France, Campaign thoughts and tips

[The Lost King]

Hi all, first time poster long time reader here.
I played all the Total war games, I really like 'em and dont understand no1 have copied the concept yet. and excuess my bad spelling and gramar i'm from Denmark so might not get everything right.

I played a few campaigns with different nations before settling with France. I guess I should have played the Road to independence first, but I was like "Hey I've played all TW games since Shogun, I dont need any toturial"
But I wanted to right my thoughts so hopefully some1 wont make my noobish mistakes. And maybe some1 better than me can point out my mistakes.

First you should do is research farms. This boost population and allso gives a bit of cash. After that I researched a couple of things that boosted research, because you might as well get 'em as early as possible to get the most out of 'em.

I burned the church and builed a second school which gave me two reseach spots which is pretty nice.

I was too slow to get out and trade at the trade hubs, which is pretty annoying now because all the spots are full. So get out and trade asap!

At first I tried to focus on America, but this was not good. The indians have laser power bows and they quickly handed my ass to me. After an expensive war I got to make peace with 'em. Only a lot poorer than before. I could see that my ally (spain) was having a bit of trouble as well. In fact they were losing some territories, and was unable or unwilling to make peace with 'em. I made no effort to help 'em, because I hope i'll be able to take it all for my self later on

By now some small ass nabour country declared war on me. I'm not sure why, I play on H/M (hard campagin, medium fights). Anyway they had only a small alliance with some far away small country. I had no big army to spare because I had not build any to avoid upkeep, but it was not needed, because in two turns I had build alot of troops and I pulled some home from the border. I then quickly killed the small army the enemy had and took over his city. Then I made peace with the other small country.

Now I did not want to risk having a war with Great Britian for any reason so I offered them a gift (2.5k) and then we were friendly. A couple of turns after I offered a trade agreement and some lame reseach and we have been best buddies ever since, even thu they wont join an alliance with me and spain.

After my America adventure I builded a small army (mostly of those troops I used the kick the small country's ass with) then set sail to India.
There are 3 native countries there. Two of 'em are at war by now (i'm unsure if they started to be at war with each other, but this was pretty early in the game so I think they might be)
The middle country (cant remember name) I decided to attack because it seemed they were losing the war. So I took the only city they had with a habour, with no real effort. Most of their units were sword men, some "armed mob" and a few cavalery and bowmen. They are very easy. The only thing I regret is not taking a priest with me. Well I burned town the mosques and begin to make 'em all true believers. You could allso build Inn's instead of church but I figure churchs are better in the long run. Soon after I took the nabour towns and by now I own like 1/3 of india. I made a trade agreement with the southern native country but it seems they are struggeling with the country i'm owning, so if i'm lucky I can take some of their old towns as well.

By now I begin to build better cannons and I've build better buildings in America so I can quickly raise an army and deal with the indians now as I got better cannons so blast 'em all strait to hell.

In battles I try to flank my enemy, but allways keeping a bit of cavalry in reserve. At some point they will leave their cannons unguarded because they need all troops at the fight and then I storm their cannons (if I had not hit 'em with my own cannons). When I have killed their cannon-men the first of their troops ussual begins to rout and now my cavalry is in a good position to kill a lot of 'em. Grenadiers are awesome, mix 'em up with a couple of line infantry and they are hardcore.

I'm not sure if there is anything I left out, but if you have any comments or questions i'll try to answer 'em.

[Slepnyrl]

I just finished RtI since I'm still new to TW (only played some M2TW) and I'm really enjoying it. Thank god for RtI to ease us new players in because when I opened up the Grand Campaign, well, 'Holy Cow' (or similar expression) was my initial reaction.

I'm only a few turns into the campaign as France but I've been doing about the same thing. Playing all Hard/Hard (yeah, I like a challenge even if I'm new )

So far
-Been upgrading and researching farm technology as much as I can to get overal growth going. Tax as much as I can while keeping a good growth and giving some regions tax exemption if needed. I'm upgrading them to the second farm building stage now on most of them
-Upgrading my trade resources such as wine in France but especially my colonie's spice, sugar, pelts and gold
-Building trade ships as fast as I can to get into good spots. I'll bring some additional sloops and others to defend them after I suppose
-Good tip on burning the church and replacing it with a school. I'll do that
-A small country to my east, Westphalia also declared war with me. I regrouped my armies from around France while still leaving decent defenses and I am massing in Alsacia to attack them and get their only region
-I just got a mission to get some regions in America so I guess I'll follow that as my main goal and expand as much as I can over there. Maybe I'll forge the United French Republic of America?
-I'll also try to get a foothold in India until I decide what I'll do with it
-Get as much trade and alliances going for a bigger income
-Tech as hell my army because I'm gonna need it for those nasty hand to hand indian armies I faced in RtI (America is familiar territory, India is not...)

I'll get back to you later when I get further in the game

Thanks for the tips
Slep

Ps: And first post in these massive forums

[coman]

Round 1 I shilled my basic technology to every country. Managed to raise 5500 extra ducats to start a war with.

I sent a state gift of some dinner plates and silverware to the Austrian Empire, formed an alliance and just as I was about to slam into Wurttemberg, Savoy attacked me and raided southern France while I was still cleaning up the little German nations. I pushed into the Rhineland, managed to push the Savoyards back into Savoy, setup a defense and cleaned up a rebellion in the Rhine.

Now I have Rhineland under control and in line with Paris, and I'm working on finishing the Bavarians who saw an opportunity to take my unstable holdings. Meanwhile I'm fighting a border war in Montreal against the Huron's who attacked me on turn 2.

The whole while I'm fighting pirates and corsairs. I can't believe my mediterranean fleet captain hasn't been promoted, 17 fights, 17 wins. 1 ship left...

VH/H is a challenge. I love this game.

My economy has been forstalled while I take these territorries and I'm balancing my basic infrastructure, basic buildings and needs to keep the economy running, if not growing.

More as I get it.

[Crow]

I'm struggling with the economics. Perhaps I'm too much of a war monger, hahahha. I have one trade post, a3 trade agreements and have researched some stuff but my income is pitifal. I'm playing as the Brits, In another campaign I started I easily beat the Indians in Huron but this time they seem to be handing my arse to me. I still think think there is something not quite right when bowmen defeat 120 muskets strung out or is it me?

My plan was to start in attack in several fronts but slowly. My first objective was that Huron but now i'm being over run, lol. I am also slowly building an Army in Jaimaca so when 1715 comes and the Americans get in I will attack them straight away and perhaps rescue some tea, lol. I also went to attack the Barbary states as it seems everyone hates them, I have got Algiers but they keep rioting and asking for demands, I have just took another one as well, I wish I took a priest, I'm looking towards tripoli now and then once I have settled on to India.

My problem is how canI increase my income, and what should I research?

[twist_the_wrist]

@ coman. U have to promote ur captain urself.

The key to France is to bribe gb and united provinces the first couple of turns so when Austria declares war on u, they are alone besides savoy and maybe wutterberg. If u manage to avoid war with Britain and united provinces then just build trade ships in those two carribbean ports u get and move them to brazil, ivory coast and Madagascar if u can get out there quick enough.

Also just play defense against the Huron in the beginning until ur economy and tech are far superior. They have nothing of real value.

So in conclusion, avoid naval wars early on (expensive for navy and potential cut off trade), reaserch and max out ur infrastructure b4 starting large scale war. That's my advice

[naro]

Also just play defense against the Huron in the beginning until ur economy and tech are far superior. They have nothing of real value.

I generally agree with the overall strategy here against the huron but you want the territory thats called huron territory as its got a gold mine in it and that provides a noticable boost to your economy

[Slepnyrl]

Good point on the gold mine. The Hurons just declared war on me so I'm bringing some reinforcements from France while recruiting in Montreal and Quebec. The good news is that I just dealt and took over Wurtenberg and I'm at peace with all other european nations with a few alliances working (dunno for how long though)

[Monglor]

I think war with Britain and the United Provinces isn't half as bad as you might think. If you keep Spain sweet you can flatline the Dutch in one turn by marching troops through Flanders, which takes them out of the game. The British, for all the hype, are incredibly weak strategically -if- you know your way around navy combat. The trick is simple, you cut the trade lanes connecting the British to the rest of the world and they are screwed. This will force their hand, and they may confront you on the sea. This is where you need to win. If you beat down the British navy congrats, without their trade connects they are dead meat and you can invade at your leisure. If you lose then rebuild and hit them again.

One good route of attack against the English as France is launching an invasion of Ireland from the port of Brest. Ireland is Catholic, so they'll love it if you liberate them, and you can march into Scotland from there which means that the British will need to stack defenders there, leaving London comparatively vulnerable.

The British are literally only as big a threat as their navy. Beat that and you beat them. They are nothing to be scared of and certainly not worthy of a bribe.

In general I've found the route to success to be keeping the Spanish friendly and just kicking anybody else that looks at me funny to death. I've got three schools in France (which upsets the locals but gave me the edge in tech) and that means my troops are the best in the world, so I just use cold steel and bayonet charge my way through anybody that tries to stop me. That's not to say I've rushed the game, it's just a case of relying on very aggressive battle tactics.

I think overall though the two lessons I would say I definitely learned from my first French grand campaign are: Don't be scared of the British and stay friendly with Spain.

[twist_the_wrist]

I generally agree with the overall strategy here against the huron but you want the territory thats called huron territory as its got a gold mine in it and that provides a noticable boost to your economy

ah, i wasn't even aware of that mine.

[coman]

I've stopped playing France because the lag is simply too bad when I click on Paris. Sometimes up to 40 seconds. Core Quad, 8800 ultra's, 10k disks... Just a joke. So I'll wait until a patch later.

[ckangas]

I'm struggling with the economics. Perhaps I'm too much of a war monger, hahahha. I have one trade post, a3 trade agreements and have researched some stuff but my income is pitifal. I'm playing as the Brits, In another campaign I started I easily beat the Indians in Huron but this time they seem to be handing my arse to me. I still think think there is something not quite right when bowmen defeat 120 muskets strung out or is it me?

My plan was to start in attack in several fronts but slowly. My first objective was that Huron but now i'm being over run, lol. I am also slowly building an Army in Jaimaca so when 1715 comes and the Americans get in I will attack them straight away and perhaps rescue some tea, lol. I also went to attack the Barbary states as it seems everyone hates them, I have got Algiers but they keep rioting and asking for demands, I have just took another one as well, I wish I took a priest, I'm looking towards tripoli now and then once I have settled on to India.

My problem is how canI increase my income, and what should I research?

Combat against the natives in the American theater plays out quite a bit different than the other areas in the game for two major reasons.

A.) Sheer number of troops, and heavy presence of melee troops. This means that you'll need ring bayonets at a minimum. It sounds counter intuitive, but you'll want to engage bowmen in melee with your line infantry if you lack calvary. Speaking of calvary, the old Macedonian tactics (okay...so muskets instead of a phalanx, close enough) of RTW really shine through here; right before their infantry reach you, counter charge with your line infantry, and hit their flank unit with two units of horse from the rear. It should break quickly. Continue down the flank hitting with both units of calvary at once, and you should be able to chain a route quite quickly. Alternatively, you can set up a V shaped kill zone on one flank, and draw an enemy unit into the center of it with your calvary. You'll get off a solid volley or two, during which you can circle your calvary around to behind the enemy unit. Bayonet charge the enemy from each side of your kill zone before it reaches you (as before) and hit from behind with your calvary. Again, even units with high morale should break quickly.

B.) Cherokees especially have a high re-spawn rate. Do not attempt a war of attrition, try to hit all their cities in quick succession. And remember, you don't have to kill all their armies - just take over all their cities. You can often sneak around an army or two towards their inland settlements. Attempt to draw their forces away, and hit both inland towns the same turn, and an amphibious landing at Georgia, which they typically seem to have.

In general, i think its best to concentrate on one theater at a time if you can. For most countries I prefer India (since it seems to be more income and less work - you get a lot of tax benefits in addition to trade goods, and no rediculously fast spawning Cherokees), but France has such a strong-hold in the Americas that it makes it a hard call.

[Ondaderthad]

Lots of good tips here... ++ rep

I just finished the RtI yesterday but didn't get any Achievement

So now I am starting a French campaign. I selected the conquest (50 territories) victory conditions.
I think I setup the provinces the correct way and spent the starting cash. And saved game so I could do some research about the way to proceed from there.

So now it's time to check how powerful the British navy really is...

[Flavius Silvanus]

I gave Alsaac to Wurtemburg and signed an Alliance. I had 20 years of peace to build until I was attacked by Great Britain.

[Mechstra]

Those Native Americans love their fine china.

[katafraktos79]

I'm not sure if I should post this here.There must be something going on with the family trees(well I played only France so I don't know about the other factions).In a few words Luis XV becomes king too early,especially in one campaign he became king 1 turn after he was born because his father died?!?!?!
As for campaign tactics,well in some campaigns I focus on America in others on Europe.In Europe I go to war with Wurtemberg Westphalia Hannover Saxony Bavaria and so on and turn them in protectorates.I send another army south and I go to war with Savoy and the Italian states and eventually Venice conquering them all(I need those ports in the mediterranean).Then I turn against Austria and after that I find myself with "infinite options"(attack Prussians or Turks or Russians etc.)When I focus on the states I conquer the Iroquis and the Cherokee and I fully rebuild their regions so they give a fair amount of extra cash and then I turn to my European theater were the real war goes on.
Oh another thing,everytime Luis XIV dies the Austrians declare war together with their pesty little allied nations,but the UK and the United provinces remain neutral and the Austrians never really bother you(that is if you call your allies for help).If you decide not to call Spain and Louisiana(did it in one campaign) WW1 begins 2 centuries earlier cause the Brits and the Dutch join the conflict.

[icydawgfish]

On the first turn I usually pay Savoy, Wurttemberg, and Westphalia 2000 gold for them to be my protectorates but Savoy usually betrays me in the first 20 years, a good excuse for annexation. This allows me to focus on the Americas and kicking some Cherokee, Iroquois, and Huron butt.

[krips22]

The lost king : Now I did not want to risk having a war with Great Britian for any reason so I offered them a gift (2.5k) and then we were friendly. A couple of turns after I offered a trade agreement and some lame reseach and we have been best buddies ever since, even thu they wont join an alliance with me and spain.

I'm at war with the UK since the start and while the beginning was rough because of the endless blockading and looting of the naval trade roads by the UK, what's the point of playing France if not waging war with its arch-enemy

I was soon in the game at war with the United Provinces (Dutch).
The United provinces took Flanders, I retook it (giving me 3 harbours on the Atlantic coast in europe). Spain took the UP. I was at war with Würtemberg, Bavaria, Savoy and Austria ; allied with Denmark, Hanover, Russia and later in the game Prussia.
UP, Würtemberg and Bavaria gone (Spain invaded Savoy), I'm concentrating on the Brittish navy so as to protect my trade, and from there, the cash is flowing.
Once the UP was gone I took the Dutch Guyana, and started to eradicate the corsairs and took their territory. I later seized Ceylon (formerly Dutch).
Some Indiamen in Ivory coast and some in Indonesia once you have kept the Brits at large of your naval trade roads and harbors. A trade agreement with the Marathas is a must too.

In North America I was at war with the Hurons and later the Iroquois. I took Moose factory from the Brits and the side territory of the Hurons, so no threat from behind.

BTW, Keep your alliance with Spain at any cost. They were useful in countering the royal navy and the looting of naval trade roads. And have a trade agreement with India !

From Ceylon, I invaded the east of India (a mughal territory) as the Mughals seemed very weakened by their war w/ the Marathas, but I was unwise in dealing the affair and got trounced. I'll have to come back later.
But it was a nice fight.

Right now I'm working at ousting the Brits from North America and the Carribeans. Now that I have conquered Iroquois territories, I'm totally in control of the back of the English colonies (well, no Louisiana yet, as the Cherokees are still there (tsee the French mission).
It seems to be quite doable by now.

It's important to control the sea, so you have to fight a lot the UK navy and loot their naval trade and destroy their indiamen.
Even if it means a lot of this kind of things :

France hasn't the same glorious naval history than the UK (whos has ?), but it got its moments.

For the sake of it, here's the video of a short tribute to the main French Corsairs and privateers.

[Ondaderthad]

Don't forget the French Guyana. It is easy to miss it since it's in the corner of the map. But it has a nice Gold mine and Spice plantation.
Good source of profit... if you can keep your trade routes open.

[dead-cat]

I did the Blitzkrieg thing vs. GB, taking all 3 european provinces in the turn i declared war by capturing a port in each province with a brig, loaded with an army each, thus avoiding a war of attrition with the royal navy. as a result, the pirates got Jamaica and the Bahamas, while the USA emerged to attack me immediatly next turn. they'll be history soon.

[Milios]

I did the Blitzkrieg thing vs. GB, taking all 3 european provinces in the turn i declared war by capturing a port in each province with a brig, loaded with an army each, thus avoiding a war of attrition with the royal navy. as a result, the pirates got Jamaica and the Bahamas, while the USA emerged to attack me immediatly next turn. they'll be history soon.

Hm. That's strange. The last time I wiped out the british, no new country emerged in the american theatres. By klicking over the variouse provinces the names where like "US-American rebels", "Quebec Rebels" "Huron Rebels" etc. But no new nation.....maybe a bug. (BTW I was playing as spain and only owned the southamerican territories the rest was allmost british until I wiped them out in europe)