"Entrenching is for cowAARds !" A French TFH AAR

GoodGuy Number1 said:

Should be interesting.
Subscribed.

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Thanks, I hope you will like it !

red_KLG said:

Hey Archam, its your first AAR which deserves the privilege of having my first comment, although I've been lurking in the AAR subforums for months

(Apologies also to the many many great AAR writers whose work I should have commented but I couldn't be asked to drop three words )

Anyway, I am really interested in your project. I want to get TFH myself but my self-preservation instinct says I should wait a couple of months and several patches .

I would agree with building your IC base (mind the constraint that you will have to support it somehow) and also clear the borders from IC and move them towards the Atlantic so you can enjoy some messy trench warfare in the Paris / former Maginot line but without the trenches. I would build all the IC needed at the prep-stage and save the brigades building for the actual game. That way you won't have to worry with managing the construction practicals... in all of my lost or abandoned games I end up without the required armies after waiting for one more IC wave to complete.

I also suggest a kind of a left government so you can eventually join the Comintern and have your WW3 french fries style But don't make it possible to join in 36 so Germany can still try on the Soviets (otherwise I think it will be a very unfair game).

Best of luck - I ll be certainly watching this

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It's an honnor for me to receive your first post, thanks !
I agree with you about building IC during the preparation phase, I will not have time for it later.
Modding in a leftist government would be fun, I will just change the ruling party and popularities accordingly to make me drift towards the Comintern from game start. Considering I'm at the other hand of the triangle I won't be abble to join the soviets before a long while so no worry. It will make for an interesting late game if I defeat Germany.

Barvinok said:

Heavy tank divisions for breakthroughs? I think France had some mean-looking heavy tank projects.

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Oh yes they had ! I will certainly try to field some of those .

Avindian said:

That didn't take long (for the first TFH AAR)

I'm really interested to see how this plays out, and I'm especially curious to see how TFH works with everything else. Should be a fascinating AAR!

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Thanks I'm also curious to see how this plays out.

LoftenHenderson said:

can't wait!

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You will not wait long the first update is here !

Gensui Yamamoto said:

Even a Normal 1936 start allows France to choose several different options, so scrapping the line will allow for major changes!


Armoured France:
Historically the French had some of the best tanks in the world at the outbreak of war, and so assuming the French develop a form of 'combined arms' approach to war, much like the Soviets did, a Heavy Armour france can be a powerful route to take. However its main achillies heal is that France doesn't have good oil supply, and so once that is gone you are toast.

I played a game a while back that even had me advancing on the Soviets after trouncing Germany until I ran out of oil. So an Armoured France route needs operations in the Middle East to gain you oil for your mechanised forces.


Colonial France:
What if France had been much more aggressive in her naval building policy to match Japan, Britian and Italy and had goals on North Africa, East Africa and futher in the Pacific and had gone down the route of fleets to match? Thus to start France off with a more powerful navy and the aim to expand her Empire across the world more against the Japanese and Italians than against Hitler?


Mega Airpower:
Rather than looking to the tank corps or navy, France looks to the power of the airplane to prevent another great war, instead trying to minimise the number of army units to conserve manpower, while maximising avalible airpower to win battles and war by bombing the enemy into the dust. Thus developing a strong heavy bomber wing and interceptor/cags for air control...?


The New Napolean:
Screw Hitler and his expansionist dreams, France is going to take Spain and Italy into her Western Empire and so dominant the continant before Hitler can even get his little dreams out of the Reichstag! All boots all guns France, starting WWII on her own to revitalise the nation while the Spanish infight, the Germans are still crippled by Versaille and before Mussolini can get his act together.

Then with the continant united as 'Grand France' relive the dream to march on Moscow!



Some suggestions..../?

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Good ideas I will basicaly try a mix of Armored France and Airpower. This is the best solution I can see, France doesn't have much manpower and can't afford to build tons of infantry, besides as the front is very narrow (at least at first) you can't commit too many units in battle, you must make sure each division count and the best way to do it is by armoring them !
The colonial ambition seems almost mandatory, I will need a lot of fuel and the closest sources are in the British colonies .

Without further ado, on to the update !

Update 1 :​

"Un nouveau départ"​

This first update will give you an overview of France right before the start of the game. I only modified it with the new tools and a bit of modding without actually starting to play.

A bit of (alternate) history :

After the first world war, the horrors of the conflict and the Russian revolution created a very tensed situation in France as well as most other European countries. As social revendications grew stronger and stronger and as the message of the Bolsheviks spread more and more, the French socialists faced a political dilemma : should they adopt a more radical position and answer Lenin's call or should they refuse it.

The question was settled in Tours in 1920. After intense deliberation, the socialist delegates voted, and, by an overwhelming majority, decided to join the Third International and form the SFIC, the French Section of the Communist International. However dissension quickly appeared between the newly formed French communist party and the Third International, despite Soviet instructions it refused to purge its own ranks and maintained a neutral stance in the conflict between Stalin and Trosky. Advocating for more compromising positions and a more democratic form of socialism the new party was very popular and, thanks to intense political propaganda and a strong presence in the working class, won the 1924 elections.

This victory took many by surprise and quickly put an end to France's relations with its former allies. The new governement started an ambitious project of social and industrial development. Slowly but surely old members of the army and the administration were replaced by young communist militants. World War One generals were removed from the most important positions when they were not simply trialled for their support to hold republic, amongst them André Maginot.
New military strategies, inspired by Soviet and German theoricians were introduced in the army and its very composition was changed.
However despite an undeniable improvement of living conditions for the working class and a quick growth of the French industry, France remains politicaly divided as many reactionary forces are still awaiting the right moment to exert revange. A dormant civil war amplified by the recent victories of the Nazi party in Germany. Facing both internal and external threats, France stands with a new army weakened by the lack of competent officers and the drastic changes it went through, will it be abble to resist to the upcoming wars ?

"Historical analysis" :

A left leaning France was suggested by red_KLG and I think it's a very convenient way to give a background and some "plausibility" to this alternate start. At first I just wanted a left wing governement which would make more sense, unfortunately HOI only offers communist ministers for a leftist governement, but oh well. What does it mean gameplay wise ? Not much. I start as a Left-Wing Republic and have communist ministers which are more or less competent. I have the vanilla laws and as I was in the Allies I am at the opposite end of the triangle from the Soviet Union, I'm not joining the Comintern any time soon. As you can see this is mostly for flavor.


The French government, I didn't really chose my ministers. I took the ones available which were not that many

Gameplay :

Let's start with techs, not much was necessary there. France starts with very good tech levels in most fields and only lacks some crucial doctrines. By removing a few points in naval techs I managed to balance things a little bit and to upgrade some of my industrial techs (education, IC production/efficiency etc.).

[url=http://postimage.org/image/f0ntph96r/][/URL]
The Land Doctrine screen, this is where most changes happened. The Red doctrines are the boosted ones, they used to be at the 1918 level.

Now onto the IC distribution. A good amount of it was spent on... more IC, around 25 more points total, which were all placed in Southern France around Bordeaux, Lyon, Marseille or Toulouse for example. These were not the only points spent in building though, I also upgraded airfields in Metz and Reims from level 4-5 to 8, they will be useful bases to repel the German planes.

Speaking of planes no less than 6 interceptor wings were deployed, as France starts with a surprising amount of tactical bombers, I did not build any.

[url=http://postimage.org/image/s8f9e9i1t/][/URL][url=http://postimage.org/image/lu6gt8z97/][/URL]
While industrial centers are built in the South, the North is preparing for aerial war.

The actual land army was not neglected, first of all, all infantry divisions received an artillery brigade, indeed most of them only starts with x3 Inf.
Two armored corps were build, at the moment those only contains Medium Armors but as soon as the tech is available, they will be updated to Heavy. I designed those units with the new combined arm system in mind. For those who don't know it yet it is no longer based around the softness percentage; instead units are divided between 5 categories (infantry, support, direct hit, armored and artillery) each of these category, exept infantry, grants a 5% combined arm bonus (but the same category doesn't stack with itself).
To try to maximise the bonus I went for x1 Arm/x1 Mot/x1 TD/x1 Engi, this gives my division a 15% combined arm bonus (see colors to know the category of each one).

I also tried to apply the concept to some of my infantry divisions which will be my "shock troops". They are composed of 10 : x2 Inf/x1 Art/x1 Engi divisions and 10 : x2 Inf/x1 Art/x1 Arm.Car divisions. So while those are still infantry divisions they enjoy a substential 10% combined arm bonus. As France can not really afford a massive amount of motorized troops, those "shock troops" will support the main armored force in the offensive and should hit a lot harder than traditional inf divisions.

[url=http://postimage.org/image/anl6tt2k1/][/URL]
Division designs and their combined arm bonuses illustrated by a quick photomontage

And that's where I left France today ! The production queue is still empty the clock has not started to tick and my heart is full of joy from using the new tools (organizing troops was so smooth) !
I hope you enjoyed this first update as much as I enjoyed writting it, if you have questions go ahead !


A bonus screenshot, amazing !The shock troops are in yellow and the armored corps in red.

sprites said:

yeah , or maybe you can just put the historical situation where the french army was quite more numerous than the german counterpart ...

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Yes but how do I explain why Maginot never built the line in this case, or why I'm not part of the allies ?

Avindian said:

Fascinating start. I'd ask that you edit your images a touch, perhaps by cropping them in Paint (which is what I do), which makes them easier to read for those of us with poor vision.

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Of course ! I will edit screenshots accordingly from now on, and tomorrow if I have the time, I will also re-upload already posted pictures.

oskar-kar said:

Subbed!

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Great!

Warkry777 said:

*Reads that AAR and starts crying*

Nooooo!! YOur AAR is almsot identical to the one i had started doing XD Bad boy, really bad boy!!

Nice start though. ^^ I'll soon post mine, and we'll see who's gonna win!! Who knows, perhaps we'll end up as completly different games ^^

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Ooooh don't cry .
I'm sure our AARs will complement each others.

red_KLG said:

More French AARs is great news. The country had great potential (in paper) and in terms of HOI, TFH can unleash it to the world.

Archam -very tasty update. As for your lack of oil, I am sure that Venezuela could help you one way or another, and you have two nice colonies in S. America with a port, though not sure whats the situation with the US guarantees in TFH. Also the 35 unity, did you do this on purpose? It will mess your game a bit since you won't be able to support your party effectively etc..

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The 35 unity seems to be a TFH feature, I'm very concerned about it as you can imagine, I will try to raise this number as hight as possible with my spies. For the oil I was actually thinking about Iran (assuming it's not garanteed by half of the world which it might be).

sprites said:

Hmm ... air-armored France it is.
did you edit resources according to additionnal IC?

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No, I will have to find way to fuel this new industrial base within the vanilla settings.

BootOnFace said:

Very fun. I always wanted to see a good French AAR in this subforum.

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Me too, French AARs are too rare, I hope this one will satisfy you.

horus3 said:

Can you explain me how did you to make your goverment communist from start? wich stepts did you follow?

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I will send you a PM with instructions if you want to reproduce it !



I will continue to play tomorrow afternoon and, assuming everything goes well, I will post the new update in the evening.