Free France Campaign

[ColonelY]

A 22nd? Nice!


14LaCombattante:

Excellent; and it's not often that we can see some Thai flag. Some really good battles are to be expected within this scenario!

Time for a very first feedback on this one:

-> Event “Franco-Thai War”, small typo “Mitubishi bombers” to be replaced by “Mitsubishi bombers”.

-> Campaign event “Les FNFL”, perhaps consider adding something like: “[…] to grow again thanks to donations (or, at first, rather restitutions) from the British and the Americans […]” (yes, because, as you've written, British have seized several French ships... but then some of these have later joined back the Free French, so... some kind of restitution, indeed - then entirely new ships, right, of course!)

Q1: (Q = quadrant)
Obj to defeat all them in 15 turns? Done during the 9th turn (2 times and 1 time during the 10th)… perhaps 12 turns would be better?

Q2:
Something’s need to be fixed. The event “Rescue Operation” pops-up with the 3 seaplanes of ours even before we’ve seen enemy fighters and the various ships being spawned… now they’re the very first to appear for this quadrant. Then they can move or not, but encounter enemy fighters, which can end with 1 seaplane down and 2 seaplanes severely damaged… you can still win the mission like this, but it’s certainly not what you’re expecting.

By the way, when switching from Q2 to Q3:
If we’ve planes in the hangar at the AF… then they won’t disappear. Perhaps checking if there is a hangar over the AF at this time and removing this hangar would do the trick? Or selecting this hex and using, just in case, an automatic “remove” trigger for any unit there?
Well, if I remember correctly, this is a known issue in OoB and thus not a particular one related to this scenario, but...

Q4: Possibility to add another (secondary or primary?) objective at Q4 (coherent with the text for Major Victory): prevent the La Combattante from sinking… which may perhaps happen if the player takes too long to remove the two fortresses…

First test, idea of timing:
Quadrant finished during the … turn:
Q1 -> 9 (out of 15)
Q2 -> 19 (out of 30)
Q3 -> 29 (out of 45)
Q4 -> 55 (out of 75 – despite having first lost several infantry units due to incautious landings between doube bunkers )…

Is it possible that the sec obj "Sink at least one E-boat" (Q2) is considered as achieved during Exercise Tiger (Q3) if not already previously achieved (during Q2, that is)?

Good job, thanks!

[ColonelY]

By golly, I had never heard of this man until now: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippe_de_Gaulle

Perhaps this deserves an event during the scenario about the Liberation of Paris?

(By the way, just in case, you'll find a lot more details about him on the French "equivalent" webpage - as usual easily translatable using online Tools.)

[bru888]

A 22nd? Nice!


14LaCombattante:

Excellent; and it's not often that we can see some Thai flag. Some really good battles are to be expected within this scenario! Thanks. And I'm in the mood now for some Shrimp Pad Thai!

Time for a very first feedback on this one:

-> Event “Franco-Thai War”, small typo “Mitubishi bombers” to be replaced by “Mitsubishi bombers”. Done.

-> Campaign event “Les FNFL”, perhaps consider adding something like: “[…] to grow again thanks to donations (or, at first, rather restitutions) from the British and the Americans […]” (yes, because, as you've written, British have seized several French ships... but then some of these have later joined back the Free French, so... some kind of restitution, indeed - then entirely new ships, right, of course!) Done.

Q1: (Q = quadrant)
Obj to defeat all them in 15 turns? Done during the 9th turn (2 times and 1 time during the 10th)… perhaps 12 turns would be better? This scenario is leisurely as to turns. Originally, it was supposed to be 60 turns total, 15 turns per quadrant. I realized that 15 was quite sufficient for the first three quadrants but as I was building the fourth quadrant, I became aware that 15 turns for that quadrant would not be enough. So I expanded that one to 30 turns for a grand total of 75. All of which don't matter in this scenario, because there is no income and therefore no bogus bonus of resources for finishing early.

Q2:
Something’s need to be fixed. The event “Rescue Operation” pops-up with the 3 seaplanes of ours even before we’ve seen enemy fighters and the various ships being spawned… now they’re the very first to appear for this quadrant. Then they can move or not, but encounter enemy fighters, which can end with 1 seaplane down and 2 seaplanes severely damaged… you can still win the mission like this, but it’s certainly not what you’re expecting. Quite right (needs to be fixed) and certainly not (what I was expecting). These planes are supposed to appear only when the German planes and E-boats had been defeated! I found the error, a mistiming of the trigger that spawns the planes, and fixed it.

Screenshot 1.jpg (294.27 KiB) Viewed 1737 times

By the way, when switching from Q2 to Q3:
If we’ve planes in the hangar at the AF… then they won’t disappear. Perhaps checking if there is a hangar over the AF at this time and removing this hangar would do the trick? Or selecting this hex and using, just in case, an automatic “remove” trigger for any unit there?
Well, if I remember correctly, this is a known issue in OoB and thus not a particular one related to this scenario, but... Good question. As you know, there are triggers that "sweep away" all units on the map (except for La Combattante, which is undeployed) when a quadrant is finished. I followed your suggestion and included conditions to clear the airfield hexes of any units, including hangars presumably. Thanks; this prevents a GabeKnight-type exploit!

Q4: Possibility to add another (secondary or primary?) objective at Q4 (coherent with the text for Major Victory): prevent the La Combattante from sinking… which may perhaps happen if the player takes too long to remove the two fortresses… This is part of the primary objective "Andre Patou's ship must not sink." I expanded the explanation to read "Neither of Andre Patou's ships may be sunk. A few years ago, Patou was the executive officer of Lamotte-Picquet and he now commands La Combattante."

First test, idea of timing:
Quadrant finished during the … turn:
Q1 -> 9 (out of 15)
Q2 -> 19 (out of 30)
Q3 -> 29 (out of 45)
Q4 -> 55 (out of 75 – despite having first lost several infantry units due to incautious landings between doube bunkers )… See above comments about turns. Those bunkers are meant to be tough, as in real life. Agree? Or too many bunkers?

Is it possible that the sec obj "Sink at least one E-boat" (Q2) is considered as achieved during Exercise Tiger (Q3) if not already previously achieved (during Q2, that is)? No, I foresaw this and avoided it by including only Schnellboot S-38 in Quadrant 2 and Schellboot S-100 in Quadrant 3. The objective triggers are looking for these specific units.

Good job, thanks! And thank you again for your help. Look for an update in a few minutes.

[ColonelY]

You're welcome.

[...] Those bunkers are meant to be tough, as in real life. Agree? Or too many bunkers? [...]

I do agree. No, not too many bunkers.

(A pincer move on the eastern part may be one key. )

[bru888]

Free France 1940-1945 v0.37 has been uploaded. It includes the above changes to the La Combattante scenario.

Free France 1940-1945 (fourteen scenarios)

Also new is the revised campaign structure for the final 8 scenarios.

[bru888]

The next scenario has been renamed as Jedburgh Missions. It focuses on seven Jedburgh teams that parachuted into Bretagne/Brittany around D-Day.

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Mission ideas:
- Sabotage an airfield
- Sabotage a railroad yard, destroying trains
- Collapse bridges
- Block roads and intersections
- Attack headquarters, disrupting communications
- Delay a division; each day of delay counts
- Destroy a factory that makes charcoal for German gasogene trucks

[bru888]

By golly, I had never heard of this man until now: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippe_de_Gaulle

Perhaps this deserves an event during the scenario about the Liberation of Paris?

(By the way, just in case, you'll find a lot more details about him on the French "equivalent" webpage - as usual easily translatable using online Tools.)

I just bookmarked this. I will work him into the Liberation of Paris narrative, but I want to say something like "As of 2021, Monsieur Philippe de Gaulle still lives!" This gives me an incentive to hurry up and finish this thing before he does pass!

[ColonelY]

The next scenario has been renamed as Jedburgh Missions. It focuses on seven Jedburgh teams that parachuted into Bretagne/Brittany around D-Day.

[...] Mission ideas:
- Sabotage an airfield
- Sabotage a railroad yard, destroying trains
- Collapse bridges
- Block roads and intersections
- Attack headquarters, disrupting communications
- Delay a division; each day of delay counts
- Destroy a factory that makes charcoal for German gasogene trucks

This sounds very interesting, both complete and varied! And for later, a scenario about the "Operation Amherst" - that's an excellent idea!

[bru888]

This sounds very interesting, both complete and varied! And for later, a scenario about the "Operation Amherst" - that's an excellent idea!

Here is the tentative list for Jedburgh Missions. "Delay a division" would have been very hard, but then I realized that all of the other primary objectives would do just that; delay German movement toward Normandy. I threw in "Ambush 5 German units" for a little action but delaying a division from exiting for a certain amount of turns would have been hard to program in terms of timing and gameplay balance. Each Jedburgh team will be only one paratrooper unit plus 5 or 6 (expendable, sadly) French Partisan units.

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Heh. I knew you would be curious and examine the scenario folders for a clue as to what would replace the invasion of Elba! Yes indeed, I believe Amherst Drop will be fun.

There is one more episode that I have my eye on, for a 23rd scenario. That would be it, however.

It begins in March 1945 which is between Operation Nordwind and Amherst Drop and that is good because it's a downer and I did not want to end the campaign on this note. (I thought it was May 1945, which would be chronologically after Amherst Drop and Battle of Athion, and I was glad to learn the true beginning date just now. The fact that it ended in May 1945 in reality would be overlooked. )

It would be a fighting survival/escape scenario: Japanese coup d'état in French Indochina

French_retreat_to_China.png (504.11 KiB) Viewed 1679 times

[ColonelY]

[...] Each Jedburgh team will be only one paratrooper unit plus 5 or 6 (expendable, sadly) French Partisan units. [...]

Expendable, sadly... hem... Perhaps one could consider adding another sec obj about not losing more than a certain amount of these Partisan units. As reward, a little handful of extra Partisans units from Brittany that can join the famous Leclerc's 2nd armored division to the Battle for Paris (where we'll already have some resistants/partisans inside the city, with FFI uprisings and so on... so few more shouldn't unbalance much anyway).

[...] Heh. I knew you would be curious and examine the scenario folders for a clue as to what would replace the invasion of Elba! Yes indeed, I believe Amherst Drop will be fun. [...]

[...] There is one more episode that I have my eye on, for a 23rd scenario. That would be it, however.

It begins in March 1945 which is between Operation Nordwind and Amherst Drop and that is good because it's a downer and I did not want to end the campaign on this note. (I thought it was May 1945, which would be chronologically after Amherst Drop and Battle of Athion, and I was glad to learn the true beginning date just now. The fact that it ended in May 1945 in reality would be overlooked. )

It would be a fighting survival/escape scenario: [...]

Another excellent idea, which offers the opportunity to introduce also from another theater of operations! Just great!

[ColonelY]

Hey, do you remember the famous Normandie-Niemen?


Historical event on July 15, 1944 (either in a scenario or as a campaign event, we'll see!):

The facts... as basis for text event or suggestion of text... anyway, here is it:
In August 1943, all the French technical personnel were transferred to the Middle East and replaced by Soviet personnel (it must be admitted that the French mechanics were not used to working in temperatures of -30°C...). As a result, the "Normandie" lost its companions of the first hour, but gained this specificity which contributed to forge its symbolic dimension: French pilots and Russian mechanics united in the same unit. This was a first in history.
A new tragedy occurred on July 15, 1944: Lieutenant Maurice de Seynes, who was the victim of a fuel leak, rushed back to the Doubrovka airfield from where he had taken off a few minutes earlier. Blinded by the gasoline fumes that invaded his cockpit, he tried in vain several times to land. The Soviets ordered him to jump.
De Seynes refused because he did not want to abandon his mechanic Vladimir Bielozoub to a certain death, as it is commonly done for short trips from one field to another. And Bielozoub does not have a parachute...
After several other unsuccessful attempts, the Yak 9 crashes and explodes, killing its two occupants.
The Parisian aristocrat and the Volga peasant were buried next to each other in Doubrovka. The sacrifice of Maurice de Seynes had an enormous impact in the USSR and will go down in the history books as a symbol of the unfailing friendship between France and Russia.


Picture(s) here (at least the one with the French pilot and the Russian mechanic ):
https://www.herodote.net/12_novembre_19 ... 421112.php

Or perhaps this may rather be represented like two events in a row... the first one with some cool picture and as text about the first paragraph, more "generic". And the second one about our two famous guys.

[bru888]

[...] Each Jedburgh team will be only one paratrooper unit plus 5 or 6 (expendable, sadly) French Partisan units. [...]

Expendable, sadly... hem...

Absolutely disposable, I am afraid.

I need to use them up in numbers to make up for being weak units. They are even going to have their hands filled dealing with Vichy Milice (for which I am using British Military Police, stronger than Partisan units), much less German troops and bunkers.

But don't worry; I am not heedlessly throwing away French lives altogether. Two of the Jedburghs will be French and they shalt be pristine! (Or fail that secondary objective.)

[bru888]

Another excellent idea, which offers the opportunity to introduce also from another theater of operations! Just great!

Yes, the only problem being the campaign map. I will make an exception to my fussiness and work around it somehow. Maybe something like this:

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[bru888]

Et voilà, La Bretagne!

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Three of the inland waterways — two in the east running north and south from Rennes and the long one running east and west — may look strange until it is realized that they are canals. Yes, I know Nantes (southeast Brittany) is missing. It wasn't needed for these Jedburgh Missions and I chose to zoom the map in a bit.

[ColonelY]

Another excellent idea, which offers the opportunity to introduce also from another theater of operations! Just great!

Yes, the only problem being the campaign map. I will make an exception to my fussiness and work around it somehow. Maybe something like this: [...]

This tiny addition on this map will do it, indeed.

[ColonelY]

Et voilà, La Bretagne! [...]

Nice! Brittany, here we come!

[ColonelY]

Brittany, the pri obj about airstrips... For more variation, perhaps "Destroy 4 airstrips or hangars", so that one could see on map both airstrips and hangars (the later of course over airfields)... maybe 3 of each, for the total of 4 to be destroyed.

[bru888]

Brittany, the pri obj about airstrips... For more variation, perhaps "Destroy 4 airstrips or hangars", so that one could see on map both airstrips and hangars (the later of course over airfields)... maybe 3 of each, for the total of 4 to be destroyed.

The problem with hangars is that the game deletes empty hangars at the start of the scenario.

EDIT: Hmmm. But I could park an idle plane in a hangar, couldn't I? That would be preserved and serve as a target . . . along with an airstrip nearby . . .

[ColonelY]

Yes, that's an idea.

[bru888]

Yes, that's an idea.

I will try doing this:

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The primary objective is to destroy four airfields by destroying an airstrip and a hangar at each (after overcoming the guards). The secondary objective is to get at the hangar soon enough to destroy the plane inside. This will probably need much fine-tuning. It's often these secondary objectives that take up so much time.

EDIT: Heh, here's an example of that. No sooner did I type that than I realized, if the plane takes off, the hangar goes with it! Therefore, the primary objective is ruined. No problem, though: The primary objective will be to destroy the nearby airstrip and have the paratrooper unit take (temporary) possession of the airfield hex (the partisans cannot do this).