F40 help!

[Ricky B]

Maybe you have a different idea than we have of what makes up insignificant objectives in a game. In almost everything I have worked on, I have tried to make sure the objectives and losses both play a role in victory, if they mattered in the final analysis of the battle. In this campaign game, with over 50,000 pts in objectives, if the German player reaches the sea and clears the most significant ports there, they will have seized most of the other objectives on the way. Thus, he will hold say 45,000 pts of objectives, for a solid draw.

If losses for both sides are equal at this point, I would say this would be a draw, NOT a victory for the Germans, because they would not have been able to continue their offensive to conquer the rest of France for quite awhile, in comparison with history where they took the ports and inflicted heavy losses on the allied forces, much heavier than they suffered. It was the destruction or removal from the OOB of the cream of the allied armies, and the loss of huge amounts of manpower, that was the major victory for the Germans, not the conquest of the ports.

So both play a role in a German victory, and I believe the objectives and victory conditions reflect the importance of each. Reach the sea but cripple the German army and it isn't a victory. Wipe out a lot of allied forces but don't reach the sea, and it would be difficult to believe it would have resulted in victory, but it is possible in the game. Wipe out 2/3 of the allied army, reach about half way to the sea, and lose less than a third of the Allied losses and the German player will have achieved at least a minor win, I believe.

As to abandoning the south, it might work in the game. My guess would be, after playing a few campaigns of it, that the extremely long flank back to the sea would be more vulnerable than a north south defense line. When (if) I have time, I would be happy to play a game against an allied player that tries abandoning the south and fighting only in the north to see what happens.

Rick