There are four ways into France, and any thoughts I had of cowering behind concrete from Dunkirk to the Riviera ended when podcat said the other day that forts would still be omnidirectional – it means that a single breach anywhere is probably terminal. The price of all those forts is paid by a greatly diminished army and airforce, who now find those massive guns and minefields have miraculously swung 180 degrees to face west. It negates the whole purpose of the Maginot – to try and compensate for their severe manpower shortage vis a vis Germany. Quite rightly, the game also says that army reform isn’t possible if the line keeps growing and the old thinking prevails.
4 isn’t going to have the lumpen predictability of 3, so with any luck, building north to the Channel will just prompt Germany to do a Tannenbaum through Switzerland instead. Hopefully the game will also emulate the political consequences of extending the line, alienating the Belgians and their naïve hopes of neutrality, pushing them towards an enemy from whom they now have no defence. I also don’t want a fifth way of entry through a fascist Spain, so I’ll do what it takes to ensure Franco loses – yet another reason to use my factories to make other stuff than bunkers and barbed wire.
I’ll be supporting de Gaulle, who despises Brits and Americans only marginally less than he hates the Germans. What his views were on the petite entente I’ve no idea, but that’s the way I’m going to go. The entente gives me manpower parity with Germany, and not sinking everything into the Maginot frees up the resources to build a small but perfectly-formed army and airforce. I don’t think de Gaulle would be ‘offensive’ in the sense of rushing in at the first opportunity, but would counterpunch hard if Germany overextends herself. As for Mussolini, he’s an opportunist who will only kick if his opponent is down. If AI Italy acts strictly in her own best interests, she will wait and see which way the wind is blowing before coming through the Alps.
