France IA - Part 3 War, Wonders, and Weeping

Bonjour everyone! You join us just after the terrorist attacks in Paris that have claimed approximately 130 lives and wounded hundreds more. We keep you in our thoughts, as well as the citizens of nations that have experienced similar tragedies in the past couple of days, such as Ethiopia and Lebanon.

Vercingetorix of the Gauls leads the strawpolls with 25% of the vote. Brittany has 21% and Normandy has 17%. The nations that received no votes are the Swiss, the Iberians, Flanders, and the Centre.

We catch up on the action with a close up of Vercingetorix's UA, which allows the discovery of new metal-based resources. At one point there was one silver, now there are four.

To the north, William completes the Great Lighthouse. Pretty sure he's gotten both the GL and the Colossus, the major early game naval wonders. Now if only he'll do something with them.

William just made peace with Anne, having gained nothing in the conflict.

In the south, Roger and Alaric have made peace, but Roger gave away Bram. This is a major blow to Roger, as that was one of his largest cities. In about 200 turns or so, the Visigoths refound Bram...

Here's the border between the French and the Flemish. Not much going on apart from Robrecht's settler.

The rest of the Flemish empire is visible as well as the totality of the Frankish empire. Not much going on here either. Must say that Bastogne and Namur have 0 defensive units between the two of them.

Visible here are the Swiss and the Gauls, and it looks like Vercingetorix is going to invade Dufour.

Much success, I can predict the future! Dufour has four defensive units around Bern, significantly fewer than Vercingetorix is sending to attack. Dufour is so startled by this that he founds the town of Newcastl- Neufchateau.

Bye Bram. It was nice knowing you. Roger's empire is a shell of its former self, will Alaric take advantage of this?

Here is the Centre, as well as Brittany. The Centre has had a rather poor showing, but they still have room to expand if they get their arses in gear.

Louis has knights, those should be able to inflict some pain if he was to use them against someone like Charles, in the Centre. Charles has 1 pikeman...

Look, Dufour has 5 defensive units now! That reinforcement will come in handy, I can feel it! Yes me, Vercingetorix has knights, hell, he even has trebuchets, but I feel like I mentioned those in Part 2.

Alfred does things too, like constructing the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus. Good for you Alfred.

Instead of building settlers to keep his empire alive, Roger builds Borobudur. Sure, spread the thing that won't make you win a domination game.

Flanders founds Laon, in an attempt to cut of France, as well as Le Crotoy to get a port to do naval things.

Looks like Alaric will strike while the iron is hot, and he's even brought in the Gauls. That'll be useful, seeing as the Gauls are no where near the Andorrans. Trebas takes damage.

The Swiss are doing well, considering the force that is arranged around them. Good thing Bern is a tough place to get to.

So... Alaric all-of-a-suddened an army. Roger looks like he's out of luck.

Yeah, the Swiss are fine. Vercingetorix doesn't look like he knows how to use his army. The Bretons look on and laugh at this display of ineptitude.

Yeah, Trebas is doomed. Good luck Roger, you'll need it.

Here's the Gallo-Andorran front. Nothing to report here, but we didn't expect much did we.

Dufour conducts a strategic withdrawal, but other than that he's holding off superior Gallic forces quite well.

Goodbye Trebas, it was nice knowing you.

Look! The Centre did something! They founded Poitiers, home of a very prestigeous university, founded in 1431. Notable alumni include René Descartes, Francis Bacon, and François Rabelais.

Notice the force that Normandy has around Laval, watch out Anne.

Dufour does not have much tech... Shame.

Robrecht leads the tech standings, with a whole 6 techs above the Swiss.

Trebas falls, and the Andorrans are reduced to two cities... Roger, do something quickly!

So much for the Gallic attack on Switzerland, it was soundly defeated. Good job Dufour, you may not be that smart, but you can outfight a much larger opponent.

Flanders is looking interested in northern France. Please attack before your UU becomes useless Robrecht.

The Iberians are boring. So boring we ignore them for most of this part.

I just checked, and this is the only screenshot of them for the entire part, that's how boring they are...

They're at it again, the Normans invade the Bretons. Well, maybe something will happen this time.

Poor Roger. Things are looking bad, as Alaric gets his army organised for the final strike on the capital.

If I was Dufour, I'd be feeling rather happy about my defense right now.

Vercingetorix has even more silver resources now...

Ooh, things are looking grim for Anne, as the defense around Nantes looks to be crumbling.

Maybe the second wave will start moving out soon? I don't know, this war is pretty boring right now.

Half of Roger's military units are scouts, which will sit there until they are eliminated in the far future. Instead of building defensive units, Roger appears to be building another wonder for Alaric to gobble up.

The defense of Nantes has all but evaporated. We should see some damage to the city soon.

Alfred... Looks good, I guess, as no one is interacting with him yet.

Louis' army looks good, except for the warriors. There isn't a lot of iron out there though, so upgrading isn't much of a possibility for him.

Bastogne has a defense now, as well as Lake Victoria, representing the source of several popular natural water springs.

Yup, wave 2 starts off. It looks more impressive than the first, so Dufour will have his work cut out for him.

To celebrate the departure, Vercingetorix founds Marseille, a large, prosperous port on the Mediterranean Sea.

Nantes takes damage, and as long as William focuses on Nantes, he should have it.

Things are looking really bad now for Roger, as Alaric's army has arrived.

Nantes falls to yellow as Vercingetorix enters the Renaissance era. William looks like he knows what he's doing, as he's focusing on Nantes and not splitting his forces.

Roger? Earth to Roger, you're going to lose if you do nothing!

Oh, no wait, the Iberians are back! Only to point out that useless road to nowhere... Carry on.

Nantes falls to the Normans! Thanks to their UA, they have a castle and a courthouse in the city. Each subsequent Breton city the capture will have both of those buildings built upon capture as well.

You missed your opportunity to found a religion, so this was a useless thing to do...

Same with you Alfred, though the completion of two wonders in the same is pretty impressive. That happiness bonus will be useful in the future.

The French move their army to the southern portion of their empire, completely ignoring the Flemish. Going to attack the Bretons, Louis?

Uh... Uh... Roger! Activate something special to save you!

With the capture of Nantes, William makes peace. Good for him, it was a well executed precision strike that accomplished the objective of the war with little friendly casualties.

Are you ignoring Bern, Vercingetorix? Probably a good idea. Epinal looks vulnerable in the mean time.

Back to England, as Alfred completes the Oracle.

Tours looks like a tasty prize for an invading army. Louis could do some damage if he strikes soon.

Andorra la Vella takes damage, and Roger still does nothing... He did get a settler out, but knowing Roger it'll be captured soon.

Things look bad for Epinal, as all of the second invasion arrives, just in time for lunch.

Looks like Louis is going for it. Good on you, Louis.

Andorra's capital falls to red, and somehow the settler is still alive. Miracles do happen.

Its not the war you were looking for, its peace between Charles/Louen and Louis. I forgot they were still at war, to be honest.

Again, Charles founds another city! Saintes is... uh... multiple female saints? I don't know, if you want to know more, look it up.

Looks like this is the last turn that Roger will be in Andorra proper. Well... Sucks, but it happens.

Will you actually attack? Do something Vercingetorix!

Or not, still hasn't fallen. Will Alaric fail to take the city even though its one hit from falling?

Nope! Still not the war you were hoping for. Soon, though, soon.

Vercingetorix builds the Alhambra, and has Charles Martel as a great general. Charles, you traitor! You're Charlemagne's grandfather!

Vercingetorix founds Le Lavandou. Its... another port on the Mediterranean Sea.

Nope, nothing going on here. Nothing at all, keep it moving.

Charlemagne gets over his grandfather's defection by building his UU, the francisca.

The francisca is an anti-melee melee unit that doesn't require iron to build. Interesting, that, as that region is well served in iron... One of the few that is.

There we go, Andorra la Vella falls to the Visigoths. Perpignan looks like a juice target now. That settler somehow is still alive... Huh.

Finally! Louis declares war on Anne, and it looks like even Charles is going to join in on the fun. Tours looks yummy.

Oh hey, damage happened. Keep it up and the city should fall in the next 10 turns or so.

Alaric and Roger both found cities, and Vercingetorix gets his city placement sniped. Agde will be a decent backup city until another one can be founded. Premian will be a good launching point for future attacks against the Andorrans or even the Gauls.

Vercingetorix has musketmen, and Epinal looks pretty strong... *sigh*

Anne has built a bunch of ranged units for defense. Good plan, but not conductive to city flipping.

Perpignan takes damage, and a lone Gallic trireme attacks Agde. That's the only thing Vercingetorix has done in this war.

Well, the Swiss have crossbowmen. Fairly sure those are the first ones this game, which is weird considering the Swiss were last in tech.

Tours starts to take damage, and Charles moves his army closer to... St.-Hilaire-de-Riez?

Perpignan falls even lower, as Roger and Alaric fight each other with religion...

Tours is in the red, and Charles still waits.

The second invasion force fails. Quite terribly. This is such as disappointment.

Alaric takes and burns Perpignan, reducing Roger Bernard III to the 1-pop city of Agde. Sorry Andorran fans, things look pretty dire.

There we go, Charles declares against Anne and attacks the most lightly defended city in the entire Breton empire. Louis takes and burns Tours in the meantime.

Vercingetorix has a nice core, and continues to found cities. Good for you mate.

Pre-Great renaming of cities. Charlemagne also founded Julich in the north.

Post-Great renaming of cities. Much better. Just think, this never would have happened if Charlemagne hadn't founded Rethel.

This really was a disappointment. Vercingetorix you had so much promise.

Robrecht builds Carcassonne, a modded wonder. Carcassonne is a fortified city in the south of France famous for its walls. There is a board game called Carcassonne that is quite good, I recommend it.

Anyway, it gives you a free castle and 3 fois gras luxury resources. Fois gras translates to fat liver. Californians are rather upset with us for eating it, as you have to force-feed geese large amounts of grain to fatten their livers. We know that its a terrible thing to do, but we also know that its super delicious, so we'll keep eating it.

We'll end the game here. Thanks for following this series, I'm sorry this part came out so late, but I'm currently doing comprehensive/cumulative exams for university, and its a real pain. I'll try to get the next episode out sometime next week. Here's the strawpoll: http://strawpoll.me/6010438

The Visigoths take the lead score-wise with the capture of most of Andorra. Correspondingly, Andorra plummets to last place.

The Gauls take the lead in military, and surprisingly the Visigoths aren't part of the top 3.

Here's the current state of world relations. Lots of friendships, but lots of glorious war too.

France and Francia take the lead in population. Andorra is at the very bottom as is expected. Seeing as the Andorrans are likely to be eliminated next part, the Swiss have the lowest population of the civilisations that matter.

The Gauls lead production but the Visigoths aren't far behind. Brittany has terrible production, and the Centre (Bretonnia) isn't far ahead of them.

The lowest population empires are also the happiest, who would have thought of that? The inverse is also true.

Finally tech. The Gauls take the lead with 31, there's a massive tie for second at 29, and the least knowledgeable relevant civ is the Iberians.