There is no question France had been digging in and fighting trench warfare since 1914. My first question is, why does France (in the game) not have engineer companies in their templates, yet Germany does? It may seem like a small difference, but 10 xp is much more important now that 1 div training is gone, and it's absurd that your first 10 should be spent on something that you should already have.
But that's just the start of the historical imbalance.
The real issue is the disparity in tank research, production, and quality. There are so many issues with how anti-historical the differences between French and German tanks are in this game, it's difficult to find the right place to begin.
How about we start with the the sheer quantity and severity of debuffs suffered by the allies and the utter lack of any debuffs suffered by Germany. Both France and the UK start with a debuff to population with "victors of the great war" and "the war to end all wars" which the allies must commit and make an effort to removing, while Germany, who fought in the exact same war and LOST, enjoys the lack of any similar debuff. You wonder why people say Gemany is too non-historically powerful? That's because it is. In fact, Germany has the exact opposite of a debuff in the form of a buff - MEFO bills. So you're saying Hungary has to suffer the Treaty of Trianon, but Germany can completely ignore the Treaty of Versailles? Okay.
The Treaty of Versailles, historically, was incredibly crippling to Germany, strangled their economy, and forbade many things, including TANKS. German tank production was limited and done in secret. This is not represented in the game. In fact, Germany is rewarded with the exact opposite scenario. They begin the game with heavy tanks (while France does not) and they can receive a massive boost to their tank research and production as early as their second and third focus. France does not begin the game with heavy tank research, as they most certainly should, and they do not get a bonus to tank research until 6 focuses into the military tree (which is locked and you cannot start down this tree as your first or second focus and you must wait a long time, putting Germany even farther ahead in tanks).
This puts Germany far ahead of France, so far ahead it's just absurd and not historical. Germany becomes the tank superpower when historically and realistically, France had the most and the best tanks, superior to German tanks - France's problem was they were just not used effectively and not concentrated. There are so many better ways this can be represented, but to deny France their tanks is not appropriate. France even had a good number of medium tanks long before Germany ever did.
The game devs seemed to want to make Germany not have to try to beat France and ensure that France always loses, that much is clear. A Germany player does not need to play better than the French player because the odds are already stacked in their favor. A German player will never have to worry about French tanks and is a decade ahead in technological development and production.
The very least the devs could do is allow France to begin the game with heavy tanks already researched. I really can't understand why Germany even has theirs unlocked when they only built 6 of them (technically medium anyway) and somehow they're supposed to be comparable to the Char B1... But German players can shoot for the mediums anyway as their second focus.
So as if France didn't already have enough to overcome already, which is fine, they have to go up against Germany, who doesn't have to overcome ANYTHING. The Treaty of Versailles, which was the primary debuff to Germany historically and FORBADE tank production, can be happily ignored, but the game really needs something here to hurt German tank development to put things closer to a historical setting. My conclusion is that the devs really hate France and historical accuracy and prefer to buff Germany instead as much as possible while finding any way they can think of to hurt the allies even if it means non-historical disadvantages for the allies and non-historical advantages for Germany.
