Maginot Line

[Clonus]

It's World War II. Assume that the Germans have superhumans who will be effectively unstoppable by conventional troops armed with nothing more than sidearms and rifles. They can be moved to the undefended side of the Maginot line, and from that position of relative safety, disable the guns on the Maginot line from the rear. If they do this, how tough would it be to assault the line?

[assault]

As tough as you want it to be.

 

Seriously - decide the answer you want and adjust the situation accordingly.

 

Some factors you could consider: how many superhumans, and how powerful?

 

Presumably the conventional part of the German army would be doing most of the heavy lifting, with the supers "merely" tipping the balance. This would work well with blitzkrieg tactics, which were initially developed in the later stages of the first World War. The supers would be useful in helping create a local breakthrough, which would allow the conventional forces to pass into the rear of the French lines and do what was done historically through the Netherlands and Belgium.

 

Obviously the French would throw reinforcements at the breakthrough, which could be very bad news for the German supers if the French can catch them without (much) support from the main German forces.

[Balabanto]

"They'll never invade through Belgium!!!!!"

[GhostDancer]

WWII German supers (Donner, Blitzen, Schloss, etc.) suggests that there may well be French supers too (The Sun King, Count of Saint-Germain, Fleur-de-lys, etc). Maybe the French supers existence is secret until the Maginot Line assault. Good convention game?

[kahuna's bro]

but will the french supers serve free france or the nazis?"

[Old Man]

The Maginot Line was less about physical barriers and more about heavy concrete emplacements filled with artillery and machine guns. Take out the latter, and you're left with infantry and small arms in bunkers and trenches that would last until the tanks got past the obstacles.

 

The biggest effect would be political. It'd still be harder for the Germans to push through the line than it was for them to go through the Ardennes, but it would probably have left Belgium and the Netherlands neutral for a few more critical months, until the Germans got around to occupying them.

[death tribble]

but will the french supers serve free france or the nazis?"

French supers will fight the Germans on invasion. What they do next will depend upon whether they are left or right leaning and whether they dislike Germany. What happened in World War 1 and their relation to that bears a bigger plot point than it might for other countries.

[Clonus]

As tough as you want it to be. Seriously - decide the answer you want and adjust the situation accordingly. Some factors you could consider: how many superhumans' date=' and how powerful? Presumably the conventional part of the German army would be doing most of the heavy lifting, with the supers "merely" tipping the balance. This would work well with blitzkrieg tactics, which were initially developed in the later stages of the first World War. The supers would be useful in helping create a local breakthrough, which would allow the conventional forces to pass into the rear of the French lines and do what was done historically through the Netherlands and Belgium. Obviously the French would throw reinforcements at the breakthrough, which could be very bad news for the German supers if the French can catch them without (much) support from the main German forces.[/quote']

 

The German supers are too valuable to be left at the front. Their only role would be to disable the machine guns and artillery of the line (taking advantage of the fact that these weapons are placed so as be able to shoot back into their own territory), and then be pulled back. I am assuming that while the French have some supers, they don't have as many and aren't as organized or powerful.

[BoloOfEarth]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]n44576[/ATTACH] I don't know if this worked or not, but I'm trying to attach a PDF that I had made of a part of the Maginot Line as a modern supervillain base, with hex maps of one casemate bloc and info on weapons and what-not, with changes noted at the end for making it 1930s-1940s era tech. Note also that this was written up in 5th edition rules, so may need some minor conversion.

 

If this is helpful, you're welcome to use it.

 

[DShomshak]

The .pdf loaded for me, and it looks extremely useful Thank you!

 

Dean Shomshak

[kahuna's bro]

It's World War II. Assume that the Germans have superhumans who will be effectively unstoppable by conventional troops armed with nothing more than sidearms and rifles. They can be moved to the undefended side of the Maginot line' date=' and from that position of relative safety, disable the guns on the Maginot line from the rear. If they do this, how tough would it be to assault the line? [/quote']

 

il'd think the power level shoud be that of syfy's alphas not omnipotent but not pushovers ethier

[Cassandra]

The French were defeated because their command and control system was too slow to react to the German advance. The initial bridgehead at Sedan was vulnerable for over a day to a counterattack that never came. French tanks were better armed and armored then the German ones, but all the German tanks had radios while only one French tank in ten had one.

 

If you want to save France you're going to have to have the heroes disrupt the German advance.