@Herr:
@Chris_Henry:
While it’s true that historically France was essentially a non factor in the war, we must remember that this game starts in 1940 BEFORE France was at war.
The game starts with the Netherlands and Belgium under German control, but France still free. Because the 1940 German operation known as Fall Gelb attacked all three countries (and Luxembourg) simultaneously, and France had already declared war on Germany in 1939, France was definitely at war at the point in time depicted by the start of the game. Also, by the time the Germans had taken Belgium, they also held northern France. I’d say that the game starts in late May, 1940, before the fall of Paris but with France already in deep trouble and on the verge of military collapse.
True. I guess I should have clarified this in game terms again, and I certainly did not mean to say before they were at war, since they had been at war since 1939, poor word choice, and not at all what I meant, sorry for the confusion/misleading quote. What I had meant was before they had been taken out entirely. I’ve studied WWII history a bunch, so I am certainly aware of the timing of the low countries falling with the attack of France! �  :-)
Based on the map given, it looks as though for gaming mechanics France has yet to be attacked. I’d assumed this was done for gaming simplicity, but you could very well be right in that perhaps the starting troop numbers are designed to help show that France was on the verge of defeat. I just read the rulebook preface, and it does state that the start of the game is supposed to be at Dunkirk, which of course would help to show that France was on the verge of collapse.
My post was on an assumption of French military strength being still largely intact, and had assumed a gaming mechanic of an un-invaded France as of yet, in a quasi-alternate history sense if you will.
Regardless, the point of the post still stands, in that the contributions of France in the war/game outweigh those of the smaller nations mentioned to the point where France is the first country to be looked at for adding house rules of this sort!