Hi All,
We’ve saved the best for last! You know that present under the tree, that you just know there is something special inside?!
Following on from the Gold Updates to Normandy ’44 & Bulge ’44, we give you France ’40 Gold!
This is not like a normal Gold update, but a completely new, expanded game.
We have not just included Ed William’s Volcanoman alternative scenarios, but a further 44 ‘Prucha’ scenarios.
Michael Prucha and David Michas have expanded the whole game to include all the operations in both France, Belgium and now the Netherlands. There are scenarios covering the first use of the German Fallschirmjaeger (Para troops) during WW2 and the complete inclusion of all the German ‘Fall Gelb’ operation. All of Michael and David’s work is new and the depth of research is astounding. Just go and look at the range of different types of artillery pieces included. New rules have been included to cover armoured trains, national surrender and fragile morale.
The game map has also been completely redone and now stretches from the Netherlands in the north down to Paris and further east into Germany. This revised map will have potential future uses as it covers so much territory. The original game map was 78,000 hexes, the new one is over 212,000 hexes or 2.7x larger. The most amazing thing is if you own the original France ’40, you are entitled to the Prucha upgrade for free!
I expect we will share even more on what was involved in building the new France ’40 Gold in future blogs.
Here are some further details on the changes;
The game code will now be standardized on the JTS codebase. There will be no further support for the HPS versions
All new and expanded game maps
All new 2D & 3D map graphics
All new unit graphics and counters on map
All new unit cards
All new in game sounds; weapon, explosion, background and miscellaneous
All released Volcano Man scenarios
All new ‘Prucha’ scenarios (44 in total) including order of battles, parameter changes and images.
New ‘modern’ toolbar icons
Code update – disruption no longer halves movement during the day and is reduced by one third at night.
Code update – reinforcement ‘place all’ has been migrated across from the First World War Campaign series.
New national rules covering fatigue and surrender.
Here are some additional screenshots (all can be clicked to view at full size);
Additional product information is here France ’40 Gold Page
If you already have the JTS 2.00 version of France ’40, please get the 2.01 Gold patch from here; JTS Update Page
If you own the HPS version and would like the Gold version, then email JTS support for your game key Support@johntillersoftware.com
Happy holidays everyone, we hope you enjoy the gifts!!!
I look to the East and now to the West. I’m loving the contemporary artwork, new maps and scenarios. I use the 3D map views quite frequently and the switch from 8 to 24- bit graphics are much appreciated. Thanks for the Gold updates/Christmas presents!
Happy Holidays!
Am I missing something? The game’s new scenarios refer to designer notes but all I see are the original notes, nothing from the new designer and the 44 new scenarios??
Hi Kurt,
No, you’re not missing anything. I made the call to release the upgrade before the designer notes were ready. We will get them out and will announce them in this blog. Do check each scenario description as they are usually exhaustive and will give quite a bit of info on the situation and other considerations.
David
David,
Thanks for the quick update! I have all the PZC &PZB titles, awesome stuff, keep up the great work!
Thanks,
Kurt
have got all the updated games. Was waiting for France40. Needless to say I haven’t been disappointed. Your work on France 40 is brilliant and many thanks for all that went into it.
Keep up the good work.
Sweet just in time for Christmas vacation! Its great that the western series is getting the same attention as its hard to come back and play them after the Eastern series got the upgrades. Glad to see more of the Civil war games updated too!
An oustanding update for the most intriguing panzer campaigns title. It is really a new game!
I have to minor issues:
1. The country flag of allied units is located in the right hand of unit portrait and makes difficult to see the bottom values.
2. The dutch pag anti tank batteries are all motorized in the game (as in real life). The unit portrait shows a horse instead of a truck and i think is an error.
Hi, there is alternative unit boxes included without the flag. It’s an issue not easily fixed without adjusting every image.
David
Thank you for the oustanding update. The very best of panzer campaigns games finnaly receives the proper treatment, the order of battle and unit art is really a work of love. I detected to minot issues:
1. The unit conutry flag is located on the right hand in allied units and this makes difficult to see the bottom values.
2. The pag dutch anti tank batteries are shown as motorized (historically correct) but the unit portrait shows a horse instead of a truck.
I am playing the Fall Gelb scenario by Mike Prucha and thoroughly enjoying the redesign and the Gold edition. It is turn 18 (dusk on May 11th) and the 3rd Panzer Division is still fixed. Under the release dialogue I don’t see a release time indicated and without the benefit of the still to be released designer notes I don’t have any sense of why the 3rd Panzer is still fixed…nor when it will be released. Can anyone enlighten me on this?
Hi there,
We have confirmed this is an issue and are looking to correct it asap. Thanks for the bug report.
David
Hello, loving the France 40 update. I am wondering about the resolution with the graphical markers. They are out of focus when I zoom in. Also, is there a way to have the city, town locations permanently displayed? Thanks,
Jeff
Unfortunately the PzC series use a magnifier for the zoomed in view. That means the original image is doubled in size and in some cases is blurry. We try to compensate, but there is only so much we can do right now. For town names to show permanently, hit shift and tab at the same time (from memory).
Shift+Alt will show town names permanently (for duration of current game anyway). : )
Happy New Year team! I’ve been playing France, Normandy, Smolensk, and Stalingrad. I’m looking forward to the next Gold update…perhaps Italy?