France IA - Part 10 But Crumble is British

Bonjour! Welcome back to the France IA game! This is the 10th(!) part of this game, and a clear strawpoll leader has emerged, as the Gauls receive 11 of the 20 votes. They have the biggest empire, but the Anglo-Saxons, Flemish, French, and Visigoths aren't far behind.

We'll start this part by looking at the remains of the Frankish Kingdom, though at this point its more of a city-state. The Gauls and the Swiss have just declared war against them. That's cute Switzerland.

France and the Anglo-Saxons are at war with the Normans, though France is under attack from the Gauls and the Visigoths, so maybe they should peace out or something. The Gauls aren't content with controlling their portion of France, so they settle on Guernsey.

Here's the Franco-Visigothic/Gallic front of their war. The Visigoths have brought the planes, and the Gauls have brought in the aerial combatants. For some reason, I don't think Bourges will remain French for very long, and I don't think that it'll become Visigothic.

The Iberians and Visigoths are also at war, which appears to have calmed down for a little bit. If the Iberians can stabilise the front, they may yet escape with their capital.

There's the force that Vercingetorix thinks will take over Julich. I would have sent other units, but that's just me.

Bourges, the capital of the Centre falls to the Gauls and they swarm northwards. Louis' army, however, is nowhere in sight, as the only forces 'near' the front are a GWI and 3 cannons...

I suppose the Gallic attack is how the Italian invasion of France was supposed to go (punch through and head north), but the Italians couldn't break through French defensive lines. And people mock the French for failing to hold a front when the Italians have proven on 3 occasions they couldn't invade anywhere (Albania, Egypt, France). But I digress, as I like WWII. :)

L'Aigle takes damage, as Louis tries to take the city in lieu of holding Bourges. I'd probably be on the defensive instead, stupid aggressive and expansive AI mod.

Here's the Franco-Flemish border. If I was Louis I'd watch out, Robrecht's army is a lot bigger that his, and its close by.

Julich starts to take damage, and the Gallic conquest force has increased by a unit or two. Where does that worker think its going?

France looks like its in deep trouble. The Gauls keep coming and the French army is away.

The Iberian colony has fallen, but in other news the Bretons have a settler! Too bad there's nowhere to place it that isn't a million kilometres away or completely inaccessible.

*sigh* The Visigoths refound the city of Logrono, after they took it from the Iberians. How much do you want to bet they'll do the same with Zarautz? The Flemish and Anglo-Saxons watch on and place bets on if the Iberians will successfully withstand the onslaught.

Oh, well, that sucks for Louis. Robrecht of Flanders declares war on Louis and invades with many GWI and cannons. They should be able to make quick work of the northern portion of the French Kingdom.

The Gallic invasion force is a bit outdated, but without opposition I don't think that matters much. Auxerre is taken down to yellow and Belleville-sur-Loire to green.

This really is the worst possible use of your army Louis. At least they're making progress though, right?

The Franks are now firm believers in the tenants of Freedom, which is interesting as it looks like they'll be incorporated into the Gallic Reich any turn now.

L'Aigle is in the red, Louis could take it any turn no- WHAT??? You've done what??? LOUIS YOU MORON!!!

Flanders' invasion seems to be progressing well.

Auxerre is taken and burnt. Happiness problems Vercingetorix? Meanwhile, the Visigoths still don't have any troops involved, letting the Gauls take the brunt of the fighting. And cities. And experience.

Both sides gather more forces before going over the top into no man's land.

The Gallic army takes Belleville and burns it. Flanders damages Chateau-Thierry and Compiegne, and Alaric sends one whole cannon to invade the no longer great Kingdom of France.

Julich looks set to fall, and the force attacking it has increased by a nice amount. Hopefully they'll take out that worker so it doesn't hang around for another 400 years.

People be rich, and people be poor.

Julich falls, and Charlemagne is hidden among those workers. That worker is the last Frankish unit, so as soon as that goes it'll be Game Over for Charlemagne.

Blois taken to half health and still the Gallic army moves northwards. The Flemish army is struggling with those French cities, and it looks like the Anglo-Saxons have sent two units to invade the Normans.

Here's the Anglo-Saxon core, seeing as we haven't seen it in a while. They have subs, aren't they lucky.

Louis must be delusional, as he sends the army that failed to capture L'Aigle to take out Lillebonne instead of focusing on his actual problems... Blois falls and is burned again, and Alaric's army has finally made it to Neuille, which if they keep it will be the only gain he makes from this war.

I fucking called it. If Alaric had kept those two cities instead of burning them, he would have had more than 1 person in them, but no, that'd make too much sense. Pineda is very far into the red, but melee units are hard to come by in this region of Spain. So is the Iberian army, but the units there are well led, as they have 4 great generals to lead them.

Bit late to send your army to Blois, Alaric. Neuille of the stone bridge is another story however.

Pithiviers takes damage, Sens will soon. Flee family from Bazoches*! The Gallic army is here!

*Located about 10 kilometres to the west of Pithiviers.

Uh... Flanders? You going to take those cities or what? Looks like they're pushing directly for Paris, which is kind of weird.

That's cute Louis, keep thinking that Lillebonne is important to this war.

They're still around! Grrr...

Montgomery can't save the French now!

Pithiviers is in the red, though Sens hasn't taken any damage yet.

Yeah. looks like Robrecht is ignoring those cities tearing his army apart and is going for Paris. Good luck mate.

This has to be the biggest concentration of French forces in the entire kingdom. And its being wasted here. Louis really has lost it.

The Gauls may end up getting Neuille, and Pithiviers has fallen :`( Sens is taken to the yellow.

Robrecht continues his questionable policy of Paris First.

The Anglo-Saxons should get serious about finishing off the Normans if they want to have a sizable beachhead on the continent.

The Visigoths have aircraft carriers. Pretty empty core, huh.

The Gauls take Neuille and burn that too. Shame really, this entire section was full of nicely developed cities. Now everything will have to start from zero if this place is ever resettled.

Paris starts to take damage. Louis doesn't have an army, and doesn't look like he's interested in building one... Stupid AIs...

L'Aigle is almost healed, and Lillebonne is damaged. Why bother commenting Louis' actions? They're bad, that's all you need to know.

Remember this war? Good, now you do. The Visigoths have taken Pineda and have brought Laredo to half health. Pineda might flip while Laredo looks set to fall and stay fallen.

The Flemish complete the Prora. Here you can see their empire, which is bad, just contains too few units in case of a Gallic double cross.

Here's the extent of the French empire, as Paris takes more damage. Not very impressive anymore, I take back my statement of France being a front-runner from the first slide.

Here's the entirety of the Norman empire, which is in pretty much the same state. Alfred may be getting serious though, as more units are on their way to attack William's cities. The Normans have sent a force to attack Sarzeau, backed by a great merchant...?

Pineda is Iberian again, but the damage has been done. Laredo is still Iberian though. Those Iberian pilots must feel like the French pilots during the German invasion, up against too many adversaries, they're at a 1:5 disadvantage.

Come on Vercingetorix, finish off Charlemagne.

Paris is in the red, and its tough to say who'll take it. Maybe Robrecht as he takes his turn first? Lillebonne is now Flemish, which means that Louis was able to take it and that Robrecht took it immediately afterwards. At the edge of the screen, Laval takes damage.

Laredo is taken and burnt. I swear Alaric, if you burn it and resettle it, I will be upset.

Nope, not for Robrecht, Vercingetorix takes Paris. Louis is set for annihilation.

Alfred founds Rennes and doesn't send an army to defend it.

France succeeds in retaking Lillebonne, as the big boys start the capture of Chateau-Thierry and Montreuil. Vercingetorix refounds Auxerre to piss me off... WHY DIDN'T YOU JUST KEEP IT???

Eh, Rennes and Laval will be fine from the looks of things.

Laredo is still Visigothic and Pineda joins the Newly-Visigothic-and-on-Fire Club.

Here are the ruins of France, used as a training ground for joint Gallo-Flemish military exercises.

Oh, maybe Rennes and Laval won't be fine... Huh, may prove fun if they switch.

Vercingetorix takes and burns two more French cities. I'll probably have to rename new cities to those eventually...

Make up your minds guys. Rennes is fine, Laval maybe.

Pineda is gone, and Laredo has been retaken by the Iberians.

So, Flanders or the Gauls? Probably Flanders this time. Maybe. Who knows?

Confirmed, Rennes is fine, Laval is too.

Anyway, we end this part here because Past Me thought this would be a fine time to stop it, probably to attempt to keep part length relatively similar across the board this time. Sorry lads and lasses, the Fall of France will occur next part.

Strawpoll!: http://strawpoll.me/6504763

That one Frankish worker is worth a lot of score. All of Brittany's army and actual city aren't. lol

The Anglo-Saxons aren't making their presence known, but they have a large army.

Unfortunately, it looks like the Gauls, Visigoths, and Flemish are all friendly enough towards each other. That's a shame, a 3 way war would be kind of fun, and the Anglo-Saxons could jump in for shiggles.

Visigoths lead in population, about 15 million more than the Gauls.

The Gauls are more productive though, by far.

Damn Vercingetorix, you are not in a happy place. Flanders and the Anglo-Saxons are though.

Iberia is still somehow up in science, which continues to amaze me. Thanks for reading!