If the French player loses his three continental territories (France, Southern France and Normandy/Bordeaux), which have IPC values of 4, 3 and 2 respectively, the only remaining French territories on the Europe 1940 side of the map are territories with an IPC value of 1 (in most cases) or 0 (in the case of French Guiana). This means that, on the Europe 1940 side of the map, all the French player can do is save the IPCs he collects (for eventual use when France is liberated) because the rules require a player to introduce his new units in a territory which he controls and which contains an industrial complex. France has no initial-setup ICs anywhere on the map except in its three continental territories, and it can’t build any ICs on the Europe 1940 side of the map because the rules say that “Minor industrial complexes can be built only in territories with an IPC value of 2 or higher.”
On the Pacific 1940 side of the map, however, we have the interesting case of French Indo-China (FIC), which has an IPC value of 2. The French player could therefore in principle build an IC in FIC (if it hasn’t yet been invaded by Japan), and then use the IC on his subsequent turns to deploy units to that territory to take part in the struggle for Southeast Asia. Building an IC there, however, would give Japan a good reason to invade FIC before France had a chance to use the IC on its next turn – especially since the set-up charts allocate no French units to FIC, thus leaving it completely undefended.
The Pacific 1940 rules say that…
“France’s capital has been captured by Germany. As a result, French territories are treated in the same way as any Allied territories whose capital is held by an enemy power (see “Liberating a Territory,†page 20).”
…so I suppose that British forces could in principle try to get to FIC from India (there are no initial-setup British forces next door to FIC in Shan State) ahead of Japan, in order to put a defending force there and in order to liberate the territory on behalf of France, since the rule say…
“If you capture a territory that was originally controlled by another member of your side, you “liberate†the territory. You
don’t take control of it; instead, the original controller regains the territory and the national production level is adjusted.”
But all in all, this sounds like a lot of effort and I’m not sure the payoff of having a French IC operating in that part of the world would be worth the trouble. It would also probably require more inter-Allied cooperation than the Allied players might be willing to deliver.