Craig and Mike - a couple of friends of our from Cape Cod, played Germany on Saturday. They are great players, but have only played the game 3-4 times and France can be a bit tricky (especially when you have John playing France).
Germany took the Maginot line (Burgundy) in the Spring and the French passed their surrender check and withdrew into Paris. On the Summer turn, the Germans went for surrounding Paris (Which Yoper's Detroit group should have done in their last game - see pics from Detroit game #6). They attacked Picardy and Southern France and meched into Picardy while dropping paratroopers behind Paris into Gascony. The French would have been out of supply in Paris, unable to build or fort anyone down.
Unfortunately, the French/British got really lucky, bypassed the escorting Me109's and shot down the German paratroop plane - leaving Paris in supply and the Germans stretched way out of position.
The Italians were massed in Albania to take out Greece - so there was no Italian help to attack southern France - and they could not redeploy fast enough once things looked grim which would have helped (another lesson learned).
The French Summer counterattack blasted the Germans out of every French territory except one and they passed their surrender check again.
With the German army and airforce in shambles and the BEF reinforcing France, it looked like the Allies would be carrying the war into the Ruhr in the Autumn of 1940, so the Germans gave up.
I know the game can be harsh early on - but it makes it fun - not every game should last until 1945.
In the second game, Craig and Mike learned their lessons and took France out in the Summer of 1940.
The guys decided not to play with the neutral alliances optional rule
