ATG New Dawn Even Steven FR/Arab strategy question

[Neul]

Hi all:
Have tried numerous times to win as the Frenchies in the ATG New Dawn Even Steven French/Arab scenario. I get my rear handed to me every time. I produce AT guns and machine guns which seem useless in defense. Can't seem to outproduce the Arab forces.
The Arabs seem to have immense resources and they never seem to experience supply issues whn away from roads.
Any insights or suggestions?
Note: I tend to be rather successful in other scenarios, so this one really baffles me.

[ernieschwitz]

I remember playing that. Never did find a way to win though.

[navekaoy]

Ooh, one of my favorite scenarios. If I recall correctly I've beat both the normal AI and AI+ on this scenario as the French. I find the trick to be to hold out at the chokepoints - there are two in the north and one in the south - and then drop a lot of strong defensive troops in the mountains. AT Guns are definitely your friend. I've tried making various types of fortifications as well at the chokepoints with engineers, though I'm not sure if I would do that again, as it takes time and resources and eventually the AI will have a lot of (heavy) artillery and blow the forts up quite quickly. I'm having trouble remembering now if that was the AI++ (whom I definitely didn't beat - memory is quite clear on that one) that did that or just the AI+. At any rate, you can hold for quite some time with a strong defensive line, then pick away with artillery and/or aircraft before slowly trying to creep up. You can also try to cut off the southern city in various ways.

Incidentally, I find this scenario to be *much* harder as the Arabs against the French AI, as there's basically zero defensive terrain in front of your cities to hold out in, which makes it much harder to offset how much the AI out-produces you by. As the French the AI will just crash against the rocks of your defensive line and lose lots of units, less so as the Arabs.

Let us know if you figure out a win, I'd be curious to see how other people handle that scenario.

[Neul]

Thank you so much. I shall try again. At first blush it seems like a really mobile scenario because of the desert and the Armored Cars. I'll try the method you suggest.