Early France advice

[The Land]

Anyone got any advice on taking France early? I attacked via Luxembourgh and Belgium in Autumn 39 then a direct attack towards Paris, but as it turns out I have got to April 1940 and am only about 4-5 weeks ahead of the historical schedule. Does anyone have any advice on how to pull this off?

[elmo3]

Only played the Axis once so far. Like you I attacked early but ended up near the historical fall of France as well. That has me a bit worried about how I would do against a good Allied player. Doesn't seem possible to come anywhere near the historical timetable in that case, but I really haven't played enough to know for sure yet.

[Heavensmith]

TBH I didn't really check the schedule when invading France.I just had France & Yougoslavia as my main targets for 1940, as long as they went down easily I was happy No need to "stay on schedule"

[The Land]

So by yesterday afternoon I'd managed to get it up to Paris on 30 March 1940 and Brussels and the Hague the following turn.

Basically,
On Turn 1, remove MPPs from research so you have an immediate budget for operational moves. Operate Armies from the Western and Southern Polish frontier and the Luftwaffe. Use your free infantry on the Western border to take Luxembourg. Move the two Panzer units back to locations they can operate from. Upgrade the fighter on the Western Front as it will be important for air cover later. Attack into Poland with everything that's from East Prussia and two corps from SW of Warsaw.
On Turn 2, declare war on Belgium and drive into eastern Belgium France with the armies you operated over on turn 1. Operate more Corps over. Poland might last until turn 4.

This then gives you a good start. You have your strongest units deployed against partially-mobilized French units so you can destroy some key French units before they have the chance to reinforce. You don't have enough troops to attack across the whole width of the front, so try to keep your advance on a 3-4 hex front. It will be slower going than if you start in May 1940, but you can set it up so that you can take Paris on the first turn of 1940 that your air units can bomb the garrison.

[Goodmongo]

Hmmm. I've done some preliminary number crunching and I think doing this is a MPP loss. Better to take Poland in 2 turns and not have losses fighting the French.

[The Land]

Yes, I was wondering about that. Of course, it does get you a couple more months' production from France but I suspect that isn't actually worth the cost. Unless you then do something clever with an early Sealion or Barbarossa - it might prove possible to get Britain out of the way by October 1940. But of course that will probably just pull forward the American and Russian declarations of war.....