France

[PaulTa]

Armor piercing? High attack, low defense? Hmmm, sounds like a flanking unit instead of a head on unit. (That little insight took about fours hours of studying complex problem solving graphs and spreadsheets, a team of trained professionals, and a crystal ball)



Ok, now the reason I first decided to post-

The french late game isn't something I'm quite familiar with yet, but a french start is something I have down.

Ok, France, Hard/Hard, a little sleep.

First off, you have a bunch of different generals in a few high loyalty settlements. The high loyalty without a good sized garison is something that ought to be taken advantage of. Take all of your generals and as many men as you can comfortably spare on the FIRST turn and head for the nearest rebel settlement. That means Dijon, Rennes, Bordeaux, and that town right above riems that is to the right of Caen (the name escapes me apparently). Hire mercs to bolster troop size for the settlements that have a decent garison, like TTRARTITTROC (Also known as that town right above riems that is to the right of Caen). Siege out everything, as you can't afford to lose a bunch of troops in costly assaults, (especially siege out TTRARTITTROC).

Ok, so you've gone past the first turn or two and noticed that your money is starting to hit the negatives, with no hope in sight. Well, the lack of hope is just an illusion. You can crank the taxes in Paris and Riems without rebelion, even if you have a tiny little garison. Once again, the high loyalty comes to the rescue. If you still can't seem to get out of the red and stay there while you siege out half of Europe, you probably had a few more merc units than I could find. Still, that isn't a problem because in a few turns (probably one or two by the time this happens) you'll start to take out towns and forts one by one. Don't sack, as the value isn't worth it, and slowly kick back and watch your income rise while your empire expands by about five settlements.

Some No No's...

-Don't send out troops without a general unless you absolutely have to.

You'll find that you have a few starting groups of troops that don't have generals. Immediately pair these guys up with the nearest general. As where your settlements and even generals have a high loyalty, your captains do not. Secondly, you can't afford to lose any battles, so all of the extra heavy cavalry and morale boost that you can get your hands on helps.

-Don't assault.

Like I said earlier, you can't afford to lose any troops. Your about to be spread pretty thin with most of your troop concentration on your borders (which is about optimal anyways), so you can't afford to have a weak link in there.

Some Definite Do's...

-Make the best of your diplomats and princess.

What I mean by that is, go straight to Caen with your princess on the first turn, or wait for the english diplomat to find Angers. Spread all of the goodies you have to offer out and demand money for them. Trade rights, Alliance, and map information will provide you with a whole lot of extra money that is crucial to your rush for half of Europe.

-Use what the French are good for.

This means cavalry. By not assaulting and waiting it out, you get to utilize the effectiveness of your mailed knights and bodyguards. Set up your charges right, aim for infantry instead of the archers (with hopefully the archers in front. Nothing is more sweet than a mailed Knight unit charging at infantry and catching those crossbowmen up the arse with a lance). Try to thin out enemy mailed knights with crossbows/archers.


Now at the end of this, you are at around 1090 with ten settlements and enough florins to secure good relations with neighbors, the pope, and a mountain of gold to build an empire on. Not to mention, you've also grabbed up most of the nearby rebels before other nations could get them, so you aren't going to be at a disadvantage on the land side of things.

From here, you can either teach those bow-wielding normans not to cross the crown, show the empire who's boss, or teach the spanish and portuguese how to eat lances and speak french.

Tell me what you think.

[katank]

Good start as described. I'm curious as to why not assaulting at least some of the towns. I can see why not for Bruge (your TT...) as it's heavily defended by Flemish pikers etc. so you might lose the assault.

However, getting your mercs killed will certainly mean better finances (which you worry about). BTW, as the English, I assaulted Bruge and won reasonably easily. By bypassing their troops and instead pour through the gate then turning around to block off the enemy so they couldn't retreat into the town square.

I would also say that sacking is pretty good early on (there aren't that many buildings so repairs will cost significantly less than the amount you gain) and populations are small so they recover quickly.

Then again, I've yet to play a French campaign in M2TW so I may well be wrong on many assaults.

[PaulTa]

Well the sacking consistently yields about two hundred to three hundred florins on most of the smaller towns, so not only is it not worth it, but you can't afford to piss off the pope by killing catholics. It takes a while to get a diplomat to Rome to start the ol' gifting fest, so I wouldn't want to risk excom. while you're in your "fragile" state. Getting excommed also leads to lower loyalty in your settlements, something this little rush hinges on. (your alliances early on not only provide money, but guarantee a little ceasefire while you snatch up rebels left and right).

Definitely don't assault Bruge, as the sallying forth means that you can pick off the pikes with some merc crossbows.

I see your point on killing off mercs, but your force wont depend on them, they will be supplimented by them, so you aren't taking a huge economic hit too early (no frankish knights kind of units, just crossbows and spearmen early on). Since most of the towns you take wont have military facilities, you wont be able to replace the lost troops from assaulting right away. After the towns start falling left and right, money wont be your issue but troops definitely will.

[Dalrogad]

Smaller the town, slower the growth. EVen if the percentage of growth is higher for small town vs large city, the growth is still slower. 5% of 800 is a hell of a LOT less than 1.5% of 15,000. The small towns do not recover quickly.

I agree, not sacking in the very early game is probably preferred. Too small of a popluation to need to be concerned about happiness, and too low of a population to want to be killing people off (growth is crucial).

I also agree that assualting is generally FAR preferrable, at least in the medium or hard difficulty, rather than waiting for the enemy to surrender.

While you are starving out towns and paying upkeep for troops which you would be better off losing in an assault to take the settlement, I am taking over the world.

I am on turn eleven in H/H, and have taken all nearby rebel towns AND a foothold in THREE different places spread all over the map, AND I am already sieging a faction city.


Having restarted a new campaign in H/H, and tried some new strats, especially with diplomacy, I am getting even far better results than on M/M, which is too easy anyway.

[Kekvit Irae]

The French have always been my favorites in MTW as an underdog that I could not help but play them extensively in M2TW. This time, they are in no way the underdogs.

The Triangle
At the very start, you own two castles: Toulouse and Angers. To complete The Triangle, you need to capture Bordeaux as soon as possible. Once all three castles are firmly in your grasp, turn them into cavalry machines. Build stables, and lots of them. When you arent building stables, build either farms (to increase population) or armor smiths. Once your castles are upgraded to fortress level, you have access to a unique building that truely makes your faction a powerhouse: The Jousting Field. Jousting fields increases all knight experience in that castle by +1, and once you hit citadel level you can upgrade to Tournament Fields which does one thing which cannot be done with any other castle buildings: one unit free from upkeep. Once you have all three castles churning out Feudal Knights (with +1 experience), you can easily dominate Europe. The preferred route is to use this cavalry army to dominate the middle east in a crusade to avoid the wrath of the Pope. If you are playing a short campaign, ignore the Pope and steamroll over the English.

[ravinnder]

I have tried two short French campaigns. M/VH and H/VH.

My initial strategy for both games turned out favorably. If you notice, France actually starts up with a quite a number of provinces and armies.

For the first 10-30 turns, my strategy was to eliminate England and Scotland asap and nothing else.

1. Combine all armies/generals and assault Caen, then London, then the rest of Britain/Ireland. I didn't build any structures except roads to speed army movement during this time. I was operating excommunicated during this time due to the war with the English.

2. You'll win battles mainly by overpowering the opponent with spearman/archers/mercs and some cavalry charges. Usually the English and Scottish won't have more one stack attacking your sieging armies. Since you're not building armies or structure, you'll have money for repairs and plenty of mercs.

3. Experience may vary on this point, but initially I wasn't attacked by anyone on mainland Europe until I had reached the Scots, so you can leave garrison armies in Europe. In fact, I planned to lose the southern provinces and any bordering cities, in favour of taking Britain first.

4. After you take Britain and Ireland, rest of the game is pretty much up to you and should be "easy". I converted all provinces in Britain to be cities, since that will be your money generator and started all merchants in Britain to prevent hostile buyouts.

---

At this point, a variety of things could have happened and will probably determine which Catholic factions you'll go against. Both campaigns I concentrated on the eastern and Italian front, whoever it may be, since the Spanish/Portugese tend to be peaceful with France. Only issues with this strategy is excommunication is inevitable and probably heresy and it leaves your continential holdings weak until you return all your armies and start building up there. However, you should never run out of money with all those cities.

[afrit]

-Make the best of your diplomats and princess.

What I mean by that is, go straight to Caen with your princess on the first turn, or wait for the english diplomat to find Angers. Spread all of the goodies you have to offer out and demand money for them. Trade rights, Alliance, and map information will provide you with a whole lot of extra money that is crucial to your rush for half of Europe.

Tell me what you think.

I used a different strategy. I used the Princess to ally with HRE and steal one of their commanders in marriage, and then used him to take Metz. The HRE has not broken the alliance yet (turn 63) and this allowed me to eliminate England, Scotland without worrying about my Eastern front. This was on H/H

[ravinnder]

I used the Princess to ally with HRE and steal one of their commanders in marriage, and then used him to take Metz. The HRE has not broken the alliance yet (turn 63) and this allowed me to eliminate England, Scotland without worrying about my Eastern front. This was on H/H

I agree that your initial treaties/alliances/marriage alliances will be crucial in preventing wars for the early part of the campaign, especially eastern front. If I were to play another campaign with France, I would definitely setup a marriage alliance with HRE or Danes depending on who is more aggressive.

This result should narrow down your future problems to one of the Italian factions. I find this result ends up being the usual situation because whoever occupies Germany is usually at war with several other factions and should not be able to afford to be at war with France.

[Bongaroo]

You really can't afford to have a multifront war early on with France. I was struggling about mid-campaign to keep what I had from HRE, England, Milan, and Portugal all at once. I initiated none of theseAfter breaking Portugals first attacking army I split my troops up into fronts in the approaches through the mountains and haven't really seen much of them since. My ally the Moors attacking them from the South certainly helped. Milan was causing me the most headaches with crossbowmen out the wazoo so they became my next target. After they proceeded to get excomunicated I trounced and eliminated them. At this point I think HRE was avoiding excommunication, leaving the eastern front quiet. Gathering in spare forces I finally turned my attentions on the English. They had Caen and the province directly west. One full stack and some garrisions. (Seems to me I have yet to see the AI move troops with boats; they seem to move agents just fine, but england never reinforced from the islands) With the northwest, southwest, and southeast secure I redistributed my forces eastward. A few turns later the Danes and English approached with peace offers which I was able to make a couple grand off of.

As I come into the end game to try and gather up the 45 provinces to win I fear I'm going to come close but fall short. I am generating plenty of cash flow and have taken the fight from 4 fronts to 2 (with one being the choke points to the Iberian lands) I'm in a great position to gather up some veteran stacks and quite a few green troops and head east.

I did have a successful crusade to Antioch early, but the Mongalians made a mockery of that army. Jerusalem is mine now, hopefully the Mongols have their hands full with the Timurids.

Any suggestions for more than doubling your empire securely? I really have no strategy right now besides sweeping east along a relatively large front with slightly smaller armies and when I hit stiff resistance bringing them together to surround enemies.

[afrit]

Boring, but winnning strategy
Instead of spending too much on holding far-away Jerusalem, just expand locally. And then, when you're at 44 provinces go for Jlem by sea. You can steal your way into it, and once captured, game over. No need to worry about reinforcing it and holding it.

Needless to say, you'll probably be excommed early since you are fighting other catholics (I was on the Pope's bad list almost the entire game on H/H), and need to fend off crusades (Toulouse was the target in my campaign). A few well placed forts and towers can help with that. I found that enemy cursades did not attack other towns on the way, and with forts choking off the direct route, I always had time to produce troops locally (in toulouse) to deal with them. I then sent the veterans to expansion campaigns, and recruited more.

[zerathule]

France can make a blitzkrieg style conquest in the early game, like any faction in fact, but its quiet sad as this would prevent you from playing with the top tier units.
French late units are imho the best in the game : you get pikemen, vougiers for heavy infantry duty (and believe me they can be VERY effective when you elarn to turn off guard mode, even offensively) , excellent missile with the Aventuriers and the Scot Guard, and uber cavalry with the Lancers, noble and chivalric knights + the uber armor piercing french mounted archers.
Take all rebel settlements at first : Rennes, Dijon, Metz, Bordeaux, Bern, Bruges, Antwerp + Cagliari and Ajaccio.
Then the problem is to deal with neighbours.
England never attacked me as long as i kept Anger garisoned, but Milan, the Danes and the Hre always do, so you get a nasty eastern front.
In order to keep my ennemies at bay and have some time to develop, i usually get an alliance + military access with the pope, i blitz Milan and offer them vassalisation, same with the Danes and usually i take Francfort and the castle south of it, and give these to the pope.
Milan and the Danes, with some french florins will usually have 5 to 8 provinces that they'll manage for you (remember that vassal lands count as yours for victory) and the hre wont come after you having to cross your lands.
From this point, you'll have a long lasting war in spain, a short one in england/scotland, and finish the campaign in the middle-east.
Once your eastern front is locked as i said, the game will be slow paced, or at least you'll fight where and when you chose it, as the english wont pose any threat and the spanish/portuguese can be blocked at the Pyrenees while you build up a strong army.

On a tactical point of view, the best armies i played with are balanced armies : sure they heavyly rely on heavy cavalry but i rarely take more than 4 units of lancers and 2 mounted archers.
I usually have 4 aventuriers/scot guards, and the rest will be Voulgiers and a few Pikemens on the flanks.
In Phalanx formation they'll repel any invader long enought to be decimated by my heavy cavalry. The only army i havent tried yet are the mongols but i guess they could be dealt with too.

[Handel]

France is easy if you strike quickly. Attack in the first turn Bordeaux. Recruit cavalry later and send reinforcements. Once you take Bordeaux the line Bordeaux - Toulouse will make you are absolutely safe from Spain and Portugal.
In the same first turn send a spy to Dijon. Assemble an army and attack it. Recruit mercenaries if needed. If you are lucky and the spy opens the gate - great, take Dijon. If no leave it and attack Metz. This will be the second turn. If your spy don't open the gate siege it. You will need 3 turns. Of course you can attack on the next turn, but you will suffer lesser casualties is you starve it. Meanwhile recruit more cavalry and send it as reinforcement. Take Metz and go for Bern. Meanwhile you can send a general and few militia to take Dijon at your leisure (this will be enough). Once you establish the line Metz - Bern you are absolutely safe from HRE.
The only weak point remains Marseille. Don't stock it with expensive troops. Build a watch tower on the border with Genoa and you will have one turn warning if someone is attacking it. So you can bring reinforcements from Toulouse. Not foolproof because if Spain or Portugal attacks in the same time Toulouse your hands will be tied. But even losing Marsille is not a disaster. You can always take it later at your leisure.
Now it is time to start with England. Taking Caen is the first move. This leaves Rennes defenceless - no matter if the english already took it or not.
Meanwhile from the North - there are 2 rebel cities. As long as they remain rebel Rheims is safe. The watch tower on the border Rheims - Bruges - Antwerpen is a must.
After taking Caen it is good to take both Bruges and Antwerpen. BOTH. The safest thing is to turn Antwerpen in a castle. Both Caen and Metz are far away and Denmark will unleash waves on Antwerpen. But if Anwerpen is developped in a city it is pity to transform it. But then it will have stone walls and the defence will be easier. Four crossbowmen, 2 heavy cavalry, the town spear militia and just 2 heavy infantry will be enough to stop practically any attack. The problem is not with the attack itself, but with the retraining the units. Is there is a general and the time is critical the general will hire mercenaries. BUT - Denmark will unleash assasins on the town and the chance of killing is at least 5%. This may seem very slim chance, but for 5-6 turns the chance is already considerably higher. The solution - keep the general in Bruges and hire mercenaries from there.
Now it is time to conquer England, Sctoland and Dublin.