Brian Train - 10:49am Jan 29, 2001 PST (#571 of 573)
"He was wont so to speak plain and to the purpose, as an honest man and
a soldier."

Answers to Norbert's questions:

a) 11.7: There are seven concentrated divisions but ten dispersed. Any
comments?

The French found it more useful to disperse their divisions, so I
supplied more dispersed-mode divisions than concentrated ones.

b) 11.1.2: I suppose the Para are always airmobile (there are no armored
cav in Algeria), correct?

No, otherwise I would have said so. 11.1.2 specifies that all mobile
units that are not armored cavalry are infantry class, and therefore can
be airmobilized. There are no units that have an inherent airmobile
capability.

c) 10.3: I suppose that only non-neutralized units may move to the
UG/OPS box and the neutralized still remain in the OC box, correct?

No; "all units" means all mobile units and FLN Fronts, neutralized or
not. Algerian static units are a special case because in a sense they
are on a perpetual Patrol mission: if they are neutralized they stay in
the PTL box, and also would not be eligible to be redeployed anywhere.

d) 9.2.2/9.2.5: Is the French return fire halved like harass operations?

No.

e) 9.2.2/9.2.4: Are the drm cumulative? E.g. A Front in a remote area
gets a +2drm on Flushing operation?

Yes. 2.3.3 specifies that all DRM are cumulative unless otherwise
stated.

f) 9.2.2: I don't understand completely the fire procedure. Assume three
French units undertake a Flush operation against 1 FLN company. The
company (Fire Strength 2) fires and gets 2 hits. Thus the FLN decides if
the French PSL is reduced by 2 or the FLN PSL is raised by 2 or any
combination. Then the French fire and get only 1 hit. The company is
destroyed (+1 French PSP). The FLN has more hits than the French. Does
this mean that all three French units are neutralized? Do I miss
something?

Yes, actually it does. The French did get the largest number of hits and
so are neutralized. Consider in this case that, as happened so many
times, the French spent all their time crashing through the bush for
only minimal contact; during this time they were not available for other
missions.

g) I wonder that there are no restrictions about the French
mobilization. At the start of the game the FLN is weak and it seems to
be a good strategy to overwhelm them by massive static and elite units.
I don't know much about this conflict but I think it was at first a 'war
of terrorism' with only a few hundred actives. So the French were not
overly concerned about the FLN. By the way: the famous/infamous Paras
under command of General Massu were still in Indochina. Any comments?

The game begins at the end of 1954, when there were about 53,000 French
and Algerian troops in Algeria. They were organized in four
understrength divisions, about twelve combat regiments, but there was at
least one para unit available as well. Pardes, the commanding general in
Algiers, reacted to a rash of terrorist incidents (over 70 in the city
of Algiers alone in the space of two days) by sending four regiments and
a para unit, one-third of all available forces, into the Aures mountains
south of Algiers, where they chased FLN fighters well into early 1955. I
think that's a pretty strong reaction, and certainly the war in Algeria
attracted strong public attention from the very beginning.

1955 was a buildup year for both sides. By the end of this year there
were over 105,000 French and 18,000 Algerian troops mobilized, facing
over 6,000 FLN regulars and at least 10,000 part time fighters. At the
same time, about 124,000 French troops were withdrawing from Indochina,
including most of the French parachute forces. Some units (at least
three Algerian and six Moroccan regiments) sailed directly from
Indochina to North Africa. The paras were shifted in 1955, as soon as
they had rebuilt from their May 1954 defeat at Dien Bien Phu (see Paul
Rohrbaugh's game): by the end of the year, there were at least eight
"intervention" (what I call elite units in the game) units in Algeria.

Anyway, both sides start the game from a position of material weakness.
The initial 15-point French advantage in PSP is soon worn down by
maintenance requirements for the existing garrison, plus whatever the
FLN can do. You can try spending lots of PSP and flooding the
countryside with French soldiers, but it's a gamble - do it all at once
and you may bring your PSP perilously low. I preferred to leave these
difficult choices open to the players, rather than write "idiot rules"
artificially preventing one side or the other from doing something.

Thanks; I hope I have answered your questions satisfactorily.