France: too weak in the game? (given the current province lineup)

[Slaists]

I prefer to use Sakers to garrison ports myself because the enemy tends to sort of sink any ship I put in a port. Though maybe I merely misremember.

EDIT: Oh. Right. Dragoons. The complete lack of repression-happy units does not help.

If you ship is sitting in the port, then AI fleet attacking the port will merely blockade it (not destroy; not attack your ship). The only way the game allows your ship to be kicked out is if an enemy land unit enters the port. I suppose that could be a threat after the upcoming patch sine AI sea invasions will become possible: but for now, a boat in the port protects it as well as a garrison.

I have yet to see anything that would be more difficult on VH (than on medium) strategic map settings in the vanilla game...

[Maladin]

Thanks for the information.

From the differences I saw between Easy and Normal, I believe Hard and Very Hard will merely make the nations ask for more in diplomatic exchanges. Louisiana was willing to give me 9000 gold for my American provinces (except French Guyana, which went to Spain for Flanders) in Easy, "only" 8000 in Normal. But I should play again to make sure...

Never mind. All difficulties reject 9000 and accept 8000.

[Servius]

After playing as France, I'm pretty sure it's an AI problem. Though they suffer a bit in trade income since they only start out with 1 port in Europe, the region of France has ENORMOUS property tax revenue potential. There are SO many towns in that one region, it's a gold mine.

Also, starting with an alliance with Spain, a English AI currently unable to invade you, having access to Spices via French Guyana, and being able to build 5 units / turn from Paris and another 2 from Strasbourg...grants you a great power base to build on. The only competition you have in Europe (Spain) is your ally. Arrayed around you are several pidly 1-region nations that you can take appart piecemeal. Hell, you can knock out the Dutch in a few turns and get 3-4 very wealthy towns and a major port!

With all that going for France from the get-go, the problem seems clearly more the French AI than their starting position.