France

[Lorenzo_H]

Why are Milan so powerful when you are the French? They were eliminated relatively quickly when I played as the Spanish, yet now they are the no. 1 for military. Marseille for me is being constantly assaulted by them, and Roadkill I can't do what you suggested because I already took Caen from the English and then they begged for peace from me.

Also, anyone got any tips for making some serious money in the turns where I am now (40-60+)?

[Slaists]

Milan will attack France at some point but their strength mostly lies in their spear militia and crossbows. Unless you want to take the war to Milan militarily or fight them every other turn, take the militia advantage from them. Train a couple assassins and spies and take out Milanese militia barracks in Milan ang Genoa. Every turn... It's cheaper than maintaining a large army dedicated to fighting Milan. Additional benefit is that your ruler will get extra authority for successful sabotage missions.

A side note: I took Bern early in my campaign. Bern is a rebel castle Milanese usually go after pretty early.

[Lorenzo_H]

Nice tips, I never thought of destroying the Milanese Barracks!

[_Tristan_]

Messieurs les anglais, tirez les premiers !! (ie, English sirs, shoot first !!)

Ah the french, all those lovely knights...

Campaign Report

A quick report on my H/H 1.1 campaign as the French...It is 1230...

For the first few turns I engaged in diplomacy gaining alliances with almost all of my neighbours and further (Milan, Venice, Sapin, Portugal, Danemark, Russia, Hungary, Byzantium) except the HRE (who refused all of my offers...) while taking any and all rebel sttelements on my borders (in order, Dijon, Metz, Rennes, Bordeaux).

Having secured modern day france, I led an army to the border of the Caen region and provoked my former ally the English to attack me...
I then rapidly took Caen and led my conquering army on English soil... Not yet having a diplomat around Rome, I had to stop my advance and took profit of a crusade to leave the British Isles...
I rapidly got a ceasefire proposed by the English who then stayed neutral...

My crusading army was around Marseille when the Crusade was called off... the Hungarian beat me to it. Nevertheless I had a second stack around Iconium (Central Turkey) which I tried to put to good use...

I must admit that at this point I was in dire straits because of not taking into account the cost of upkeep of the crusading armies when the crusade ends...

So I disbanded most of my home stacks and kept that last crusading army in the Middle East as it had gained experience and was led by one of my best generals...

I used him to conquer Turkish Adana killing the faction heir in the process ... And some time later gained Antioch when the Pope started a crusade...right on my front step...

I won it easily..and boosted my Pop-o-meter to the top in conquering Aleppo and giving it to the Pope.

On the home front, I built forts as soon as possible to keep an aggressive ally (Portugal) from reaching Toulouse and Bordeaux... I was also attacked by Milan on Marseille and drove them back to elimination rapidly...

At this point, I was attacked by both HRE and England. England sent a full stack on Antwerp which I had gained from the Danes earlier after taking Bruges from rebels...

HRE made a half-wit attack on Bern, easily rolled back...

Right now i'm at turn 75, the cash commences to flow in, notably from merchants around Antioch... I own 25 provinces approx.

I've countered the Spanish attacks on Zaragosa and Pamplona conquered from Portugal who is now reduced to Cordoba and got me a ceasefire...and captured Valencia from Spain.

I've asked from my Pope a crusade on Tunis and won it easily the moors being otherwise occupied in Spain, taking also Algiers in the process...
My goal in this being two-fold : securing the riches of Africa (Ah famed Timbuktu.... ) and attacking the Spanish from both North and South, after getting rid of the Moors...


I now turn my eyes to plague-ridden England and on the Mid-East front, hearing of the arrival of Mongols I've started a drive both south (Acre) and West (Iconium) to prepare myself to face them.

Only a few more turns to victory in this short campaign...

Unit report

What to say of French units...
On missile troops, not very good ones until the Scots Guard, which requirements I've just reached... Haven't tested them yet... Can't wait...
For the rest, I generally grap each and every Merc Xbow i can put my hands on...The rest is just scrap and can only be used as a complement when out of funds...

On infantry : I must admit that it's not again the strong point of France but they hold their own against the neighbouring factions... The main threat to my footmen was the Portuguese almughavars (javelinmen)...
For the main part I use my foot as a protection for the shooters letting them skirmish back behind the line of infantry, thus taking the brunt of the charge...

On cavalry : The french rely mainly on their infantry... Anyway that's how I see the french medieval army...
I rely mainly on Mounted Sergeants (MSG) and Mailed Knights (MK) to engage the enemy missile units due to their speed and shock capability (they are also much faster to disengage should enemy infantry try to charge back on them to defend its missile).
Then I rely on Bodyguards, Feudal Knights and most of all Crusader Knights to flank the enemy or even charge head on if it is peasants or town militia.
With the patch 1.1 on, charges comme to good effect and give a nice routing effect in the enemy line. Bodyguards come particularly handy in charging the best troops as their 2hp give them such a good staying power waiting for reinforcements. Their morale is such also that even against big odds they will continue to fight.

On artillery : In my Campaign, gunpowder hasn't appeared yet and i've only made use of ballistas, catapults and trebuchet.
The last is my main choice be it assaulting or defending in a siege situation. The diseased cow shots have a devastating effect on the army assaulting your walls and if you have reinforcements coming from the back or side (as I always try to have...), the enemy is fair game...

On agents : : I tend to make a rather intensive use of them... So far they've given me the possibility of eliminating Milan, to give access to the Papacy by removing the former Pope, to replenish my coffers when i was broke by lauching a seires of trade attacks on foreign merchants (cashing in 1K or 2K per every two merchant every turn and gaining XP in the process)...
The sole ones I haven't got to use at the moment are princesses, there are none of age in my main family line...

I don't know if this will be useful to somebody but I love playing the French and hope those insights will help you find your own tactics aruond the map...

Many of you will probably thing I play as a blitzer but in fact I try to get as much development in my cities as I can (As a proof I regularly comme as the mostand one of the main cash flow in my treasury comes from sacking, so I try to get a new region every other turn to keep the cash coming and to continue developing...
I would really like to sit by and look as the time goes by, but my treasury won't let me...

[_Tristan_]

On cavalry :The french rely mainly on their infantry... Anyway that's how I see the french medieval army...

Oops !!! The french rely mainly on their cavalry...

[Lorenzo_H]

Yeah I was wondering...

I think the French infantry is good though. I have managed to get Dismounted Fuedal Knights, Armoured Sergeants, Dismounted Noble Knights and Voulgiers pretty fast, and they seem to be decent to me. I have almost got Pikemen, just a few more turns. I was seriously questioning their value though, the "Armoury" building required to build them costs 9600 florins, but I went for it anyway.

I do think the French Cavalry is beautiful though - Noble Knights...oooh ye!

[_Tristan_]

Yeah I was wondering...

I think the French infantry is good though. I have managed to get Dismounted Fuedal Knights, Armoured Sergeants, Dismounted Noble Knights and Voulgiers pretty fast, and they seem to be decent to me. I have almost got Pikemen, just a few more turns. I was seriously questioning their value though, the "Armoury" building required to build them costs 9600 florins, but I went for it anyway.

I do think the French Cavalry is beautiful though - Noble Knights...oooh ye!

A man according to my own heart....

My main difficulty in playing the French is fielding any infantry... I like so much the loof of those cavalry unit that i wolud filed a 20-unit stack of horses if I could...

@Lorenzo H : I agree that French infantry can hold its own but it's no better than what you might field in any other catholic faction and sometimes much less compared to say the Danes or the Italian City-States...

[Seyfullah]

Just a quick info on Milan. When I played the French they were a big pain and it took me some time to get Marseilles back. They have sank my rare transport ships; I usually fight on land. They have sent disturbances through the Alps. And when I was about to crush them with an amphibious assault(I had already landed by Sicily, had just 2-3 turns to Florence) by my King Louis the Merciless, the Pope personally called my king to a crusade and they were spared. But their lucky streak is about to end; I have built up since the last crusade so that I could take care of Europe. While this is Milan in my French campaign, the Milan in my brother's Turkish campaign was completely different. If I can remember correctly my brother and I saw Milanese banners over Paris into the 60th turns. This strikes me as very interesting and I thought I should share this with you because this is almost blasphemous. I thought French took the Milan in real life.
Just an instance of something concerning the French and Milan...