France IA - Part 2 Religions Appear and Grow

Bonjour! You're looking at part 2 of the France IA game! Alfred of England/the Anglo-Saxons and Roger Bernard of the Andorrans are tied for first with 5 votes, followed by Alaric of the Visigoths and Vercingetorix of the Gauls with 4. In last are Dufour of Switzerland and Viriato of the Iberians with 0. Every one else got at least one vote. To the 31 people that voted, thank you!

We start this part by looking at Anne of Brittany (2 votes), who has a settler ready for expansion.

Here William (3 votes) and Louis (3 votes) are shown with Charles (2 votes). Louis has chariot archers, while William has another settler.

Close to the Pyrénées are Andorra and the Visigoths. The Visigoths are spreading out nicely while the Andorrans are doing Andorran things.

The Gauls found Avignon, which is famous due to the children's' song "Sur le Pont d'Avignon," (On the bridge of Avignon). (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ya8EZ5092RU) Well, its not only famous for that, but many people know it for that.

While the Gauls dance the night away, the Swiss find religion, and its Calvinism.

Cathedrals for buildings, and extra gold for spreading the faith.

The Bretons found Saint-Hilaire-de-Riez, which is... A small coastal village? The wikipedia exists, there isn't much there though.

Andorra adds things to Catholicism, which can only help it grow big and strong like it is in real life, maybe.

They have two religious buildings, as they get pagodas as well. Missionary conversion strength is good too.

A closer look at France, as it goes from the French Republic to the Republic of France. There's apparently a difference. *shrugs*

Congrats to Robrecht of Flanders, first to the medieval era! Do medieval things to the best of your ability!

Still napping... Shh...

The Gauls found Chalon-sur-Saône. This town is old, as in pre-Roman old.

More religion stuff!

We didn't look at the reformation belief of Arianism in part 1, so here it is. Religious Fervor will help with purchasing units after the industrial era, while happy temples and enhanced combat strength while close to Arianism-following cities will create a strong core for the Visigoths.

William has completed the Colossus. That extra gold will come in handy.

Please stop doing religious things!

Tithe is one of my religious favourites, while Holy Warriors should help maintain a strong army.

Enough of that religious crap, time for war! Louis declares on Charles, and attacks Blois. It doesn't look good for Charles, as he only has an archer near the city.

lol, jk. Flanders founds Brussels, the capital of Belgium, as well as Oriental Orthodoxy.

Extra food and extra faith are on the menu in Flanders for the next couple thousand years or more. Hope you're hungry.

Blois is brought down to yellow.

And is then captured and razed. Sucks to be someone from Blois.

The Visigoths found Vielha, which is in Spain. Its actually called Vielha e Mijaran, but Google Maps didn't inform me of this, so its called Vielha.

A look at the Franks, as they do Frankish things. The Gauls go from one republic to another, and the Flemish send out another settler. All in all, a productive slide.

Bye Blois! The Normans have a settler, but it doesn't look like they're interested in using it.

Alfred completes the Terracotta Army, which gives us an excuse to look at southern England.

They're awake! They'll finally join the 3 city club/stragglers of the world club!

While the Iberians don't even have spearmen, the Gauls have pikemen. Quite a tech difference there.

The Franks found Bastogne, where there was a large battle during the winter of 1944 during the Second World War when the Germans mounted their last major offense of the war against weak American lines in an attempt to split them from the Commonwealth troops to the north. As you might imagine, it failed because it was winter.

Lake Victoria represents the towns of Vittel and Contréxeville, which are where two popular brands of bottled water get their names, and water, from. Evian, Perrier, St. Pellegrino, and Quezac also take their names from the towns where their sources are.

The Flemish then found La Louviere, which is the name of a bunch of towns that were combined to form this community. Seriously, 9 towns merged to form this place.

The Iberians wake up and found Pechón, though they don't send many people there to keep it a sleepy little town of 220 people.

Andorra is amassing pikes and catapults next to the Visigoths... A sign of things to come? The Visigoths appear to not care, as they found Cahors, the capital of the Lot Department (departments fulfill the same role as states in the USA)

Alfred completes the Pyramids, in 1040 BC. Well, that's a bit later than they were actually built, but sure, whatever floats your portion of Great Britain.

The Swiss build the Pantheon, which will help enormously in a domination-only game, and the Gauls found Autun. It was intended to act as a Roman capital for the Gauls in place of Bibracte, their Gallic capital.

A lot of people are stronger than us, and not many are weaker. Didn't know nuclear subs were so weak in pointy-stickedness.

Alaric may want to watch out, as Roger Bernard is pretty pointy.

The Bretons found Tours, which is a large city known for its wines, the alleged perfection of French spoken there, and the 732 Battle of Tours where the Islamic conquest of Western Europe was halted by Charles Martel. I have family to the south-east of Tours in Veretz. Hello family there! :)

Yup, Alaric had reason to worry. If Roger leads his troops well, Toulouse should fall pretty easily.

Alaric isn't the only one who needs to be worried, Anne has just been attacked by William. Will he live up to his 'the Conqueror' or will he fail miserably? We'll see.

More religion from the Swiss. Go sit on your gold reserves!

Extra production and cheaper missionaries and inquisitors will be nice for a good production empire in the mountains.

Toulouse falls to green, though that doesn't mean much. Alaric has composite bowmen while Roger has archers. A bit of a disparity, but not much.

Even more religion, this time in Flanders. There'll only be one more after this one and it'll happen in a while.

Specialists increase production and gaining faith for great people, helpful.

Le Lude looks well defended while Nantes doesn't... At least Anne has many ranged units defending Nantes so their effect will be greater than they look.

Toulouse dips further as Alaric's army vanishes slowly be surely. Looks like this is all or nothing for Roger though, as reinforcements don't look like they'll appear.

Charles founds Nevers, where the Loire River spits into the Loire and the Allier rivers, or close enough for government work.

Technically, I should have named this town Gimouille, but Nevers is much much bigger so I chose that instead. Sorry Gimouille.

The Anglo-Saxons have swordsmen. Pretty sure others do too, but I hadn't noticed theirs so Alfred gets first noted observation.

Swordsmen are great and all, but Flanders has Goedendags, which are crazy Flemish units.

They're good against melee units in general as opposed to the pikemen they replace, and they can be drafted from your city's poplulation at the cost of one population.

In the mean time, Patton helps the Gauls instead of the Franks who own Bastogne. Traitor. XD

Toulouse falls to yellow, and it may fall soon.

Nantes and Le Lude are still fine though.

Toulouse falls further to the yellow, as Roger sends a great prophet to the front lines. It's looking closer and closer for Roger, units are getting harder and harder to come by.

Nantes is still fine. Le Lude is completely ignored.

Toulouse is in the red, though Roger has to retreat to save what's left of his army and have a chance at defending his cities.

Things are looking badly for the Normans as they retreat without doing any damage... The Bretons celebrate by enhancing their faith.

Happiness and combat strength, good for conquering. Will they do that though?

The Anglo-Saxons have Huscarls, their UU.

Huscarls are good at defense when near rivers or coasts. Too bad no one really knows that they exist...

The Gauls have Trebuchets, and appear to be moving against the Swiss. They've even built the Great Wall. Expect it to stay that shape for a long time, I recorded the game in one go.

Andorra will need to scrape up an army and quickly in case the Visigoths attack.

Louis builds Chichen Itza, and appears to have a good core.

The Norman counterattack doesn't seem to be going anywhere... Eh, they tried?

Roger Bernard makes peace with Alaric and gives away his second city... Dammit Roger, what the hell? You should have given them nothing, they didn't even attack you!

Oh yeah, and they founded Perpignan a while ago apparently. At one point (for about 200 years or so between 1231 and 1715) it was the capital of the Kingdom of Majorca.

Anne and William make peace too, though Anne is smart enough to not give anything away, unlike Roger... You could learn a thing or two Roger.

Anyway, we're ending it here, so Stawpoll! http://strawpoll.me/5939095

The Visigoths and the Gauls lead the scoreboard, while the Centre trails.

In terms of military though, the Gauls and the Anglo-Saxons lead. The Iberians and Franks are falling behind quickly.

Oh yeah, France and the Centre are still at war.

The Franks don't have a large military, but their population is large. Switzerland not so much.

Wow, the Centre(Bretonnia) has no production... The Gauls lead this category though.

The Swiss are leading in happiness though, and the Visigoths are very unhappy.

The Normans lead the tech race. Great Library really does help. The Swiss and Centre(Bretonnia) are falling behind.