th Regiment, had struck out deep from its crossing, marching through the night in the hope of biting into the flank of the expected French advance. The German 1st Regiment meanwhile had advanced on the German left to take the small village of Les Beaux Voisins that commanded the northern most crossing in its sector.
The German 3rd regiment was kept in reserve behind the 2nd, awaiting the arrival of the 4th to support its expected flank attack.
1st Regiment managed to occupy the village of Les Beaux Voisins, and the heights and woods behind it. French troops crossed the river and launched an immediate assault on the village supported by Corps 155mm guns. Withering fire came from the village, and the troops supporting them from the heights and the woods, as they went into the assault and this first French assault was bloodily repulsed.
In the meantime a regiment of German 77mm field guns had set up in support of 1st Regiment, and accompanied the Corps 150mm guns in bringing heavy fire down on the French 2nd Regiment trying to advance through the French centre. Casualties mounted at an alarming rate.
The German 4th regiment was held up in its attempts to hit the flank of the French advance, and finally arrived not deep in the French flank as planned, but alongside the reserve 3rd Regiment, right into the withering fire of the French left.
The French right launched a second attack on Les Beaux Voisins, having forced the German supporting troops back from the village, but they were once again repulsed bloodily. This prompted the German 1st Regiment to counterattack out of Les Beaux Voisons, across the stream and towards the Chateau in the French rear.
At the same time the French centre finally collapsed after continuing its attempted advance in the face of the accurate German artillery fire, and the entire French right and centre melted away.
In Scenario System terms it was a significant German victory with the German commander accumulating 9 VPs to the French 5. However it had been a tough fight for both sides.