Merry Christmas everyone!
I decided to post this when I opened my emails this morning to find all this stuff in my inbox from Spartan Games (I strongly advise signing upto their news letter for these type of updates alone!).
The dawn of the 19th century brought with it a series of catastrophic events that stripped France of its status as an imperial power. Having reached, as they saw it, the very lowest depths of despair, the French spent the following decades dedicating all their efforts into rebuilding their nation and its glory.
Now, as the 1870s dawn, and the world is gripped by crisis, France sees at last the chance to regain its rightful place as a great power. The self-satisfied, naysayers and complacent, at home and abroad, who in the past have sought to write off the Republique's fortunes are soon to be proven very wrong.
The French military forces are split into three services: l'Armee de Terre, l'Armee de Mer and l'Armee de l'Air: literally, the Armies of the Land, Sea and Sky. The Navy and Air Forces also include their own integral marine forces, known as Mousquetons, after the compact automatic carbines that are their main armament.
L'Armee de Terre is split into the Regular and Reserve Armies and the Heavy Assault Command. The Regular Army is formed of Armoured Regiments; each incorporates its own artillery and infantry elements. The Armoured Regiments form the backbone of the Land Army.
The French Navy is divided into three fleets: Atlantic, Channel and Mediterranean, with the strongest forces assigned to the latter two. The Navy also incorporates its own aerial element, the Maritime Air Force, which is responsible for the fighter and light bomber squadrons employed on the Navy's battle-carriers.
The third of the Republique's armed services is the most glamorous and also very cosmopolitan. The French air service, focussed as it is on France itself, employs large numbers of conventional short ranged aeroplanes, organised into fighter and bomber squadrons (escadrons de chasse and bombardier respectively) grouped within Air Combat Wings. This part of the air force also incorporates the heavy bomber squadrons.
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