Dien Bien Phu, Hell in a very small place...

[Palle]

Ah yes, bad wording, I meant campaign, not scenario.

I know the Street without joy ones, they give a good picture of the grittyness and attrittion of Indochine (The French lost more troops here than the US did in WW II if I recall correctly). But there seem to be no campaigns dealing with the momentous and decisive battles of that war. And I must also admit to a certain weakness for the French Paras of that period (French decolonisation). Those last heroic defenders of a lost empire fighting to maintain a bygone age while their homeland turned its back on them...

Problem with Algeria in SPMBT is that even during the rebellion it is treated as a nation, you suddenly send your Paras and Legionaires against heavy artillery, aa guns and tanks. So the "Generate Campaign" does not work.

I know enough of Dien Bien Phu that I could do it, if only I knew anything of the making of scenarios to put in the campaign.
The two variants I would like would be:
-Strictly Historical, both sides get what they had exactly (or as close as can be managed with our somewhat inexact knowledge of the exact positions of barbed wire etc.).
-Alternative, both sides get points to buy what they want. Consider for example how it would have gone had the North Africans (who broke under the stress of the siege), been exchanged with legionaires. The Viets were also building other divisions than infantry at the time and could have tried a few batallions of these, etc., etc..

BTW, I recommend Jean Larteguy's novels for giving an accurate picture of the Paras from Indochine to Algerie, they summ up what hundreds of hours of scholarly work has taught me in a much easier digested form.