How to play France in Diplomacy - part 1

In this introduction to playing France I cover the basic opening plans. There are so many openings with France but they basically fall into three camps.

Firstly there are the popular "maginot" openings. This scheme of openings you attempt to place an army in burgundy in the fall of 1901. Whether you support the unit or just move un unsupported form the main branch of the opening.

Then the Gascony openings are also played a lot. At first galnce it appears that the French are retreating deep into thier own territory! However thiese openings are the most flexible and if all goes well France will still pick up 2 units in the fall of 1901.

Thirdly there are the picardy openings where paris goes to picardy in the spring of 1901. An extreme variation of this is the "sealion" where France teams up with Germany to attack England from the off.

Also there are the mediteranian openings where France swings her fleet round to the South coast of Spain in the Fall of 1901 with the idea of having a 2 fleet presence in the med in 1902.



Steve Payne
Diplomacy. How to play France.
http://www.historygamer.com