F 40 Gold question

[jonnymacbrown]

What is the purpose for the withdrawal of French 9th and 7th Army command on May 15th? 9th just got unfixed at dawn on May 15th. Now in 6 more hours they are gone and all their Army artillery will soon be low on fuel. What's the idea here? Thanks jonny

GQG does the same thing at a later date. I believe the hey-presto disappearance and reappearance is meant to simulate the withdrawal of those armies in reaction to the Sedan breakthrough. Unfortunately, in any given game that breakthrough may or may not happen, and so the relocations mostly serve as just another "idiot rule" handicap for the French: artificial constraints, like the release dates of various units, which are intended to simulate the failure of the high command (a wargame design approach I frankly despise as contrary to the nature of a wargame simulation).

Among his many treasonous acts “General” Gamelin’s send off of 7th Army to completely and literally disappear into the Dutch swamps was the most egregious.  How do you simulate that? Why not make the whole 7th Army hey-presto disappear? As for the staggered release dates that adds to the unpredictability and is well thought out in my opinion. Still, I think the F 40 Gold designers are intent to make Germany win, or better said, make it impossible for them to lose when two equally skillful players play a campaign. When you can stack two German infantry battalions with 25% more firepower than any French defender and suffer no adverse effects from stacking 1200 men in a 1000 yard hex then the game is rigged.  jonny