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So I am interested in getting into flames of war, specifically the french nation, but I dont understand what books I would need for the army, tactics and how to play the french, etc. If someone could give me some tips I would appreciate it very much. Thank you in advance.

Well if you're playing Early War European France, you'll want Blitzkrieg. Late War France appears in Road to Rome - but it's basically Americans with some French rules. Mid-war is being re-done, so the books that involve the French there (both Free France and Vichy) should maybe be avoided.

French also are a defence based army. They have bonuses to their artillery, get a lot of fortifications and their tanks are slow and struggle in mobile warfare.

thank you, I will keep all this in mind.

 blood reaper wrote:
Late War France appears in Road to Rome - but it's basically Americans with some French rules.

You forgot the French 2éme Division Blindée briefing.

Early War French forces in Africa and the Middle East (both Free French and Vichy) also appear in Burning Empires.

But before you get a book, find out who's playing in your local area and what era(s) they're playing in. Different eras are not compatible with each other, so you'll want to know what others are doing before you start spending money.

Our basic tactic is: when they shoot we surrender, though wwe still surrender less than Italians

 Maréchal des Logis Walter wrote:
Our basic tactic is: when they shoot we surrender, though wwe still surrender less than Italians

Debatable, 8 Million Bayonets has gifted me more Reluctant Trained Carri platoons than I'd like to admit, though its favourite target for RT is my 1iC.


I'll echo trying to find out what eras are being played, but also add in that in Early War, France has decent capability in all--Infantry, Mechanised, and Tank--types of list they can field, and that you might want to think about your preferred play-style, because whilst they're good, they do require a certain amount of finesse to use.

Jokes apart, here are some infos, historicalywise:

Our doctrine was to block the enemy advance to dig in and force them to fight an attrition war. Obviously, since we couldn't seem to build a decent frontline, it failed.

Our tanks were divided into cavalry (yes, we still had some for transmission too) and infantry tanks, just as the brits in fact. Anyway, they were few all-armored or mechanized units at our disposal.

While we had few units of them, we owned some truly powerful planes and tanks. Unfortunatly by 1940 we were in full transformation and they had hardly been integrated whereas our troops were drowning in bad, ancient, inefficient stuff such as the Renault FT17.

We had some colonials troops you globally fought well. Those were the tirailleurs.

Our artillery was particulary powerful and efficient. The 75 was a very reliable and versatile gun, able to counter infantry as well as tanks. After it got pneumanic tires, it also proved to be quite maneuvrable. Besides, we owned state of the art heavy artillery.

French logistic was absolutly hopeless... no strikes for once, just bad organization and lack of trucks.

Maybe that can lend you a hand.