Slitherine

I had been playing with the city-scrambler, making due because it does not effect gameplay. At the Dunkirk, DLC scenario there are two fortifications guarding the southern perimeter of the pocket that read as "Clear" terrain. I thought this would not do, and resigned myself to downloading the update since I do not want to wait a week for AK and DLC West to come in the mail. ------> two broken downloads and some research later I found a tactic suggested by Jelinobas, simply saving each scenario in the Editor. I did this, and loaded my save game at Dunkirk. The city names are all where they are supposed to be, but the fortifications still read as "Clear".

Is this another glitch, or are they not even supposed to read "fortification"? I guess I could change the strings myself using this method of re-saving, but is there any reason for this to be as it is? The terrain underneath these strongpoints is clearly not "Clear" terrain.

Could it be due to the fact that you used a savegame instead of restarting the scneario...?
Are these fortifications really forticifications or just the graphical overlay ?...

I restarted the scenario as well, same thing. The city names are no longer scrambled, but these fortifications between Canal de Bourbourg and Canal de Furnes protecting the southern permiter of the Dunkirk pocket say "Clear" terrain. These are strongpoints placed on what are clearly fortification tiles, but the map string says "clear" complete with the combat mechanics that go along with "clear" terrain.

The only reason I can see for this is to maybe simulate "low moral" by making them more easily penetrable.

While we are on the topic of Dunkirk, Chris - I found something a while back you may find interesting.

http://www.ihr.org/jhr/v02/v02p375_Lutton.html

Highlights include:

Harmon records that when Frenchmen tried to board boats on the beach, Royal Navy shore parties organized squads of soldiers with fixed bayonets to keep them back. On at least one occasion a British platoon fired on French troops attempting to embark.

Harmon's research disclosed that the British were responsible for crimes against both German soldiers and Allied civilians. Some British troops were supplied with dumdum bullets -- lethal missiles expressly banned by the Geneva Convention on the rules of war. London issued directives to take no prisoners except when they specifically needed captive Germans for interrogation. For this reason British Tommies feared being captured because "they supposed that the enemy's orders would be the same as their own." On May 27, 90 prisoners of the Norfolk Regiment were killed by members of the SS Totendopf Division and on May 28, over 80 men of the Warwickshire Regiment were executed by troops of the SS Adolf Hitler Regiment. These acts were committed in retaliation for the massacre of large numbers of men of the SS Totenkopf Division who had surrendered to the British.

French and Belgian civilians fared little better than the Germans at the hands of their British confederates. Looting was common and "stealing from civilians soon became official policy." British military authorities executed, without trial, civilians suspected of disloyalty. In one instance, reports Harmon, the Grenadier Guards shot 17 suspected "fifth columnists" at Helchin. The perpetrators of these war crimes were apparently not disciplined or placed on trial, as were German soldiers later charged with similar acts.

Nothing wrong with map strings.
Terrain is clear. Army added fortification trenches and then built a Pillbox on to of it.

I think I get it. I just spotted the first strongpoint south of Metz, and I realized that it reads "fortification" because it truly is a dedicated fortified position which has been strengthened over a much longer time than the strongpoints built south of Dunkirk.

A question - since the British had a lot of naval resources on hand 'just in case' the BEF were forced to evacuate quickly, did they build fortified positions around the evac areas ahead of time as well? Dunkirk was one of three ports they had planned on using, and the only one of those three that had not already been secured by German forces.