France IA Redux: Part 2 - The First to Fall

Ahoy ahoy! Welcome back to France IA Redux, the game with 10x the France that the leading AI games tend to have.

I'm very pleased with the amount of votes this week, 16! We have two front runners, the Gauls and West Germany both have 3, while Napoleon III, the Visigoths, and the Anglo-Saxons have 3. Monaco, the Franks, the Hainaut, and Charles de Gaulle follow the rest with 1.

We'll start this part off with Andorra making peace with the Visigoths after a war that meant nothing to either power, as well as Louis XIV and Georges Clemenceau making peace as well. Offscreen, Margaret of Anjou and Charlemagne of the Carolingians have declared war on Georges, which explains the peace deal.

More importantly, Leopold of Belgium has declared war on Guillaume of Hainaut. It looks like if Belgium can concentrate their forces they could do some serious damage to the Hainaut, but if they don't it'll be another stalemate.

In Spain Francisco Franco declares war on Sancho, pitting the massive army of Spain against the much smaller defending force of Navarre. Sancho will have to play defensively if he wants to keep his cities, as Franco's invasion force is large and the front lines are full of melee units.

Asturias has a large army heading towards Spain as well, so maybe Franco should hold some of his units in reserve in case Pelagius declares war on him.

In Germany a couple of peace declarations are made. Neither war, Liege vs Franks or HRE vs Palatinate, accomplished anything unfortunately.

Suddenly, a wild conflict of red and pink, as Normandy declares war against Anjou. A smart player here would move to cut off Leyland while maintaining a defensive force around Saint-Lo, but this is the AI we're talking about. I say this, but if William does manage to capture Laval, his UA will trigger and make future conquests in Anjou easier. Also, Louis XVI's capital of Orleans is in the black.

This is a busy slide, but we'll start where we're at with Flanders declaring war on Belgium. I know that Belgium is at war with Hainaut, but their army is scattered and disorganised. Flanders' army is gathered around Charleroi and looks poised to capture the city unless Leopold gets his act together.

Luxembourg joins in the declaration against Belgium, but we're not looking at their possible frontier, as there is none. We're looking at Luxembourg's settle in the middle of Gaul. I don't see this city being Luxembourgian for long.

Switzerland becomes the next target of a tag-team war, with Burgundy and the HRE declaring war on them. The HRE's army is pretty weak, but Burgundy has somehow managed to move most of their army to the southwest of Geneva. There'll be nowhere to retreat to if the invasion goes badly from down there, so they'll have to be competent. Hah, good joke that one.

Hainaut has captured Charleroi, and is burning it. It was probably Flanders that did most of the work, but Hainaut burns the reward. That, or Belgium gave it up in the peace deal with the Hainaut.

Namur looks like it'll be in trouble, as Flanders is moving en masse to attack the city.

Wait, Navarre and Spain made peace? But nothing happened... That's not cool, I was hoping for some mild pillaging.

Namur falls to the Flemish, who decide that it wasn't worth capturing the city and burn it down. Instead of defending their current holdings, Leopold has sent the Belgian army to attack Antwerps, probably as he doesn't want Antwerp and Antwerps to be in the same civilisation as its the same city.

In Brittany Charles de Gaulle builds the Terracotta Army. It'll help with units, but I'm not sure its what he should really be doing at this point.

Liege and West Germany make peace, which is unfortunate for Liege as they lost both Maastricht in the war and Tongeren in the peace deal. For what is now a city-state, Liege's army is well sized, but they'll need to tag-team someone in hopes of sniping a city if they want to survive.

Normandy and Anjou make peace, with nothing occurring, and Andorra builds the Hanging Gardens.

Oh boy, this will be a hilarious war to track, as Richelieu declares war on Catherine de Medici. Catherine's forces in Tours and Bayonne shouldn't have too tough a time against Richelieu's army which is based almost entirely in Lucon.

Guillaume and Catherine also declare war on William of Normandy (Which is funny, as Guillaume is William in French). Catherine is distracted with Richelieu, and the passage from the Hainaut to Normandy is small, so don't expect much from this war.

The Palatinate and Asturia enhance their religions.

Oh, someone actually did it. Eleanor of Aquitaine has lost her capital, as Napoleon III's army marches triumphantly into Bordeaux. Unfortunately for Eleanor, she only has a worker and a scout left, so there is no way she's going to recapture her capital.

That makes Eleanor of Aquitaine (Rank: 40/40) the first eliminated in the game. She didn't accomplish much, as its only turn 72, but what she did was to settle towards the Visigoths and lose said city, then have a coalition war declared against them. She even let Navarre settle a city on her doorstep. Overall, a disappointing performance.

You can see where Namur and Charleroi were, as the Belgians capture and raze Antwerps, deciding that only one city with that name is needed in the game.

We take advantage of Monaco building the Great Lighthouse to peak at what's going on down here. Its not much at this point. Eleanor makes peace with Napoleon III and the Visigoths, which means her units will survive unless they meet some Romans. Cornwall enhances their religion.

This wasn't what I was expecting. The next war in the centre of France I expected to see was the Gauls vs Luxembourg, not the Franks and Napoleon against the Gauls. Its a smart war as the Franks and Napoleon are on opposite sides of the Gauls, so we'll see how this war goes.

Francois and Gallia make peace.

The Carolingians, Bretons, and Hainaut led the tech race, but only by 1.

Burgundia is losing the tech race, but again, only by 1. Monaco and Louis XVI are one tech ahead of last, but these three are the true losers as they're not at 15 techs.

Asturias adds a reformation belief to their religion, and the Visigoths construct the Parthenon.

If someone who bordered Burgundy was smart, they would declare war on them, as the entirety of Burgundy's army is involved in the invasion of Switzerland. They're not making much progress though, as no Swiss city has taken damage.

A war that everyone forgot was happening as nothing happened, Rome and Gallia make peace, as do Richelieu and Catherine de Medici.

Napoleon has managed to capture Bayeax from the Gauls. A well executed attack, as Vercingetorix was distracted by a foiling force near his core.

The Papal States decide to have another go at Borbetomagus, and actually bring siege units this time. I'm still not rating their chances of success very high, but you never know.

Even though Vercingetorix hasn't been attacking him, Louis XVI makes peace with him. Good idea, as Louis XIV is swiggity swooting his way over to Orleans.

You can see the entirety of Francois' empire, based in Cognac, and Richelieu's colony on the other side of Francois. Good thing he, he being Richelieu, built the Great Wall, he'll need it if anyone decides that he looks tasty.

I interrupt your viewing of interesting things to show that Monaco finally settled their third city!

Back to the show. Napoleon's force by the Gauls' core wasn't just a foiling force apparently, as it captures Alesia. It'll likely flip back though considering most of Vercingetorix's army is literally right there.

Napoleon III and Gallia make peace.

Just after Napoleon III makes peace with Gallia, he and Clemenceau declare war on Napoleon. Well, what a turn of events.

Anjou and the Carolingians make peace with Clemenceau.

Belgium and Flanders make peace after a war they both lost. Both warring nations lost one or more cities, which makes them easier for their neighbours to take over.

Louis XIV has successfully swooted into Orleans, Louis XVI's capital. Looking ahead in the narration, Louis XVI doesn't take it back, eliminating him.

Louis XVI of France (Rank: 39/40) settled two cities and was immediately targeted by the coalition of Gaul and Catherine de Medici. He didn't put up much of a fight, losing a city to each and was then killed off by Louis XIV. The most unfortunate part of this is that now we have 4 civs with essentially identical colours bordering each other instead of the 3 we had before.

We return south to see that Monaco has built the Oracle. These 3 are starting to build up a decent military, we'll see if they actually use them though... Also, Monaco enhances their religion.

Back to fun news, the Belgians make peace with Luxembourg, while the Carolingians attack the HRE. The Carolingians should do well, but I'm not holding my breath.

Offscreen, Brittany makes peace with Louis XVI, and the Franks and Luxembourg declare war on Louis XIV. Seeing as neither share a border with XIV, it is of little consequence.

Darantasia falls to Gallia, leaving Burgundia with only 2 cities. The Gauls have also managed to recapture Alesia and are pushing towards Bourges.

Adding to the declarations against Louis XIV, Flanders and the Hainaut both declare against him. This is a more pressing threat as the Hainaut has the only direct access route to XIV.

To the south, Burgundy and Switzerland make peace after nothing happening. Switzerland has their UU, the Reislaufer, a stronger pikeman replacement.

Speaking of UUs, Gundahar's Burgundia has their UU as well, the Widus Gais, a slightly weaker pikeman that has 2 movement on hills and is promoted every time a social policy is adopted. Also, the Palatinate adds a reformation belief to their religion.

You can see the Widus Gais here, as Innocent makes peace with Gundahar after yet another war of nothing happening.

Louis XI's settler looks lost, its been hanging around that area since before Arras was founded.

The Gauls and West Germany declare war on Luxembourg. The West Germans have a large army close to Luxembourg's core, but even if that falls Luxembourg has their city in the middle of the Gaul's empire and somehow they acquired Antwerp??? What the hell??? It looks like Belgium gave it to Luxembourg when they made peace 3 turns ago. Man did I miss that...

The Carolingians make peace with the HRE, as expected. But more importantly, Flanders and the Gauls declare war on Normandy. Caen is dangerously exposed to Flanders' Goedendag, a slightly cheaper pikeman replacement that gains half of the city's defense as combat strength while garrisoned.

The Gauls must be building up quite a stock of warmonger penalties, they're declaring on everyone. I wonder if that's sustainable.

As expected, Diekirch falls to the West Germans, however Echternach has yet to take damage in the assault. West Germany is building a bridge of cities to Antwerp, I think they're the first to 7 cities.

Margaret of Anjou joins in against Normandy. This should prove very beneficial to all parties involved except Normandy, as Anjou is on the complete opposite side of Normandy from Flanders. At least Hainaut made peace with Normandy, right?

Way more confusingly, Richelieu and Francois declare war on Catherine de Medici. Uh... Cognac and Lucon vs Tours, if that makes any sense? Francois got so excited that he also declared war on Napoleon, but Napoleon III is in the way. Anyway, Arlon is in the red from an offensive by the Gauls.

And like that Arlon falls to the Gauls. Arlon is a much better city for the Gauls than Bayeux, as it fits bettre in their core. Also, Catherine de Medici goes to peace with William of Normandy.

Not convinced that the Papal States will even hurt Burgundia, Burgundy joins the war. Innocent should find this a relief, if he actually remembers that he's at war with them. Instead of pressing the attack, he declares war on Gallia looking for Arras.

Not content with attacking Francois and Richelieu, de Medici declares war on the Sun King (Louis XIV). Orleans is undefended except for a pikeman and swordsman, and that's a decent invasion force from Catherine.

Charlemagne's Franks and Napoleon make peace with the Gauls. The Franks gained nothing from this war, while the true victor is Napoleon. He captured Bayeux and flipped Alesia, one of Vercingetorix's core cities. Napoleon needs to watch out though, Rennes is in the red and Gallia has a melee unit nearby.

This will be a common theme, the HRE declares war on Switzerland again.

Rennes falls to the Gallians, as predicted. At least Napoleon captured Bayeux, a 6-pop city and lost a 2-pop, so it isn't as bad as it could be I suppose.

The Swiss and Palatinate make peace, and the Carolingians declare war on Luxembourg. As if they had nothing bettre to do, the Liegeois enhance their religion.

Sensing a distracted Catherine de Medici, Anne of Brittany declares war on her. de Medici's capital should fall pretty easily considering the forces arrayed against it. At least, if a human were playing.

What a shocker, Monaco leads the wonder count. Didn't see that coming as that's essentially all he does.

The Hainaut invasion of Louis XIV is going well, considering they captured Lyon. They could still make gains as well, however they'd need to play pretty smart to get around the Flemish army.

We return to this region to see de Gaulle declare war on de Champlain again. Their armies look more matched this time, so I'd be surprised if anyone made any progress. de Champlain settles in Normandy, with Trois-Rivieres.

Konrad Adenauer builds Chichen Itza. Liege has a respectable army considering their single city, and you can see that nothing is happening in the Carolingian-Luxembourg war. Georges Clemenceau declares war on Burgundia, but nothing will happen due to distances, while the Papal States make peace with Gallia. Finally, the HRE adds a reformation belief to their religion.

de Medici captures Orleans from Louis XIV, and Saint-Lo appear to have flipped between Anjou and Normandy. Somehow the Breton army has made no progress against Tours. Luxembourg also joins in against de Medici.

Offscreen the HRE and Switzerland make peace again.

Napoleon makes peace with Napoleon III and Georges Clemenceau, while more excitingly Clemenceau and the Swiss declare war on the Carolingians while they make peace with Luxembourg. I say more excitingly, but its unlikely that anything will happen as a result of this tag-team war declaration.

Flanders managed to capture Caen. This is either a devastating blow against Normandy, or not much of a problem considering Caen was far from Rouen. Either way, its a nice addition for Flanders.

Ok, I think Normandy is in trouble now. With the fall of Caen and Saint-Lo, they're reduced to only their capital. Anne of Brittany and de Medici make peace after nothing happening.

Rome founds a city on the other side of Gallia from their core, and they have their UU, the ballista. Its a catapult replacement that is worse against cities but more effective against units. It also fears enemy units reducing their combat strength by 10%.

Monaco builds yet another wonder, this time its the Mosque of Djenne. de Gaulle and de Champlain make peace after nothing happening again.

Louis XI has their UU, the Ecorcheur. It replaces the Pikeman and has +20% Combat Strength when within three tiles of a friendly spy. When it captures a city it yields a small amount of gold.

Our first cross-Channel war is declared, with the Anglo-Saxons declaring on Flanders. Flanders doesn't have a navy so they're automatically at a disadvantage here, but the A-S navy is so small that I'd be surprised if they did more than damage Leuven.

Flanders captures Strasbourg from Louis XIV, and decides to burn it down. Shame, as it was a decent city and Flanders could have used it to launch an invasion force of their neighbours.

Samuel de Champlain declares war on Anjou, and if they use their units effectively they could make major gains. That's a pretty big if.

The Gauls and Gallians go to war with each other, while Louis XIV makes peace with the Franks and Luxembourg, while the Gallians and Burgundia go to peace as well.

Cornwall builds the Colossus. They still haven't filled out the space between Truro and Pensans, which limits their ability to war against the Anglo-Saxons.

Louis XI declares war against gallia. We'll see if anything happens as a result.

Sancho's Navarre declares war on Napoleon III's France. Napoleon III doesn't have a large defensive force around Bordeaux, 1 composite bowman, and has a long way around Francois's empire to get reinforcements to the city. This should be an easy win for Sancho, but we'll see what actually happens.

Gallia and the Visigoths make peace as well, nothing happened.

To the north, Louis XIV and de Medici make peace. Catherine managed to capture Orleans from the Sun King, so overall it was a net win for her, and adds a good city close to her core.

Burgundy managed to capture Lugdunum from the Burgundians, while at the same time building Notre Dame. Gundahar will be unable to recapture the city as his only unit nearby is a practically dead spearman.

Spain erupts into conflict as Asturias declares war on Spain. They should really focus on defending their main frontier with Franco as they capture Barcelona then moving on to capture the rest of Franco's empire, but Pravia is looking pretty exposed to Franco's forces.

Anne of Brittany declares war on Richelieu, and has a relatively modern army with which to do so. Richelieu thought ahead, however, when building the Great Wall, so that movement penalty should hurt Anne's chances of a quick conquest.

Buoyed by the capture of Lugdunum, Innocent declares war on Gundahar for the countlessth time. This time, to spice it up, he's also declaring war on the Visigoths, along with Navarre.

It happened, Charlemagne of the Franks declared war on Charlemagne of the Carolingians. The Palatinate also declares war on the HRE. Of the two wars, my money is on the Palatinate/HRE war to actually have something happen.

The main event against the Visigoths is Julius Caesar's declaration of war against them. Navarre's declaration is relevant, but they're distracted with Napoleon III. Caesar has a large frontier with the Visigoths, so we should actually see some city captures.

Somehow, I saw that coming. Pravia falls to Franco's Spain. Spanish forces also have the initiative in the field, as Asturian forces fall back to the relative safety of their cities and forget to capture Barcelona.

De Champlain's attack on Anjou is progressing. Laval is damaged, and there are many New France melee units. Seeing the success de Champlain is having, the Hainaut, Carolingians, Georges Clemenceau, and Catherine de Medici all declare war on Anjou in an attempt to get a piece of the pie. Of the 4, only Catherine and the Hainaut matter.

A rather ballsy move, Liege declares war on Luxembourg. Liege has a larger army, but it is outdated. On the plus side, Luxembourg is still distracted with West Germany, so Liege have that going for them which is nice.

Napoleon III managed to send reinforcements to Bordeaux, but it doesn't look like it matters much as Sancho has captured it. It may flip back, due to the catapult and knight, but its unlikely that Napoleon III will be able to hold it as that's essentially the extent of his forces nearby.

Welp, looks like I was wrong. The Franks capture Regensburg from the Carolingians. The Carolingians may flip it back, as there's a pikeman behind the puppet text, but it won't hold. Meanwhile, the Palatinate postures aggressively against the HRE. Also, Flanders joins in against the Carolingians.

The Sun King loses their capital to the Hainaut, relegating them to Cherbourg. Having taken their capital, the Hainaut make peace.

Napoleon III declares war on Anjou, and Luxembourg and Francois make peace with Catherine de Medici. Monaco builds the Hagia Sofia.

De Champlain's New France has done it, they've captured Laval, Anjou's capital. De Medici is sending her forces towards Lancaster, Anjou's new capital.

More surprisingly, Everyone (everyone being Normandy, Andorra, Burgundy, the HRE, Belgium, both Napoleons, and the Hainaut) declare war on the Carolingians. This is one of the biggest one turn coalition I've seen, however in a test game for this there was a coalition 3x bigger formed against the Romans over the timespan of 3 turns.

Speaking of the Romans, they've managed to capture Narbo from the Visigoths, however the Visigoths have captured Cumae and are burning it.

Asturias makes peace with Franco, after declaring a disastrous war where they lost a city.

The Gauls and the Normans make peace, as do Gallia and Napoleon. West Germany also declares war against the Carolingians.

Brittany makes peace with Richelieu and receives Amiens in the peace deal. Unfortunately, Anne decides to burn it, which is a gigantic waste of a 19 pop city. Overall, a loss for both sides. The HRE and Palatinate make peace as well, nothing happened.

Thanks for making it this far, as this is the end for part 2. Here's a poll for voting on who you think will win:https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScW3EC2kwZZMCyoy3Jd-3w-Tz76CvvZaTPklpDu3hMww_vECQ/viewform
Only civs with cities are included on the poll. On to the Stats!

Brittany, thanks to their capture of Amiens lead the population score, but they'll lose their first place as they're burning the city to the ground. This makes New France the population king.

Burgundia has the lowest population of anyone with a city, and you can see here that Louis XVI has been completely eliminated. Also, we're observing as the Iroquois.

Those no-nonsense productivity-is-paramount West Germans lead the production chart by a hefty 61, so expect a lot out of them in the future.

Burgundia trails this stat as well, with 8 production. 200 times less than West Germany.

Somehow the Anglo-Saxons lead the military charts. Its not too surprising I suppose with the second highest production, but it would be nice if they did something with it. The Swiss are in second, which is surprising as they keep losing the wars they're in.

Unsurprisingly, every civ that is doing badly has a place at the bottom of this table. Its nice to know that our cybersub is stronger than the military of 2 nations.

Tech leaders, only ahead by 1.

And here are the tech losers, not behind by that many techs, just everything else that matters.

Thanks for reading, here's the poll if you vote after you see the stats: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScW3EC2kwZZMCyoy3Jd-3w-Tz76CvvZaTPklpDu3hMww_vECQ/viewform