Problem with Free French

Schnurri · Post by **Schnurri** » Mon May 02, 2011 2:42 am

So a weird thing happened. The Axis refused the armistice and went on to take all the free French ports in Africa and then Spain and Gibralter. Agadir was garrisoned with an Italian Mech and a BB in port. Next turn I get a message that DeGaulle activated the Free French and all of a sudden my Italian Mech dissappears, the BB in port is destroyed and there are a bunch of Free French in and around the port? What is happening?[/img]

richardsd · Post by **richardsd** » Mon May 02, 2011 3:12 am

I think the date is importanat here

Schnurri · Post by **Schnurri** » Mon May 02, 2011 3:16 am

Date is 24 November, 1942.

Peter Stauffenberg · Post by **Peter Stauffenberg** » Mon May 02, 2011 9:13 am

This is not a bug. The Free French units controlled by deGaulle arrives when Vichy France is DoW'ed or in November 1942 if no Vichy France. They invade the area near Agadir. deGaulle's forces came from Africa outside the map. So you can consider this a naval invasion where they captured Agadir and destroyed the BB in the port.

Schnurri · Post by **Schnurri** » Mon May 02, 2011 2:09 pm

Pretty cheesy. No way the invasion would have been successful. Is it too problematic to just have them appear offshore and invade if they want? Obviously if a player knew they were coming they'd play it differently.

Peter Stauffenberg · Post by **Peter Stauffenberg** » Mon May 02, 2011 2:27 pm

No, we can't do that because if we do then the Axis player could simply occupy subs in the spawn hexes and prevent the units from landing.

You can simply think of the units getting ashore south of Agadir and move to liberate the city. Remember that French controlled Africa exists offmap as well, like the Senegal area. So you can see these units as units marching northwards from Senegal.

This won't happen in many games, though, because most players accept the armistice offer. Those who reject it will most often not get as far as Agadir. If the Allied player had known about the Free French spawn area they could have landed US or UK troops to prevent Agadir from falling etc.

So I see this as an odd situation where both players weren't aware that Free French units spawn in these hexes. They spawn there when Vichy France is DoW'ed in most cases.

metolius · Post by **metolius** » Mon May 02, 2011 8:18 pm

I agree with the result, but am glad that I saw this here!

Given that this will most likely happen again and be a nasty surprise for somebody, perhaps the more reasonable solution would be to drop the Axis units back in the production queue, maybe with a three-five turn wait?