France - the forgotten faction?

[Gorrrrrn]

Looking at a recent poll very few people voted that France was their favourite faction.

Allowing for the anglophone nature of the board that isn't too surprising, but is there anything that could be done to improve the experience of fighting as the French in game?

Are the rosters OK - is already about as good as it could get?

Are there any good mods with better French units for example?

Is the problem the strategic position?

[PerXX]

My reason for not playing France are much the same reasons for not playing the HRE.
1: I like starting out as a small kingdom, and then build up, rather than having it all given to me from the start.
2: For a long time in the beginning (only play early) they have absolutely no 'flavor' units. Only the same generic ones that many other western factions also get.

[Forever Steadfast]

Anglophone? I prefer the Cumans or the Lithuanians.

[Nightbringer]

The English hate the French, that is why the anglophone board means few French players.
Personally though, I enjoy playing the French, doing a campaign with them right now. But I think the lack of early flavor units probably does put a lot of people off.

[Toho]

^ really? i love the fact that i have crap units...as soon as the high tech units become available i just go "meh..."

[ihranator]

The generic nature of France's early troops is the main reason for me.

[Abriael]

I love playing France. Probably my favourite faction, besides the ridiculized accent, but that goes for all non-english factions (I'm Italian, and hearing Italian commanders do their speech before battle makes me cringe, especially having worked in voice acting before), for the moment I'm satisfied by the experience it gives, the roster has a good variety, and the starting position allows for a whole lot of sandbox freedom.

I guess some people ldislike to play surrounded by potential enemies, others like to start with a smaller faction. Others again, after five years, are a bit tired of playing a "classic" medieval country, and France i as classic as it gets. But for me France simply gives a good all-round experience. Everyone's mileage varies, though.

[anonimo272]

i play with france every 10 campaigns i make...

[Navajo Joe]

Rozanov,

An excellent idea for a thread.

The honest answer is I have never played as France, perhaps it is time to look at their unit roster and start a campaign. My understanding from other posts is that they have a well rounded roster. I guess the only thing that puts me off is they are completely surrounded by other cathoilc factions, so the risk of stack spam will seriously cut my enjoyment of the game.

[Abriael]

Rozanov,

An excellent idea for a thread.

The honest answer is I have never played as France, perhaps it is time to look at their unit roster and start a campaign. My understanding from other posts is that they have a well rounded roster. I guess the only thing that puts me off is they are completely surrounded by other cathoilc factions, so the risk of stack spam will seriously cut my enjoyment of the game.

I've noticed that the best thing to do as france is to send an army as soon as possible to the holy land(so your very first objective in france needs to be Marseille, since it comes with a port, have to take it before the Genoans storm for it), take one or more of the rebel regions there, secure an alliance with the crusader states, and expand mostly there at the expense of the infidels.
At least playing with Lusted's AI, it works quite well to keep most other catholic powers out of your tail.
Notice that you'll most probably have to convert one of the rebel cities to a castle, since there aren't unowned castles around there. Damascus is a good choice.

[Lanier]

The only catholic game I'm really playing right now is as the french. Maybe they arnt the favorite faction for a lot of people but I am sure that they are still well played. Their roster is already fairly historically accurate, so there isn't really any reason to change it.

[anonimo272]

one thing they should start stronger...
in medieval ages france was the strongest faction in europe, other times hre

[Lord Minotaur]

one thing they should start stronger...
in medieval ages france was the strongest faction in europe, other times hre

french strongest ? :0. nah, hre, teutonic order, england, poland , lithuania were in the top 10. anyways france was good too but they were not very strong in medieval times.

[ISA Gunner]

anyways france was good too but they were not very strong in medieval times.

What the hell? Even if you don't know that much about Medieval history, the fact that the French had the most powerful heavy cavalry in all of Europe should make it abundantly clear that they were definitely a force to be reckoned with. If the French had actually all united under the King, rather than constantly competing with one other for local power, they could've done anything really. Just because all you know about Medieval France is that they kept losing for decades on end in the hundred years war, doesn't mean they were in any way 'not very strong'. The nobility of France cared only for independent glory and hardly treated their battles with the English, Burgundians and Germans very seriously at all. It was more of a game for them. A chance to gain prestige, wealth and power. Had they actually stopped behaving like rowdy children, the invaders would've been ousted from French territory rather quickly.

[Legio XV Apollinaris]

i always like to play as the french! like the blue faction color as well as the late unit roster. but i still agree with the thing, that france need some different unit(s) for the early campaign. i play most of the time with rr off, to write my own history and get the needed units as soon as i upgrade a building.

.. and about the discuss about medieval power, i think france were the most powerful nation in that time period with some of the strongest knights. and dont forget about the templar and hospitaler knights! both chapters were founded in france!

..

[Orochimaru]

love playing France too.

[Kolaris8472]

I play almost exclusively Early Era campaigns, and France doesn't have anything unique (that I can think of) until the Late Era.

I really like the starting position, the culture, the look, but the roster really is quite bland.

Also, I very rarely play a faction that's surrounded by neighbors of the same religion anyway (except HRE), and that includes England.

[Tomato_Sandwich]

I do like playing as France, they are just not my favourite
.... also their roster seems to be the most like vanilla of any faction. 'generic' as ihranator said. I feel like I've played as them before!

[Ichon]

I find France boring due to the nature of their nearby enemies. HRE who is their largest natural enemy will die without France having to do a single thing. England after a couple defeats by France almost always loses to Scotland quickly and the Scots aren't impressive enemies until late in the game when they get their best units.

Aragon and Castile are both relatively small compared to France and facing the Moors so its easy to defeat them. Genoa is really the only worthy adversary but they are worth only a handful of battles.

Really the only fun I've had on French campaign is going to Jerusalem.

Their roster might be a bit generic early but it is interesting later. However France with RR/RC can mass heavy cavalry so easily... until 1400s I don't find them interesting and it takes too long to reach that even with late campaign. I expect to play them alot more when 1370 mod comes out or if next version of SS actually manages to make HRE a worthy opponent.

[Rikokrates]

I expect to play them alot more when 1370 mod comes out or if next version of SS actually manages to make HRE a worthy opponent.

I play France and always go to the Holy Land, i also enjoy playing "historically" and France being in the Centre of western Europe has been involved in conflict with all of her neighbours at some point, which makes it fun as i dont feel like im cheating attacking Italy, while i might if i was playing as the Danes.

What is this 1370 mod/ i am ver Intrigued .