France IA - Part 1 The Foundations of Empire

Bonjour! Welcome to Part 1 of the France IA game! We'll start off by going over the results of the strawpoll, which I have to say the results are pretty amazing: 34 people voted! Thank you! Here are the results:
7 votes for William I of Normandy
5 votes for Louis XIV of France
5 votes for Charlemagne of the Franks
4 votes for Anne of Brittany
4 votes for Alfred of the Anglo-Saxons
3 votes for Vercingetorix of Gallia (Vercingetorix's name corrects to "Overcrowding" by the way... ?)
2 votes for Alaric I of the Visigoths
2 votes for Dufour of Switzerland
1 votes for Robrecht III of Flanders
1 votes for Roger Bernard III of Andorra
0 votes for Charles VII of The Centre
0 votes for Viriato of Iberia

We star this part off with the first second city of the game, Montreuil-sur-Epte by Louis XIV of France. This village has nothing on its wikipedia page, which is saddening, but its a small village, so its expected. I'll do information on the first couple of cities of each civ and then I'll stop because some civs will have over 40 cities that they have founded.

Next up, the Iberians found their second city, Pineda de la Sierra. Nothing much to report, other than the fact that it had 127 residents in 2004.

Just so you know, I may or may not add accents, depending on which city is being displayed and whether or not I remember if they have an accent or not. Sorry about that, but it happens.

Here we see the settlers of Brittany and the Centre (which is the name of a region as well as how to properly spell 'center') vying for the best place to plop down a city.

Now that I think of it, this seems like a good point to mention this: Good news! I've run the entire series up to turn 500 (2050 AD) and things happen and the game doesn't crash. That's enough for about 16 parts, so we'll be here a while ;)

Here the Goths and the Andorrans also jockey for position in the foothills of the Pyrénées. Andorra looks to have the upper hand.

Charles VII founds Loches, while Anne founds Le Lude. Le Lude has nothing on the wiki, while Loches is on the Indre River, and has a population record dating back to 1793.

The Swiss and the Gauls start to explore their surroundings.

The Anglo-Saxons found Dorchester, a town of about 20,000 people IRL.

The Swiss found Mulhouse, the second largest city in Alsace after Strasbourg. It has a population of over 110,000.

The Andorrans take the lead in the south, founding Bram before the Visigoths found their second city. Here's the wikipedia on Bram:
Bram was a centre of Cathar belief, a heresy from Christianity. Their difference from Rome brought the intervention of Simon de Montfort who, following a Spanish monk who became St Dominic, besieged the town in 1210. He succeeded in three days and took revenge on resistants by cutting off the top lip of all his prisoners and gouging out the eyes of all but one. For the last he gouged out only one eye so that he could lead the others out of the town to the château of Lastours.

Fun times, huh?

The Belgians found Lens, while the Franks found Liège. Major differences here, as Lens has a popluation of 4000, while Liège has a population of almost 200,000. Sorry, I like population statistics.

I'll use this duplicate slide of southern England to tell you about why Uluru is there. Its actually representing Stonehenge. Yup. There are other natural wonders spread out that I'll explain in time.

The Visigoths hop on the second-city-founding trend and found Agen. It has a population record dating back to 1800 and is paired with, among others, Corpus Christie in Texas.

Weird of me to point that out, but I live just to the north of Houston in Texas, so that's relatively close to me. I say relatively close because its still a 3.5+ hour drive. Also, for those of you who are confused about my attempted use of English spelling of words even though I live in the States, I was born in Guildford in England.

The Normans found L'Aigle, which means 'the eagle' in French. The town got its name because an eagle's nest was discovered when building the castle there, and in 1803 a meteorite air-burst above the town.

The Gauls found Romans-sur-Isère.

Protip: if you see a city name and its CityName-sur-Word, it means CityName-on-RiverName. That simple. So Romains-sur-Isère means the city of Romains on the river of Isère. I'll probably just call this type of city the CityName part of the name in the future.

Its turn 12 and already the Andorrans have a trade caravan. Good for them.

The Franks take the default pantheon belief.

Zhuge Liang becomes the first TXT_KEY_CIV_IBERIAN_ADJECTIVE great general. Actually the first great general of the game.

And the Normans have the first settler that they have produced. Where will they put it? All directions are open to them.

Back to Andorra already, as they take my favourite pantheon belief to increase their population. Pretty wise move there Roger (Bernard).

William enters the Classical Era first, and sends his settler close to Sri Pada, or more accurately, the Mont Saint-Michel. Its a monastery constructed on a rock in the middle of a quicksand flat that has tides that come in at over 30 miles an hour. Awesome place to spend the night, as the tourists tend to leave around dinner time.

Money! Everyone has some, interesting that the Swiss have the least considering their UA.

The Franks are rich! Well, they're not as poor as the rest of us.

Switzerland takes the Religious Settlements pantheon belief to expand their borders quicker. A good idea seeing as they're stuck on the side of the map.

The Grand Mesa represents the Mont Blanc, the highest peak in Europe. It is on the Franco-Italian border, and has a tunnel running under it.

The Visigoths are the first to 3 cities thanks to turn progression, and they found Tarbes. Rhe 1st Parachute Hussar Regiment and 35th Parachute Artillery Regiment are stationed in Tarbes.

William, or Bill if you're his friend, founds Laval. Laval is the birthplace of Henri Rousseau.

Alfred joins the 3 city club with Sidmouth. In 2004 it had 15,000 inhabitants, of which over 40% were over 65.

Roger rebukes Alaric and founds Trebas, or Verylow, as it translates to English.

Brittany founds the God of War pantheon, which should come in handy with William next to her.

Alaric sees everyone else's pantheon belief and grabs potentially the best one in the game for this map, the Goddess of Festivals. Seeing as this is France, and France produces a butt-tonne of wine (actual measurement of wine), there is wine everywhere which will lead to massive culture and faith gain. If Alaric can get monasteries with his religion, he'll dominate the religion and culture scene.

Vercingetorix founds Pierrelatte and the Swiss tribe become the Swiss Chiefdom. The Iberians most likely follow and become the Iberian Chiefdom.

Its a bit early for a French Republic, but Louis says 'screw that, we're doing it now!' Well, ok Louis. Here you can note the proximity of the French, Norman, Bretons, and the... Centre-Val-de-Loire... ians? The Centreists? The Centreians? Whatever, the Centreists.

France founds Compiègne, which has a history dating back to the 600s.

The Gauls go for a science based pantheon. This will help them soon as they've got two cities settled and two more on the way.

The Anglo-Saxons as well have a 2+2 set up.

Roger builds the Stonehenge wonder, while Alaric sends out a settler.

William builds the Great Library, which will boost his science lead.

The Franks and the Flemish send out settlers as well.

The Swiss have a road and another settler. Take that Flanders!

France founds Pithiviers, a town that is 10 minutes to the east of my grandmother's house. :) Hi family from Bazoches les Gallerandes!

The Iberians are a bit sleepy, so they take a nap and accomplish nothing.

Charles doesn't like Louis' advance to the Loire River and founds Blois. Blois is a pretty city, and is paired with Lewes in England, Weimar in Germany, and Huế in Viet Nam.

The Goths found Saint-Sever and decide that that is reason enough to call themselves the Gothic Chiefdom to celebrate. The town was founded in the late 900s after the Lord of Gascony defeated some vikings.

Anne, do something like founding more cities! u/Admiral_Cloudberg is rooting for you!

The Flemish found Saint-Quentin next to the Barringer Crater, which in this game is the Lochnagar Mine Crater. This crater is the largest man-made mine crater created during the First World War, having used 60,000 lbs of ammonal explosives. It was blown before the Battle of the Somme, and is 300 feet wide and 70 feet deep, almost 100 years after having been blown. Apparently the explosion was so loud that it was heard all the way in London.

Enough about WWI craters, no matter how cool they are. The Andorrans are the first to a religion, and they choose Catholicism.

Unfortunately for Alaric, they picked up monasteries. World Church will be tough to maximise with a pantheon-wielding Visigoth empire next door.

The Swiss found Epinal to the north-west of Mulhouse.

I'll say this here, and when it actually happens. The entire region between Mulhouse and Liège is settled by some cities in the future, but I name many of them incorrectly. I rename the majority of them on turn 120 with greater accuracy, but some names are still off. Sorry about that.

The Gauls found Langogne and Bourg-en-Bresse.

Remember CityName-on-RiverName? That's CityName-in-Region.

The Centre, which is also France, located to the south of France enlists Confederate general Robert E. Lee for help. Will France look for help from Ulysses S. Grant?

Danger for Catholicism, the Visigoths found Arianism. Notice the Visigothic archer and the Andorran catapult.

Mosques is almost as good as monasteries in this map, and the science bonus will help Alaric hit the books.

Alfred founds the Royal Tunbridge Well. Probably Wells, but there wasn't enough room for the 's'. Sorry.

We'll look at that reformation belief... Eventually.

Flanders picks a good pantheon belief, considering where the Lochnagar Mine Crater is placed.

The Franks finally found a third city, Namur. Its name will change in the Great Name Correction of turn 120, though I think it marks the northern boundary of the affected area.

Alfred founds Holsworthy in Devon. Nice placement of luxury resources pork...

Another look at the 4 corner mix. William has a settler, and Anne doesn't... Shame that.

Alfred adopts a pantheon for the production of early wonders. Not a bad pick, considering it never gets further than a pantheon and is replaced by a foreign religion sometime in the future.

Uh... Look at the spearmen! Such technological progress, much advancement, wow.

Shhhhh... Iberia is still napping.

Roger completes the Temple of Artemis, adding 10% to his growth rate. Does that stack with his pantheon, or is it multiplicative? (+20% extra growth or +10% +10%)

Alfred and Louis aren't very happy. Considering the number of cities they have, that's unsurprising.

Robrecht is really happy, good for him.

To end this part, Louis ignores his unhappiness and founds Chartes, a city with a massively important cathedral. Seriously, if any of you are ever in the area, check it out. Its really impressive and they recently redid the stained glass so it looks awesome.

Here's a stawpoll: http://strawpoll.me/5906118

Score-wise, the Visigoths and Andorrans spring ahead thanks to their religions, though there is another split in the middle.

Military-wise, only Louis is ahead of us. Otherwise, the range is pretty good.

Louis is a friendly guy, as well as a powerful one.

The Franks and Iberians lead the population race, and the Gauls are losing, but the Gauls have many cities while the leaders have few.

The Gauls lead in production, which considering their surroundings I'd hope so. The Franks trail, but that isn't surprising as they don't have many hills or forests.

Finally the Bretons are leading the search for tech, while the Anglo-Saxons, Visigoths, and Swiss trail.