The French Resistance Fighter is the lowest and cheapest unit that you can deploy. Frenchies start with very low rifle, very low morale and with 75 health instead of 100 (although the Légion d'honneur medal makes Frenchies spawn with 100 health). As their name would suggest, the French Resistance Fighters are part of the Free France fighting force.
They are often used as distractions to draw fire. They come armed with a Springfield rifle, like all normal soldiers(but there is a medal to have them start with an M1 Garand), and they cost 1 TP each. As they are militia they have low morale, poor fighting skill and limited capabilities until they gain experience in the field of war. If you look after your Frenchie like all troops he will become a decent killer.
Description[]
An often misunderstood and underused unit, the French Resistance Soldier can be a smart choice for only 1 TP, even though he starts with only 75 hit points (without the Legion d' Honneur) and low rifle. He does an excellent job of "soaking up" the enemy's bullets and keeping them distracted from the "real killers", your other soldiers, while occasionally getting a shot off and sometimes even hitting something.
In addition to that, you can "Roll-the-Dice" and send him behind enemy lines to attempt some Sabotage which might prevent some future attack wave by the Germans. The better his XP, the better your chances are of succeeding. It will become instantly apparent if he fails, as you will hear him scream as well as hearing lots of gunfire (way to get him killed, hero). If he does succeed he can do any number of things:
- Stopping the Germans from sending armored units for 5 waves
- Stopping the Germans from using Air Support for 5 waves
- Gaining 8 TP
- Stopping the Germans from using grenades, panzerschrecks and mortars for 10 waves
Make sure the Frenchie is well experienced, sending a freshly deployed Frenchie to sabotage is suicidal.
But the French Resistance Soldier is still a soldier, and if you can get him to higher levels his Rifle Skill does improve, and if you can get one to make Non-Comissioned Officer in the field, you receive a ribbon and all future Frenchies called forth will start with 100 hit points.
Sometimes you can use a massive amount of Frenchies to overwhelm the Germans at the start of the game, and if you upgrade their weapons and use Combat Leadership to enhance them, and they will soon become elite fighters. This tactic may help you to get the Légion d'honneur medal.
Side-note: When a Frenchie is killed, he will drop some props, including these: cheese, accordions, bread sticks, and wine. Have fun seeing what else they can drop!
Frenchies are extremely affected by morale and will drop to negative morale easily if witnessing a large explosion.
Trivia[]
- The Frenchie is the ONLY soldier in game that, when deployed, has 25% less health than other soldiers, until a Medic (yes, medics CAN heal Frenchies to 100 HP even without the ribbon), heals him to 100 HP, or until you get the proper ribbon or until you use the Heroism order on him. Sarge is Frenchies opposite version, he deploys with 25% health more than normal infantry.
- Frenchies are the only soldiers in the game that are dressed BLUE.
- The morale of the Frenchie and the Volkssturm are nearly equal.
- The Frenchie is in reality just a hidden killing machine, because when he is overstuffed with Ranger Trainings and has the rank of Second Lieutenant (or more often used: Officer) and armed with a BAR, he will kill practically everything and everyone.
- Frenchies are one of the only units without backpacks.
- Historically, Frenchies were rather good at infiltrating Germany, but not before the Germans first reached France with their tank spearhead assault.
- Frenchie's fire rate is slightly slower than normal soldiers.
- Frenchies spawn with...well, French last names! Pamblemousse, Dupont, Ratatouille, Michelin, PainBaguet, and Caca are some funny examples. A larger list can be found here.
- Frenchies have a white armband that you can see if they are running away or engaging in CQC.
- With the Special Operations ribbon, Frenchies have a 1% chance to come out as a Spec Ops soldier.
