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Faeelin

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So I'm playing a game as France, and I thought I was doing well; I even managed to annex Italy in the fall/winter of 1939/1940.

Then Fall Ghelb hit, and the Germans poured west like an angry God. I was simply outfought at every turn, and they vastly outnumbered me.

Is there any way to win as France? I'm trying to be non-gamey.
 
You could try extending the Maginot line along the border with Belgium. Level 10 land forts are a great equaliser. Did you lose anything in the invasion of Italy?
 
Land Fort 10 + FTR, send some amphibious assault to Wilhemshaven and create a second flank which should open up space on the Maginot for you to push through.
 
Well, I don't know just how gamey it is to train Militia units instead of Infantry, but I noticed that this allows you to have a far greater amount of troops available faster as they are produced at least twice as fast.

I usually set them to be upgraded to Infantry and pretend they're hastily raised infantry divisions that were given mothballed equipment.

Then again, this is what I usually do in a '33 Germany game to get a somewhat tolerable division count, but it should work for a France game as well, especially if their main job is to fill trenches and clog up the borders.

I'm not promising anything, especially not on higher difficulties.
 
mass militia with arty and spam arty on everyother unit, and try to get small arms assembly line ASAP. When the germans come you can hold at France itself with ur mass militia - arty.
 
Militia are not gamey, but historical
True infantry divisions were active (peace time) divisions (1st 'Welle'/wave for Germany) and first line reserve div (série A for France, 2nd Welle for Germany)
Further reserves were second line divisions, initialy lacking training and/or equipment and can be simulated with militia (2-3 inf training regiments) with/without art brigade (1 art regiment).


Germany had in sept 1939 : 35 active infantry divisions in the 1st Welle and mobilized 52 reserve infantry divisions :
- 17 from 2nd Welle (infantry)
- 21 Landwehr/territorial from 3rd Welle (militia + art brigade), the 50th div built from border units will be upgraded to 2nd and later 1nd Welle
- 14 from 4th wave divisions, 8 div will be assigned to the reserve Heeres Gruppe C behind the Sigfried Line (militia or garisson)

On 10 May 1940, the Wehmacht had increased by
- 43 divisions from 5th to 10th Welle (militia)
- 4 'Oberrhein' div (garisson)
- 4 garisson from border guards
- 1 waffen SS infantry division (Polizei)

France had in sept 39 : 22 active infantry div (4 are in North-Africa) and mobilized 45 reserve infantry divisions + 4 reserve mountain divisions in the Alps:
- 15 from série A (infantry)
- 16 from série B (militia + art brigade)
- 8 divisions d'Afrique (militia/art and security units)
- 2 moroccan divisions (territorial/security units)
- 1 north-african division (infantry)
- 3 colonial divisions (infantry)

On 10 May 40, French army had increased by
- 3 newly built infantry div (infantry)
- 1 polish division (infantry)
- 5 more african/colonial divisions
- 3 light infantry division (mountain) from existing units
- 2 polish brigades + half-brigade from foreign legion

In the same way, UK mobilized in two waves 24 more divisions (6 motorised) in two waves.
8 reserve units went in France in the B.E.F :
- 5 were territorials (militia/art)
- 3 worker division without their art regiment (militia), lacking training and assigned to supply duty (militia)

So in 1940 all countries used also 2nd line divisions on the front
 
ok so you dont want to be gamey...

then youre dead. good luck with germany's army sweeping through the ardennes and belgium and netherlands and basically everything because DAMN IT JUST EXPAND THE DAMN MARGINOT LINE!
 
I never lose as France but what I use could be considered gamey but then again I find it quite plausible. Do not extend your forts, simply mass your whole army on the border and take military control of the allies (the ones you can) and send their armies to France, it's rather funny since you have a huge army, literally twice that of the Germans, whole Aussie one, Canada, New Zealand and south africa, might not seem much but when Canada has 12-15 divisions, Aussie has the same and the other two have 5 each, you got a good 35-40 division army which grows as well. Historically it wouldn't be advised as if a loss occurred the whole allied army would be wiped out but you never lose. Gamey or not?
 
Allies were able to do amphibious operation in 1940 in Norway (british around Trondheim, french at Bjerkvik/Narvik), but Wilhelmshaven would have been suicidal, with the proximity of german bases and better coastal defenses.
 
I was able to hold at the Meuse and eventually push through the Balkans via allied Yugoslavia and Turkey while 'rping' without any of the above strategies. Built bombers, motorized, armor, and inf-art at a reasonable rate, and even some ships and IC. Just get most of your troops ready on the German and Belgian borders (I left two corps in each Italian/Libyan border province and later dropped down to one each, and ignored any sub-saharan divisions), and be ready to rush into Belgium. Hold along the Meuse, three provinces in Belgium plus Nijmegen and Longwy. Take mil control of the Low Countries and be quick with support defence. Support makes divisions move through these small, high-infra provinces really fast so you can throw lots of divs into a single prov battle without compromising the line. Don't go on the offensive until at least 1941. Britain will start pressing Euro minors into the allied camp, and you can mil control and start landing divs in their provinces once you've stabilized the Meuse front. The AI British will start attempting amphibious landings in northern Germany but they usually get crushed, and Stalin should attack Germany in 42. They fight for 6 months to a year before the Wehrmacht collapses in the eastband you can begin the race to Berlin, although you may well not be able to make gains on the western front until very late in the war.
 
Mil->Inf upgrade + Mil construction time is equal to Inf construction time. I don't know why anyone wouldn't just build Mil and convert to Inf. You get the unit faster.

It's VERY ANNOYING though to manually reassign each's upgrade to Infantry. There needs to be a mass upgrade path change button.