The French are *******s

[Eric]

'Tis, 'tis true. In MTW2, the French are indeed *******s. Listen to my tale of woe, so that you other players may not befall this fate. Now, I was in the early stage of an English campaign, I had conquered all of Great Britain excluding Scotland, and my holdings on the continent were, as yet, limited to Bruges and Caen. But I did send diplomats far and wide, and I had a powerful alliance with the Byzantine Empire. I check up on my Byzantine allies, and I see that the Egyptians are starting to infringe upon their borders, this could not be allowed. I need Byzantium as an ally, they were the only loyal allies I had. So I go to the Pope and request a Crusade on Antioch to weaken the Egyptians and allow Byzantium to reexpand. France, Milan, Sicily and the Holy Roman Empire quickly join, along with one full stack of my own forces. It had my King with it, two units of upgraded Feudal English Knights, eight units of Dismounted Feudal Knights, five units of Heavy Billmen militia, three units of Longbowmen and a unit of Trebuchet. This is my Crusading army, and I start marching through France on my way to Antioch. France makes five crusading armies, one full stack and four little armies. And then they use their four little armies to completely box in my Crusading army, and since Crusaders can't attack each other, my Army is stuck. I'm stuck in Southern France, on the border of Italy, meanwhile the French are making good speed towards Antioch and my men are deserting by the turn, i'm losing florins in the thousands from hiring mercenaries to fill in the gaps and then the mercenaries desert! And just to put the cherry on the cake, France declares war on me and quickly takes Bruges. It eventually became such a mess that I had to reload from a previous save and think the whole thing over a different way. Take a lesson from me boys and girls, the French are *******s so if you're an English crusader, make sure to sail to the Holy Land.

[Chola_Kingdom]

if you are english -you hate french
if you are french -you hate HRE
if you are HRE -you hate Poland
if you are byz- you hate turks
if you are papacy- you hate islamic factions
so i guess you are english (since you are playing that) so it's ovious. and please dont pick a side and blame blank here. because this forum is for all the nations not only for your certain nations.
please remove your little Censor words. which is (*)

[Saibot]

Lol, that never happened to me. Quite remarkable the French always do this kind of stuff. It actually sounds like the AI was smart for once (or really lucky).

[illyrius]

France's Strategy caught u, badly .!! I wouldnt load the last savefile for myself

[Prof]

the only problem I had with the french was that they built up 2 full stack crusading armies, waited with them near my border until I had taken jerusalem, which always revolts and then they besieged me -_- ... huuuge mistake...30 turns later their faction was wiped off the map ^^

[Lord Firkraag]

My problem with the French is that I try to get them as my allies to fight off Milan from the west (Byz here) and I have been giving them huge sums of money, yet every turn they
1. Spend everything (they always appear "Bankrupt" to my diplomats)
2. Seem to lose more and more ground to Milan
3. Lower their relations with me (!)

This is the second time I am betting on the wrong horse. A few turns ago my other agent (HRE) agreed to become Milan's vassal even after many tens of thousands economical help I gave them.

Seems like France can't stand up to Italian Militia + Crossbow armies.

[Rex Armeniae]

what is ******s ... you mean sneaky?

And chola, good point!

[][Xyphos][ - Lee]

if your english you naturatly hate the french lol

[delra]

You guys should remember that all countries are run by the same AI and HRE, Milan. France and Venice is the same dumb player using the same strategy. So whining about this or that country as especially dumb is pointless.

[HorseArcher]

You guys should remember that all countries are run by the same AI and HRE, Milan. France and Venice is the same dumb player using the same strategy. So whining about this or that country as especially dumb is pointless.

Actually , that is not correct. The AI runs the countries as it is commanded within the scripts and the codes. There are countries who keeps alliance longer than others, and also countries who are the most suspicious being of a backstabber (Milan).

It all depends on the starting position/money/trade and military power of who will become one or the other

[Valerius Maximus]

the frenchies are ok, they've been my vassal for over 250 turns now, playing 1year/turn

[Tiwaz]

Only thing that annoys me about french are their prebattle speeches.

It's like CA felt like they had to put in every bad cliche about french they could.
They could have at least put some effort into making DECENT prebattles for all sides.

[SwiftBlade]

Yeah The French are annoying in crusades especially,
i had a full stack off huscarls feudal knights and warclerics on a crusade(on Granada) and they boxed me near the french spanish border.
pesky french...

[Chola_Kingdom]

Yeah The French are annoying in crusades especially,
i had a full stack off huscarls feudal knights and warclerics on a crusade(on Granada) and they boxed me near the french spanish border.
pesky french...

that;s true and true in facts too so i see all the factions same except the russians , btw delra is right in some views they have the same stragedy, but they are run by the diffrent codes but when you play near ai faction will act like france or hre does too.

[jsgx3]

I try to pick an ally for each game that I am going to try and keep and to help while they can help me. I try to pick one that is close, but does not border me. Obviously as a catholic faction, ally the pope and give generously, decalring crusades at will is a powerful capability. As for the other ally (or two), pick one that does not border you. As England, France is a bad choice, you need their lands anyway after you secure the island, so just try to keep them busy until you are ready to take them out. HRE can work as an ally, but they are aggressive, probably second to Milan. Milan is bad because they tend to turn on you, and a strong Milan can be a nightmare even when run by AI, but they are ok as long as you have no borders (although I have seen them march through other factions provinces to get to me, the only faction to do that besides a Jihad/Crusade situation). With england I tend toward Spain, or possibly Portugal. Problem with portugal is they are fairly weak and usually do poorly. I'd also consider Denmark, I've had great luck with them and they can help balance the HRE/eastern powers while you consolidate the west. Sicily is a good choice as well, they can help with Milan. A dark horse is the Moors, though that is problematic with them being Islamic. I usually go southwest through europe and into North Africa with a west european factions faction anyway and so planning on using the Moors as a major ally is not a great idea (love the north african mines and trade items).

[Flogger]

Couldn't you abandon the Crusade, defeat the French armies, then rejoin the crusade again?

[Gavmundo]

'Tis, 'tis true. In MTW2, the French are indeed *******s. Listen to my tale of woe, so that you other players may not befall this fate. Now, I was in the early stage of an English campaign, I had conquered all of Great Britain excluding Scotland, and my holdings on the continent were, as yet, limited to Bruges and Caen. But I did send diplomats far and wide, and I had a powerful alliance with the Byzantine Empire. I check up on my Byzantine allies, and I see that the Egyptians are starting to infringe upon their borders, this could not be allowed. I need Byzantium as an ally, they were the only loyal allies I had. So I go to the Pope and request a Crusade on Antioch to weaken the Egyptians and allow Byzantium to reexpand. France, Milan, Sicily and the Holy Roman Empire quickly join, along with one full stack of my own forces. It had my King with it, two units of upgraded Feudal English Knights, eight units of Dismounted Feudal Knights, five units of Heavy Billmen militia, three units of Longbowmen and a unit of Trebuchet. This is my Crusading army, and I start marching through France on my way to Antioch. France makes five crusading armies, one full stack and four little armies. And then they use their four little armies to completely box in my Crusading army, and since Crusaders can't attack each other, my Army is stuck. I'm stuck in Southern France, on the border of Italy, meanwhile the French are making good speed towards Antioch and my men are deserting by the turn, i'm losing florins in the thousands from hiring mercenaries to fill in the gaps and then the mercenaries desert! And just to put the cherry on the cake, France declares war on me and quickly takes Bruges. It eventually became such a mess that I had to reload from a previous save and think the whole thing over a different way. Take a lesson from me boys and girls, the French are *******s so if you're an English crusader, make sure to sail to the Holy Land.

Excellent Strategy by the French that You'd have thought it hilarious if you'd done it to them lol.

As for Sailing to the Holy Land... I'd prefer that to marching across Europe anyway. I'd always advise sailing there even if you march your troops across France and board ships in the Med.

[Gabriel A]

Owned.

The French AI caused a human player to reload a save file, that is total defeat mon ami.

[5h@\/\/|\| [TNT]]

Owned.

The French AI caused a human player to reload a save file, that is total defeat mon ami.

Agreed!!! IronMan Rules for me.........no reloads!!!!!!!!!

[NobleNick]

...i'm losing florins in the thousands from hiring mercenaries to fill in the gaps and then the mercenaries desert! ...

LOL! So... don't do that. Use those florins to raise up another full stack, and use THAT stack to bust a hole in the french line; or make life miserable for the French in more subtle ways.

I *LOVE* the French: Playing as England on M/M, I am about 60 turns into the game. The French attacked me about 30-40 turns into the game. England grabbed several territories before both sides desisted at the behest of the Pope. But the French went at it again, getting themselves excommunicated, and England snapped up the rest of their treasure. The French are ~GONE~, and (with the possible exception of one) England owns ALL the provinces with which the French started. This acquisition was the crowning jewel in making England ranked number 1 in every metric except finance.

Vive' la France!