Free France Campaign

[bru888]

This objective replaces the coastal gun objective:

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L'Adour, escorted by Le Chevalier Paul, begins west of Tartus. The distance is calculated exactly for this supply ship to arrive in Beirut port in 7 turns. The player must locate and sink L'Adour before it gets there or the Vichy receive 250 resource points.

I removed the Australian Hurricane squadron for the time being; they will probably enter on Turn 8. L'Adour and Le Chevalier Paul move south to Beirut which suits the 803 Navy Squadron that now starts in the place of the Aussie Hurricanes (I just moved the Fulmar north which triggers the popup message):

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The Swordfish will be low on fuel by the time they encounter L'Adour, and they must get past the AA guns and destroyers at Beirut as well as four fighters now in a separate Damour Fighters task group, assigned to hunt and destroy the 803 Navy Squadron. The player will lose most of this squadron but only one or two Swordish (and/or Skua) need to get through to destroy the L'Adour. Should be exciting.

On Turn 8, Le Chevalier Paul joins the Vichy Fleet which is still tasked with guarding Beirut. The Damour Fighters revert back to regular Seek & Destroy. The Aussie Hurricanes arrive to battle them.

[bru888]

Replacing the AA gun objective is "Take the ports of Tyre and Sidon." Note the description:

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You may have noticed above that the defences of Tyre and Sidon have been strengthened a bit. Now, when the player takes Tyre, the first echelon will appear:
LC HMAS Perth
DDE HMS Isis
DDE HMS Ilex
SUB HMS Parthian

When Sidon falls, the second echelon:
LC HMNZS Leander
DDJ HMS Janus
DDJ HMAS Stuart
LC HMS Ajax (depending on the cruiser_lost campaign variable; if the HMS Devonshire was lost at Gabon, then no.)

Facing them will be the seven Vichy warships, the Vichy subs Souffleur and Caïman, and the two coastal guns. The urgency to reduce and destroy the Vichy coastal fleet is still there; it should be done before the Aussie 7th Division attacks Beirut. Now it will be more feasible and realistic, succeed or fail.

And okay, the "Sink the French coastal fleet" objective will remain as ALL naval units, not just surface ships. You wanted Vichy subs? Fine; YOU find them and sink them! (The narrow sea lane on the left side of the map should help with this.)

[bru888]

Operation Exporter is finished, barring any bugs and typos. This is a rather ambitious, extensive scenario. It will probably be too much for some tastes but you know what? Sometimes the scenario designs itself to some degree based on the topic selected. In real life, Operation Exporter was a very big campaign, covering much of what would become two countries. The scenario had to be big as well to even begin to portray it properly. So be it.

The tradeoff is, there are a TON of goodies in here.

Final notes:

* I don't know where I got the idea that "L'Adour" means "The Love." I removed that from the popup message above. And it may be customary in French to spell it with a lower case "l" but to these English-reading eyes, "l'Adour" by itself is jarring. It remains "L'Adour."

* 60 turns has been mentioned a couple of times as being a bit too much. I am not so sure, especially with the revisions that I have made. More units and more action. Regardless, there is an "Early scenario trigger" built in; if you Occupy Damascus, Destroy Axis air forces, Take all secondary cities, Seize Krak des Chevaliers, Take the ports of Tyre and Sidon (yes, I know that is redundant with Take all secondary cities but it is separate in other ways), and Sink the French coastal fleet, AND you have Beirut in hand, the scenario will end. (The "Early scenario ending trigger" does not address the "Destroy the L'Adour in 7 turns" objective which will resolve itself by Turn 8 anyway).

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Free France 1940-1945 (five and three-quarters scenarios)

[Mascarenhas]

Thanks, mate. here we go again!

[Mascarenhas]

Back to Syria 1

First impressions ( turn 3):

Sea Gladiators and Fulmar are no match against Vichy fighters. I had to withdraw immediately the torpedo bombers, not before losing one - in order not to see them downed like ducks. On the other hand, Luftwaffe bombers are now roaming freely over those poor Aussies. It's going to be much tougher this time.

[Mascarenhas]

Back to Syria 1 Turn 8

It turned out impossible sinking l'Adour (it's a river in France, Bordeaux, I guess, to be confirmed by Le Colonel). Since the Swordfishes never could even search for it, doomed to be hunted by Vichy fighters. after the slaughtering of the Sea Gladiators. I luckily could spare the Fulmar, but to no avail, since its repairing is too costly ( or even impossible, check this please, other fighters pulled out of combat to outside airfields also could not be repaired). I'd suggest you at least to maintain Free French fighters available over Lebanon, or, perhaps, a British Spitfire to help would do the trick. Other parts of the mission are ok, until now.

[ColonelY]

Yes, “L’Adour” is indeed as well the name of a river in southwestern France, flowing from a place in the Pyrenees into the Atlantic Ocean, thus drawing a border between the Basque Country and regions of Aquitaine. This may perhaps appear somewhere!
*******
Synopsis of the passage indicated on the Adour as well as of the beginning of the chapter in order to have a bit of introduction as well:

At sea, it was the Vichy sailors who fired first against the Allies; in Syria, the Allies practised fair play at sea against the Vichy ships even though the Allies (and the Vichy French) fought vigorously!

Then, largely outnumbered and already damaged by the fightings, the French naval forces of Beirut planned to escape at night, when the fall of Beirut was no longer in doubt. The Adour escorted by the destroyers Guépard and Valmy set sail and advance as discreetly as possible... the Guépard moves first in another direction in order to mislead possible observers... the commander of the Guépard knows the coast by heart, the Valmy follows the Guépard's manoeuvres... the depth of the irregular bottom below must be closely watched... the two destroyers reach their mooring in the middle of the night, the Adour did not dare to venture into their night pursuit... a problem (perhaps) avoided, but another one found.

Use of a French expression here, because Charybdis and Scylla are two sea monsters from Greek mythology, located on either side of a strait traditionally identified as the Strait of Messina. The legend is at the origin of the expression "falling from Charybdis to Scylla", which means "going from bad to worse".

Indeed, a plane pushed a reconnaissance further north of Beirut, perhaps disappointed not to have seen the French ships... and here it is that it spotted the Adour heading towards the two French destroyers. Everything happens in an instant, the plane dives, the French machine guns spit and the plane moves away on the horizon. But its torpedo has hit the target: a 50 square metre breach pierces the hull of the tanker, which threatens to sink...

Orders are given: the Valmy receives the order to continue north, while the Guépard does not want to abandon the hatchling. There may be survivors to be recovered at any time if the ship sinks!

The situation finally stabilises, the ship will not sink. By its own means, it returns to Beirut, the time to leave some of the fuel still in the holds and make a makeshift repair. Then, heading north again, to reach Alexandrette and later the Marmara... in Turkey, where it is the internment that awaits him. At least this ship could not be captured by the Allies, that was the aim then pursued by the French of Vichy.

So, it seems to me that there is not much new nor very useful for us in the context of our scenario (even if it could have been):

1. We know this tanker hasn’t been sunk, but we’re fine with this version in the scenario as it could anyway definitely have been sunk.
2. It still delivers a part of its cargo (but of course much less than without the torpedo incident), but we don’t really care either in the context of our scenario…


Et voilà !

[terminator]

The Battle of Glieres ?

"Among the countless stories of heroism and sacrifice born during the German occupation of France, there are many worth being retold and remembered.
Legends like that of the insurgents of Haute Savoie - a few hundred brave soldiers and civilians against whom the Germans mobilized an army of three thousand strong."

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The Groupes mobiles de réserve (transl. mobile reserve groups), often referred to as GMR, were paramilitary units created by the Vichy regime during the Second World War.

[bru888]

Colonel, merci.

Masca, I hear you. Since this is a new module, I needed this feedback.

Well, look here, OOB. I don't care if you think Sea Hurricane Mk.I's didn't debut until July 8, a month later than our scenario (but a date that occurs during it, come to think of it). One source says, "Although the Fairey Fulmer was also used in this role, it is most associated with the 'Hurricat', or Sea Hurricane Mk IA. Hawkers were first approached to see if it would be possible to fit catapult gear to the Hurricane in October 1940, and on 19 January 1941 it was decided to go ahead with the idea." I often wonder how OOB picks these availability dates.

I wanted a naval-looking British fighter. Only the Fulmar is officially available and even that is weak against the MS 406 and Dewoitine 520. The Sea Hurricane wasn't "available" yet. Tough. Close enough.

So, here is the executive decision. Out go the Sea Gladiators which are ridiculously weak. If you want to fly Gloster Gladiators one last time in this campaign, fly them with the Free French volunteers after Turn 12.

Another decision: I am going with Sea Hurricanes, specifically the Mk.IC version because that one matches up with the French fighters. When I checked the disparity between the French fighters and the Sea Gladiators, I grimaced. No wonder.

But how to balance now? Four strong enemy fighters (I have the others looking for ground targets at this time; hopefully they obey). How many friendly fighters? And still include one Fulmar?

Another thing; maybe you guys know better about this, but is it true that until late 1943, the British had only these stupid Swordfish (well, not stupid up until 1941, perhaps, but increasingly so thereafter) and now the Skua to serve as naval tactical bombers? Slow bi-planes on the one hand and "Although it fared reasonably well against Axis bombers over Norway and in the Mediterranean, the Skua suffered heavy losses when confronted with modern fighters, particularly the Bf 109, and they were withdrawn from front line service in 1941" on the other. Thank goodness for Lend-Lease, I guess.

Well, I am going to figure this out. Please wait for another post that says OE has been updated for this. Then if you just want to play the first 7 turns for this, skipping the land action, you might be interested to see the difference. I would welcome your commentary, of course.

[ColonelY]

Colonel, merci.

[...] But how to balance now? Four strong enemy fighters [...] How many friendly fighters? And still include one Fulmar?

[...]

You're welcome.


Yes, please, do still include one Fulmar: It's always better to have various kind of units on a battlefield. Moreover, the Fulmar is only slightly weaker than the Sea Hurricane Mk.IC, so...

4 strong enemy fighters, but we don't have to really win this aerial battle, not yet. Only to cover our Swordfish and allow them to pass through more or less safely we don't really need a 4 vs 4 kind of duel between more or less equally good fighters...

I've got an idea to save most of our Swordfish once they've launched their torpedos (despite the enemy fighters, despite naval AAs and despite land AAs near Beirut). If they have to move completely back south, after their raid, then they'll encounter many more threats another time (basically all of them)... and we may still need them (or the remaining of them at least) later to help dealing against the Vichy's battleship. So, here's the idea: What about adding few air exit hexes (allowing redeploy, of course) in the NW together with a name "Towards Cyprus" or something?
Like this, they can escape, be replenished and come back later one from the Palestine side.

By the way, have you already slightly increased the British income?

Now, considering this Cyprus escape option (historically perfectly plausible!), about the fighter duel: what about 2 Sea Hurricanes + 1 Fulmar + ... still 1 Skua (just for the flavor, and, at worse, as a "meatshield"? )?

[bru888]

The Battle of Glieres ?

"Among the countless stories of heroism and sacrifice born during the German occupation of France, there are many worth being retold and remembered.
Legends like that of the insurgents of Haute Savoie - a few hundred brave soldiers and civilians against whom the Germans mobilized an army of three thousand strong."

This is an interesting suggestion, in two ways.

The first is, of course, that it was a valiant struggle. Unfortunately, it ended with a complete defeat for the Maquis des Glières; it was a victory only for propaganda purposes. Which brings me to the second interesting aspect.

OOB has great flexibility but it is not entirely unlimited. How would someone portray this battle in such a way as to make it fun AND make it challenging? Don't tell me that a terrible defeat, followed by a popup message saying, "Well, you lost, but since you lasted 20 turns, it is a propaganda victory!" is going to be rewarding.

Then, there is the logistical set up. How to represent the French Resistance in this game? Not by regular infantry units. Forget about colonial infantry. You have the Russian Partisans and the Bandits of British India, unless I have overlooked something.

Here are the attack values for Partisans and Bandits:

Partisans
inf att veh att
4-6 1-2

Bandits
inf att veh att
7 2-3

I was surprised to see that Bandits are stronger than Partisans. I might keep that in mind, but I am into the visual with this game, and if I put a unit on the map and call it "Maquis des Glières," I would rather it say "Partisans" on the bottom of the unit counter instead of "Bandits."

Regardless, here are the attack values for the German Gebirgsjägers:

inf att veh att
16 8-12

So again, how to make a challenge out of this? Have the Partisans outnumber Gebirgsjägers by 4 to 1 and hopefully wear them down?

It's a good example of what cannot be easily shown in OOB; things like courage, determination, morale, stealth. Fear, even. And when an event was a one-sided victory/defeat, how to make it enjoyable to re-enact it.

So, good suggestion, but no thanks.

[bru888]

How to represent the French Resistance in this game? Not by regular infantry units. Forget about colonial infantry. You have the Russian Partisans and the Bandits of British India, unless I have overlooked something.

Heh, I did overlook something, the French Partisans themselves! I am a bit shell-shocked right now . . . ( )

They have the same attack values as Russian Partisans, though, so my other comments above still hold.

We will see the French Resistance, by the way, in 14OperationJedburgh and probably 18LiberationOfParis but they will be supporting cast at best.

[ColonelY]

The Battle of Glieres ?

"Among the countless stories of heroism and sacrifice born during the German occupation of France, there are many worth being retold and remembered.
Legends like that of the insurgents of Haute Savoie - a few hundred brave soldiers and civilians against whom the Germans mobilized an army of three thousand strong."

This is an interesting suggestion, in two ways.

[...] So, good suggestion, but no thanks.

Yes, thanks, it was indeed a very good suggestion.

What has happened in Brittany (= Bretagne in French) is another option, with a much happier ending (for the Free French, at least)... some info here (in French, but it's easy to Google Translate it or something): http://bcd.bzh/becedia/fr/la-resistance-en-bretagne ... But first things first!


Yet, one little observation about what I've just written:

Colonel, merci.

[...] But how to balance now? Four strong enemy fighters [...] How many friendly fighters? And still include one Fulmar?

[...]

You're welcome.


Yes, please, do still include one Fulmar: It's always better to have various kind of units on a battlefield. Moreover, the Fulmar is only slightly weaker than the Sea Hurricane Mk.IC, so...

4 strong enemy fighters, but we don't have to really win this aerial battle, not yet. Only to cover our Swordfish and allow them to pass through more or less safely we don't really need a 4 vs 4 kind of duel between more or less equally good fighters...

I've got an idea to save most of our Swordfish once they've launched their torpedos (despite the enemy fighters, despite naval AAs and despite land AAs near Beirut). If they have to move completely back south, after their raid, then they'll encounter many more threats another time (basically all of them)... and we may still need them (or the remaining of them at least) later to help dealing against the Vichy's battleship. So, here's the idea: What about adding few air exit hexes (allowing redeploy, of course) in the NW together with a name "Towards Cyprus" or something?
Like this, they can escape, be replenished and come back later one from the Palestine side.

By the way, have you already slightly increased the British income?

Now, considering this Cyprus escape option (historically perfectly plausible!), about the fighter duel: what about 2 Sea Hurricanes + 1 Fulmar + ... still 1 Skua (just for the flavor, and, at worse, as a "meatshield"? )?

Finally, if I'm not mistaken (I haven't launched this 2nd version of OE yet - but now I'll wait for the 3rd), about the fighters escorting our torpedo planes, basically, one could simply try to replace the 2 Sea (Gloster) Gladiator by 2 Sea Hurricane.

[Mascarenhas]

On Syria, again

Overall, I second Colonel's suggestion, especially because, after losing l'Adour, I could use the Swordfishes as bombers, to help me with ground units ( after getting rid of Vichy AF, thanks to Aussie Hurries). And I agree that Fulmars are competitive against French fighters, but not that much against German. So, alternatively, you could provide 3 Fulmars and 1 Sea Hurri as an escort to the bombers, and perhaps anticipate a bit the appearance of FF Gladiators. Still, improving a bit more resources to the Brit side would be welcome. And, finally, the reinforcement of Tyre and Sidon is causing some delay for the Allied naval units to show up, you may revise this too.

[bru888]

The changes are completed and uploaded. Now the scenario starts thusly:

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Two Sea Gladiators out, three Sea Hurricanes Mk.IC's in. The Fulmar stays, as does the Skua. That should level the aerial playing field a bit, I believe.

Also added are exit hexes for aircraft west of Tartus, as well as deployment hexes. However, regarding the latter, this time I anticipated the usual "Bruce, you fool. Don't you realize that all you have to do is turn your bombers around, exit, then redeploy them up near Tartus on the next turn? I exploited this loophole to no end! Ha, ha, ha. " The deployment hexes up there will not be available until Turn 8.

As I mentioned, you guys may want to try this module by itself for the first 7 turns to see if it works, out of curiosity. (Ignore the land activity.) If so, I'd like to know; not about narrowly losing or winning the module for that is the point, but whether it is still too difficult or, worse, now too easy.

All factions have what I consider to be adequate income. This includes the "poor" Germans who, in the original release, had none! Theirs was going to the Vichy.

As far as needing to conquer Tyre and Sidon to release Allied naval forces, indeed the point is to delay them. It gives the Australians something to do without having to assault Beirut immediately - after all, there are 60 turns - and those cities, now more important than before, should not be walkovers. Remember, the whole point of this was to do away with those terrible secondary objectives that required the Australians to advance within range of the Vichy warships at Beirut to destroy AA and coastal guns before any torpedo bombers or Allied navy units would be made available. Now dealing with the Vichy fleet is both more practical and realistic.

Free France 1940-1945 (five and three-quarters scenarios)

[ColonelY]

Super, it looks awesome!

I'll try this module by itself as you suggested, as soon as possible.
Then, I'll give some (short) feedback about it and then fully replay this entire scenario!

[ColonelY]

By the way, in the next scenario, Bir Hakeim, have you already deployed 2 or 3 units of Universal (Bren) Carriers (under the Free French flag)?

They were in the northern sector , more or less here, on map, where one can read "Éléments mobiles de surveillance (etc.)": http://www.france-libre.net/site/wp-con ... m3-grd.jpg

This little addition may be nice as providing some (very) light armored units for the Free French, some relatively fast-moving units, while allowing the possibility of some flanking manœuvre in order to try outsupplying some parts of enemy advanced groups...

[Mascarenhas]

Bir Hacheim - 1

I agree with Colonel, once more. As is, this mission is a bit boring, without any possibility of a successful counterattack movement.

[bru888]

Bir Hacheim - 1

I agree with Colonel, once more. As is, this mission is a bit boring, without any possibility of a successful counterattack movement.

Heh. As if being attacked from three directions by an overwhelming force could be boring. Plus, you haven't tried it yet because I haven't activated the attackers yet! Personally, I like a good defensive battle once in a while.

But anyway, yes, I have something lined up about a lost force of land mine maintenance troops trying to escape to the north. Not back to Bir Hakeim, though.

First of all, human nature would tell those guys to try to escape rather than risk their lives in order to further risk their lives by rejoining their mates in a besieged fortress. Secondly, even if they were such heroes, the general would most likely instruct them to save themselves anyway. Third, how would it be possible to "slip" back into the fortress in this game?

Or fight their way back in? The Colonel suggest Bren carriers, which do have some attacking force by themselves: 2 and 2 (inf and veh). How are they going to force their way in against infantry and tanks?

So I am thinking of an escape mission to exit hexes in the north but not with Bren carriers, which also capture hexes, by the way. Sorry Colonel, but in this battle, it is NOT LOGICAL for the surrounded (in my version, at least) Free French to be motoring around and cutting off German and Italian supply.

So my idea involves seven Daimler Dingos trying to get back to Allied lines while being hunted down in the desert by German Zundapp motorcycles, and SdKfz 221/222 and Italian AB 40/41 armoured cars. All recon units that will not leave trails of "captured hexes" across the desert.

The trick, though, is how to make this work. I don't want the whole German or Italian armies chasing after the Dingos; just the reconnaissance hunters. I don't want Axis aircraft to be picking on the Dingos, either. I would like cat-and-mouse escapades between only the recon units.

By far, the hardest part of scenario designing is when you deviate from "There's the Victory Point with the flag waving over it. Go straight ahead and take it." Any dummy can design something like that and be done in a day or so. Doing something more intricate means fiddling with gameplay balance and trying to get the AI to do what you want it to do, and ONLY what you want it to do.

[bru888]

The trick, though, is how to make this work.

The Free French have borrowed three Lysander aircraft to search for their comrades. They appear after the third Axis attack wave is launched (which ought to clear corridors on the edges of the map) and the player has until the end of the scenario to "locate" and save each Dingo. Each of the seven Dingos will not spawn until a Lysander flies near a certain spot.

The story is, due to radio silence, the Lysanders are dropping supplies and also a note of instruction to circumnavigate Bir Hakeim and evacuate north. Meanwhile, the parties of Axis recon hunters will be idle until a Dingo approaches, then Seek & Destroy, and Axis aircraft will be instructed to attack anything BUT air and land recon units (hopefully they will obey). Yet the player may use his air units to cover the Dingos if he chooses. Four Daimler Dingos must exit the map to complete the objective.

Sound interesting?