How to play as the French?

[CerberusIV]

Apologies if this should be in the Help forum but...

I am in something of a dilemma with my current game.

Regent level. I have taken to playing random civs and drew the French. So far so good, I have my cities all fairly well developed, good infrastructure and have built Hanging Gardens, Sistine and Leo's. I am just changing to Republic and am level with the other 4 civs on my continent for tech.

No major wars yet. I had a brief massacre of several viking units that strayed onto my territory but now am on fairly good terms with Ragnar. He keeps trying to have a war with the Spanish and seems to keep losing.

My problem started when I didn't get saltpeter. I can't build my UU so am building pikemen. There are only 4 saltpeter between 5 civs and the Spanish have 2 of them.

I can crush the Celts, move on to the Vikings and take what I need but I am not confident of that without a good attacking UU. Or I can stay peaceful, try for Magellans or Adam Smith to trigger my GA and think about war in the Industrial Age, assuming I get oil and rubber. In the meantime I can explore overseas and hope to find unoccupied islands with resources.

Any advice?

[DaveMcW]

Just build lots of knights and get the saltpeter. Mustketmen are not a good attacking UU anyway, their main purpose in life is to trigger your golden age.

If you can sieze the saltpeter with a knight army, the upgrade to cavalry will assure your dominance.

[ducki]

Yes, lots of Knights.

Personally, I'd join in with Ragnar next time he tries to bash heads with Spain, assuming Spain is the larger civ, and take the Saltpeter that way.

Either way, if you are unsure of your strength, join in someone else's war - this creates a two-front war for the victim, essentially making him half as strong most of the time.

I take it someone else built the Colossus? If not, crank that bad boy out or capture it and build any wonder which _should_ trigger your GA.

[Dominae]

CerberusIV, you have Leo's? Then disconnect your Iron, build a bunch of Horsemen and upgrade them to Knights when you've generated enough gold. As the French, your two traits directly support this plan. When you get to fighting and obtain Gunpowder, secure a source of Saltpeter, trigger your GA with a lone Musketeer, and use the extra production and commerce to pump out even more units. With the power of a Medieval GA, you should be in a dominant position entering the Industrial age.


Dominae

[Harovan]

The French are one of the best builder civs. Secure Saltpeter from Spain, if possible allied with the Scandinavians. If you have a good chunk of land, stay out of wars. You should not use your GA to build units. Use it to build cathedrals, universities, banks and a bunch of wonders. After that is done in your core, you still can switch to units, since there's nothing more to build till factories, and maybe go bonk some heads. But not mandantory.

You are commercial, that means your cities are more productive due to lesser corruption. Plus, you're industrious, that makes quickly improved tiles. These traits together make you a cash machine. Use this. You can stay a strong, peaceful empire. You can be the king of science and trade. Your gold makes it possible. Head for a space race victory. You should achieve it, yet before anyone else hits the modern age.

[Brizey]

Cerb:

I have played a lot as the French. They are all about a beeline to Cavalry. Musketeers suck, but they trigger the GA at exactly the right time to give a boost for the beeline. If you have previously beelined to gunpowder, you may be able to catch a few civs with pikeman (not likely on emperor, though). With the advantages of commercial, you can support a seriously large army of Cavalry.

[joncnunn]

The Musketeer isn't the only way to get a GA for the French. You can also build a Commerical & Industrious wonder.

(If you haven't built a GW that's Commerical yet, I'd highly recomend Adam's Smith.) If you posses the Pyraimds or Great Wall then building this trigures a GA right away. Otherwise, you'll get your GA when you build Hoover Dam.

Saltpeter is perhaps the least important strategic resouce; if your not planning any Calvary against Musket Men wars, you can certinately live without it.

And if Spain has connected both Saltpeters and are Polite or better they may be willing to trade it at a reasonable price when you want to use it.

[Mazarin]

...you should not forget the Hanging Gardens which is a great Wonder for the French

[Alex]

Originally posted by Sir Ralph
The French are one of the best builder civs.

I thoroughly agree.

[CerberusIV]

In the end I did everything (it was at Regent level). I crushed the celts. Ragnar attacked with an army of berserks! I discovered the other continent and traded for salt, then I allied with the English and Spanish, took the Viking core cities and left my allies to mop up. I had Hanging Gardens and got my GA from Magellan. The Spanish then attacked out of the blue (from polite and me having the stronger military straight to war!)

I allied with the English who took most of the losses whilst I got most of the Spanish cities. The English then attacked but cav. against tanks and infantry and bombers isn't very effective so they lost. I had just invaded the Aztec/Iroquois/American continent when the cultural win popped up.

I was on Regent whilst testing some modded rules but I really have to play on Monarch now. The French are a surprisingly good all-round civ. The lack of a good UU makes you concentrate on getting the most out of the standard units. I just can't do peaceful it seems, it's just not in my nature.

[Thoth]

The French are one of my favourite civs. Commercial and industrious complement each other beautifully. The key to the French is to get big. Both in terms of number of cities, and city size.

The French should get as many towns grown into cities as possible, as soon as possible. Commercial gives a bonus of +2 gold to cities* (in addition to the normal +1 gold that cities recieve). In stock Civ 3 Industrious civs also recieve +1 shield of production in addition to the standard +1 city bonus. (Note that citiesbuilt on unshielded grasslands will recieve 1 fewer bonus shields than a city built on terrain that produces one shield already). Note that the Industrious bonus shield was moved to metros in PTW.

I actually like the French UU. It's no worse than a regular Musketman in terms of cost or stats, it becomes available with a "required for advancement tech", and it means I can have my golden age at a time of my choosing anytime after I've researched gunpowder and aquired some saltpeter. If the French beeline for gunpowder, they can generally clean up on the middle ages wonders and gain a substantial tech lead.


*Cites: size 7 and up

[Datajack Franit]

Who would ever play as the frogs

[Beta]

Originally posted by CerberusIV
I just can't do peaceful it seems, it's just not in my nature.

Well - this is useful to know.

(See you in the 'pbem with another twist' )

[Mazarin]

being industrious, french are also great for ancient wars...you get your infrastructure quickly, build some roads an attack yout next neighbour...it's an excellent civ for swordsmen-rushes...and -due to commercial trait- your new cities will be much less corrupt. I would strongly recommend playing aggressive as the French..you need many cities to benefit from your commercial trait.
And don't forget about their starting techs...they're the most expensive ones, so you can trade them to all the starting techs of your neighbours while researching maths in 40 turns...and saving money for warrior upgrades

[realpolitic]

Musketmen suck, and the Commecial trait isn't that great. Pick another civ next time.