Just simply can't take France.

[wesleytj]

Not fun to be called either of those. I think you misunderstood the intention of my post. And I perhaps should have been more clear. I was not asking in general how to beat France. I have 2800 hours played. And most of the times, I played as Germany. And I have taken France 50 or so times with Germany, and sometimes through the Maginot line for fun. The thing is that right after the patch. I met an absurd number of UK forces in Belgium. Belgium is around 6 provinces big. And each one of them had 3-4 divisions of Belgian and French origin, and then 8-12 UK divisions in each province. I have not seen that before EVER. However I played on Ironman and I was past that point and had to recreate the situation. However this time I played on the beta and I am not sure, but at the beta (where the provided save was), all the UK divisions wasn't there of course and I could rush through Belgium to Paris as I normally do.

Actually, that's optimal for the Schlieffen plan to work. You WANT the Brits and French to rush into Belgium to defend there, just as the actual allies did in 1940. The bulk of their army was in Belgium, and then the Germans went around it and cut them off. All you need is one tiny breakthrough, and that whole stack is trapped. You just need to follow your tanks with infantry through the gap fast enough that they can't break back out easily. Again, nothing a-historical about any of that - it's exactly what happened.

 

[Skylax]

Honestly, I think the problem was attacking with inf and not with medium tanks. If you attack with inf, battles take days with the new retreat mechanic as divisions can always retreat out of battle while others still fight, replenish their org and then reinforce a couple of days later. A battle without breakthrough takes forever and gives the UK or France enough time to bring even more divisions to the front.

You can not attack chokepoints withouth tanks. An all out inf attack on SU might be doable, but 14 dug-in Belgian divisions will withstand attacks carried out by 1 or 2 tanks divisions. Send at least 5 med tanks through Luxemburg which gives you another province to attack Belgium from and, more importantly, enables you to attack France directly. Essentially, this is how it was done historically as well, which caters to your needs. Don't forget to hit the attack bonus button as well and it's really more difficult to not beat France.

I think what made people "engaged" was the way the thread was presented. Starting off by citing hours and therefore blaming the game when the problem clearly does not correspond with other's experiences, may not be ideal.