My first game - The reunification of France

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My first game - The reunification of France

Post by Guest »

The Plan -

Balance my economy but retain high social spending so my heavily taxed people don't rebel.

Prepare 3 fast moving strike forces consisting of 3 MBT units, 6 mech infantry units, 2 mobile AT units, 2 arty units and 1 AA missile unit.

Ally with Portugal

Head South and don't stop 'til I can see Morocco!

The problems -

Petrol and coal. France uses masses and has none.

Initial moves -

I set my ministers the following priorities:

Military: Discreet buildup. I did this so I wouldn’t frighten the Portugeuse with whom I intended to ally in the early stages. My reasoning here was to ensure Madrid was hampered in entering the coming war.

Social: Keep social spending high as mentioned in The Plan

Tax: Balance the books. I didn’t set any priorities just locked the tax at a point where I made a tiny profit before trade. I intend to use a trade surplus to pay for my military buildup.

Diplomacy:

The AAR –

It would be fair to say that things did not go exactly according to plan, however I was quite pleased with the results of my first game.

After a little fiddling with the taxes and selling of surpluses I began to make a daily profit of about $200 million. My defence minister ordered units in a sensible manner though he did seem to lean towards AT assets rather so I manually corrected this concentrating on tanks and infantry. I found that I already had (what I believed to be) sufficient arty and AA and my airforce looked very powerful.

My early construction consisted of 2 coal mines, an oil well and an industrial goods factory. These would I hoped reduce the costs of imports somewhat thereby improving my trade balance as this was my profit margin. Unemployment was at 7% before these were constructed and fell to 6.7% which I deem to be reasonably healthy.

I also decided to build three radar stations on my Southern border as I had no idea what Marseilles had in terms of forces. Though they revealed nothing of my potential enemies disposition they did prove useful in the early stages of the attack.

One problem I encountered at this point, as I built up towards H hour, was stockpiling. I needed stocks of petrol and military supplies. Supplies were not a problem as I just stopped selling my surplus but I was woefully short of petrol and couldn’t figure out how to build up a stockpile. I feared that the world market might cut me off when my unprovoked attack went in.

The attack –

I set up my strike forces(detailed above) in three groups, Eastern, Central and Western. The Eastern force was to drive due South and cut off the industrial and population centres from the capital. The fiercest fighting would take place here.
The central group would also head South and then South West, taking the oil wells and then attacking the capital. Hopefully the Western group would be able to join them later in the campaign as the capital would be well defended.
The Eastern group would join up with defensive forces around Bologne linking our two regions. They would then head for the Barcelona border to to screen what would hopefully be mopping up operations.

As the Eastern force crossed the border immediately after my declaration of war the radar stations detected the Marseilles airforce (all of it) moving in to attack. My defence minister dispatched all available fighters (Mirage III’s) to intercept and had also moved other AA assets in behind my attacking troops. The AA forces seemed to hold off the attacking planes until my fighters arrived and the enemy air force was wiped out (I’m assuming as I never saw them again). My ground troops then came up against enemy tanks and mechanised infantry and a fierce fight took place. The enemy finally wilted under a torrent of missiles and artillery fire. (My defence minster rolled extra assets in while my attention was on the central battle). While there were heavy losses a significant portion of the enemy army was obliterated.

In the centre a series of blocking infantry units (garrisons I think) were encountered slowing progress but no major forces. The first significant battle was at the oil wells (the distraction mentioned above) where further tanks, mech infantry and, for the first time, artillery were encountered. My forces won destroying several units but had to halt as they were dangerously low on supplies. I entrenched them in a screen to await the trucks.

The Western forces met the same blocking infantry but no other resistance. They arrived in the enclave just in time to outflank an enemy attack and relieve my hard pressed forces there. Still well supplied they headed South to the border as planned.

Back in the East my forces headed off to join the Central group. Again they were slowed by garrisons. The Central group, now resupplied advanced toward Marseilles itself and as they made contact with the defending forces things began to go awry. Barcelona attacked my Western force!

This being my first game some mistakes were bound to be made and I had neglected my build queues and had no reserves to commit. My airfoce were merrily circling Paris and I couldn’t rebase them further South, there’s a lot to remember and I forgot how!

To overcome this my Eastern force became a holding force against Marseilles while Central was moved West to counter the Barcelonan threat. I managed to stabilise both fronts and prevent my enemies linking up achieving a stalemate.

At sea France was utterly dominant throughout. Marseilles Atlantic fleet was annihilated on day one and Barcelona kept its fleet in the Med throughout, no doubt fearing my Exocets.

Having reached a stalemate and having work the next day (it was 02:00 and I get up for work at 06:30) I headed off to bed with most of Marseilles conquered and the enemy held I think with a suitable build up period I could have gone on.

If you’re read this and know the solutions to any of the problems I encountered or if you have questions / comments please feel free to post or get in touch directly.

Finally my thanks to the Battlegoat team for creating a game good enough to keep a grown man playing like a kid into the early hours.
Guest

Forgot to mention

Post by Guest »

The Portugeuse never did ally with me despite our excellent relations. I decided to go it alone in the end.
neilm85uk
Sergeant
Posts: 19
Joined: May 03 2005

I wrote this

Post by neilm85uk »

I probably should have logged in before posting. Doh!
3iff
Brigadier Gen.
Posts: 606
Joined: Jun 27 2002
Location: Birmingham, England

Post by 3iff »

Well unlike me, you did have a plan.

After my current game I intend to replay the scenario as Paris. There is a lot to remember and it's surprising how quickly you might seem to run out of units.

It's not much fun when another country attacks you as it really messes with your plans. Next time I'm going to try to garrison a secure border to at least slow down any incursions...if only I can stop myself 'borrowing' every unit I can for the battles I want to fight.

I was up till 2am this morning too...
neilm85uk
Sergeant
Posts: 19
Joined: May 03 2005

Post by neilm85uk »

3iff wrote:Well unlike me, you did have a plan.

After my current game I intend to replay the scenario as Paris. There is a lot to remember and it's surprising how quickly you might seem to run out of units.

It's not much fun when another country attacks you as it really messes with your plans. Next time I'm going to try to garrison a secure border to at least slow down any incursions...if only I can stop myself 'borrowing' every unit I can for the battles I want to fight.

I was up till 2am this morning too...
I wanted to start with a relatively powerful region so I'd have all the options available. Hopefully I'll get to grips with air power tomorrow night. I've just got an email from Gamestop telling me the full game has shipped. Can't wait to rule the waves as blighty!
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