Has anybody got any ideas about how to play this.
Tried 2 games and always get blitzed by Germany in 1940.
Tried 2 games and always get blitzed by Germany in 1940.
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Just try lots and lots of garrisons with AT brigades. I haven't done it but it sounds a good plan.
There are several strategies available for the French in 1936.
The Frenchman
p just kidding, it should rather be called "the very patient backroom-planner")
Spend all IC on building factories in later Free French colonies. Sell your army, airforce and navy to UK or USA. Let yourself be overrun and surrender as soon as you can (Vichy), then plot your revenge from the colonies.
The Quaker
Build nothing but infantry and militia. Chose event options which make France more authoritarian and more interventionalist. Declare War on Germany as soons as you can and annex by 1938. Have a boring rest of the game or simply quit.
The Sissy
Build level 10 forts along Belgian border. Place 9 infantry divisions in each of those provinces. Fight the boredom, as Germany will never attack. Pursue an Italy-first strategy or wait for Barbarossa, when the Germans will wihdraw most of their forces from the West. Then race to Berlin.
The risk-taker
Build a large force of mobile units and infantry. As soon as the Germans invade, try to protect Belgium by using the terrain to your advance. Counter-attack, flank and probe your enemy while bombing him to shreds. Air superiority is a must! Slowly grind your way into Germany. Beware of Italy, though!
The Frenchman
p just kidding, it should rather be called "the very patient backroom-planner")Spend all IC on building factories in later Free French colonies. Sell your army, airforce and navy to UK or USA. Let yourself be overrun and surrender as soon as you can (Vichy), then plot your revenge from the colonies.
The Quaker
Build nothing but infantry and militia. Chose event options which make France more authoritarian and more interventionalist. Declare War on Germany as soons as you can and annex by 1938. Have a boring rest of the game or simply quit.
The Sissy
Build level 10 forts along Belgian border. Place 9 infantry divisions in each of those provinces. Fight the boredom, as Germany will never attack. Pursue an Italy-first strategy or wait for Barbarossa, when the Germans will wihdraw most of their forces from the West. Then race to Berlin.
The risk-taker
Build a large force of mobile units and infantry. As soon as the Germans invade, try to protect Belgium by using the terrain to your advance. Counter-attack, flank and probe your enemy while bombing him to shreds. Air superiority is a must! Slowly grind your way into Germany. Beware of Italy, though!
The German AI doesn't attack all lvl10 forts because it thinks that they are all Maginots.
Guess I'm a sissy :rofl:. But only got to lvl 9 forts before the start of the war so I had some breakthroughs until I got lvl 10. Didn't feel like losing French Indochina so I put all my new troops to there. Hard to do when most of your transports have been sunk.
Will have to try out the other three strategies.
Will have to try out the other three strategies.
Read this:
http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showpost.php?p=9534663&postcount=12
Follow the link to the thread, post #64, and start at the phrase "Just for comic relief..."
http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showpost.php?p=9534663&postcount=12
Follow the link to the thread, post #64, and start at the phrase "Just for comic relief..."
Here's my own formulated Strategy, I find games to be funner if you throw away the guides and explore for yourselves.
Step 1: Industry
Because you know that if the Krautz get through your Defenses, your Main Land France's Industry is in Peril, so amass Industry in the deep plains of Africa and all over Siam(South Eastern Asia). No, don't just build a few factories here and there, I'm talking spam Factories until your own Industrial Capacity is burning.
Step 2: Defenses
Of Course, IRL, the Maginot Line did it's job of deflecting Krautz, but all it really did was move the Germans through Luxemburg, Belgium, and all that good stuff and placed them directly above Paris. I know of 2 ways to defend yourself on Land from the Germans.
Step 2 Part A: Maginot Line
Make it bigger. This is quite obvious in my opinion. But for the sake of time, do not try to max out Forts on the Luxemburg and Belgium border, instead build 5 > Forts on those border provinces and you are good to go. When the Germans attempt to blitz you, they will be bottled down in a Trench-Like war situation, with their troops on their forts, and your troops on your forts. To break this stalemate, either send 10+ Divisions of Marines by sea behind enemy lines, cut their supplies, and move your Maginot Garrisons up. Or you can send 10+ Divisions of Paratroops from above down behind the Krautz, and do the same thing.
Step 2 Part B: Guerrilla Warfare
Instead of building a new Maginot line, simply place Divisions of troops deep in your territory. When the krautz break through, and they will, harrass them with 1 Division at a time, and while they're busy, of course, cut their supplies and move your main army for the kill.
Step 3: Counter-Offensive
Once you've halted the Krautz, blitzkreig through to Germany from Switzerland upwards or Italy upwards, or you can of course just charge for Berlin herself from the Maginot line. Either way, once your Zerg Rush captures Germany, annex, and go for the Baltic States.
Conclusion:
From here on, it's your choice.
Step 1: Industry
Because you know that if the Krautz get through your Defenses, your Main Land France's Industry is in Peril, so amass Industry in the deep plains of Africa and all over Siam(South Eastern Asia). No, don't just build a few factories here and there, I'm talking spam Factories until your own Industrial Capacity is burning.
Step 2: Defenses
Of Course, IRL, the Maginot Line did it's job of deflecting Krautz, but all it really did was move the Germans through Luxemburg, Belgium, and all that good stuff and placed them directly above Paris. I know of 2 ways to defend yourself on Land from the Germans.
Step 2 Part A: Maginot Line
Make it bigger. This is quite obvious in my opinion. But for the sake of time, do not try to max out Forts on the Luxemburg and Belgium border, instead build 5 > Forts on those border provinces and you are good to go. When the Germans attempt to blitz you, they will be bottled down in a Trench-Like war situation, with their troops on their forts, and your troops on your forts. To break this stalemate, either send 10+ Divisions of Marines by sea behind enemy lines, cut their supplies, and move your Maginot Garrisons up. Or you can send 10+ Divisions of Paratroops from above down behind the Krautz, and do the same thing.
Step 2 Part B: Guerrilla Warfare
Instead of building a new Maginot line, simply place Divisions of troops deep in your territory. When the krautz break through, and they will, harrass them with 1 Division at a time, and while they're busy, of course, cut their supplies and move your main army for the kill.
Step 3: Counter-Offensive
Once you've halted the Krautz, blitzkreig through to Germany from Switzerland upwards or Italy upwards, or you can of course just charge for Berlin herself from the Maginot line. Either way, once your Zerg Rush captures Germany, annex, and go for the Baltic States.
Conclusion:
From here on, it's your choice.
Tech rush 39 inf from the start, spam IC until your 39 inf finishes which should be sometime in early 38. After your factories in 38 finish just mass plain infantry nothing else. You don't need garrisons (which are horrible for fighting purposes... never build them if you expect them to fight) or forts or any of this guerrilla warfare crap. When Germany invades Poland in 39 just attack. You will be facing 20-30 divisions MAX until you get to Berlin. It's so easy that whenever I play France now I always wait for the Germans to come to me.
this is actually a fun thread. the first time i played as France in Road to War (1936), it was 1939, and i had mustered all my divisions in the marginot line (bout 100 infantry divs and a couple cav. divs as well, but no artillery so as not to burden them). the germans, as expected, DOW'd the Poles, so i took the opportunity to launch a counter-offensive while their armies were away.
long story short, after 3 months i had destroyed over 40 german divs in bags, offensives and counter offensives. my main plan was to take over their big IC producing territories (Stuttgard, 4 example) with single divisions, and they would magically lose 30 IC that would take months to rebuild to working strenght. it was january 5th 1940 when germany was annexed by france.
i had a lot of fun afterwards sending human waves at the Russians...:rofl:
long story short, after 3 months i had destroyed over 40 german divs in bags, offensives and counter offensives. my main plan was to take over their big IC producing territories (Stuttgard, 4 example) with single divisions, and they would magically lose 30 IC that would take months to rebuild to working strenght. it was january 5th 1940 when germany was annexed by france.
i had a lot of fun afterwards sending human waves at the Russians...:rofl:
I've done it once, and I've also helped france a few times with other countries to hold the line.
Basically - I'd use the first year or two for IC building. I also like to build a lvl 10 fort in Reims just to extend maingot a bit, but it is not really needed. Pull out your colonial forces (particularly the africa one with the HQ!) to France.
After that, build inf and masses of it in parralell-serial builds - I build inf-art, actually, and brigade all my inf divisions with artillery, and I build garrisons. So I have 9 garrison divisions in the forts, and the rest of the army - some 100-ish inf divisions with art plus some tank divisions with ACs and I generally start building mot divisions at this point - are protecting the line. Inevitably the german AI makes a few breakthroughs as they have higher org at the start, but they'll get worn down. Try to encircle their spearheads and destroy them whenever possible, otherwise keep counterattacking and whittling them down. Generally by 41' I can go on the counteroffensive.
Transfer a big part of your navy to the med.sea or else Italians will try amphibious landings.
You can spam even more inf, but I find it un-neccesary and later on if you go to war with the SU you want some mobile armies.
Of course, you could always attack germany before (while they're not ready) but I don't find that a lot of fun.
Basically - I'd use the first year or two for IC building. I also like to build a lvl 10 fort in Reims just to extend maingot a bit, but it is not really needed. Pull out your colonial forces (particularly the africa one with the HQ!) to France.
After that, build inf and masses of it in parralell-serial builds - I build inf-art, actually, and brigade all my inf divisions with artillery, and I build garrisons. So I have 9 garrison divisions in the forts, and the rest of the army - some 100-ish inf divisions with art plus some tank divisions with ACs and I generally start building mot divisions at this point - are protecting the line. Inevitably the german AI makes a few breakthroughs as they have higher org at the start, but they'll get worn down. Try to encircle their spearheads and destroy them whenever possible, otherwise keep counterattacking and whittling them down. Generally by 41' I can go on the counteroffensive.
Transfer a big part of your navy to the med.sea or else Italians will try amphibious landings.
You can spam even more inf, but I find it un-neccesary and later on if you go to war with the SU you want some mobile armies.
Of course, you could always attack germany before (while they're not ready) but I don't find that a lot of fun.
If you want to win, you can attack germany as soon as the scenario starts and automatically win (you outnumber them yourself, and with help of the UK, its a cake walk), although thats extremely "gamey." A better option would be to hold back from fighting germany until danzig or war event in august 1939. You will still have an advantage, especially if you attack early, but it wont be an assured victory.
You can beat any vanilla AI by spamming unbrigaded infantry for at least 1.5 years before the war starts (and being as up to date as possible with land and unit techs). I have played as poland and beat germany, using the DAIM mod (which is the equivalent of playing an average human player), so its surely possible to beat them as France, which is privy to the allied techs, trades and support prior to 1939, not to mention has a much larger IC and starting army.
One tip: Some say the AI will not attack any province with level 10 forts, but I have seen them attack when I have had 1-2 divisions before. It seems more likely that the AI will only attack level 10 forts if they have a MASSIVE numerical superiority (seems like 10x or so). This allows you to leave 3 divisions or so in each province of the maginot line and redirect even more forces for offensive operations.
There are a bunch of huge no nos in this thread.. especially spamming garrisons with AT brigades, which is perhaps the worst advice. German army and AI is designed to destroy static defenses, you must put pressure on them by attacking them with cheese wielding hordes. Another thing that is a no no is spending years building forts, the amount of IC days wasted on building forts could be used to create dozens of more divisions, and unlike the forts, the divisions will be useful in more than one province. I have tried fort spamming, both as France and as Poland, and found myself getting owned. I much prefer to allocate my IC to building my army. All you need to defeat germany at danzig is 90-100 divisions, they are not unstoppable in 1939.
You can beat any vanilla AI by spamming unbrigaded infantry for at least 1.5 years before the war starts (and being as up to date as possible with land and unit techs). I have played as poland and beat germany, using the DAIM mod (which is the equivalent of playing an average human player), so its surely possible to beat them as France, which is privy to the allied techs, trades and support prior to 1939, not to mention has a much larger IC and starting army.
One tip: Some say the AI will not attack any province with level 10 forts, but I have seen them attack when I have had 1-2 divisions before. It seems more likely that the AI will only attack level 10 forts if they have a MASSIVE numerical superiority (seems like 10x or so). This allows you to leave 3 divisions or so in each province of the maginot line and redirect even more forces for offensive operations.
There are a bunch of huge no nos in this thread.. especially spamming garrisons with AT brigades, which is perhaps the worst advice. German army and AI is designed to destroy static defenses, you must put pressure on them by attacking them with cheese wielding hordes. Another thing that is a no no is spending years building forts, the amount of IC days wasted on building forts could be used to create dozens of more divisions, and unlike the forts, the divisions will be useful in more than one province. I have tried fort spamming, both as France and as Poland, and found myself getting owned. I much prefer to allocate my IC to building my army. All you need to defeat germany at danzig is 90-100 divisions, they are not unstoppable in 1939.
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It is not very difficult to defeat them in 1940 if you want to do the historical battle.
As for fort building, it's not bad, but they have to be lvl 10 forts. I like having a lvl 10 fort in Reims actually, because it forces the germans to make their breakthroughs at valencinnes or even more north, makes it easier to counterattack when you're not having to counterattack vs troops in the woods getting defensive bonuses. It is not needed, of course, the same IC could be easily used to build more then enough inf to kill him even faster.
The massive unbrigaded inf spam is not neccesary at all to win in 1940 vs vanilla AI however*, even though he will break through if you allow him to build up his forces at one point. You just need to keep counterattacking and forcing him to react to your moves, else he will punch through.
*and it's probably harder to counterattack that way, given you'll be way over command limit as the attacker even with FM + HQ.
As for fort building, it's not bad, but they have to be lvl 10 forts. I like having a lvl 10 fort in Reims actually, because it forces the germans to make their breakthroughs at valencinnes or even more north, makes it easier to counterattack when you're not having to counterattack vs troops in the woods getting defensive bonuses. It is not needed, of course, the same IC could be easily used to build more then enough inf to kill him even faster.
The massive unbrigaded inf spam is not neccesary at all to win in 1940 vs vanilla AI however*, even though he will break through if you allow him to build up his forces at one point. You just need to keep counterattacking and forcing him to react to your moves, else he will punch through.
*and it's probably harder to counterattack that way, given you'll be way over command limit as the attacker even with FM + HQ.
The Ultimate Solution!
An option that works for me is to get relations with all your allies up to +200 and then for all of them (including small nations such as Bhutan, Nepal, Oman and Yemen) go to 'diplomacy' and for all of them select 'assume military control' (may take a while for even at +200 they may refuse) get all their units and ship them off to France to help out with the cause and so this can be achieved within 3 years (just in time for war!) this also means when Germany is stupid enough to declare war on you if your allies have built up more forces since 'military takeover' they will automatically send troops to help you on the front line.
Not only did I fend off the Germans, I turned the tables and destroyed them and after 2 days of playing I was in Berlin eating sausages and slirping strudel! :rofl:
So a word of warning: DON'T NEGLECT YOUR RELATIONS WITH YOUR ALLIES!
Hope this helps!
An option that works for me is to get relations with all your allies up to +200 and then for all of them (including small nations such as Bhutan, Nepal, Oman and Yemen) go to 'diplomacy' and for all of them select 'assume military control' (may take a while for even at +200 they may refuse) get all their units and ship them off to France to help out with the cause and so this can be achieved within 3 years (just in time for war!) this also means when Germany is stupid enough to declare war on you if your allies have built up more forces since 'military takeover' they will automatically send troops to help you on the front line.
Not only did I fend off the Germans, I turned the tables and destroyed them and after 2 days of playing I was in Berlin eating sausages and slirping strudel! :rofl:
So a word of warning: DON'T NEGLECT YOUR RELATIONS WITH YOUR ALLIES!
Hope this helps!