Free France Campaign

[ColonelY]

'Looks awesome!

And one can see that you intend now to add more about trains, including some armoured train...


I was searching something similar to this, but I've "only" found this related to a Soviet pilot instead of a (Free) French one: https://www.wearethemighty.com/articles ... -kill-him/ with the title "This Soviet pilot stole the plane of a Nazi pilot who landed to try and kill him".

So, to seize a German plane on one or the other of the sites , it would be perhaps well to push a little far... although...
Then there would be the historical event in support to say that it was already seen (with a small recall or wink in passing to the Normandy-Niemen group).

[ColonelY]

Our land troops may be supported by some Allied planes... an extra unit of German origin in the mix could be nice...

[ColonelY]

Link already given, some nice pictures: http://bcd.bzh/becedia/fr/la-resistance-en-bretagne

[ColonelY]

We are making progress towards this...

Campaign event: "Highly symbolical meeting!"

"At Nogent-sur-Seine, west of the Langres plateau, on 12 September 1944, two reconnaissance units make contact. One comes from the "2e Division blindée" of Leclerc, while the other comes from the "1re DFL".

Thus, after hard fightings, the arm of Leclerc, from Normandy, and the arm of Tassigny, from Italy, Corsica and North Africa, can finally shake hands!

In the eyes of the French combattants, this meeting embodies the dazzling victory of the French army over Nazism, the end of the dark years of the Occupation!

But, of course, the war is not over yet..."

Or something similar...

[ColonelY]

... but for this I've no great picture right now...

[bru888]

Our land troops may be supported by some Allied planes... an extra unit of German origin in the mix could be nice...

No, sorry, no air units except any escaping German planes (which will promptly exit).

Think of it this way: these are clandestine missions (frankly, they would have begun the night before D-Day but night is not represented in this game — although I may use "sandstorm" to simulate it, and start the scenario in the early morning of 6 June; we'll see). These Jedburgh teams will want secrecy and cover until it comes time to whip out the Sten guns and explosives and do their jobs. Air cover, at night, trying to find these guys and support them with strafing attacks would be ridiculous. And I choose not to include any bombing runs.

So, I'll stick to trying to make this secondary objective work; there's usually at least one head-scratcher in every scenario design and I have a feeling this will be it:

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[bru888]

We are making progress towards this...

Campaign event: "Highly symbolical meeting!"

"At Nogent-sur-Seine, west of the Langres plateau, on 12 September 1944, two reconnaissance units make contact. One comes from the "2e Division blindée" of Leclerc, while the other comes from the "1re DFL".

Thus, after hard fightings, the arm of Leclerc, from Normandy, and the arm of Tassigny, from Italy, Corsica and North Africa, can finally shake hands!

In the eyes of the French combattants, this meeting embodies the dazzling victory of the French army over Nazism, the end of the dark years of the Occupation!

But, of course, the war is not over yet..."

Or something similar...

Yes, please remind me of this if necessary but I just copied your post for my notes.

[bru888]

Link already given, some nice pictures: http://bcd.bzh/becedia/fr/la-resistance-en-bretagne

Great wrecked train photo! I will use it.

[bru888]

Link already given, some nice pictures: http://bcd.bzh/becedia/fr/la-resistance-en-bretagne

Great wrecked train photo! I will use it.

Wow, there are a few more pics on that page that I can use for a popup message or two. Let me run that text through a translator. Thanks for the link.

[bru888]

Wow, there are a few more pics on that page that I can use for a popup message or two.

Such as:

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Believe me, the Resistance fighters may drop like flies in this one, but they will be honoured.

I sometimes find myself questioning whether I would have the courage to do what these brave men and women did. Sometimes the answer is yes, sometimes no. I suppose no one knows for sure until confronted with a situation that calls for such courage. I am grateful that I never had to face such a challenge in my life.

[bru888]

Directly following the message above, both at the start of Turn 3:

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[ColonelY]

Perhaps the text of this leaflet may be difficult to read when the event pops-up? So, perhaps considering adding its content directly in the text as well would be nice:

French:
"Jeunes! Vous assistez aux derniers sursauts de l'oppresseur Boche!
Montrez que vous êtes des Français et prouvez que vous ne ferez rien pour aider la bête à se relever."

Which may be translated as:
"Young people! You are witnessing the last bursts of the Boche oppressor!
Show that you are French and prove that you will do nothing to help the beast to rise again."

[ColonelY]

At that time, Brittany was famous as well for having several German submarine bases in various big ports... then some of them being spawned and exited at these ports, few times, at some "revealed" hex areas (which could very well be just the ports themselves), as some semi-active "decoration" for this map...
*******
The actual sec objectives mention Vichy Milice units and German units... some SS Gestapo units may be on this map as well (SS faction too, yes)!
The Gestapo was even helped by French auxiliaries in Brittany...

Note that there was also a separatist movement in Brittany. Some wanted the independence of Brittany to then collaborate with Germany. Other separatists joined the French resistance in the Gaullist camp... Some collaborated with the Vichy government, others with the Germans, and still others with the French Resistance...

(You'll find more info here, just in case, but it's all in French, sorry for that: http://bcd.bzh/becedia/fr/la-collaboration-en-bretagne https://fresques.ina.fr/ouest-en-memoir ... uerre.html https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kommando_de_Landerneau https://www.ouest-france.fr/bretagne/re ... po-3707922 etc. As I don't really know what may be helpful, I won't be much more precise at that point.)

Well, we don't have to complexify things too much... but at least some SS Gestapo units here and there (perhaps with the same unit model, Thai police or something, I believe, than the Vichy Milice units, but with much more XP, as well as few regular German infantry unit models perhaps)...

[bru888]

Perhaps the text of this leaflet may be difficult to read when the event pops-up? So, perhaps considering adding its content directly in the text as well would be nice:

French:
"Jeunes! Vous assistez aux derniers sursauts de l'oppresseur Boche!
Montrez que vous êtes des Français et prouvez que vous ne ferez rien pour aider la bête à se relever."

Which may be translated as:
"Young people! You are witnessing the last bursts of the Boche oppressor!
Show that you are French and prove that you will do nothing to help the beast to rise again."

Thanks for this. To preserve the transition from the first popup message at the beginning of this one, I put the text and translation at the end:

Screenshot 3.jpg (99.47 KiB) Viewed 1910 times

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Screenshot 5.jpg (63.89 KiB) Viewed 1910 times

[bru888]

At that time, Brittany was famous as well for having several German submarine bases in various big ports... then some of them being spawned and exited at these ports, few times, at some "revealed" hex areas (which could very well be just the ports themselves), as some semi-active "decoration" for this map...
*******
The actual sec objectives mention Vichy Milice units and German units... some SS Gestapo units may be on this map as well (SS faction too, yes)!
The Gestapo was even helped by French auxiliaries in Brittany...

Note that there was also a separatist movement in Brittany. Some wanted the independence of Brittany to then collaborate with Germany. Other separatists joined the French resistance in the Gaullist camp... Some collaborated with the Vichy government, others with the Germans, and still others with the French Resistance...

(You'll find more info here, just in case, but it's all in French, sorry for that: http://bcd.bzh/becedia/fr/la-collaboration-en-bretagne https://fresques.ina.fr/ouest-en-memoir ... uerre.html https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kommando_de_Landerneau https://www.ouest-france.fr/bretagne/re ... po-3707922 etc. As I don't really know what may be helpful, I won't be much more precise at that point.)

Well, we don't have to complexify things too much... but at least some SS Gestapo units here and there (perhaps with the same unit model, Thai police or something, I believe, than the Vichy Milice units, but with much more XP, as well as few regular German infantry unit models perhaps)...

Yes, one of the "facilities" to be destroyed will be the headquarters of the local admiral in charge of the submarine base at Lorient, per this information:

Image0403.jpg (280.3 KiB) Viewed 1908 times

(The part about moving Dönitz's headquarters to Paris in 1942 for security reasons will be winked at: . I will not mention Dönitz specifically, and after all, there would still be a local headquarters for the submarine base — why not in the mansion that they had requisitioned in the first place? The other big base at Saint-Nazaire is too far south to be on the map, fortunately and unfortunately. Fortunately in that I don't want to be too repetitive. Killing 8 trains is sport, like a shooting gallery, but destroying two submarine base headquarters would look a bit fishy.)

And, speaking of good sport, there will be nasty Gestapo agents to knock off along with the Vichy Milice. Good suggestion.

[bru888]

The sub base at Lorient will be represented but attacks upon it will be fruitless — there is an "Indestructible sub base" trigger. It's just there for show. The Villa Kerillon, the base headquarters, will be the target. There will be guards. And an explanatory popup message, of course.

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[ColonelY]

Really nice!


'Played again the awesome scenario 14LaCombattante:

-> About naval mines in Q2:
1. As the ship has sunk after having hit some mines, they can't be all at 10-strenght any longer, can they?
2. Possibility to reveal the one that won't be kept at 10...
3. Once this 2nd quadrant is finished, all naval mines should be removed as well. Indeed, if the player has discovered them, they’ll stay visible, but there is no need to see them (on minimap as well) until scenario end, right?

-> About the Capitaine Patou... well, I'm sorry, I should have noticed this sooner but actually “Andre Patou” should rather be written “André Patou”, in French, with an accent indeed (and everywhere it appears, which means up to 7 times, namely once in the scen description, twice in an pri obj - title & description, once in an AI obj - that we don't really care as the player isn't supposed to see it, then once at the beginning of the text of each one of the events "Executive/Commanding Officer", and finally once as well in the Major Victory text).

-> The new module is working perfectly fine as now the planes within the hangar (in Q2) do indeed disappear (if landed at that time, of course!)… so, I suggest implementing a similar module for the “10MarethLine” scenario, in order to avoid that the player may keep (intentionally or not) some of the US planes!

[bru888]

Good points, I will address them all. Nice to hear that La Combattante is functioning well; it was a bit difficult trying to knit four mini-scenarios together so that they flowed smoothly.

Meanwhile, in Jedburgh Missions, these are the six facilities objectives:

• Submarine Fuel Depot (outside of Brest)

• Villa Kerillon (the Lorient submarine base HQ)

• Train Repair Yard ("disrupt train travel throughout Brittany")

• Charcoal Plant (manufactures fuel for German gasogene vehicles)

• Power Station ("supplies 45% of the electricity needs for Rennes")

• Assault Gun Factory ("a very desirable military target, to say the least")

[bru888]

Meanwhile, in Jedburgh Missions, these are the six facilities objectives:

• Submarine Fuel Depot (outside of Brest)

• Villa Kerillon (the Lorient submarine base HQ)

• Train Repair Yard ("disrupt train travel throughout Brittany")

• Charcoal Plant (manufactures fuel for German gasogene vehicles)

• Power Station ("supplies 45% of the electricity needs for Rennes")

• Assault Gun Factory ("a very desirable military target, to say the least")

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[ColonelY]

Very nice, and using various models of buildings... 'looks very promising!