• Hello, I just joined this forum today, and I have a question. I was really excited to see that they added France in the global 1940 game, and being a primarily UK player (I’m an Anglophile, I play the British in every game that includes them :-P) I thought that the presence of French troops in Africa, the Middle-East, Europe and perhaps the Far East(?) would be a great help to my own strategies. I don’t own Europe or Global 1940 yet, and I’ve never played, so I was just wondering if France is in fact useful. I watched a couple of youtube videos where France was immediately blitzed and destroyed by Germany, which is to be expected, but how does Germany usually come off out of that? So basically I want to know if the addition of France significantly changes the way the Allies (and the UK player especially) play, or if the French just get steamrolled by Germany right away and then it’s back to a classic A&A game? Thanks for any feedback.


  • Usually France will start to kick ass 1 turn before the Axis concede. Because if you can keep Paris as the allies, Germany is in a very, very bad position.


  • Wow, wasn’t expecting that. Have you ever seen that happen? I’m really starting to like it now, me and and whoever is the French can beat Germany before the Russians even join. Plus the Italians will have to watch their back in the Med, so I can defend Egypt much better. 8-)


  • If France was able to beat Germany, somethings really wrong with the game!

    If you got a link to any you tube video that shows how France wins, id really like to see it. :-D


  • Germany is in a position to take out France (Paris, especially) in its first turn, which is before the first French turn (and the first British turn, and they have a few units in France).  France can survive if they get very lucky on the die rolls or if Germany for some reason doesn’t commit enough forces to Paris, but even then they’ll probably be taken out before their second turn.  It’s really rare.

    They actually make it a bit more difficult for the Allies, in my opinion, because now when they liberate Paris they have to make sure they can hold it, or Germany can take it back (especially given all its factories near it) and get all of France’s money.

    France does well only out of the bad luck/strategy of the German player.


  • Basically if France lasts more than 3 turns it’ll hold for the rest of the game.


  • @Imperious:

    If France was able to beat Germany, somethings really wrong with the game!

    If you got a link to any you tube video that shows how France wins, id really like to see it. :-D

    Those were my thoughts, I assumed France would lose to Germany within the 1st or 2nd turns. I have no youtube video showing France surviving, on the contrary I’ve seen about 3 videos where Paris is taken turn 1 and Germany obviously is ascendant in Western Europe. That is not surprising, and I would not like it any other way, but my question is does France usually weaken Germany at all in the attack? Is France’s inclusion beneficial for the Allies? Of course the answer would be subjective to each person’s playing style, but I would love to hear everyone’s opinion on it. But yes, you are right, if France can defeat Germany, then they game won’t last very long and the Axis are doomed right from the get go, as I believe Germany is more or less the core of the Axis, certainly Italy can’t redeem the situation, and Japan is too far away to save the Axis in Europe.

    @Ruanek:

    Germany is in a position to take out France (Paris, especially) in its first turn, which is before the first French turn (and the first British turn, and they have a few units in France).  France can survive if they get very lucky on the die rolls or if Germany for some reason doesn’t commit enough forces to Paris, but even then they’ll probably be taken out before their second turn.  It’s really rare.

    They actually make it a bit more difficult for the Allies, in my opinion, because now when they liberate Paris they have to make sure they can hold it, or Germany can take it back (especially given all its factories near it) and get all of France’s money.

    France does well only out of the bad luck/strategy of the German player.

    Very well. I also think the Axis are given a breathing space because Russia and the US are not allowed to attack the Axis until turn 4 and 3, respectively. I think this is more realistic to actual WWII, and it gives Germany and Italy 3 turns to take France and the UK out of the game. If the Germans take Paris, and succeed in Sealion, at the same time the Italians are pushing in Africa, then the Axis will be in a very good position to fight the Russians and Americans. But at the same time, if the Axis’ gamble fails, and France and the UK survive, than their position will be much worse. I’m really liking this new system, in theory of course, I cannot wait to try it out. I just really like how the addition of France opens up many more possibilities, and especially how it has the chance to distract Germany from building a navy, and from giving a quick knock-out blow to Russia. At least this is what I hope will happen.


  • I don’t think France really offers a chance to distract Germany from building a navy.  From what I can tell most German naval buys are turn 1 (an aircraft carrier and 3 transports seems to be popular) and even if France does survive turn 1 Germany is going to attack with what it has currently (including its massive air force) and won’t build units to deal with France the next turn.  I suppose it stops Germany from building stuff in Normandy and Southern France, but that isn’t too popular anyway.  A German navy isn’t that popular, anyway.

    In my opinion, it doesn’t offer much help to Russia either.  Russia’s in a pretty good position to hold out for a while whatever happens in the West, though I suppose it could theoretically delay Germany from taking Moscow by a turn if Paris doesn’t fall round 1.

    The main thing, though, is Paris really almost always falls turn 1 to Germany (like 95%, at least).  Its survival to turn 3 indicates a terrible German player, which would spell doom for the Axis anyway.  So any chance of France diverting German attention is pretty much theoretical, anyway.


  • France is an afterthought, and the last to go in a round. More than likely you will move 4 troops in Africa, 1 in Syria and a Destroyer till all of those get destroyed.


  • Ah well. I suppose I’m just getting too hopeful then. Poor France, it’s still nice to have them in the game though, I don’t suppose it would be any use as being independently controlled by one person, but it definitely is nice to have a few French forces in the colonies to help out in holding Africa. Shame they didn’t give France more ships, the French Navy was the 4th largest in the World in 1940, much bigger than Russia’s, Germany’s, or Italy’s, but I understand that’s for game balance purposes. But I digress, thank you gentlemen for explaining to me the usual outcomes concerning France at the beginning of the game.


  • You could probably explain their lack of a navy with the whole lack of a Vichy France in the game.  The French navy didn’t contribute much to the war, and the British actually sank some of it themselves (they were afraid it would fall under German control).


  • In the global game they start out with 2 cruisers and 2 destroyers. In every game I have played the cruiser in the North sea is destroyed, as are the cruiser and destroyer in the Mediterranean. The only ship left is the Destroyer by Madagascar.

    There is a French infantry and fighter in England that I forgot, but they are there solely to help defend the UK.


  • Indeed, “Operation Catapult.” The British sank or interned every French ship they could lay hands on. Later the remainder of the French Fleet sunk itself in Toulon when the Germans attempted to seize it. French Admiral Jean de Laborde yelled in response to a German demand to board the battlecruiser Dunkerque, “You’re too late, the ship will sink.” So in the actual war the French Fleet did barely anything.

    Thanks for telling me the usual fate of the French Fleet in game, by the way. One destroyer is hardly of much use.


  • France only exists as a nation due to the boards starting position. It’s global, it’s 1940 and France hasn’t fallen yet - hence a French nation is needed.
    But if France was in any position to threaten Germany/Italy - the game would be a failure because then the Allies would have even an easier time winning.
    The game could just as well have started with France occupied by Germany, but given the 1940 start - it would have been odd.

    Frances purpose is to give Germany some extra IPC and to slow down Italy’s movement a little to the west in Africa. It is also why it isn’t played as a single nation in a 3+ person game.


  • What do you mean it isn’t played as a single nation in a 3+ game?  As far as I know, it’s always controlled by a player who controls another country (even in 2 player games) but it has its own distinct turn.


  • @Ruanek:

    What do you mean it isn’t played as a single nation in a 3+ game?  As far as I know, it’s always controlled by a player who controls another country (even in 2 player games) but it has its own distinct turn.

    I mean the player controlling France is always controlling another nation as well. That alone should show the level of France’s involvement in the game. Even China has more of a role.

  • '12

    Yeah, while France is in the game, they REALLY do not play much of a role in the overall outcome of the War.  If you liberate them, they become a playable faction once again and get bonus troops in Paris… being that France goes after the UK and the US, they can help reinforce allied gains in Western Europe.


  • @JeffM:

    Yeah, while France is in the game, they REALLY do not play much of a role in the overall outcome of the War.  If you liberate them, they become a playable faction once again and get bonus troops in Paris… being that France goes after the UK and the US, they can help reinforce allied gains in Western Europe.

    Yeah, and it helps if Western Germany is neither a non-threat or captured.

  • Customizer

    In all the games I have played so far, there were two times that France didn’t fall to Germany on G1.  This was due basically to Germany not committing enough units to attacking France and some lucky dice for France.  In both cases, Italy finished the job on I1.
    One thing about Germany having to take France is that it does force Germany to commit quite a lot of recources to that.  France itself is stacked pretty strong (6 inf, 2 art, 2 tanks, 1 fighter and 1 Brit inf).  That’s a lot to take down when you think about it.  Plus the addition of a British inf and fighter on Normandy makes it a little harder for Germany.  So while France does usually fall G1, I’ve found it takes a lot of German recources to do it and quite often after investing a large amount of forces I see Germany ending up with only 2 or 3 tanks left out of that force.  So, while France doesn’t get to do a lot of buying units or counterattacking, at the very least they use up Axis resources and slow them down some.
    Plus, sometimes they can surprise you by putting up more of a fight than you would expect.  One time I saw the French Cruiser and Destroyer in the Med hold out against an Italian sub, 2 destroyers, 1 fighter and 1 tac.  Another time I saw the French infantry in Syria defeat an Italian tank and infantry to hold that territory and slow the Italian advance in the Middle East.


  • Interesting. Yes, I’m not quite liking North Italy being contiguous with France, as realistically you cannot reach the heart of France from Italy. Nonetheless that is about the answer I was looking for. Thank you sir.

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