Best strategy for France?

[Pattar]

Ok so I was just curious as to the best starting options for France. Is it better to take the starting armies to take all the rebel settlements in France and lock down France, or go for England and Scotland with everything and then once the British Isles are controlled you can take over France. I normally just take out the rebel settlements and end up fighting with Milan and the Holy Roman Empire. Also once France is secure is it better to go for muslim and byzantine areas or just fight with neighbors? I tried to be peaceful and wiped out egypt and now the HRE, England, Milan, Sicily, and the Moors are at war with me. I'm just curious if I did another start up whether I should hit England at the start and dominate for the extra income?

[Hat8]

Originally posted by Pattar:

Ok so I was just curious as to the best starting options for France. Is it better to take the starting armies to take all the rebel settlements in France and lock down France, or go for England and Scotland with everything and then once the British Isles are controlled you can take over France. I normally just take out the rebel settlements and end up fighting with Milan and the Holy Roman Empire. Also once France is secure is it better to go for muslim and byzantine areas or just fight with neighbors? I tried to be peaceful and wiped out egypt and now the HRE, England, Milan, Sicily, and the Moors are at war with me. I'm just curious if I did another start up whether I should hit England at the start and dominate for the extra income?

Better to conquer the west so that you don't have to deal with the initial thrust of the Mongols.

[EoNightcore]

Expanding North will bring you into conflict with the Scots and the English. However, the regions around Britannia and Ireland is relatively quiet minding the occasional pirate.

Expanding South-West into Iberia brings you into conflict with the Spanish, Portuguese, and Moors. However, there will be few opponents to bring you trouble in the region, minding possibly Milan and Sicily. You will also get access to the rich regions of Timbuktu and Arguin if you can conquer the 3 factions already in Iberia.

Expanding into rebel lands to the East will, as you already know, bring you into conflict with Milan and the HRE.

Conflict is kinda inevietable actually, as can be explained by this quote from a guide[www.twcenter.net]:
"These countries all exhibit fierce expansionism:
-HRE has set as its goal to become the next Roman Empire
-Milan needs territories so it can consolidate its weak starting position
-England is controlled by William the Conqueror (need I say more?)
-Portugal has weakened starting position due to their divided territories
-Sicily... God don't even get me started on Sicily"

[EoNightcore]

In my opinion, you should take out England and than proceed to take Iberia to secure both passage to the New World (assuming you ever play to the late-game) and your northern, southern, and western flank (which is either ocean or map boundries).

I would not recommend going for Byzantium and the Holy Lands because several of the settlements there are cities, far away, and worst of all... Heathens and Heretics!, which is basically the worst combination for public order.



Alternatively, you can ally the English or the Spanish to secure one of your borders (hopefully they won't betray you...), and than proceed to take out Milan. This will open up Italia for conquering, and make it more practical to start expanding towards Byzantium and the Holy Land.

[ubermensch]

1. take back all the rebel provinces that make most of the french area.
2. Try to keep nice with the Holy roman empire
3. get rid of the english, better to kick them off the mainland and keep them on their island
4. trade with everyone
5. be nice with the pope (obviously) but don't join crusades unless able to.

[Cato]

Originally posted by ubermensch:

1. take back all the rebel provinces that make most of the french area.
2. Try to keep nice with the Holy roman empire
3. get rid of the english, better to kick them off the mainland and keep them on their island
4. trade with everyone
5. be nice with the pope (obviously) but don't join crusades unless able to.

Sound advice - The French are a faction that should in my opinion be played aggresively - your best option is to take the fight to the English Hard and as Early as you reasonably can. You have potentially four fronts - you want to kill one of those quickly.

[Inardesco]

Kill HRE, kick out the English from France, get friends with Pope to annoy Milan, secure the Iberian Peninsula

[ubermensch]

Originally posted by Cato:

Originally posted by ubermensch:

1. take back all the rebel provinces that make most of the french area.
2. Try to keep nice with the Holy roman empire
3. get rid of the english, better to kick them off the mainland and keep them on their island
4. trade with everyone
5. be nice with the pope (obviously) but don't join crusades unless able to.

Sound advice - The French are a faction that should in my opinion be played aggresively - your best option is to take the fight to the English Hard and as Early as you reasonably can. You have potentially four fronts - you want to kill one of those quickly.

you got to play nice to a certain regard in terms of the other major powers surrounding you. I only say be nice particularly with the holy roman empire, is simply because they can seriously spread you thin since they have such a huge front. While the Spanish you can afford a war with them since they got those narrow gap mountain passes they have to get through. As for England, well give them time and they get strong so its best to remove them from the game or limit their ability to stage invasions from that castle on the mainland.

[Hat8]

Why play nice when you can kill them? France has tonnes of resources and excellent units.

[ubermensch]

Originally posted by Hat21:

Why play nice when you can kill them? France has tonnes of resources and excellent units.

well ya thats all fine, till you run out of money and got major enemy stacks coming at you. Like I said you play nice to a certain extent till you know you can sustain yourself and be able to fight on multiple fronts. Its not like Warhammer or Rome 2 where that stupid garrison mechanic comes into play

[Hat8]

Originally posted by ubermensch:

Originally posted by Hat21:

Why play nice when you can kill them? France has tonnes of resources and excellent units.

well ya thats all fine, till you run out of money and got major enemy stacks coming at you. Like I said you play nice to a certain extent till you know you can sustain yourself and be able to fight on multiple fronts. Its not like Warhammer or Rome 2 where that stupid garrison mechanic comes into play

Expansion is the fastest way to make money.

[Inardesco]

Originally posted by ubermensch:

Originally posted by Hat21:

Why play nice when you can kill them? France has tonnes of resources and excellent units.

well ya thats all fine, till you run out of money and got major enemy stacks coming at you. Like I said you play nice to a certain extent till you know you can sustain yourself and be able to fight on multiple fronts. Its not like Warhammer or Rome 2 where that stupid garrison mechanic comes into play

France has quite easy expansion options. Spain/Portugal is 1 front, England/Scotland is one front, Milan is 1 front, HRE is 1 front and you can even push Denmark to 1 front.

So thats maybe, 4 defensive armies, which is nothing.

For Spain/Portugal you need 1 army to secure Iberia.

For England/Scotland you need 1 army to secure the British Isles

For Milan you may want to play defensive for a while, considering how close those settlements are.

For HRE you only have to take like, 1 castle and then you've cracked their military power since all they have left are cities with crap militia.

For Denmark take Hamburg and you can easily whipe 'm out aswell.

[ubermensch]

Idk, maybe its just my playstyle, I tend to try to be reserved till Ik i can economically sustain myself. Obviously expansion is good, but to what point will it go, and the more you do go the more risk you get drawn into wars. Also you got to think that at somepoint alot of the other nations will just join up and come for you cause your becoming a common threat. So in a way like to play the reserved and political game, however sometimes it honestly doesn't feel present since they attack at some point whether your friends with them or not.

[Cato]

Originally posted by ubermensch:

Idk, maybe its just my playstyle, I tend to try to be reserved till Ik i can economically sustain myself. Obviously expansion is good, but to what point will it go, and the more you do go the more risk you get drawn into wars. Also you got to think that at somepoint alot of the other nations will just join up and come for you cause your becoming a common threat. So in a way like to play the reserved and political game, however sometimes it honestly doesn't feel present since they attack at some point whether your friends with them or not.

Thats fine and being reserved is in many cases Good Stratergy, ECF Chess players tend to be reserved for example.

And there are Factions that being reserved (at least fairly early on) is a good idea Denmark for example - whilst you MUST take Hamburg early there is no reason to get into an engagement with anyone too early.

Another example is the Byzantines - You don't want to be too agressive with them early as in my experience their early military is pants.

To a certain extent the HRE as you can find yourself in alot of stratergic mess fast if you expand quickly.

However there are Factions in TW that being reserved does not work for:

1 Moors - you should bring the fight to your enemies hard and early. Almost too easy in my opinion

2 Turks I have not played this faction in Years so take this with a grain of salt - but to play as them you have to be super expansionalist I still remember my Turk campiagn - I had Plague Mongols and Crusades I remember holding off hordes of Mongols hitting some Fortress in what I think is now Iraq - I had Naffatuns with 500 kills.

3 Another one would be Sicily since they start in a fiscal black hole - I have not figued them out yet though.

[Armchair Civilian]

grabbing the british isles as soon as is convenient once you've got voulgiers is deffo a good option, i'd say that so long as you deny HRE Metz and ideally Stettin, you can pick THEM off at your leisure - pushing through the iberian peninsula is deffo a food early move, ally / trade rights with the pope first and grab Ajaccio asap so that Spain attacks you and gives you casus belli ;)
try and beat the Iberians to Zaragosa too, early game as France is hectic but once your military capability and economy grow, the campaign gets really fun!
Oh, and just cos i can't resist any more...

FETCHEZ LA VACHE! ;)

[Nexim95]

You've already gotten some excellent answers. As far as England is concerned, I try to delay the inevitable war with them for as long as I can; defining and securing France's borders is the priority.
I make Toulouse (especially) and Angers my main military bases, first building farms to increase the population faster and then improving the recruitment buildings.
Among the cities, Paris, Marseille and Dijon (once you take it) will be your main sources of income, so protect them.