France

[frogbeastegg]

France is playable right from the start, without the need to unlock it or edit any files.

[Zoltan]

Hi all. since I see no one has bothered to write a guide for France, let me give it a try. I've already posted a few AAR in the main forum, but now here's a few tips that may hopefully prevent you from making some of the mistakes I did.

Faction Overview

While the French are one of the "big" faction in this game, with a large natural territory, they are definitely not among the easiest to play. A plethora of enemies means you will often have to run around to defend one town or another. Your resource are decent, but not plentiful enough to allow you to field many armies at once.

As the Campaign briefing states, french has a pretty good cavalry from early to late game, but their early melee infantry is rather lacking. As for archers, what they have in the early and mid-game is basically useless, and you'll be much better off with mercenaries.

Another thing you should know about the French is they breed like rabbits on steroids. They also tend to adopt an almost disquieting number of handsome young men, which raises a few interesting questions about their strictly fatherly sentiments. Well, maybe that's just my campaign. At the present I could almost station 2 generals per city I have, even after losing a few to some nosy inquisitor.

Last but not least, you get the infamous french accent and some funny, if somewhat cliche, battle speeches.

Starting Position

As the French, you start with 5 towns, which is large, but you can more than double that count in the first few turns. You start with 3 towns : Paris, Reims, Marseille, and 2 castles : Toulouse and Angers (pronouced Anjeh: sounds like the -an from 'France' and the ge from 'general'). You also have one cardinal near Angers, one princess near Paris, and one spy near Dijon. You should also have one ship in the Mediterranea.

Around you are plenty of rebel settlements, which are more or less easy picks: In the east : Dijon (town) and Metz (castle). West : Rennes (town). Southwest : Bordeaux (Castle). To the north but better defended are the two merchant towns of Bruges and Antwerp. A valuable addition to your territory but it comes at a cost. Finally if you sail from Marseille, Ajaccio and Cagliari can be made into a small additional source of income for little trouble. Cagliari can build silver mines too. Bern and Zaragossa might also be possible takes, but I think they're more troube than they're worth and will certainly land you in trouble with Milan and Spain respectively.

Then English castle of Caen is a major threat to your inner territory and should be you first non-rebel objective.

Early Game

In the early game, I opted for a very aggressive, expansionist strategy. The battles themselves should not be beyond what a reasonably experienced player can handle, but it will leave your cities very exposed and tempting to an enemy attack (sometimes purposefully), so you may choose a more sedate pace if you don't feel comfortable with that.

1st turn : Get your spy inside dijon, then siege it with your troops from Reims. Siege rennes with your guys from Angers, and move your troops near Toulouse to attack Bordeaux. Leave your general and troops in Paris for now, you don't want the english to attack you just yet, and they will as soon as they see Paris undefended. Maybe just move one unit to help the guys in Rennes. Start building some cheap militia units in Reims.

2nd turn : you should be able to take Dijon this turn, especially if your spy opens the gates for you (see "Tactics"). Rennes is also a possible but you're not in a hurry. Bordeaux is the thoughest nut to crack, and you will probably want one or two mercenary spearmen to help you clean up the walls. Wait til you have enough siege equipment to attack.

After Dijon is taken, reinforce you men a bit with fresh troop from Reims, and move on immediately to reims. You can be at the gates by the 5th turn, and even take it straight away with some help from your spy. So with a bit of luck, Metz, Dijon, Bordeaux, Rennes should all be yours by the 5th or 6th turn.

I recommend making at least Bordeaux a town : you've got plenty of castles in there and it can be a very nice trade/farming cash cow. Metz might be a good idea too, but it might help keeping it a castle to defend against the HRE. Sack a castle if you're going to change it into a town. Towns grow population faster so it's not much of a worry, and you'll lose some buildings in the transition anyway. You need the money.

Now you should regroup your armies in Reims, leaving about 4 units to defend Metz, and possibly a general. Keep recruiting cheapo units in Paris and Reims, you need some to take either Bruges or Caen (depending if the english attack you) and also to man the crusade that the pope should launch around the 8th or 10th turn. On the south front, you can start mounting a naval expedition to Cagliari (silver mines yay!), you're not going to need too many troops for that one so leave a few units to defend Toulouse.

Then I suggest you leave your king + about 8 crappy units in Reims, and move your main force north to siege Bruges (don't forget your spy!). Leave only 2 militia units in Paris and a general in Angers or Rennes with a basic force. The English will most certainly try to attack Paris at that point, whatever your diplomatic status with them. Move your force from Reims to a spot near Paris, so they can act as reinforcements should they assault, but don't attack yet. You want to get them to attack you and lower their rep with the pope, so you can then take Caen without getting excommunicated.
Quickly take Bruges if possible, then move your army back to dissuade or repel the English.

After, (or even before) that episode, the Pope, who by now is getting senile and has accumulated a variety of benign urological ailments, should declare a crusade upon Antioch just to relieve his frustration. Your standing will probably be low with him, so participating is not optional. Put the seven crappiest units you can find on it, and I recommend choosing your King or heir, Louis to head it: they have a little too much predisposition to heresy, so you want to either raise their piety thanks to the crusade, or simply have them meet a heroic death at the hands of the infidels. I recommand starting from Reims and crossing the HRE,where you can recruit plenty of excellent crusader units and are less likely to get stuck. Bring a spy with you if possible.

That crusade is a long shot for you : most other factions have a good head start on you, so you have to get moving immediately to stand any chance. That is if you actually want to succeed of course. You'll get a nice bonus even if someone beats you to antioch so you can just have a relaxed stroll across europe, and then hire some ships to get you home afterwards.

Play a game of cat and mouse with the English to get them to attack you: leave cities weak (with reinforcements nearby) or armies on their border to provoke them. With a bit of luck you may even get them excommunicated. When their standing with the Pope is low enough, attack and grab Caen as quickly as possible. If possible, do it while their army is outside the town (spies!) They should accept a ceasefire after that.

Sooner or later you will get attacked by HRE and either Spain or Portugal so be ready for it too.

Tactics

Did I mention cavalry? Yes, I rather thought I did. Your cavalry in the early game is actually nothing special, pretty much the same as the other western powers, but since your infantry is so weak, you're better off making extensive use of it. It is also well adapted to the french strategic game, where you may need to reinforce this or that city in a hurry.

First: prefer open ground battles, and avoid fighting in forests or mountants as much as possible. The cool thing with having a cavalry army is that you often get to choose where and when to fight. A good formation for the early game would be about 25% heavy, 25% light cavalry, and 50% crappy infantry (usually militia pulled out of your towns for the occasion), with just a couple more solid units such as sergeant or mercenary spearmen to hold your flanks. I almost never pack ranged units, they're not much help in this combat style, and the oponnent will almost always outclass them anyway.

First, as the enemy will usually try to pepper you with arrows, charge your cavalry straight at him. That will make them stop firing and retreat behind their infantry line. You can engage and make a few kills where possible, but stay well clear of their infantry. You cavalry will need a few seconds to turn away and run, so keep a bit of distance, it is much harder and costly to pull away when egaged whith a unit of spearmen. Retreat you cavalry to the sides, then behind the enemy, and charge your infantry straight in. Once melee combat is joined, attack the enemy's flanks from the rear. Focus you heavy cav on heavy infantry units, and your light cav on any exposed archers or light infantry. You can quickly route the enemy's flank and curl up your own around the enemy's remaining formation, to support your weaker center units. You have to be quick because militia has a lifetime of about 1 minute against any serious opponent.

If the enemy has any cavalry, gang up on them 2 on 1 in priority to quickly dispatch them. Usually for 1 heavy cav unit, charge 1 heavy then one light cav to dispatch them with minimal losses.

If a charge in the back is not enough to rout an already engaged enemy unit, don't hesitate to pull back and charge again.

Now what about sieges? Believe it or not, but you can take an enemy fortress with a cavalry army and no artillery. Your best friend is called the spy, don't hesitate to move 2 or 3 of them in before a siege! Not only do they open the gates for you, but they allow you to pull off a surprise attack, so at the beginning of the battle the enemy forces will be scattered all around the town. They will usually have one unit guarding the gates, so it's a good idea to try and lure it away. Just start moving some towers towards the walls, and the guys will scramble up their to help the defence. Now run your most powerful cavalry units straight through the gates, and pulverize whatever is left behind. Try to move you cav away from the gates, and send your infantry to clean up behind them. The guys on the walls will come back down, so try to engage them with your infantry while they are still disorganised, then charge you cavalry in from the other side. Don't leave survivors.

Then, once you are safely in, the remaining units will come at you randomly from all sides, so try to take them out one by one. Manoeuver your cavalry through the streets to get behind them, else any heavy infantry in a narrow street will be able to maul you. Don't leave routers cause they will reform and come back.

That was the quick and risky option. The slow option is to just wait until the guys try to sally out, and then rip them apart on the open field.

Economy and Agents

For the early game, the very first thing I built everywhere is a dirt road network. It's fast, cheap, and will allow your army to respond to threats quickly. 2nd thing: first and second level of farm upgrades in all towns. I mostly focused on economic development as the first steps, being satisfied with the military production of cavalry and militia infantry. After the economic buildings come happyness buildings, starting with churches. It is likely that you will be attacked on several fronts at once it the not so far future. You need a strong economy more than anything else to resist that.

As for trading, france obviously have plenty of wine, and as per monopoly rules, the more merchants you have on them, the more money they will generate. Your earlier development should not take up that much money, especially if you sack a couple cities, so you can start building 2 or 3 merchants around the 5th turn. Let them level up a bit on the wine, and maybe trying to seize some weak foreign merchant's assets (which gives you money, yay!). Late on you can move the to the silver deposits in the HRE or gold in Hungary, and replace them with young ones at home.

Your Cardinal, I suggest you keep with your heir at all times. I've found that my heir easily gets that Pagan Sorcerer retinue, and maybe the cardinal's strong piety can prevent that. Also use him to burn any heretic that comes in your land. If and when you have the money, you can make a few more priests and send them to Moor lands through spain. Also if you take Ajaccio or Cagliari, you may get a mission to improve their piety level. A church and 3-4 priests should do the job.

To be continued tomorrow, I'll add some economy tips, then move on to diplomacy, a very sensitive issue with France, the Pope, and the middle game.

I think I actually did very poorly as a Diplomat in my campaign, so any tips from you guys will be welcome too.

[Andres]

Diplomacy

In my French campaign on M/M I allied with alot of nations, including the English with whom I allied in turn 1. After 40 turns, they are still loyal. (I must add here that I'm playing at a slow pace. I secured the modern day France territory, captured Ajaccio and have gone on a crusade towards Jerusalem, so maybe England doesn't really feel threathened). A very useful ally is the Pope. Allying with him will make give your Pope-o-meter a huge boost. A very useful tip when entering negotiations: haggle. If you are negotiating, you'll see this line at the bottom of the scroll, mentioning "Very demanding", "demanding", "balanced", "generous" or "very generous". Adjust your offer so that it becomes balanced or maybe a bit demanding. After that, you haggle. Lower you demands a little bit. It takes a lot of rounds before you get rejected, so don't bother. Keep haggling. If the opposite party refuses you offer straight away, they are not likely to accept anything, so don't bother either. Both Spain and the HRE refused an alliance. Later in the game they both proposed a "pay tribute or we will attack". I counteroffered them with "please do not attack - accept or we will attack". Since I had a strong military force (I built up a nice crusader army at that time) they accepted.

If you want your relationships with a certain faction to improve, make a generous offer. One faction you surely want to make a generous offer too, are the Papal States.

Oh, and don't exterminate the population of a settlement if the majority of the inhabitants are catholics, not even if it's a rebel settlement. The Pope will not be happy with it (in my case, I exterminated the population of Bordeaux, the General was The Merciless guy and as I like to role play my family members, I thought it to be appropriate to let him exterminate. The Pope got upset and two turns later there was a level 9 inquisitor in my Empire...)

[Zoltan]

Hi,

I've restarted a french campaign from scratch a couple of times, for the first few turns, just cause I like to do things over until I get them right.

Thanks to the diplomacy tips from Andres. My relationship with my neighbours is much better this time around. The English seem content that I let them live in Caen, HRE is rather friendly, and I've manage to get a Spanish princess to marry my heir for a good alliance. I'm using the French princess, Constance as a head diplomat. She first made friends with the English, then the germans. Only the milanese rascals, while friendly at first, later had their relations degrade for no apparent reason, then attacked me each time around 10, 12 turns in.

Try to build a merchant in Paris in the first turn. The english have one from the start and you'll probably see him pop up on one of your resources as soon as you have trade relations with the them. After that, don't hesitate to send your merchants east to constantinople, and your priests south to moor lands, or east to the holy land to level them up. Keep your cardinal in france to deal with any heretic (or witch.. BURN!)

The crusades too seem a very random occurence. I've seen it launched at the 10th turn sometimes, and sometimes more areound the 20th or even later. Keep an army ready to go from the 10th turn or so if you want to stand a chance however.

[Dalrogad]

I have a strategic recommendation for the French - do not waste money on Dismounted noble knights - the ones with the large two handed weapon (can't remember what it is). They put the stats of a dismounted feudal knight to shame, and more importantly - they are "good against armor". With the high armor class, but inferior attack of the DFNs, the French DRN should crush them.

Well I had two companies of DRN's get massacred by a company of dismounted feudal knights and a company of spear militia.

I find that merc spearman, with merc knights and french feudal knights, and merc xbowmen, along with 1-3 generals makes for the best "french" army available. Even the most advanced frnech units are little better than the merc units available right from the early game.

If anyone has any explanation or answers to these baffling details, please let me know. But as it stands, my strategic recommendation is as stated above.

[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.

[Grand Lord of Poop~]

well i seem to be facing some problems playing france and if anyone can shed some light on this it would be great : I have everyone attacking me and almost constantly at war, is there any way to stop the AI from ganging up on me?

[Skott]

My experience as France had the same problem. Everyone wants a piece of you. I did a quick expansion like described by others above. I also sent out diplomats to all corners of the world and made alliances with everyone I could get to agree to it. Except the muslim factions. I rarely make alliances with them when playing a Christian faction. The reason is two-fold. 1)Muslim factions are rarely that big of a threat that I need their good graces and 2)Other christian factions get riled up when you align with muslim factions. So as a general rule I dont usually align with muslim factions.

Diplomacy is tough as France. One main thing you can do is make an alliance with The Pope and keep it. Keep a diplomat near Rome to gift him money if your standing starts to drop. Dont get excommunicated or your alliances wont help at all. Marrying your princesses off to closest neighbors helps too. You can gift money to those factions closest to you as a reward for their continued loyalty. Making gifts helps but if they attacked you once I wouldnt bother giving them money. Most likely they will attack again regardless.

Since England, Denmark, The HRE, and possibly Spain and/or Portugal are your main rivalries you need a friend you can count on and come to your aid and help beat back those enemies. There is such a friend. The Papal States. To get The Pope to take an active part on your behalf with troops requires him to have territory near you and better yet, between you and your rivalries. To do this take a territory and then gift it to The Pope. He will act as a buffer zone between you and whomever. For example lets say Denmark is a problem. Take Bruges or Antwerp (wich ever is closest to Danish territory at the time and then gift it to The Pope. Now he stands between you and Denmark. If the Danes march through his territory he's going to treat them as the agressor and attack. Since he's an ally (remember to stay allied with him) he'll fight Danish troops quite well. If he's not having good luck in the fights gift him money so he can keep fielding troops. Using the Pope in this way can be good. I have seen The Pope go out and conquor other mutual enemy territories on his own without any help from me. Just be sure you leave yourself access to the enemy for a later time. The Pope doesnt like you marching troops though his lands.

France is a harder faction to play than others simply due to its location in Europe. You gotta play the various factions off each other after your initial expansion rush. Use the Scots against England, Portuguese off the Spanish or vice versa(if they are at war with the Moors at the same time you can also give The Moors cash to fuel their attacks against Spain and/or Portugal), the Danes and The HRE against each other, Milan and Venice off each other, or against The HRE. You get the picture.

[Grand Lord of Poop~]

yea i understand you france does have a more central location compared to many other factions, surrounded by england (by water of course but it's tiny and the english can cross it at all times), HRE, Milan, Portugal, and later on even Spain!! Which makes it challenging. But on the otherhand, France also has the best cavalry second ONLY to the Mongols and VERY GOOD infantry in the late game. I compared it in the custom battles section. so, challenge and a kick-ass army, what more can you ask for?? that's why france has always been my favorite faction, despite all the french-bashing these days....

[Seyfullah]

I guess being smack dab in the middle of all other European countries, France has the inevitable fate of total war. This gives the game its meaning but after awhile it got frustrating for me. At first I allied with all my neighbors so I could consolidate all of France and take any other rebel settlements bordering my faction. I allied with the Moors as well. The English didn't seem like a threat and I didn't want to reduce my standing with the Pope so they kept Caen but nothing else on the mainland. In the end of my rush for the rebs I even conquered Zaragoza and Valencia to the spite of Spain and Portugal, who were my allies. The HRE made a move for Metz but I pulled a fast one and sieged it before they did. Later with the help of reinforcements I got the settlement. When I saw Bruges and Antwerp I tried to get there before others but the garrison in Bruges proved to be stronger than I thought causing me to be too late for Antwerp.
After having stabilized my empire, the Crusade for Antioch was called by the Pope and having everyone else as allies I decided to send a couple of crusader armies in order to form another empire in the Middle East and finish the game without incurring upon myself the Pope's wrath. On the way I saw and conquered Cagliari and Ajaccio, turning the latter into a city. Two and a half armies were on their way past Crete when the news of Venice's success reached home and they were on the Holy Lands without a cause. I thought I could get Jerusalem but the Egyptians surprisingly beat my sieging army (about half a stack). The other two armies landed, one including my prince Louis, and while one army was running around purposelessly waiting for time to pass so the Pope could commission another crusade, the prince captured Alexandria. My standing with the Pope at this point was high enough to ask for a crusade should the time come but this reduction of forces in mainland France, since I sent most of my troops away trusting my allies, lead to their taking advantage of the situation. The HRE attacked the small garrison in Metz and captured it, Milan came for Marseilles and got it, Spain bribed Zaragoza and conquered the poorly defended Valencia. At this point the annoying Council of Nobles wanted me to annex Caen and my diplomatic endeavors ended my alliance with the English. Just when I thought things were starting to look up as I got Metz back from the HRE, the English came for Paris. My king died defending his capital but to no avail. My army ready for Caen had to make a detour for Paris but got the job done. In the meantime, Portugal got a hold of Bordeaux losing it the next turn. I gave Alexandria to the Egyptians for a ceasefire and my army in the Middle East started to look for rebel settlements. Prince Louis who was governing Alexandria became King and is on his way back to show the Milanese the Marseilles Route. My army that reconquered Metz moved in onto Staufen and the HRE after losing that settlement decided to stay inactive even though we're still at war. Denmark's siege of Bruges and Milan's siege of Toulouse were aptly defended. I killed a Pope who was Milanese and hated my guts to elect a Venetian(my allies) Pope. This new Pope hates me too but I got London and intend to erase the English off the map. I have another army moving into the Iberian peninsula but I am not sure about this one. Spain has not done anything after it got Zaragoza and Valencia and the Portuguese are busy with the Moors, I guess. I am open to your suggestions for my next move since I tend make mistakes when I am excited for conquest.

[(---O---)]

I have been playing France for quite sometime now on M/VH and I have taken over entire Modern France, England, and Spain by now. I started out by taking rebel provinces making sure to have alliances with all of my neighbors and of course the pope. It is very important at the start of the game to avoid conquering certain provinces if you do not want to start war with your neighbors, for example whenever I conquered Antwerp I had the Danes attacking me even though we were allied. Same goes for provinces in Modern Spain, so try to avoid those at the start. My next step after conquering modern day France was to go for Britain.

The advantages of this strategy are many:
1. You only have to take Caen at the start and then the English cant attack
you because the AI does not cross the sea.
2. Britain is large enough to provide a decent income and the most easily defensible area of all, simply because there is no way the AI will attack it.
So if you capture it chances are you will keep it with and with minimal unit upkeep.
3. The English will probably already be engaged in a war with the Scots and they will be either occupied on two fronts or weakened from the conflict.

By having conquered Modern day France I was able to have about 4.5 full stack armies which I used as follows :

1. 3 Armies used to attack Britain one of which landed on Ireland and the other two landed near London.
2. half a stack was left guarding my borders with Spain
3. and the remaining army was left guarding my eastern borders.

With all the above armies I was left with a decent income with which to continue developing my empire.
I was able to conquer Britain quite easily because the English were already at war with the Scots and were losing. As a result I first eliminated the English and then destroyed the Scots making sure that I followed papal orders when he told me to take a break, which was actually useful at times because it gave me some time to regroup my armies and also my enemies usually did not hear papal orders and as a result were excommunicated.

Hint: make sure that you take Cagliari and the other island in the mediterranean and turn them into cities for a very nice and easy income and also you can use them as naval bases later on should you choose to go after Italy.

After I finished off with Britain I went after Spain with my Veteran armies from the British campaign. This was much more time consuming because for almost the same number of provinces (8 i think) Spain is at lease 3 times as big which makes it more difficult to obtain reinforcements and reach targets.

During my conquest of Spain a crusade was called in which I joined with a full stack army, but instead of rushing for Jerusalem and due to the fact that the Mongols had arrived I opted instead to take Cyprus first from the Byzantines because it is the ideal place from which you can proceed to launch raids on the entire eastern Mediterranean. By the time I arrived to Jerusalem the Danes had already taken the city. However using my now regular army I took over Acre, Antioch and then proceeded to Alexandria. Now I am preparing for war with the Mongols who have at least 12 full stack armies but seem to be stuck near Baghdad and wont do anything but sit there.

I look forward to trying a new technique against the Mongols where I will mostly use Serpentines against them in order to counter the fact that they mainly use archers. Also the best units I have used so far are the Scots guards which have the highest kill rate of all my units, including heavy cavalry, I am now trying to recruit Aventuriers which look like they can be even more effective. If any one has any tips on how to handle the Mongols please share your thoughts.

[Poulp']

Great first post, O

and welcome to the org.

[(---O---)]

Thx poulp', nice to be here :)

[Sapper]

I too have been playing France for a bit, on VH/VH. I agree with much of your advice, particularly the rebel provinces to stay clear of early on for fear of upsetting the neighbours. The really big difference in my strategy is regarding England. Your initial princess can be married off to the English heir, William Rufus, and the result is a firm alliance which lasts for a very very long time giving France a secure northern boundry and allowing expansion elsewhere much earlier. I personally go for a secure Pyrennean border too and smashing the Milanese.

[Guild_Fighter]

Since this is my favourite faction to play in MTW I thought I would give a rundown on how I use France to best affect......


Firstly I make sure to up the taxes to the highest in all towns in order to get as much money as possible. Then concentrate on buildings in the following order:

Walls, economic buildings, Religious buildings, stables including jousting arenas, other happiness buildings, Armour buildings then lastly siege and growth buildings.

1st Turn)

Diplomacy: After pumping all towns to maximum tax I like to send my princess towards Spain and Portugal to secure an alliance with both of them early to secure the southern border. Also building a diplomat in Paris to send towards the HRE/Italian/Papal States as well is a key. I like to make sure to secure all catholic nations as trade partners/allies ASAP. I do not bother with any orthodox/muslim factions as that is asking for trouble.

Military: It is important to take the Rebel settlements as soon as possible however I like to go for the towns before castles as their economic growth is very useful early. I start off by sending a spy into Dijon and sending the garrison just to the north straight down to lay siege. In order to minimise losses I go for the Wait and let them come to you option. The other town I go for is Renne bypassing Bordeaux (for now) and securing Rennes (the guild has always given me a mission to take this town worth 2500 gold anyways) however this time the rebel army is more cunning and will sally out but with the spear militias schitorium formation they can hold against their mailed knights quite well and you can use your knights to mop up their troops with ease.

5th Turn)

After these first few turns are over you get a few benefactors for your prince once can lead an army from Toulouse to take Bordeaux and usually by now Constance has been married off giving an extra general in Paris which I use to gather an army to siege Metz. Once again I am patient and siege the castles and wait for them to come to me. Metz will sally out on the 2nd turn anyway. After securing all of that you have plenty of money for mercs and troops in all towns keep everything reinforced as if all towns and castles have loads of troops then the catholic nations will not attack you. Once all towns are reinforced I go North to take Bruge. (The Danes normally beat me to Antwerp)

That is all I am going to write for now my strategy with Version 1.1 means that corsica/Sardinia gets swallowed by Sicily so you miss out but this should take you to where a crusade is likely and that would be the next best step.. It's your choice from here where you go as you will be the aggressor... Eventually it will be Milan who will break the peace if you leave it too long so that might be a good place to start.


Anyways hope my *First attempt* at a guide has helped someone

[ViolentRebellion]

I had a very different focus than most of you. I play H/VH.

With France, my top 3 priorities at the start were:

1.) Consolidate modern day France with Louis.

- Prince Louis is BADASS for this. Best general in the west. I play to his strengths and exterminate every town and kill every group of prisoners. Consolidate most of your troops from all of your provinces under Louis. Then use this army to do what I call the "BIG C". Start with Louis from Toulouse have a bunch of troops from other cities meet him at Bordeux and exterminate it. Then move on to Rennes, exterminate it. Then move to Cairn and exterminate it. Then move to Bruges and exterminate it. By that time Louis will be full dread/command stars when other factions are still moving around to take their first rebel city.

- The entire time you want to have a priest, preferably the Cardinal, with Louis. You don't want Louis at 35-45 when he's your faction leader get burned at the stake for heresy.

- After you consilidate France make Angers(or Cairn) and Bordeux into cities. You need one castle in the south and one in the north in modern day france. When you expand you can take over the plethera of castles controlled by the HRE.

2.) Kick the English off the Mainland - France has 3 great natural barriers. The mountains to the southwest/southeast, the Atlantic ocean to the west and the English channel to the north. Letting the English be that close to your capital is ludicrious. Get them out of there right away. Don't ally with them, they're on YOUR land. F 'em. You won't get Excommunicated for taking one castle. Don't waste Princess Constance on them. Save her for Portugal/Spain whichever is stronger.

3.) Develop an alliance with the Pope - spend your money on Priests/churches and get a diplomat to Rome immediately. Get an alliance and bribe your relations to them.

With this strategy, I'm at about turn 60, I have two generels with full command star, one with full chiv and one with full dread. Henry the Chivalrous is King Louis the Mercilouss' younger brother. I've used them as a two pronged invasion of the HRE. I have everything up to Vienna and I'm closing in on Bolognia and Innsbruck, the HRE's last 2 outposts.

I've also managed to take Jerusalem and Acre with a lesser general. Got that area to be 75% Catholic. Building a Cathedral in Jerusalem.

England/Scotland/Denmark have been in a war for the entire game. They leave me alone because they're scared as in negotiations my power is "Supreme".

Spain/Portugal are my allies and they've just eliminated the Moors. I bet one of them turns on me soon, but they shouldn't be a problem since Toulouse is my best troop factory.

The papacy is all mine. I got 7 cardinals and the Pope himself.

Milan has f-d with me a couple of times so I'm sending in a massive force to Genoa as we speak. They've only got two provinces, the same two they start out with, but they're scrappy and dangerous. I will exterminate their cities.

Make sure to use Forts and build up atleast 2 good generals.

Anyway, let me know if this helped.

[Boyar Karhunkynsi]

This stuff is amazing! I thought I knew my stuff about France, but I have learned a lot from this.

The biggest thing I learned; Get lots of Scots Guard: Fast!

Scots Guard, covered by some weak infantry will be an excellent supplement to your cavalry. The weak infantry (Spear Militia, Sgt. Spearmen) is just there to take a charge, the Scots guard can deal with any cavalry so long as they get no charge bonus.

I'd like to note that I defeated and army of over 3000 (Allied stacks from Denmark and England -- mostly comprised of Spear Militia, Billmen, Peasant Archers, Dsmtd Feudal Knights and Huscarls) with three green units of Scots Guard, and one unit of Mailed Knights.

Thanks again for these great tips.

-Max

[RoadKill]

I'm not sure if this has been said already but a little tip is to as quickly as possible build a large army and wait around caen, and then by about the 20 or 25 hit caen and take it. Why? I relized the other day the ai doesn't know how to transport troops through water ( well at least in my campaign ). After that you have no worries of england, they can't touch u.

[llewellyn]

alright so playing my first french campaign with great success i thought i would share my strategy with all. opening moves. combine paris and rheims army attack metz. take faction heir with toulouse garrison att bordeaux. angeh take rennes. then take dijon and bruges with the leftovers of the heirs and metz army. then take antwerp and bern if possible. no build roads and income makers becuz u will need them. take caen then sue for peace. fro metz and bern make spears and knights. have 2 southern castels garrisoned and tech them up constantly. now with men from metz and bern invade milan. this should be very very easy becasue they attack you first and the pope wont likethem for it. take both cities simulataneoulsy to avoid excom. then invade florence and caligari and ajaccio. turn both into cities. send diplomat to germany give them some money to buy a couple of turns. retrain your army in bern and metz. then train 2 full stacks of elites at bordeaux and toulouse. send them to southern italy. bribe the pope. kill sicily, retrain those 2 armies in palmero. march them up and take bologna. dont sack it. tech it up. thne invade germany FROM THE SOUTH. that is where all there castles are. after u take those its is easy to drive home to nothern germany. consolidate and take denmark cus they have probably tried to attack you already. after this you have more money then is imaginable and should think abvout simutaneaous invasions of the balkans and iberia. this way you will take you the remaining catholic facitons except for poland and the muslims and orthodox wont really bug you. but just incase they do garrison borber provinces heavily and have a large navy.