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Kanitatlan said:
The problem I have with all the "keep the capital out colmar" strategies (thats what happens if you take the rest of France) is that they take too long. The level 10 forts in the maginot line can keep their troops supplied for a very long time and therefor this doesn't cut short the time to conquer France.

The trick I have been trying to achieve is to persuade the French that they should commit virtually all of their forces outside the Maginot line but it takes several months to tempt them all out.

One option is to find a way of containing them that takes sufficiently few troops that I can proceed with the conquest of eastern europe and the USA without completing the French campaign.

One other possible option is to change the rules and go for fastest conquest / victory, i.e. fastest defeat of the allies and the comintern. With this objective the Vichy option would be permitted.

Another idea: setup Vichy really fast, then declare on Vichy, you will take a dissent hit for the declaration on a facist country but it will definetly speed things up!
 
Kanitatlan said:
The problem I have with all the "keep the capital out colmar" strategies (thats what happens if you take the rest of France) is that they take too long. The level 10 forts in the maginot line can keep their troops supplied for a very long time and therefor this doesn't cut short the time to conquer France.

The trick I have been trying to achieve is to persuade the French that they should commit virtually all of their forces outside the Maginot line but it takes several months to tempt them all out.

One option is to find a way of containing them that takes sufficiently few troops that I can proceed with the conquest of eastern europe and the USA without completing the French campaign.

One other possible option is to change the rules and go for fastest conquest / victory, i.e. fastest defeat of the allies and the comintern. With this objective the Vichy option would be permitted.

I suspected there was a catch somehwere :)
 
Flashblade said:
Another idea: setup Vichy really fast, then declare on Vichy, you will take a dissent hit for the declaration on a facist country but it will definetly speed things up!

This is a sensible idea which I obviously haven't thought about properly. I did play a test game where I Vichyed France and then investigated if there was any way of cancelled the puppet status. Obviously there ought to be a gap between the Vichy event and the Puppet event where I can declare war but what happens when the make puppet event triggers anyway (it is triggered by Vichy simply existing).

There's only one way to find out.....
 
Drawing French out of Maginot

Kanitatlan said:
The "finishing off" for France takes months and is a substantial drain on the available time. I can't help thinking there must be a better way, a way that draws the French away from the Maginot line or, one way or another, weakens it enough to be captured.
So any suggestions? What alternative plans for invading France will better deal with this? Or should I do a game with the objective of Axis victory rather than solo victory?

Suggestions please
(quote is added after my original post)

Although this took place under more "normal historical circumtances" (some time in 1939) i guess it is still an applicable strategy for drawing France out of the maginot. (actually it is probably easier achieved the earlier you set it up...)

As I recall it, it was my first 1.06c game, so bear with me if I miss out on some details. (game v.hard /fur. playing rather historically as Germay up to app. 1939.)

The strategy is to allow a front being set up in Germany.Simply let France wander two provinces into germany (there should be one province between them and the MagL. Here you should contain any further progress with a the maximum number of vanilla inf you could spare from the fighting in northern France.
Blitzt through france from behind, and attack the now empty maginot line (need I say speed is of the essense - use your fastest available units-and hold the land with slow moving units). The blitz into the northern provinces of France should start (after taking the critical Dutch and Belgian province don't bother to defeat any more dutch or Belgian troops than needed, they are easily finished when France falls, and most important they do not seem to counterattack). I cannot recall The map of Belgium, but I seem to remember, that Belgium should be allowed to keep their eastern province in order for the two zone buffer to the MagL to be intact.
When i did this France had a few divisions retreated from inner france to the lower maginot line zone (from my Blitz), but they were out of org, and soon retreated into Germany (held by France) Time a counteroffensive which occopy the forces in their newly occupied German zones as soon as your Blitz moves into the empty zones west of Maginot)

After this France is finished.
I didn't bother to take Paris before after the fall of the Maginot line, but I did make some skin-attacks on both Paris and the western French provinces to keep their forces from moving too much around.

the Trick is really to allow France & the allies to move forward, thus abandoning the MagLine and setting up a front i Germany instead.

As I said I don't remember all the details, but I guess you get the picture.
Using the two parameters of falling back and Blitz, this is the fastest full occupation of France I have yet achieved, and since the rest of the allies are easily rounded up I only lost a minimum of MP in my divisions.

I call this tactic the "Scorched earth of Germany" - why should only the russians be allowed :p :p
 
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Zuckergußgebäck said:
And this has what to do with this AAR?

Answer:

Kanitatlan said:
...
These troops then fan out across France attempting to occupy as much territory as possible. The main force heads east to engage the French army at Paris or just East. It is relatively easy to achieve the offer of the Vichy peace but then I have a problem. Because the French hole up in the Maginot line it is extremely difficult and time consuming to finish them off. I end up tempting them out, more than once, by offering free access to Paris and finally overwhelm them by a concentric attack on the maginot line.

I deploy the second wave of infantry divisions to Canada and use them to invade the USA whilst the battle of France is completing. The problem with defeating France is not lack of troops but the invulnerability of the Maginot line.

The "finishing off" for France takes months and is a substantial drain on the available time. I can't help thinking there must be a better way, a way that draws the French away from the Maginot line or, one way or another, weakens it enough to be captured.

So any suggestions? What alternative plans for invading France will better deal with this? Or should I do a game with the objective of Axis victory rather than solo victory?

Suggestions please
;)
 
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olympia said:
...The strategy is to allow a front being set up in Germany.Simply let France wander two provinces into germany (there should be one province between them and the MagL. Here you should contain any further progress with a the maximum number of vanilla inf you could spare from the fighting in northern France...I call this tactic the "Scorched earth of Germany" - why should only the russians be allowed :p :p

looks good to me. :cool: