French AT guns

[Bobsalt]

As I'm working on getting my stuff painted, I'm almost finished with the Soviet stuff I have on hand, and next up will be the French. As I was looking through the counter sheets I noticed the French don't seem to have AT guns. Same thing when I looked at the production charts. I'm assuming this is a deliberate design decision to Nerf the French armor strength to make German armor more effective vs. the French? If so, it makes sense, given some of the issues that came up in the First Edition game with blunted German offensives into France.

Just want to be sure it's correct before I start painting. If it is, I'll use the French AT guns as German ones (captured) or as French artillery (fewer additional units I have to buy).

[Mark]

Right - no French AT Guns (The British and Italians can not build AT gun units until later in the game as well).  This is to show that these early war nationalities did not really have large or effective AT formations to counter tanks

[Bobsalt]

This makes a lot of sense. When the war began no one (except Germany) knew the impact massed formations of armor would have. The French parceled out their tanks in small groups as infantry support vehicles, and had no real tank or anti-tank doctrine. Of course, no one else really did either. Not allowing these countries to start out building AT guns is, in my opinion, a good way to simulate the prevailing tactical doctrines of the day.

[Mark]

Yes - agree - it also simulates the desert war much better as well - with the British trying to fight tanks with tanks rather than trying to defend with 88s as the Germans can.