Getting the most out of the French engineer

[DavidDailey]

What are some ideas for putting the Spanish shovelmovers to good use? They don't have time to do much. 1. Can you try and enclose Bordeaux? If the French government moves there an enclosed Bordeaux would buy some time before France surrenders. But if the rest of the country is captured will the French surrender even with Bordeaux? 2. Create a salient in Brest? A fortified area next to St. Malo would create an enclosure for a second BEF in Brest. Is this a feasible idea. 3. Build a British engineer and combine spadepicking? It seems difficult to build meaningful entrenchments around Paris with just the one engineer. Not enough time. But can a Brit engineer be constructed and combine with the French engineer to, say build a fortress in front of Paris? 4. Any other ideas?

[petedalby]

I ship the French Engineer to North Africa to build entrenchments on the approach to Cairo / Alexandria. Usually have time for at least 1 set before France surrenders and there's always the chance the engineer will become Free French.

[Bo Rearguard]

I usually get them to build two fortified hexsides on the Somme before they become just another Wehrmacht speed bump on the road to Paris.

[Bavre]

Sometimes I ship him to England to build fortifications which I use as "fortified airfields" later on. Especially useful on the swamp hexes. Plus as mentioned by Pete, the engineer might become one of de Gaulle's boys that way.

[DavidDailey]

This brings up another point. Having a Free French engineer would be way more valuable than anything he can do in France. Is there a specific percentage chance a French unit will become Free French? What is it? And is there a separate dice roll for every French unit that escapes to become Free French or one roll for all of them?

[Platoonist]

This brings up another point. Having a Free French engineer would be way more valuable than anything he can do in France. Is there a specific percentage chance a French unit will become Free French? What is it? And is there a separate dice roll for every French unit that escapes to become Free French or one roll for all of them?

If I recall correctly, it's a 20% check per each French land unit in a mobilized and belligerent Commonwealth territory outside of France. However, if Germany says NO to the Vichy decision event, then the chance increases to 40% per unit for both land and naval units. I imagine that if the game checked once for all units, it'd probably result in some players gaming the system by wholesale evacuating France and then having a decent shot of getting an almost intact Free French Army to re-invade Europe with.

[OldCrowBalthazor]

I also can confirm it's a separate roll for each French unit outside France proper to become 'Free'.
Got real lucky once and had 2 out of 5 become Free, including the FR Engineer that I rat-holed to Egypt