Upcoming : Vietnam - Battle of Dien Bien Phu

[jim panse]

You may use these mountain gfx I used for my WW1 scenario because I think htey look not too bad ......

Anyway, it´s up to you & good luck fpr your scen!

[Matthew22]

Originally posted by our_man
Looks excellent; my only suggestion is that you get different graphics for the iron/gold resources, as they clash with the rest of the mountains.

Thanks for the feedback , yeah i have been meaning to get rid of those along with a few other small graphical glitchs. And thanks to everybody who posted Mountain gfx

And yeah i was think ing of including the local population as a playable civ ,as either nuetral or helping the french.

[techumseh]

Helping the French? I don't think so.

[Matthew22]

Originally posted by techumseh
Helping the French? I don't think so.

As supprising as it sounds , Yes there were quite a few Vietnamese who aided the french during the battle of Dien Bien Phu , some beleived in the french strong enough to actually help defend it.

[techumseh]

What are your sources?

[Matthew22]

http://www.dienbienphu.org/english/

A specific example... "On the French side the 4306 replacements parachuted in between March 14 and May 6 did not make up for the losses suffered between those dates (1,500 killed and more than 4,000 wounded). Among the replacements were 709 non jump-qualified men who volunteered to fight in Dien Bien Phu after April 20, often jumping at night. Many were Vietnamese who volunteered to join their comrades in the besieged garrison."

[techumseh]

That's a very nice site, I must say. And very pro-French, as well.

The fact that there were Vietnamese in the French service- "comrades" implies that these were Vietnamese who had already been recruited by the French- is no surprise. All imperial powers did this, and it is no indication of general popular support for the colonizing power. I also doubt that many these troops were recruited from the vicinity of Dien Bien Phu.

In the post-war period, all of the colonial powers were struggling to keep control of thier overseas possesions in the face of a huge upsurge of national liberation movements. The British lost India, the Dutch Indonesia, France Algeria and Indochina and the Americans the Philippines. Unless there is specific evidence of local pro-French sympathy, it might be safer to assume the opposite, or at best, neutrality.

BTW, your screen shots look great. How are you going to handle the artillery?

[Matthew22]

Artillery is represented by units representing 'Ammo' , units similar to cruise missiles , ive seen this used quite a bit in other scenarios and ive liked it a lot .

Here are the units i have for them now( Im not that happy with them and im just using them as a stop-gap at the moment) if anybody has any others that they would like to contribute , please do.

[Paul Hanson]

IIRC, the AI will only use air-based missile units against sea-based targets. This might present a problem.

[N35t0r]

you can tag them as land units (the arty missiles) as long as they do not have to cross any ocean. They do use land missiles against land units.

[jim panse]

and they do travel by road if possible ......

[N35t0r]

and what about making them domain 3? anybody tried these?

[Panag]

Originally posted by techumseh
That's a very nice site, I must say. And very pro-French, as well.

The fact that there were Vietnamese in the French service- "comrades" implies that these were Vietnamese who had already been recruited by the French- is no surprise. All imperial powers did this, and it is no indication of general popular support for the colonizing power. I also doubt that many these troops were recruited from the vicinity of Dien Bien Phu.

In the post-war period, all of the colonial powers were struggling to keep control of thier overseas possesions in the face of a huge upsurge of national liberation movements. The British lost India, the Dutch Indonesia, France Algeria and Indochina and the Americans the Philippines. Unless there is specific evidence of local pro-French sympathy, it might be safer to assume the opposite, or at best, neutrality.

BTW, your screen shots look great. How are you going to handle the artillery?

hi ,

yes , but there where plenty of vietnamese troops fighting alongside the French outside DBP as well , .....

btw , if you need French legion info or badges , just ask , some of the links in the sig ( below ) are related to French foreign legion site's , .....

have a nice day

[techumseh]

Perhaps you could make the fixed positions of the French (those with a 0 movement) ships. It might attract some artillery fire.

[Case]

Mathew, are you including a possibility of US intervention? Historically, the US government came very close to granting French requests for air support, with the use of nuclear weapons even being seriously considered at one stages. AFAIK, the US force would of consisted of long range bombers flying from the Philipines as well as aircraft from carriers in the Gulf of Tonkin.

Originally posted by Matthew22
Among the replacements were 709 non jump-qualified men who volunteered to fight in Dien Bien Phu after April 20, often jumping at night

As an aside, the non-jump trained troops suffered almost exactly the same rate of jump casualties as the professional paratroops did!