Gendarme
Posts: 50
Joined: 9/19/2006
From: Chicago, IL, USA
Status: offline
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Can't maintain silence any more on this point.
Of course I realize my opinion matters not, but I'm hoping HR does change the map to give the Netherlands that hex, and I'd like to see Luxembourg as that one hex of the Ardennes too. I realize it will change the whole opening of the Battle for France. But if this change reflects increased accuracy for the map, then arguments like "it's more difficult for Germany now" don't cut it for me. The German player will just have to change his plans now, adapt to the new situation, instead of doing it the way we've been used to after umpteen games of Wif. I realize Luxembourg will be one more minor, one more DOW, one more USE. Oh well. If you want that room to maneuver and outflank the cities and rivers, you have to go through the Netherlands. If you want to leave the Dutch neutral so as to avoid giving all those ships to the Allies, there's a price to pay. Less wriggle room.
Once Germany gets to those clear hexes anywhere on the French border, with the blitz/armor bonuses of the 2d10 chart and average luck, the Germans start chewing up the pale blue guys quickly. How is France too strong? If it seems that France is too strong already, it may be because the Allied players just aren't playing into the German's hands like they did historically, that's why France may not fall in three impulses of May/June 1940 like they did. Hopefully, us players aren't going to make some of the mistakes our historical counterparts did, and hence the flow of the game will be different. (Italy invading Greece on a storm/snow impulse with two INF corps, and leaving their fleet with no air cover in Taranto waiting to be port struck? USSR setting up the bulk of its army on the border waiting to be surprised?) But that's all a different issue than having a map that's as accurate as possible. And I agree that the Benelux borders should be altered for increased accuracy.
As someone else on the forum mentioned already, it seems that if we were to try and translate history into a Wif turn, then May/June 1940 was a long turn with lots of clear weather, Germany rolled exceptionally well in the air and on the ground, and the Allied player(s) kind of bumbled around the map straight into disaster.
If Germany doesn't roll well, then the one Dutch hex more or less isn't going to make or break them anyway.
About breaking into France on the same impulse as advancing into Belgium and the Netherlands -- historically, what was the frontage of the German attack at Sedan, how many corps were involved and how many French were defending? If we were going to Wif it, were the Germans attacking from the one hex where Luxembourg should be, or both of the forest hexes south of Liege? Was it against one French INF corps, like a 3-3, or one of the better ones? With the Guderian HQ, another ARM corps, ARM div, and ground strikes/support, I think you can gain the French hex west of Metz the same impulse as you go into the low countries. After that, you're getting two-hex attacks with armor and the blitz table on French infantry stacks all the way to the Channel.
Anthony DeChristopher
< Message edited by Gendarme -- 5/28/2008 7:52:58 AM >
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RE: Europe map? - 
RE: Europe map? - 
, I see that the German advance was not south into the hex west of Metz, it was through both forest hexes of the Ardennes straight west into France. Which of course cannot be replicated in the game with a Belgian unit in Liege exerting a ZOC. So game mechanics prevent a perfect re-creation of Guderian's blitz, not anything else, in my opinion. I wouldn't rectify that with a no-ZOC rule, however. 
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