France Surrender in Europe, Commander at War

[Birtle]

Can anyone tell me why France surrendered?

Here is the situation. Summer 1940. My opponent is playing Axis and has taken Denmark, Holland and invaded Belgium and England. He has occupied the English city of Brighton with a paratroop drop, but otherwise the invasion is going badly for him...it is clearly only a matter of time before England is cleansed of Germans. The allies hold almost all of Belgium. Allied casualties are low. France is in good shape. Paris is not occupied by allied forces, but the city is in no danger. After Italy declares war, several Axis units work their way into Southern France--just a few hexes in. They capture Nice--the ONLY city in France the Germans control. And as soon as they do, France surrenders!!! It is July 1940, virtually all of France including Paris is intact, the germans control just 3 or 4 hexes in Britain (and no British ports), Belgium is in allied hands, casualties are low, and France surrenders! Any ideas why this happened? Playing Europe commander at war gold, version 4.

[Peter Stauffenberg]

Is Paris occupied by Allied units?

I think it was added some code for avoiding an exploit where the Axis player could delay the French Armistice offer to kill off more Allied units by not attacking Paris. If the Allied player wanted an armistice offer to be made then they could leave Paris empty either by abandoning the city or attacking with a surrounded unit with Paris to get it destroyed. This mode is only activated once Axis units are within France.

There were some situations where the Axis wanted to kill off British units before he was interesting in accepting an armistice offer. With the French counter move they could force the Axis player to either accept the armistice offer so the British units could be evacuated or force the Axis player to decline the armistice offer thus creating Free France.

The key is that British units along the coast will be evacuated while inland units will surrender when the armistice offer is accepted. Normally you can only disembark from ports, but the game simulates the Dunkirk evacuation by allowing British units along the coast to be evacuated too.

This exploit is usually used by Axis players who want to launch a Sealion. If the British units can't be evacuated then England is wide open to invasion.