Nobody plays France?

[Eques]

In the MTW, france weren't a great faction. If im not mistaked, France got no exclusive units in the old Medieval. But seens like France has the strongest cavalry now, France also got the biggest starting territory (but not too much big), Chivalry was bourn in France... the first Templars were french and France got a nice blue color too so why nobody plays France?

[Solo]

I do. The roster is solid and I have no difficulty keeping the neighbours from invading. Obviously cavalry is of great help, particularly against those milanese neighbours who always end up fleeing like cowards :)
Only things that bother me is the strange name list they used, names even not being french at all (or not being medieval at all). I ended up with kings named Garnot and Aleaume (wonder where they found these ones, neither read anything close to this in my researches) and knights with strange names like Michiel Chanteur or Perrin Gassou. Akward but probably the same thing for all factions or so.

[Somebody Else]

They're French?

I suspect more people on this site have - taking the thread on the English campaign as a case in point - roots in other countries apart from France...

[AlJabberwock]

My French accent is lousy. Beside this, my heritage is Polish, Scottish, Irish and German (in descending order of percetages) to make Somebody's point.
I also think that there is that lack of the exotic in the idea of taking the French part. They are a large part of our understanding of western culture in our studies and hold little in the way of mystery (and if the troops are vanilla too, the nice blue color isn't going to do it for anyone either... ). Still, with M2, there is a good chance I might get around to them at some point.

I prefer the Islamic factions, and Poland, Byzantium and the Iberians after that, and then the HRE. [shrugs]

Al Jabberwock

[SIGGE]

I didn't take France because I thought it'd be too hard :d

[Comrade Alexeo]

They're French?

It's sad but basically true; nobody wants to play the French because they falsely [1] assume that they'll rout as soon as you click "Start Battle"...


[1] Moderator edit: Comrade Alexeo - please empty out your postbox; I tried to reply to your PM but can't.

[Solo]

Back to the topic, french may have the best combo available on the field, good infantry, superior cavalry. Only problem is you get surrounded pretty fast and have to deal with several wars at same time (Empire and England are good bets on first attacker).

[Randarkmaan]

The Milanese and Spanish and Portuguese also happen to be rude enough to attack you. I was invaded by a large Milanese army that captured Marseille from me, a few rounds later I met this army in the field and because it included so many characters (the duke, the heir, and two or three other family members) the entire Milanese faction was destroyed in that one, big battle.

[Wishazu]

I hated playing as the French in the Original game, I think I only attempted 2 campaigns with them. It was always much more fun to crush all those pnocy French knights underfoot as the English lol

I dont know about M2 as I unfortunately cannot afford to go and buy the game but one of my clanmates has already settled on France as his favourite faction for MP :)

[Husar]

I didn't buy the game yet, but I g´fear I cannot stand the temptation anymore and will get it on Monday.

Anyway, I actually considered playing the French in my first campaign because always playing the english and always using longbows and so on is not as nice and more boring than watching some nice melees of knights and infantry.

[Basileus]

French are alot of fun but they are tough to play.

[TheImp]

I'll get the game on monday. And i intend to play France. And my friends around will play France too.

First of all, because we are french, and secondly because we like armies mixed with heavy cavalry and good artillery, and france is one of the best for that.

[Ciaran]

I´ve done a Late French campaign in XL, and I liked it a lot. True, the French are the vanilla faction as far as their unit roster is concerned, but I like it nevertheless, simply because those units suit my style best. And the exp. 1 Chivalric Knights from Tolouse shouldn´t be underestimated.
Their strategic position is slightly better than the HRE´s, bordering on two sea areas and having less rival factions as immediate neighbours, and they don´t seem to attract the same amount of hostility as the HRE does.

And they get Jeanne d´Arc - I had her leading a unit of Swiss Armoured Pikemen.

[Solo]

Position is better than Empire but remains rather difficult, once you get your hands on rebel settlements expect to get attacked by all surrounding nations. I currently have nine wars (most are inactive but i dont get any trade) due to domino effect of diplomacy. All started because of Metz, Empire didnt enjoy my intervention and attacked right away. Funny thing is Metz rebelled against their army, and the full stack keeps containing them. Apart from that most south factions will have a hard time containing feudal and templar knights often leading to giant manslaughter. Danes are the toughest i ran into i think but only had one siege so far (buggy as always so im not sure its relevant).
Oh and my advice on first thing to build : churches !

[Richard I Coeur de Lion]

Well I'm playing as France and I'm having a hell of a good time, I'm actually prefering it to my English campaign and believe me as an Englishman that hurts

My alliance with the HRE as stood firm since turn 1, I managed to annex Caen from the English and I slowly expanded my empire from there. Spain, Milan, & Denmark have all declared war on me at some stage but have all accepted ceasefires after I gave them a good spanking.

My biggest problems are coming from the Mongol hoards who have wiped Egypt out and have a load of units wandering the holy lands. They re-took Jerusalem from me but I've since managed to capture Antioch and Adana, whilst my crusade was sailing down there I stopped off and took Rhodes to give me a staging post for future incursions.

I'm loving the unit roster of the French which is far more interesting than the English whom I pretty disappointed with. Whilst on the subject of units does anyone know what the difference is between Chivalric Cavalry and Noble Cavalry, they both have the same stats, the same abilities, the same unit pictures, they both cost the same but the Nobles have higher upkeep!?

[Furious Mental]

England at that time was run by a bunch of French people anyway.

[eefums]

Back to the topic, french may have the best combo available on the field, good infantry, superior cavalry. Only problem is you get surrounded pretty fast and have to deal with several wars at same time (Empire and England are good bets on first attacker).

I've been playing this game non stop for two days on like 12 campaigns and I've never seen HRE fight France once. Your best bet is seeing (In order of occurance) England invading, then Spain and then Milan sometimes.

I really want to play French, they look cool. I might start up a campaign with them today.

[Furious Mental]

How does the Mongol horde behave? Does it try to settle down and create an empire or does it just rampage around destroying stuff? I found it rather silly that in BI the hordes often seemed to campaign until they were just the faction leader with 9 chevrons.

[TheImp]

I do. The roster is solid and I have no difficulty keeping the neighbours from invading. Obviously cavalry is of great help, particularly against those milanese neighbours who always end up fleeing like cowards :)
Only things that bother me is the strange name list they used, names even not being french at all (or not being medieval at all). I ended up with kings named Garnot and Aleaume (wonder where they found these ones, neither read anything close to this in my researches) and knights with strange names like Michiel Chanteur or Perrin Gassou. Akward but probably the same thing for all factions or so.

I do agree with strange names. Michiel seems to be a scandinavian name, i've checked on google and the links lead to some swedish or danish websites, don't know the language sorry.

On the other hand, how can u expect french historical accuracy from a team living in Australia?
No seriously, they might be using a name generator for characters who are not famous, so it could explain the typo mistakes.

[Richard I Coeur de Lion]

How does the Mongol horde behave? Does it try to settle down and create an empire or does it just rampage around destroying stuff? I found it rather silly that in BI the hordes often seemed to campaign until they were just the faction leader with 9 chevrons.

I've found the horde to be behaving quite well, they've settled in all of the Egyptian land that they won, are having quite a few battles with the turks and have just decided to try to take Antioch back from me. They are even engaging me in naval warfare!

Due to having just launched my third crusade against them I've now got my very first chapter house of St John

In MTW the horde always swept across eastern europe and came into contact with the Russians, Polish, & Hungarian factions, however Baghdad seems to be their first port of call this time.

[Furious Mental]

Interesting. Thanks for the info. I'm still awaiting the arrival of the game, here on the fatal shore.

[Filipe24]

I don't play with france becos i don't sympathise with them as a culture. They are quite strong though. Im playing portugal (about 100 turns in and they have defeated the HRE and have allied with the spanish and are after me :( also the pope is french. Difficult times ahed for me i think

[Duncan_Hardy]

Last night I finished a Short Campaign as the French (they were the first nation I chose).

Their cavalry is excellent, and relatively easy to obtain. 15 turns into the game I was training Feudal Knights, who have only 250 upkeep, come in units of 40 and will cause pretty much anything to rout within 10 seconds if they charge them in the rear or flank (a head-on charge is surprisingly successful, even against spearmen, though expect to take casualties). 30 turns into the game I had Chivalric Knights, and with a small army composed of 3 units of these, a general, and a few militia archers/spearmen I beat a huge Milanese army.

Infantry is also great, though you'll need to upgrade a castle a few times before you access them. Armoured Sergeants (needs a tier 3 castle + barracks) can hold the line against any early infantry and fend off most cavalry, and about 40 turns into the game you'll be training Voulgiers, who are damn amazing... far better than billmen which I have fought against IMO. They are very cheap for their armour and unit size, have lowish upkeep, and wield armour piercing weapons which decimate both cav and infantry. Best of all, they can do a phalanx formation.

Their only weakness is archers; their best pre-gunpowder unit is the crossbowman, which pales in comparison to Arab archers, longbowmen etc.

I completed my game around turn 59 (c.1220), but I can tell that they will own later periods too; in fact, the first turns are the hardest time, as you have to rush to seize rebel towns, secure alliance amongst your many enemies and eject the English from Caen ASAP. Once you own the French provinces, it's a matter of expanding your economy and castles then bulldozing Europe with your amazing troops.

P.S.: CA has done an "egyptian" with French accent and speech samples, it's driving me insane... Much of my family speaks English with a French accent, yet it sounds nothing like the units' accent in M2:TW, they've got a really annoying voice actor. Furthermore, their pre-battle speeches are full of stereotypes about modern France (e.g. before I took London, the general went on about how the English have "no sense of style, no élan, and no beautiful women)

[Solo]

Well yes i can guarantee you this arent french medieval names (and I'm in a very good position to say that). On the bright side, someone is already working on the unpack tool and I already have a list based on universitary works ready to replace it. But I really dont blame them for that, its a detail compared to the whole game engine and there are far more serious issues (plus its easy to fix).

@eefums
Well I have started the game numerous times with France for some reasons and guess who attacked me first each time ? :) Thats related to rebel cities in the east of France, so the AI may not be that aggressive if you dont take them by yourself.

[Furious Mental]

Well at least the developers in Brisbane didn't put in Australian stereotypes about England.

Can the French not hire longbowmen as mercenaries? "Free company longbowmen" or some such unit?

[TheImp]

Well at least the developers in Brisbane didn't put in Australian stereotypes about England.

Can the French not hire longbowmen as mercenaries? "Free company longbowmen" or some such unit?

I was wondering about that as well. Maybe while campaigning in England such a thing is possible.

[Big King Sanctaphrax]

They get Scots Guard.

[Furious Mental]

True that. How are the Scots Guard? All up (considering firepower, armour, melee ability) They look like they might be the best foot archers in the game, even better than England's own "Retinue Longbowmen". Is this indeed the case?

[Big King Sanctaphrax]

Interestingly, I can't actually see Scots Guard on my tech tree. The French get something called Aventurier with the best Bow building.

Edit: I tell a lie, they're available with a huge stone wall. Haven't played with them/against them so can't tell you much more than that. Oh, they have better Attk/Def than Retinue Longbowmen, but half the unit cap.

[eefums]

I got destroyed by Scots Guard..their melee is very strong and they can even fight off calvary decently.