At Manstein difficulty, you basically end up in a WW1-style war of attrition along the Meuse River, maybe later as well along the Rhone River (against the Italians). Overall, it is possible to hold France (as there is still the Seine River as well, just in case…) although the AI pushed into the Low Countries and also completely cleared the Maginot Line in Alsace-Lorraine. However, it’s not that easy to push the Germans back to the Rhine River, so time goes by and you get stuck…
At General difficulty, I pulled some forces out of Belgium and crossed the Meuse River east of Reims, pushing through the Ardennes and Luxembourg towards the Rhine (basically, the same as what the Germans did in reality, just in the other direction…). You can then cross the Rhine River between Mannheim and Frankfurt (with some heavy casualties) and by (around) turn 7 French tanks will reach Berlin…
Some additional thoughts/ideas on both difficulties: if you bring Dutch forces through the North Sea to Denmark, you can start an amphibious invasion into Northern Germany. In Southern France, it is also possible to conduct a preemptive strike into Northern Italy. In addition, you can bring more British forces from Plymouth to the coasts of Normandy and Brittany (only through Plymouth port though as the London port seems inactive).
I don't think I will prepare any AARs on these two playthroughs either as these "tests" weren’t that exciting (yet). As said, the Manstein one was more a Phoney War and the General one was basically over once I had crossed the River Rhine.
For the future, it would be really nice if the pre-Barbarossa scenarios can also be played in multiplayer mode, same as the big Barbarossa scenario… and yeah, not to mention a potential Battlefield Europe Allied/Soviet Corps (incl. campaign), of course!
