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Alfred -> RE: Vichy France (1/28/2020 10:57:36 AM)
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For 15 years, yes this goes all the way back to classical WITP, there has been utter nonsense posted about the s.8.8 of the manual units. Often by the same people.
1. The units covered by s.8.8 of the manual are not Viet Minh. The manual makes it clear they aren't Viet Minh. The "devs" have confirmed this. Yet repeatedly they are misrepresented by posters as being Viet Minh and as such go on to criticise the game design decision as being illogical for Ho Chi Minh would never have assisted Japan to fight off Allied troops, particularly Americans.
2. The s.8.8 units are Vichy controlled units. They only appear if the trigger is pulled before 1 January 1943. This corresponds closely with the period when the major Vichy aligned colonies, even though cut off from metropolitan France, maintained military forces which were no pushover for Allied invasions.
3. Vichy aligned colonies had standing orders to resist any external attack upon their territory. In 1941 Vichy Lebanon and Syria vigorously resisted the Allied invasion of their territory. Those Australians who participated in the campaign testified that there was no mickey mouse fighting involved. The same applied in 1942 when Madagascar was invaded by the Allies. The response to "Torch" again was military resistance which was curtailed only because of a political collapse in the Vichy elite.
4. Even when their "semi Ally" Japan moved into Indochina in 1940, the local Vichy controlled forces, even though much weaker than their Syrian/Madascagar/North African compadres and lacking air power, resisted. To continue that resistance was rather pointless as the administration of Indochina remained in French hands after the ceasefire, unlike the subsequent Allied invasions elsewhere.
These exemplars all demonstrate that any external attack on Indochina would generate a military response. More so if the attack came from China, a long term hostile power as far as the Vietnamese were concerned. It is therefore very logical for the game design to include the s.8.8 units which are triggered only in the pre Vichy elite collapse era and the attack comes from China. The only debateable point is how many units should be created. With Japanese support one could argue that even more than the maximum hard coded limit of 4 divs might be feasible. The total number is therefore a hypothetical exercise akin to the medieval debate on how many angels could fit on a needle.
Alfred
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