France IA - Part 0 An Exploration

Hello all! Welcome to part 0 of the France IA game. Yes, its says IA because in French it isn't Artificial Intelligence, it is Intelligence Artificielle. We start looking at the world by looking at our hideout in the Bay of Biscay, where Napoleon plots in his nuclear submarine. Seeing as he's the most successful of the French conquerors, he'll be looking for someone to take on as his protogé.

Our first contestant is Louis XIV, the Sun King, starting in Paris.

Louis' UA is mainly cultural, but includes a strong bonus for having puppeted cities, so if he wants to maximise his bonus he'll have to take over his enemies' cities.

Up next is William I of Normandy. I know his capital is actually in Rouen, but its in Caen here for balance reasons.

This guy has a purely offensive UA. Castles in every city he takes over, and courthouses in those cities once he takes the capital. Should be a good reason to war often and go for the kill.

Anne of Brittany is the next contestant in Nantes.

She'll be a strong naval power and her culture gain will be great if she settles on the coast.

Here we're cheating a bit. There's a Charles VII mod by Mez, but s/he hasn't made it so that the AI can play it. Instead, we'll be using the Britonnian mod led by Louen Leoncoeur. I'll be calling him Charles because that's who he is supposed to be...

He seems like a defensive player, and will make any attacks on his land costly. That horses are doubled is nice, as his UU is a horse-based unit.

Here are the Visigoths in Toulouse, led by Alaric I. There aren't any Visigoth mods, so the regular Goths will have to do.

Assuming anyone has roads, they'll be used against their owners once war is declared. The bonus for capturing a capital should be enough incentive to keep taking and taking. He should watch out for warmongering penalties though.

In Lyon is everyone's favourite French guy, Vercingetorix. He'll lead the Gauls to... Something. Haven't decided yet, but he'll lead them there.

No idea what the first part of his UA is, but the second part should keep him high in the cultural rankings. His ideology should have a pretty good chance at becoming popular, assuming he gets one early.

Unfortunately, that's all the mods for French civs, so we move on the the foreign civs. They'll either take the country or become members of the French Foreign Legion.

The first foreign civ is Switzerland, under Dufour, based in Bern.

He'll do what the Swiss do best: sit on other peoples' money. The city-state attack thing is nice, but in this game there aren't any.

Up north is technically a French civ, but seeing as Aachen is in Germany we'll call him foreign. Charlemagne leads the Franks.

Charlemagne is a religious powerhouse, assuming he can get a religion. If he does though, that conquering bonus will spread his religion to the 6 corners of the Hexagon (as France is known in France).

To the west of that is Robrecht III of Flanders in Ghent. The Flemish are in this, though the Walloons aren't. There is a Wallonia mod, but it looked pretty sketchy so I'm ignoring it.

This description doesn't seem very Flemish... Seems more Welsh... Or is it Scottish? XD I kid, I kid. Robrecht's production bonus will be quite handy, assuming he gets anywhere there are sheep. I didn't put that many in Belgium as I wasn't aware it was that big of a deal...

Alfred leads the Anglo-Saxons from Winchester. It wouldn't be a French match without someone from across the Channel. His isolation in southern England will be both a boon and a curse. He'll have a peaceful core but will need to expand if he wants to get anywhere.

Alfred is all about that culture, as he gets golden ages quicker and policies quicker during those golden ages. Expect them often and expect them hard.

Here is Viriato of the Iberians. I needed a Spanish civ, but the Aragon civ is too crowded. Seeing as I have no idea where the Iberians are based, they are now based in Burgos. You'll see them as TXT_KEY_LEADER_VIRIATO, which is annoying, but we can deal with it.

This is all I've got. He's the bottom of this list. I'm going to guess that his UA is strength when attacking from hills or forests? No idea, either way, if he consolidates Spain, it'll be a pain to invade him.

Lastly is Roger Bernard III of Andorra. He starts out very close to the Visigoths, so he'll have to be strong and/or crafty to deal with his neighbor.

Roger is all about culture as well, a bit like Poland, except that instead of it coming at every era, its at the completion of every tree. Kind of like a jump start on the next one.

Anyways, here's a strawpoll about who looks set to win and who doesn't. http://strawpoll.me/5870652

I made this map myself, which was a lot harder than I thought it would be. Sorry if the geography is a bit off.