halfhalfharp
Prince
- Joined
- Nov 21, 2016
- Messages
- 517
I have played a lot of games as France. Being France is always fun and challenging due to the espionage system and underwhelming early game. So I wanna share my experience and tips to anyone who is interested in playing as Catherine de Medici.
I used this strategy to win the game in Immortal level (with plenty of trials and failure) so may not really fit Deity.
This guide will surely make you through emperor level and lower.
Please note that all these tips are only personal experience and everyone can try their own way of Viva la France.
This is a guide to enjoy the French game. I am a player more than a gamer, that is, I tend to use the full set of a civ's design, instead of rushing the game. Maybe this is not the most effective way, but surely a fun way to play.
Warning: very long paragraph and I am sorry for being garrulous.
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Early game:
(Note that this is a decent starting location for emperor game, but a horrible one for Immortal. Having more woods and jungles are vital in boosting wonder buildings. Try to reroll the starting location and pray for luck.)
In the start of dawn, build one more warrior to scout a bit around and then a settler.
Then settle 2 cities along a river asap. Keep in mind that we must leave space for suitable locations of wonder construction and Chateaux. Therefore, try to settle 5-6 tiles apart and on top of a luxury resources, in order to maximize the free space usable. Also, we should prioritize in settling near a mine resource for extra bonus of future industrial zones.
After we have 3-4 cities in hand, we can start to focus on building infrastructures and units.
We should build a monument in each city first, to lay foundations in pushing the civic tree for later wonders. And then quickly build 2-3 archers in the capital for better defense, especially when you have a hostile neighboring civ.
Save the gold to buy builders/trade routes/scout, as production is very scarce in the beginning.
The scout is essential when you have a neighbor (and more essential in discovering a neighbor if you have none yet) as you will need to know where their cities are, for future spy usage. Try to discover as more lands and civs as you can.
If we have chance to assign a governor, we should invest on Amani/Magnus. Magnus can provide extra production in rushing wonders while Amani can provide city states bonus. They will be discussed further later.
Tech tree:
For technologies, we can research all builder-related technologies first, then archery+wheels and then beeline to apprenticeship. Along the tech tree, we shall unlock the campus and commercial hub. If we have got iron, it is always good to get ironwork for building swordsman.
Civic tree:
For civics, we have no priorities in early game so we can directly beeline to political philosophy and unlock new governments. Going state workforce or foreign trade is a personal choice. If we have got plenty of resources around, state workforce is a better option. Or else, we'd better get trade routes set up earlier.
After we have unlock a new government, Poetry is the next important civ that unlocks theater districts. Then we can beeline to humanism.
Districts:
Afterwards we can finally look at building districts, which is a troublesome matter for France, as the placement involves the location of wonders. Avoid building districts adjacent to rivers, except for Commercial Hub. We'd better keep a one tile-distance from the river for every future wonder location to maximize the use of Chateaux. Take a look at the wonders we may need.
Wonders that we should give a try: (I will explain later)
-Forbidden city (near city center)
-Alhambra (on a hill near encampment)
-Terracotta Army (flat land near encampment with stable/barrack)
-Angkor Wat (near a aqueduct)
-Oxford University (near a campus with university)
-Taj Mahal (near river)
-Hermitage (near river)
-Caza de Contratacion (near government plaza)
-Boshoi Theatre (near theatre square)
Risky/situational wonders: (I will explain later)
-Great Zimbabwe (near cattle and commercial hub)
-Potala Palace (on hills)
-Ruhr Valley (near river and industrial zone)
-Chichen Itza (in jungles)
-Hue Teocalli (on a lake)
-Kiwa Kisiwani (on a coast flat tile)
-Venetian Arsenal (on coast water near industrial zone)
-all the religious wonders
(Keep in mind that the wonders are not necessarily near the river as long as we can build them, although the bonus for Chateaux is delicious. Remember a wonder is always worthier than a Chateaux.)
Therefore, we need to construct at least one encampment near a hill, a theatre square, a campus, an aqueduct and a government plaza. The government plaza can add adjacent bonus to all districts so it is better to place it adjacent to other districts, whilst we must leave a gap for Caza de Contratacion. The campus is often placed near mountains so beware to leave a flat land near it. We also need to leave 2 space along the river for Taj Mahal and Hermitage. Aqueduct can be placed beside a mountain rather than a river, to leave more space for Chateaux.
For the sequence of building them, it depends on the situation. But I will recommend placing campus first and then commercial hub. This aids a lot in pushing the tech tree towards apprenticeship and later technologies.
Theatre districts can be placed later, as we don't need to earn too many great people yet. We can steal them from the others later. If we need to build one, try to pick a tile that is adjacent to as many future wonders will be. This maximizes the culture yield.
Once we have got industrial zones, place them asap. Place it near mine resources to get the largest benefit. Also, try to place them towards the centre of your empire, as 2nd /3rd buildings (factories, nuclear plant) will spread their production 9 tiles away.
Diplomacy:
It is normal to have neighbors around, and in higher difficulties, hostile neighbors around. But France is really fragile in the early game. The main aim of diplomacy is to avoid unnecessary bloodshed and save production time for units. Building units to kill our foes is nice, but it will waste too much precious time. We should try to gift our extra copies of resources to potential friends. Try not to irritate them by excessive forward settling/ against their agendas.
This is especially vital when you have a neighbor with strong early units, e.g. Scythia, Sumeria, Rome. If one of them becomes friendly to you, befriend him. This ensures that he won’t DOW you in a couple of turns and is a safe trading target too.
Do not be afraid of instant denounce. Try to invest effort in relationships, even going as far as gifting our only luxury resource.
City states are also important in any situations. Send our envoys to a cultural CS (whatever it is, just cultural CS is ok) to get the extra cultural. France does not have a decent early culture output, compared to Greece and early wonder builders.
Cultural city states are thus necessary to keep our pace in civic tree. If we have got none, we can invest on Industrial CS instead. Brussels CS is a very useful one as it can provide bonus wonder production for its suzerain.
Send envoys to a cultural civ to enjoy the early culture rolling in. It can give you an edge ahead.
Therefore, we should assign the Amani governor from early on to a cultural/ industrial CS. After we have sent enough envoys (that is, 6) to any cultural CS, we can reassign our Amani to any industrial/cultural CS, until we have sent another 6 envoys. Then we can repeat the above steps to get the essential benefits from City States.
If someone denounces you on sight, garrison your troops at your border towards his/her empire. War is very likely to come. This is brutally true in higher difficulties, where the AIs are super productive in units.
In this case, a city state near your potential enemy will be a matter of survival, as CS also have a lot of units. They can act as a buffer or even a defeat to any invading force. Therefore, we should also consider the location of the city states when we send envoys, but the CS type is more important.
Government:
Oligarchy and Aristocracy are both feasible. Oligarchy provides you extra combat strength and a wildcard slot that can hold one more economic policy. Normally I will choose Oligarchy first and may then switch to Aristocracy after I start to build wonders. We may need to consider the diplomatic benefits when we share the same government with our neighbors.
For policies, normally I will put up Urban Planning and Discipline in the start. Then the +2 gold per trade route policy and the Diplomatic League for extra envoys in Oligarchy.
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Mid game: (A solid one for emperor and lower levels)
Starting from the placement of your first industrial zone, France enters a steady mid game that will start to show her true potential. This is the busiest period for us so prepare to work hard in this vital period.
We should build district buildings, more units and fill up the infrastructure in our cities. I will always try to get workshop first to boost the production for wonders to come. If one of our neighbors have not been a friend, at least one of our cities should be constantly building units to enrich our army. If all neighboring civs have befriended us, drop building units and rush every district building possible.
Its now time for us to build great wonders. Remember to build an aqueduct before gaining Medieval Fairy and an encampment before gaining Construction.
After Feudalism, we should buy/build some builders and choose the Serfdom policy to build farms and clear some landscape to boost wonder construction. The governor Magnus becomes very useful here so we’d better place him in a city expecting to build wonders.
Whilst we are aiming for wonders, we should build the UU and start using espionage to take advantage of our enemies.
Lastly, after building all those wonders, we can focus on building theatre districts in every cities. They shall provide empty slots for the great work stolen with spies, and provide a few great artists on their own.
Lets start discussing our main dish, the wonders in details:
Wonders that we should give a try:
-Forbidden city (near city center)
-Alhambra (on a hill near encampment)
-Terracotta Army (flat land near encampment with stable/barrack)
-Angkor Wat (near a aqueduct)
-Oxford University (near a campus with university)
-Taj Mahal (near river)
-Hermitage (near river)
-Caza de Contratacion (near government plaza)
-Boshoi Theatre (near theatre square)
Risky/situational wonders:
-Great Zimbabwe (near cattle and commercial hub)
-Potala Palace (on hills)
-Ruhr Valley (near river and industrial zone)
-Chichen Itza (in jungles)
-Kiwa Kisiwani (on a coast flat tile)
-Venetian Arsenal (on coast water near industrial zone)
-all the religious wonders
(Keep in mind that the wonders are not necessarily near the river as long as we can build them, although the bonus for Chateaux is delicious. Remember a wonder is always worthier than a Chateaux.)
General sequence: Terracotta Army - Alhambra / Forbidden city - Angkor Wat -Taj Mahal -Caza de Contratacion - Ruhr Valley/ Oxford Uni - Hermitage - Bolshoi Theater
-The first few wonders that we are going to build will possibly be the Terracotta Army, the Alhambra and the Forbidden City. The first two have a harsher requirement (and we have prepared for it) so normally are secured if we haven’t lagged too far in tech.
-Forbidden City is a bit risky, as AIs tend to get it and it needs quite a lot of production. It should be built as soon as we reach Printing and in the most productive cities. If it cannot be finished in 15-17 turns (without great engineers+ builder boost), we should probably just skip it.
-Kiwa Kisiwani will come by Machinery but it needs a coast tile to build. If we don’t have any coastal cities, just skip it. If we have the chance to try it, we should first check if any civs has a coastal city and see if they are also building it. Crossbowman also come with Machinery so remember to save 125 (I don’t remember the exact sum) coins to upgrade them from archers.
-Angkor Wat and Chichen Itza will come by the civic advance. Normally Chichen Itza will be dropped if we do not have many jungle tiles (and cities with heavy jungles are normally not so productive). Therefore, Angkor Wat will be a more convenient choice. Moreover, the AIs (except Khmer) often don’t build aqueducts so Angkor Wat is safer.
-Taj Mahal comes with Humanism and it is among the most important wonders that France needs. It provides extra golden age points that will allow France to enter 2-3 golden ages in the future.
-Side note: Normally at this moment military science will take a few more turns to finish. We should build a few universities now to push the research pace faster. In this vacuum period, we can also build more trade routes and commercial hub buildings to save a sum of coins, which will be used to instant purchase factories after industrialization. This will greatly speed up every wonder construction.
-Caza de Contratacion: After military science, we should beeline Cartography and then Scientific Theory/Industrialization. Cartography gives the Caza de Contratacion, a wonder that less AI will build so it is rather safe to try.
-Potala palace will be in the mid-way towards Scientific Theory/Industrialization but normally we will be busily building the Caza de Contratacion/ Angkor Wat/ Taj Mahal at the time being. And when we have finally finished those wonders, Scientific Theory/Industrialization is already at hand. Thus we can skip Potala Palace and focus on the more useful Ruhr Valley/Oxford University.
-Side note: But before that, remember to leave one of our cities in producing the Grand Imperiale. They usually take 8-10 turns to build but they are super useful in defensive/ later offensive purpose. Note that they need a lot of coins to maintain so only a small army of 2-3 Grande Imperiale will be enough. To save expenses, use more crossbowmen instead.
-Ruhr Valley is a risky one as all AIs will attempt to build it. It is tricky to build because normally mine resources are far away from rivers (and industrial zones are placed beside mine resources). A minor drawback is that it will also block another valuable river tile for Hermitage and Chateaux. Still it worth a try because of the sweet production boost it offers, although I often failed at succeeding.
-Oxford University on the other hand is a far safer choice. When all the AIs are building the Ruhr Valley, the Oxford University is almost ours. It will give us an edge in science output and it can hold 2 extra great work (writing), very useful for a cultural victory too.
-Side note: Now we have factories available to build. Try to build them in all our cities or even but them if necessary. They will make a great reduction in the wonder constructions. We should prioritize building factories before proceeding into the next wonders because they will cost a huge amount of production.
-Hermitage will then come with the civic of Natural History. In most cases, it comes after all the above wonders are settled so we will have a free hand to build it.
-Bolshoi Theatre needs the Ballet and opera civic, which is quickly finished as we have a lot of wonders to support the culture output.
Both wonders cost a lot of production so make sure that we have enough factories to enhance the speed.
-At the same time, we may build a few builders to start spamming chateaux beside the wonders. France’s cultural advantage is already solid. Normally we are able to secure at least 4-5 wonders, 2-3 at worst.
Wonders not recommended:
- Great Zimbabwe is a good wonder if we have plenty of resources. But it is not recommended in our course, as it is swaying away from beelining Industrialization/Scientific theory. Furthermore, it has a harsher requirement and Ruhr Valley/Oxford University are more valuable to France.
-Venetian Arsenal (on coast water near industrial zone) is very situational for its location requirement. It is not recommended to intentionally sacrifice adjacency bonus for industrial zones to pursuit this wonder. But if we surprisingly find ourselves available in grabbing it, we can do it later. Other civs have rare chance to build it too, so its all ours. Focus on the wonders we need first.
-All the religious wonders are away from our main civic focus and many religious AIs will madly compete for them. And France doesn’t need religious bonus thus we’d better avoid doing so.
Golden/Dark era:
With the construction of many wonders, a golden age is often secured. The building of Grand Imperiale and the Chateaux also rewards era points. Taj Mahal provides extra era points that will make us easier in earning another golden age. For dedications, we shall choose Reform the Coinage (+1 era point for successful trade route in normal era/+ gold in trade route in golden era), and later Heartbeat of Steam (+science and production)
Tech Tree:
After apprenticeship, we should research Education and then we can beeline Military Science. Education is needed to quickly advance to military science. While Castle and Printing are both on the same path, we’d better aim for Castle first. It allows you to build the Terracotta Army and Alhambra earlier and more essentially, gives you the 1st spy.
After military science, we should beeline cartography and then Scientific theory/Industrialization. This will get us a step closer to Flight, which will strengthen the tourism output.
Then we can catch up the Banking tech to fill up the treasury emptied by the UU’s maintenance cost. If we do not seek an invasion in near future, we can head straight to Flight. The Grande Imperiale already serves well as a defensive unit.
Civic Tree:
Without hesitation, beeline Humanism for obvious reasons. On this path, we can aim Medieval Fairy first, gaining Feudalism on the way and allows you to build the Ankgor Wat.
An alternative path is to beeline Divine Right first for the Gothic Architecture policy, but 15% is not that useful to waste time on it. AIs will normally build faith and dive this path, so we can avoid it and directly get Humanism for securing Taj Mahal and Chateaux.
Afterwards, we may choose Exploration to unlock the Merchant republic or directly beeline natural history. (Oligarchy into the Modern age will be risky though). Ballet and opera will be the last civic to research in the mid game.
Espionage
Being unable to compete enough wonders nor having a great location for Chateaux? The AIs are proceeding tech and Civs like rocket? Don’t worry, its not the end of the world. CdM still has tactics under sleeves. Here we have the magnificentgreat work thieves spies to help. The scouting in previous eras now yields to give a list of enemy cities for us to exploit.
Espionage is the core of everything in higher levels from immortal. AIs will enter atomic era while we are still struggling with industrial wonders. Forget the wonders if we want to target an immortal victory. Thus a group of well trained spies will be a matter of life and death.
Our first spy comes at castle tech, with a free promotion. Depends on what promotion she (CdM’s spies are all lady in waiting) has, we shall assign her to different posts. The promotions in yellow are essentially powerful.
Ace Driver : Make her do anything you want. She will be safe.
Cat Burglar: Make her steal Great Works. Highly recommended for France.
Con Artist: Make her Siphon Funds
Covert Action: Make her Foment Unrest
Demolitions: Sabotage Production
Disguise: This promotion should be taken in later game, not now
Guerilla Leader: This promotion is less useful, at least not now.
License to Kill: Make her Neutralize Governor
Linguist: This promotion should be taken in later game, not now
Quartermaster: Make her stay in base for counterspy
Rocket Scientist: This promotion should be taken in later game, not now
Seduction: Make her stay in base for counterspy
Smear Campaign: Put her to CS and wipe out your foes’ envoys.
Technologist: Make her Steal Technology.
Because we only have one spy for instant, it is better to gain resources before executing any real mission. Our current aim is to train our lady in waiting to a master spy with the yellow promotions and prevent her from being discovered.
In R&F, every level of visibility to a foe will grant +3 combat strength to military units. Therefore, if we sense that war is to come, we should send a lady-in-waiting to operate "listening to post" prior to a DOW. That should give a slight but important difference in defense. (+6~+9 combat strength in total).
Quartermaster is among the most powerful promotions here. It can boost every spy operations by 2 level, rendering all specific promotions less necessary, other than linguist, and ace driver. But in these early days, no one else owns a spy. Therefore, we’d better try offensive operations first. The intelligence agency in government plaza is a bread-and-butter to spies missions too. Make sure that we build one when we are not busy with wonders.
Foment unrest allows spies to lower enemy city loyalty. But flipping cities is not that easy in most circumstances and we don’t have proper siege technology to grab free cities (it is away from both military science and flight). Thus flipping cities is not encouraged now. This mission can instead be a step-stone to train the spy for other useful promotions.
We can build 2-3 spies in the mid game. Once a spy has the quartermaster promotion, place her in a home city. Then use the other spies to target enemy’s cities to steal great works and syphon funds. Check who is currently leading cultural on the leader-board. Then check if there are great works steal-able in their cities. Some AIs may be willing to trade their great works with 400-500 gold, so syphon funds is a feasible way to earn more. (lol we use the gold stolen from them to buy their great works, such a marvelous deal.)
Kongo and Russia are the 2 civs that have very high possibility in owning great works.
Try to scout all of their cities and target them as priority.
Please take note that spies missions have a fairly high chance to fail and this will make our lady-in-waiting killed or imprisoned. Being killed is fine, as we just need to build another. But if she is captured, we will need to pay ransom to redeem her, or else we will have a non-functional occupied spy slot.
Moreover, this will harm diplomatic relationships. If this happens to our enemies, its always okay. But if this happens to a befriended civ, this could cause trouble in future attempts to fix the relationship, risking a breaking in alliance/ potential invasion.
If there are 4-5 great positive (green) diplomatic modifiers but only 1-2 little negative (red) diplomatic modifiers, its still worthy to risk it. Even if the spy is captured, a friendly civ will offer a lower price in redeeming the spy. Choose "ignore request" to minimize the impact of spyingon alliance.
Diplomacy
In the new diplomacy system, there are new benefits in alliance so we should at least get one ally in the game. Normally we shall seek an economic alliance to a neighboring civ. This will increase the value of our trade routes.
Cultural alliance is not recommended to a civ with already high culture output and science alliance is discouraged in the same way. Military alliance is more valuable with a distant civ for the share in vision. That will save time in producing naval scout in later eras and will allow us to assess more enemy cities.
City states surzerainship is not the highest concern for France except Brussels CS. We only need the bonus culture/production/gold that envoys provide. Also, Smear Campaign promotion for spies allows us to gain suzerainship.
Therefore, Amani's promotion is not that necessary. But maintaining an allied CS near a hostile neighbor is always a good way to protect ourselves.
Maintaining a friendship with civs always bring benefits than disadvantages so we should invest some effort into gaining others' favor.
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Late game (An effective one in emperor/lower level)
With a number of wonders, chateaux and stolen great works in hands, we have got a very high chance to beat the game already...?
Don't be too confident yet. For we have been focusing on rushing wonder building, we have missed out a number of things in the process and new challenges are coming into sight.
First of all, we do not have enough number of cities, and thus great work slots to place our stolen goods. That is horribly true for any wonder-building France, and it may turn a late game very boring as the spies are no longer useful in speeding up a cultural victory. We literally will be waiting the game to finish on 250+ turns --- I have got a way to solve this.
Secondly, we do not have enough units to really defend our empire well. The Grande Imperiale will be a solid defensive unit until very late game, where Mechanized Infantry dominates. Now, when most of our fellow civs are still somewhere around the replaceable parts tech, Grande Imperiale is enough, only in sufficient amount. Therefore, we should train up more of them to prepare for the unexpected. AIs may rise partisans against us, or directly invade us in a joint war.
Thirdly, stay alert for the presence of any spaceport in the map. Check constantly who is the leading one of Science. The screen will noramlly be flooded with gossips and reports that we don't want to pay attention to. Therefore, it is necessary for us to keep an eye on the Leaderboard. Normally, a civ with around 50 tech will be, or soon be building spaceport. Uncover all his cities for any possible construction of a spaceport. If it is under construction, sabotage all the industrial zone in sight. If it is finished, use rocketry disruption against it.
Moreover, we have no advantage in building late game wonders. Therefore, our production will probably not add up to tourism anymore. We needa put our productions on something else.
Tech Tree
After the finish of Flight, our goal is to get the +100% tourism boost in computers. It is one of the most important bonus we can ever hope for, so we should beeline it. Also, in the path of computers, we also get the Electricity to build seaside resorts.
After having computers, it is free for us to pick up any tech necessary. It is highly discouraged to switch to space victory at this point, although the launching of satellites may help us in spying. Bear in mind that the AIs like to disrupt rocketry too. When our agents are all out for offensive operations that gives us valuable time in gaining tourists, our rockets are in great danger.
Civic tree
Depending on what we are doing, we can take different priorities in the civic tree. But generally we have a few milestone to look at:
Cultural Heritage: offering policy that +50% tourism for great works/artifacts.
Mobilization: allows formation of army, essential for defense.
Governments (Democracy etc): More slots for policies and is an important modifier for tourism.
Social Media: offering policy that +50% tourism for trade routes
Recommended path:
Cultural Heritage, then Mobilization, then Governments, and lastly Social Media.
As mentioned above, we will soon face a shortage of great work slots to keep up the velocity of culture victory. (And sometimes great people keep coming and we have no rooms for their great works,) To solve this, or alleviate it at most, we now come to look at something that is never under our attention before: tile appeals.
Appeals are essential for placement of National parks and seaside resorts. These tile improvements provides a lot of tourism (=> a chateux beside a wonder per tile) and they are not restricted by rivers. But... they are restricted by appeals.
Lets look at them separately:
National park
This 4 tile improvement is a head-scratcher for many people. It needs to be placed on 4 tiles with at least Breath-taking level, that is >4 appeals. Also there are a lot of harsh restrictions that make us fail in creating one.
Requirements:
- 4 tiles with breathing taking appeal or more
- must be within the working area of one city (if they are tiles shared by 2 cities, swap them all to one city)
- must be in a Vertical Diamond shape
- 800+ faith for purchasing each naturalist
(This is what a vertical diamond shape means. No other shape is allowed to build a national park)
Appeal modifiers: (from civ6 wiki)
How to find a suitable location:
1, find 4 tiles with shape of a vertical diamond that has no districts/wonder on it.
2, better not beside any encampment/industrial zone/ strategic resources.
3, with some woods/ mountains beside. Mountains are better choices.
4, check their appeals (of course)
5, if they only have charming (2-3 appeals) level, check if there are any mines/ jungles/ marsh adjacent to them.
6, Also check if there are any Luxury/Special improvement /Archeological sites on it. Only pastures are tolerated inside a national park.
7, use builders to remove the above unwanted landscapes. Or in case of an archeological site, an archeologist. (Therefore, try to spot out a location for national park before building art museums in all cities.)
8, if a tile's appeal still cant reach breath-taking, plant woods beside it, until it qualifies.
After we have the suitable location, we can now buy a naturalist. See if he/she can place one on the location (the suitable tiles will appear in white). If the answer is no, check which city owns the tiles and try to swap them all to one single city. After all these works, that should make a success in placing one. The tourism output is equal to the appeals of those tiles so it should give a sum of at least +16 tourism to catalyze our victory.
Moreover, have no deterrence in removing luxury improvements. The national parks will provide amenities as well. Selling luxuries is not our main source of income in late game anyway.
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Seaside Resorts
This is a 1 tile improvement that gives +5 gold and +4(exact amount?) tourism. Building them is situational though, as we probably may get land locked. But if we have the chance to place them, it will be a great help in boosting tourism.
Seaside resort needs to be built on:
-coastal flat tiles
-not on snow tile
-tiles with +4 or above appeals
Combining with the appeal guides above, we can use the same strategy to plant woods and remove unwanted terrains adjacent to a potential coastal tile.
Water Park
At the same time, if we have a coastline. It is worthy to place a water park on the shallow water. Except for the amenities it provides, 2 of its buildings also give some tourism.
Ferris wheel: +2
Aquatics center: +2 for each wonders on/adjacent to coast tiles
This renders those sea wonders (e.g. Colossus, Statue of Liberty, Sydney Opera) a bit more useful but do not try to rush them. Seaside resorts provide more tourism and are easier to get.
Late game wonders
France's wonder game is almost over after entrance of modern era. But, if we have the chance to pick some up, It will still be great. Bear in mind that they are not neccessities by now so be keen in wasting time on them.
Statue of Liberty
Industrial era wonder that can be built upon Civil Engineering. It needs to be built on shallow sea tiles adjacent to a Harbor. This wonder provides 2 settlers (well, settlers now? We have surely little space for expansion in such a late era). The loyalty benefit is less necessary in most conditions, as France will normally have golden ages around this era.
More importantly, we possibly was busy with Hermitage and Bolshoi Theater by that time. It is thus encouraged to skip this.
(In an alternative playstyle using the governor Reyna with district purchase promotion, this can be useful in buying extra theater districts for great works slots though, therefore, optional.)
Sydney opera house
Provides 3 slots for music pieces and comes with cultural heritage. It will be a nice choice to pick up for cultural victory and we are on the same path in civic. But it needs to be adjacent to harbors and normally, takes 20+ turns to build. If we have other things to build (e.g. military units against invasions), it is okay to drop it.
Eiffel Tower
Signature for France, this modern era wonder that provides +2 appeals for each tiles in the city. It is great in helping to place national parks and seaside resorts. However, it needs Steel technology, a different path from flight on the tech tree. Also it needs flat lands besides the city centre, which may be filled up with Chateux and wonders (e.g. Forbidden city). As the AIs tend to research Steel first, we have little chance to get it except for Beelining it, which is, very risky. And we can always plant woods to boost appeals so Eiffel Tower is not that vital to grab.
Estadio do Maracana:
We don't really have amenity problems if we have national parks. Moreover, it needs a entertainment complex with stadium. We'd better build water park other than entertainment complex for the tourism. And, look at the astronomical production cost it needs.
Cristo Retendor
We don't need to stop others from pushing religious tourism to us, based on our vast culture from Chateaux and wonders. And AIs like to build this wonder.
Broadway
It comes with Mass media, and gives extra music slots, which are very useful in boosting tourism (they can provide +50% tourism with a policy from space race civic). It is also on the path to social media. Therefore it is worthy to build. The only thing that we need to concern is its scary production cost, and AIs may catch up Mass media in civic first.
Big Ben
Its in another branch on the tech tree, not really recommended.
Amundsen-Scott Research Station
Well, in 9 out of 10 games, we don't have snow tiles. And cities in such a location normally wont be productive (say, it will take 50+ turns to finish). We don't need too much science right now, thus building it is very discouraged.
Government (and governors)
There is no direct cultural benefits in government choice, but one with more economic policies will better fit maximizing tourism output (we have 3 economic policy cards to + tourism). Therefore, Fascism is usually a rarer choice, but not in every cases. Bear in mind that tourism is affected by government type in Civ6.
Different Government Modifier Formula and stats: (from Eurogamer.net)
(-5 + -3) x 3 = -15% Tourism-per-turn.
Therefore, we can see that the choice of governments affects more than the policy slots they offer. Check the leaderboard and see who is/are our greatest rivalry, that is, to have the greatest amount of culture
(not tourism). Switch the government to fit them is sometimes necessary. If we really need some extra policy cards (usually economic), Democracy is the best, as the modifier is the smallest (-3).
Policies
Military
-Depends on need
-Usually Levee en Masse (-2 maintenance cost)
Economic
-Satellite Broadcasts (from Space race)
-Online communities (from Mass media)
-Heritage tourism (from cultural heritage)
These 3 form the core of our government in boosting tourism output. Policies giving more gold are secondary focus usually. We need money to do a lot of purchase (e.g. builders for creating appeals/ seaside resorts; districts purchase from Reyna's function.)
Diplomatic
-Arsenal of democracy (democracy government limited)
-Cryptography (from cold war)
-Macheiavellianism (from diplomatic service, a very early one)
Choose cryptography if we don't have any quartermaster spy, or else Macheiavellianism will be more useful.
Governors
For governors, in late game, Reyna is extremely useful, above all the others. Maximize her promotion and place her in the cities for various functions:
1, If we need faith to buy naturalist, Reyna in city allows us to purchase a holy site immediately.
2, If we need more great work slots and we have empty space that serves as good city spot, do not hesitate to place one there. And then plant Reyna inside, click purchase theatre district.
(Do not pick Liang to boost constructions of districts. Reyna allows us to buy them directly.)
3, Reyna can boost tourism from great works. After we have settled the above matters, place her in the city where most great works are held to get extra tourism.
Beware to keep our spy with quartermaster promotion within the city centre to protect Reyna.
And Magus......? He can retire now.
Joking, lol. He is not as powerful as he was in wonder rushing, but the production and city growth bonus can still be great.
(Still under construction)
Mid game: (A challenging one in Immortal)
The AIs, no matter what we do, will have double science and culture output by now. Therefore, any hope in building wonders and grabbing great people is lost. The only chance to beat them is to meet them with Grande Imperiale. The entire mid game is a race in rushing our UU and invasion, along with stopping rocketry, and planning of seaside resorts.
Build industrial zone+workshops in every cities while we should research education in the process. Universities should be available after industrial zones are established, then build the uni and beeline Military science at all costs. Campus research is a replacement to any city construction now.
Once the UUs come in handy, build them with every single resources. Each of them costs about 6-9 turns so don't hesitate to chop any woods/jungles to speed it up. When we have gathered 6-9 of them, they are good to go for an invasion.
Notice that we have to check which victory condition is most feasible right now. If every civs are siting on the same continent, we shall try a domination one. If the answer is no, then there is little hope in winning a domination victory. A cultural one (our original goal) or a science one should come into consideration.
Based on the above concept, bear in mind that we can only chase after one particular route and there is no heading back starting from this spot. Therefore, choose well, always. It is worthy to stop for a while and take a good look at all the foes on the same land mass before deciding.
If we have neighbors filled up with great works and wonders, then we should surely go after tourism. If there is only religious civs bearing no interest in wonders nor great works, we can try (very likely to fail) a science one.
Before R&F, we can go straight towards the capital and force our foe to surrender. Now we have the loyalty system that greatly restricts warfare. Therefore, we have to get our governors prepared. 2 cities are needed to capture at minimum in order to maintain sufficient loyalty pressure.
In case of a cultural victory, do not try capturing cities anymore if there are no more wonders/great works left. Our goal is not going domination so we have to save resources for something later on. And stretching the army thin will be dangerous too.
Grande Imperiale has little problem in defeating enemy units. They can be stronger than modern infrantry on the home continent. (+10 combat strength on top of original 65) Make good use of the new combat strength bonus in visibility access level
Remember to bring battle ram/siege towers to bring down city walls. In high difficulties, city strikes can be deadly so make sure that our Grande Imperiale can deliver a decisive blow before getting near the cities. Have no shame in pillaging for units healing and keep producing the UU to maintain the military momentum.
It is always good to have a joint war against a foe. Therefore, as stated in the early game strategies, try to maintain an ally nearby, as long as he is not our invasion target.
Try to fight together rather than being alone.
And an economic alliance is always sweet for supporting the conquest.
Meanwhile, train up the spies into two groups:
1, with steal great work promotion
2, with rocket scientist/ demolition promotion
Notice that this is the mid game for us, but its already late game for the AIs. Therefore, we should take stopping others from Space victories as one of our top missions.
Try our best to target great works in distant lands with the first group of spies. And more importantly, disrupt the space projects by any means possible.
At the same time, build some builders in the capital once the conquest is concluded. They will be useful in spamming chateau in every river tile possible to roll up the culture. This will be a defensive means against others' tourism and increase our chance to survive one.
Edit: Not yet finished, sorry for the long paragraph.
I used this strategy to win the game in Immortal level (with plenty of trials and failure) so may not really fit Deity.
This guide will surely make you through emperor level and lower.
Please note that all these tips are only personal experience and everyone can try their own way of Viva la France.
This is a guide to enjoy the French game. I am a player more than a gamer, that is, I tend to use the full set of a civ's design, instead of rushing the game. Maybe this is not the most effective way, but surely a fun way to play.
Warning: very long paragraph and I am sorry for being garrulous.
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Early game:
Spoiler Game-play: :
(Note that this is a decent starting location for emperor game, but a horrible one for Immortal. Having more woods and jungles are vital in boosting wonder buildings. Try to reroll the starting location and pray for luck.)
In the start of dawn, build one more warrior to scout a bit around and then a settler.
Then settle 2 cities along a river asap. Keep in mind that we must leave space for suitable locations of wonder construction and Chateaux. Therefore, try to settle 5-6 tiles apart and on top of a luxury resources, in order to maximize the free space usable. Also, we should prioritize in settling near a mine resource for extra bonus of future industrial zones.
After we have 3-4 cities in hand, we can start to focus on building infrastructures and units.
We should build a monument in each city first, to lay foundations in pushing the civic tree for later wonders. And then quickly build 2-3 archers in the capital for better defense, especially when you have a hostile neighboring civ.
Save the gold to buy builders/trade routes/scout, as production is very scarce in the beginning.
The scout is essential when you have a neighbor (and more essential in discovering a neighbor if you have none yet) as you will need to know where their cities are, for future spy usage. Try to discover as more lands and civs as you can.
If we have chance to assign a governor, we should invest on Amani/Magnus. Magnus can provide extra production in rushing wonders while Amani can provide city states bonus. They will be discussed further later.
Spoiler Golden/Dark Era :
France will almost certainly get into a dark age in early game. If we are lucky, we may have a normal age but a golden age is very unlikely. But it won’t hurt a lot as long as we didn’t forward settle too much. Choose the Monumentality dedication as we will have a lot of districts to build.
Spoiler Tech Tree :
Tech tree:
For technologies, we can research all builder-related technologies first, then archery+wheels and then beeline to apprenticeship. Along the tech tree, we shall unlock the campus and commercial hub. If we have got iron, it is always good to get ironwork for building swordsman.
Spoiler Civ Tree :
Civic tree:
For civics, we have no priorities in early game so we can directly beeline to political philosophy and unlock new governments. Going state workforce or foreign trade is a personal choice. If we have got plenty of resources around, state workforce is a better option. Or else, we'd better get trade routes set up earlier.
After we have unlock a new government, Poetry is the next important civ that unlocks theater districts. Then we can beeline to humanism.
Spoiler Districts :
Districts:
Afterwards we can finally look at building districts, which is a troublesome matter for France, as the placement involves the location of wonders. Avoid building districts adjacent to rivers, except for Commercial Hub. We'd better keep a one tile-distance from the river for every future wonder location to maximize the use of Chateaux. Take a look at the wonders we may need.
Wonders that we should give a try: (I will explain later)
-Forbidden city (near city center)
-Alhambra (on a hill near encampment)
-Terracotta Army (flat land near encampment with stable/barrack)
-Angkor Wat (near a aqueduct)
-Oxford University (near a campus with university)
-Taj Mahal (near river)
-Hermitage (near river)
-Caza de Contratacion (near government plaza)
-Boshoi Theatre (near theatre square)
Risky/situational wonders: (I will explain later)
-Great Zimbabwe (near cattle and commercial hub)
-Potala Palace (on hills)
-Ruhr Valley (near river and industrial zone)
-Chichen Itza (in jungles)
-Hue Teocalli (on a lake)
-Kiwa Kisiwani (on a coast flat tile)
-Venetian Arsenal (on coast water near industrial zone)
-all the religious wonders
(Keep in mind that the wonders are not necessarily near the river as long as we can build them, although the bonus for Chateaux is delicious. Remember a wonder is always worthier than a Chateaux.)
Therefore, we need to construct at least one encampment near a hill, a theatre square, a campus, an aqueduct and a government plaza. The government plaza can add adjacent bonus to all districts so it is better to place it adjacent to other districts, whilst we must leave a gap for Caza de Contratacion. The campus is often placed near mountains so beware to leave a flat land near it. We also need to leave 2 space along the river for Taj Mahal and Hermitage. Aqueduct can be placed beside a mountain rather than a river, to leave more space for Chateaux.
For the sequence of building them, it depends on the situation. But I will recommend placing campus first and then commercial hub. This aids a lot in pushing the tech tree towards apprenticeship and later technologies.
Theatre districts can be placed later, as we don't need to earn too many great people yet. We can steal them from the others later. If we need to build one, try to pick a tile that is adjacent to as many future wonders will be. This maximizes the culture yield.
Once we have got industrial zones, place them asap. Place it near mine resources to get the largest benefit. Also, try to place them towards the centre of your empire, as 2nd /3rd buildings (factories, nuclear plant) will spread their production 9 tiles away.
Spoiler Diplomacy :
Diplomacy:
It is normal to have neighbors around, and in higher difficulties, hostile neighbors around. But France is really fragile in the early game. The main aim of diplomacy is to avoid unnecessary bloodshed and save production time for units. Building units to kill our foes is nice, but it will waste too much precious time. We should try to gift our extra copies of resources to potential friends. Try not to irritate them by excessive forward settling/ against their agendas.
This is especially vital when you have a neighbor with strong early units, e.g. Scythia, Sumeria, Rome. If one of them becomes friendly to you, befriend him. This ensures that he won’t DOW you in a couple of turns and is a safe trading target too.
Do not be afraid of instant denounce. Try to invest effort in relationships, even going as far as gifting our only luxury resource.
City states are also important in any situations. Send our envoys to a cultural CS (whatever it is, just cultural CS is ok) to get the extra cultural. France does not have a decent early culture output, compared to Greece and early wonder builders.
Cultural city states are thus necessary to keep our pace in civic tree. If we have got none, we can invest on Industrial CS instead. Brussels CS is a very useful one as it can provide bonus wonder production for its suzerain.
Send envoys to a cultural civ to enjoy the early culture rolling in. It can give you an edge ahead.
Therefore, we should assign the Amani governor from early on to a cultural/ industrial CS. After we have sent enough envoys (that is, 6) to any cultural CS, we can reassign our Amani to any industrial/cultural CS, until we have sent another 6 envoys. Then we can repeat the above steps to get the essential benefits from City States.
If someone denounces you on sight, garrison your troops at your border towards his/her empire. War is very likely to come. This is brutally true in higher difficulties, where the AIs are super productive in units.
In this case, a city state near your potential enemy will be a matter of survival, as CS also have a lot of units. They can act as a buffer or even a defeat to any invading force. Therefore, we should also consider the location of the city states when we send envoys, but the CS type is more important.
Government:
Oligarchy and Aristocracy are both feasible. Oligarchy provides you extra combat strength and a wildcard slot that can hold one more economic policy. Normally I will choose Oligarchy first and may then switch to Aristocracy after I start to build wonders. We may need to consider the diplomatic benefits when we share the same government with our neighbors.
For policies, normally I will put up Urban Planning and Discipline in the start. Then the +2 gold per trade route policy and the Diplomatic League for extra envoys in Oligarchy.
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Mid game: (A solid one for emperor and lower levels)
Spoiler Game play: :
Starting from the placement of your first industrial zone, France enters a steady mid game that will start to show her true potential. This is the busiest period for us so prepare to work hard in this vital period.
We should build district buildings, more units and fill up the infrastructure in our cities. I will always try to get workshop first to boost the production for wonders to come. If one of our neighbors have not been a friend, at least one of our cities should be constantly building units to enrich our army. If all neighboring civs have befriended us, drop building units and rush every district building possible.
Its now time for us to build great wonders. Remember to build an aqueduct before gaining Medieval Fairy and an encampment before gaining Construction.
After Feudalism, we should buy/build some builders and choose the Serfdom policy to build farms and clear some landscape to boost wonder construction. The governor Magnus becomes very useful here so we’d better place him in a city expecting to build wonders.
Whilst we are aiming for wonders, we should build the UU and start using espionage to take advantage of our enemies.
Lastly, after building all those wonders, we can focus on building theatre districts in every cities. They shall provide empty slots for the great work stolen with spies, and provide a few great artists on their own.
Spoiler Wonder building ( we can ignore this part if we are starting at immortal and higher) :
Lets start discussing our main dish, the wonders in details:
Wonders that we should give a try:
-Forbidden city (near city center)
-Alhambra (on a hill near encampment)
-Terracotta Army (flat land near encampment with stable/barrack)
-Angkor Wat (near a aqueduct)
-Oxford University (near a campus with university)
-Taj Mahal (near river)
-Hermitage (near river)
-Caza de Contratacion (near government plaza)
-Boshoi Theatre (near theatre square)
Risky/situational wonders:
-Great Zimbabwe (near cattle and commercial hub)
-Potala Palace (on hills)
-Ruhr Valley (near river and industrial zone)
-Chichen Itza (in jungles)
-Kiwa Kisiwani (on a coast flat tile)
-Venetian Arsenal (on coast water near industrial zone)
-all the religious wonders
(Keep in mind that the wonders are not necessarily near the river as long as we can build them, although the bonus for Chateaux is delicious. Remember a wonder is always worthier than a Chateaux.)
General sequence: Terracotta Army - Alhambra / Forbidden city - Angkor Wat -Taj Mahal -Caza de Contratacion - Ruhr Valley/ Oxford Uni - Hermitage - Bolshoi Theater
-The first few wonders that we are going to build will possibly be the Terracotta Army, the Alhambra and the Forbidden City. The first two have a harsher requirement (and we have prepared for it) so normally are secured if we haven’t lagged too far in tech.
-Forbidden City is a bit risky, as AIs tend to get it and it needs quite a lot of production. It should be built as soon as we reach Printing and in the most productive cities. If it cannot be finished in 15-17 turns (without great engineers+ builder boost), we should probably just skip it.
-Kiwa Kisiwani will come by Machinery but it needs a coast tile to build. If we don’t have any coastal cities, just skip it. If we have the chance to try it, we should first check if any civs has a coastal city and see if they are also building it. Crossbowman also come with Machinery so remember to save 125 (I don’t remember the exact sum) coins to upgrade them from archers.
-Angkor Wat and Chichen Itza will come by the civic advance. Normally Chichen Itza will be dropped if we do not have many jungle tiles (and cities with heavy jungles are normally not so productive). Therefore, Angkor Wat will be a more convenient choice. Moreover, the AIs (except Khmer) often don’t build aqueducts so Angkor Wat is safer.
-Taj Mahal comes with Humanism and it is among the most important wonders that France needs. It provides extra golden age points that will allow France to enter 2-3 golden ages in the future.
-Side note: Normally at this moment military science will take a few more turns to finish. We should build a few universities now to push the research pace faster. In this vacuum period, we can also build more trade routes and commercial hub buildings to save a sum of coins, which will be used to instant purchase factories after industrialization. This will greatly speed up every wonder construction.
-Caza de Contratacion: After military science, we should beeline Cartography and then Scientific Theory/Industrialization. Cartography gives the Caza de Contratacion, a wonder that less AI will build so it is rather safe to try.
-Potala palace will be in the mid-way towards Scientific Theory/Industrialization but normally we will be busily building the Caza de Contratacion/ Angkor Wat/ Taj Mahal at the time being. And when we have finally finished those wonders, Scientific Theory/Industrialization is already at hand. Thus we can skip Potala Palace and focus on the more useful Ruhr Valley/Oxford University.
-Side note: But before that, remember to leave one of our cities in producing the Grand Imperiale. They usually take 8-10 turns to build but they are super useful in defensive/ later offensive purpose. Note that they need a lot of coins to maintain so only a small army of 2-3 Grande Imperiale will be enough. To save expenses, use more crossbowmen instead.
-Ruhr Valley is a risky one as all AIs will attempt to build it. It is tricky to build because normally mine resources are far away from rivers (and industrial zones are placed beside mine resources). A minor drawback is that it will also block another valuable river tile for Hermitage and Chateaux. Still it worth a try because of the sweet production boost it offers, although I often failed at succeeding.
-Oxford University on the other hand is a far safer choice. When all the AIs are building the Ruhr Valley, the Oxford University is almost ours. It will give us an edge in science output and it can hold 2 extra great work (writing), very useful for a cultural victory too.
-Side note: Now we have factories available to build. Try to build them in all our cities or even but them if necessary. They will make a great reduction in the wonder constructions. We should prioritize building factories before proceeding into the next wonders because they will cost a huge amount of production.
-Hermitage will then come with the civic of Natural History. In most cases, it comes after all the above wonders are settled so we will have a free hand to build it.
-Bolshoi Theatre needs the Ballet and opera civic, which is quickly finished as we have a lot of wonders to support the culture output.
Both wonders cost a lot of production so make sure that we have enough factories to enhance the speed.
-At the same time, we may build a few builders to start spamming chateaux beside the wonders. France’s cultural advantage is already solid. Normally we are able to secure at least 4-5 wonders, 2-3 at worst.
Wonders not recommended:
- Great Zimbabwe is a good wonder if we have plenty of resources. But it is not recommended in our course, as it is swaying away from beelining Industrialization/Scientific theory. Furthermore, it has a harsher requirement and Ruhr Valley/Oxford University are more valuable to France.
-Venetian Arsenal (on coast water near industrial zone) is very situational for its location requirement. It is not recommended to intentionally sacrifice adjacency bonus for industrial zones to pursuit this wonder. But if we surprisingly find ourselves available in grabbing it, we can do it later. Other civs have rare chance to build it too, so its all ours. Focus on the wonders we need first.
-All the religious wonders are away from our main civic focus and many religious AIs will madly compete for them. And France doesn’t need religious bonus thus we’d better avoid doing so.
Spoiler Golden/Dark era :
Golden/Dark era:
With the construction of many wonders, a golden age is often secured. The building of Grand Imperiale and the Chateaux also rewards era points. Taj Mahal provides extra era points that will make us easier in earning another golden age. For dedications, we shall choose Reform the Coinage (+1 era point for successful trade route in normal era/+ gold in trade route in golden era), and later Heartbeat of Steam (+science and production)
Spoiler Tech tree :
Tech Tree:
After apprenticeship, we should research Education and then we can beeline Military Science. Education is needed to quickly advance to military science. While Castle and Printing are both on the same path, we’d better aim for Castle first. It allows you to build the Terracotta Army and Alhambra earlier and more essentially, gives you the 1st spy.
After military science, we should beeline cartography and then Scientific theory/Industrialization. This will get us a step closer to Flight, which will strengthen the tourism output.
Then we can catch up the Banking tech to fill up the treasury emptied by the UU’s maintenance cost. If we do not seek an invasion in near future, we can head straight to Flight. The Grande Imperiale already serves well as a defensive unit.
Spoiler Civic tree :
Civic Tree:
Without hesitation, beeline Humanism for obvious reasons. On this path, we can aim Medieval Fairy first, gaining Feudalism on the way and allows you to build the Ankgor Wat.
An alternative path is to beeline Divine Right first for the Gothic Architecture policy, but 15% is not that useful to waste time on it. AIs will normally build faith and dive this path, so we can avoid it and directly get Humanism for securing Taj Mahal and Chateaux.
Afterwards, we may choose Exploration to unlock the Merchant republic or directly beeline natural history. (Oligarchy into the Modern age will be risky though). Ballet and opera will be the last civic to research in the mid game.
Spoiler Espionage :
Espionage
Being unable to compete enough wonders nor having a great location for Chateaux? The AIs are proceeding tech and Civs like rocket? Don’t worry, its not the end of the world. CdM still has tactics under sleeves. Here we have the magnificent
Espionage is the core of everything in higher levels from immortal. AIs will enter atomic era while we are still struggling with industrial wonders. Forget the wonders if we want to target an immortal victory. Thus a group of well trained spies will be a matter of life and death.
Our first spy comes at castle tech, with a free promotion. Depends on what promotion she (CdM’s spies are all lady in waiting) has, we shall assign her to different posts. The promotions in yellow are essentially powerful.
Ace Driver : Make her do anything you want. She will be safe.
Cat Burglar: Make her steal Great Works. Highly recommended for France.
Con Artist: Make her Siphon Funds
Covert Action: Make her Foment Unrest
Demolitions: Sabotage Production
Disguise: This promotion should be taken in later game, not now
Guerilla Leader: This promotion is less useful, at least not now.
License to Kill: Make her Neutralize Governor
Linguist: This promotion should be taken in later game, not now
Quartermaster: Make her stay in base for counterspy
Rocket Scientist: This promotion should be taken in later game, not now
Seduction: Make her stay in base for counterspy
Smear Campaign: Put her to CS and wipe out your foes’ envoys.
Technologist: Make her Steal Technology.
Because we only have one spy for instant, it is better to gain resources before executing any real mission. Our current aim is to train our lady in waiting to a master spy with the yellow promotions and prevent her from being discovered.
In R&F, every level of visibility to a foe will grant +3 combat strength to military units. Therefore, if we sense that war is to come, we should send a lady-in-waiting to operate "listening to post" prior to a DOW. That should give a slight but important difference in defense. (+6~+9 combat strength in total).
Quartermaster is among the most powerful promotions here. It can boost every spy operations by 2 level, rendering all specific promotions less necessary, other than linguist, and ace driver. But in these early days, no one else owns a spy. Therefore, we’d better try offensive operations first. The intelligence agency in government plaza is a bread-and-butter to spies missions too. Make sure that we build one when we are not busy with wonders.
Foment unrest allows spies to lower enemy city loyalty. But flipping cities is not that easy in most circumstances and we don’t have proper siege technology to grab free cities (it is away from both military science and flight). Thus flipping cities is not encouraged now. This mission can instead be a step-stone to train the spy for other useful promotions.
We can build 2-3 spies in the mid game. Once a spy has the quartermaster promotion, place her in a home city. Then use the other spies to target enemy’s cities to steal great works and syphon funds. Check who is currently leading cultural on the leader-board. Then check if there are great works steal-able in their cities. Some AIs may be willing to trade their great works with 400-500 gold, so syphon funds is a feasible way to earn more. (lol we use the gold stolen from them to buy their great works, such a marvelous deal.)
Kongo and Russia are the 2 civs that have very high possibility in owning great works.
Try to scout all of their cities and target them as priority.
Please take note that spies missions have a fairly high chance to fail and this will make our lady-in-waiting killed or imprisoned. Being killed is fine, as we just need to build another. But if she is captured, we will need to pay ransom to redeem her, or else we will have a non-functional occupied spy slot.
Moreover, this will harm diplomatic relationships. If this happens to our enemies, its always okay. But if this happens to a befriended civ, this could cause trouble in future attempts to fix the relationship, risking a breaking in alliance/ potential invasion.
If there are 4-5 great positive (green) diplomatic modifiers but only 1-2 little negative (red) diplomatic modifiers, its still worthy to risk it. Even if the spy is captured, a friendly civ will offer a lower price in redeeming the spy. Choose "ignore request" to minimize the impact of spyingon alliance.
Spoiler Diplomacy :
Diplomacy
In the new diplomacy system, there are new benefits in alliance so we should at least get one ally in the game. Normally we shall seek an economic alliance to a neighboring civ. This will increase the value of our trade routes.
Cultural alliance is not recommended to a civ with already high culture output and science alliance is discouraged in the same way. Military alliance is more valuable with a distant civ for the share in vision. That will save time in producing naval scout in later eras and will allow us to assess more enemy cities.
City states surzerainship is not the highest concern for France except Brussels CS. We only need the bonus culture/production/gold that envoys provide. Also, Smear Campaign promotion for spies allows us to gain suzerainship.
Therefore, Amani's promotion is not that necessary. But maintaining an allied CS near a hostile neighbor is always a good way to protect ourselves.
Maintaining a friendship with civs always bring benefits than disadvantages so we should invest some effort into gaining others' favor.
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Late game (An effective one in emperor/lower level)
Spoiler Late game situation: :
With a number of wonders, chateaux and stolen great works in hands, we have got a very high chance to beat the game already...?
Don't be too confident yet. For we have been focusing on rushing wonder building, we have missed out a number of things in the process and new challenges are coming into sight.
First of all, we do not have enough number of cities, and thus great work slots to place our stolen goods. That is horribly true for any wonder-building France, and it may turn a late game very boring as the spies are no longer useful in speeding up a cultural victory. We literally will be waiting the game to finish on 250+ turns --- I have got a way to solve this.
Secondly, we do not have enough units to really defend our empire well. The Grande Imperiale will be a solid defensive unit until very late game, where Mechanized Infantry dominates. Now, when most of our fellow civs are still somewhere around the replaceable parts tech, Grande Imperiale is enough, only in sufficient amount. Therefore, we should train up more of them to prepare for the unexpected. AIs may rise partisans against us, or directly invade us in a joint war.
Thirdly, stay alert for the presence of any spaceport in the map. Check constantly who is the leading one of Science. The screen will noramlly be flooded with gossips and reports that we don't want to pay attention to. Therefore, it is necessary for us to keep an eye on the Leaderboard. Normally, a civ with around 50 tech will be, or soon be building spaceport. Uncover all his cities for any possible construction of a spaceport. If it is under construction, sabotage all the industrial zone in sight. If it is finished, use rocketry disruption against it.
Moreover, we have no advantage in building late game wonders. Therefore, our production will probably not add up to tourism anymore. We needa put our productions on something else.
Spoiler Tech Tree :
Tech Tree
After the finish of Flight, our goal is to get the +100% tourism boost in computers. It is one of the most important bonus we can ever hope for, so we should beeline it. Also, in the path of computers, we also get the Electricity to build seaside resorts.
After having computers, it is free for us to pick up any tech necessary. It is highly discouraged to switch to space victory at this point, although the launching of satellites may help us in spying. Bear in mind that the AIs like to disrupt rocketry too. When our agents are all out for offensive operations that gives us valuable time in gaining tourists, our rockets are in great danger.
Spoiler Civic tree :
Civic tree
Depending on what we are doing, we can take different priorities in the civic tree. But generally we have a few milestone to look at:
Cultural Heritage: offering policy that +50% tourism for great works/artifacts.
Mobilization: allows formation of army, essential for defense.
Governments (Democracy etc): More slots for policies and is an important modifier for tourism.
Social Media: offering policy that +50% tourism for trade routes
Recommended path:
Cultural Heritage, then Mobilization, then Governments, and lastly Social Media.
Spoiler Tourism :
As mentioned above, we will soon face a shortage of great work slots to keep up the velocity of culture victory. (And sometimes great people keep coming and we have no rooms for their great works,) To solve this, or alleviate it at most, we now come to look at something that is never under our attention before: tile appeals.
Appeals are essential for placement of National parks and seaside resorts. These tile improvements provides a lot of tourism (=> a chateux beside a wonder per tile) and they are not restricted by rivers. But... they are restricted by appeals.
Lets look at them separately:
National park
This 4 tile improvement is a head-scratcher for many people. It needs to be placed on 4 tiles with at least Breath-taking level, that is >4 appeals. Also there are a lot of harsh restrictions that make us fail in creating one.
Requirements:
- 4 tiles with breathing taking appeal or more
- must be within the working area of one city (if they are tiles shared by 2 cities, swap them all to one city)
- must be in a Vertical Diamond shape
- 800+ faith for purchasing each naturalist
(This is what a vertical diamond shape means. No other shape is allowed to build a national park)
Appeal modifiers: (from civ6 wiki)
- +2 for each adjacent Pairidaeza, City Park, or Natural Wonder.
- +1 for each adjacent Golf Course, Château, Sphinx, Holy Site, Theater Square, Entertainment Complex, or wonder.
- +1 for each adjacent Mountain, Coast, Woods, or Oasis.
- +1 if the tile is on a River or Lake.
- -1 for each adjacent barbarian outpost, Mine, Quarry, Oil Well, Offshore Oil Rig, Airstrip, Industrial Zone, Encampment, Aerodrome, or Spaceport.
- -1 for each adjacent Rainforest, Marsh, or Floodplain.
- -1 for each adjacent pillaged tile.
How to find a suitable location:
1, find 4 tiles with shape of a vertical diamond that has no districts/wonder on it.
2, better not beside any encampment/industrial zone/ strategic resources.
3, with some woods/ mountains beside. Mountains are better choices.
4, check their appeals (of course)
5, if they only have charming (2-3 appeals) level, check if there are any mines/ jungles/ marsh adjacent to them.
6, Also check if there are any Luxury/Special improvement /Archeological sites on it. Only pastures are tolerated inside a national park.
7, use builders to remove the above unwanted landscapes. Or in case of an archeological site, an archeologist. (Therefore, try to spot out a location for national park before building art museums in all cities.)
8, if a tile's appeal still cant reach breath-taking, plant woods beside it, until it qualifies.
After we have the suitable location, we can now buy a naturalist. See if he/she can place one on the location (the suitable tiles will appear in white). If the answer is no, check which city owns the tiles and try to swap them all to one single city. After all these works, that should make a success in placing one. The tourism output is equal to the appeals of those tiles so it should give a sum of at least +16 tourism to catalyze our victory.
Moreover, have no deterrence in removing luxury improvements. The national parks will provide amenities as well. Selling luxuries is not our main source of income in late game anyway.
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Seaside Resorts
This is a 1 tile improvement that gives +5 gold and +4(exact amount?) tourism. Building them is situational though, as we probably may get land locked. But if we have the chance to place them, it will be a great help in boosting tourism.
Seaside resort needs to be built on:
-coastal flat tiles
-not on snow tile
-tiles with +4 or above appeals
Combining with the appeal guides above, we can use the same strategy to plant woods and remove unwanted terrains adjacent to a potential coastal tile.
Water Park
At the same time, if we have a coastline. It is worthy to place a water park on the shallow water. Except for the amenities it provides, 2 of its buildings also give some tourism.
Ferris wheel: +2
Aquatics center: +2
for each wonders on/adjacent to coast tilesThis renders those sea wonders (e.g. Colossus, Statue of Liberty, Sydney Opera) a bit more useful but do not try to rush them. Seaside resorts provide more tourism and are easier to get.
Spoiler Late game wonders :
Late game wonders
France's wonder game is almost over after entrance of modern era. But, if we have the chance to pick some up, It will still be great. Bear in mind that they are not neccessities by now so be keen in wasting time on them.
Statue of Liberty
Industrial era wonder that can be built upon Civil Engineering. It needs to be built on shallow sea tiles adjacent to a Harbor. This wonder provides 2 settlers (well, settlers now? We have surely little space for expansion in such a late era). The loyalty benefit is less necessary in most conditions, as France will normally have golden ages around this era.
More importantly, we possibly was busy with Hermitage and Bolshoi Theater by that time. It is thus encouraged to skip this.
(In an alternative playstyle using the governor Reyna with district purchase promotion, this can be useful in buying extra theater districts for great works slots though, therefore, optional.)
Sydney opera house
Provides 3 slots for music pieces and comes with cultural heritage. It will be a nice choice to pick up for cultural victory and we are on the same path in civic. But it needs to be adjacent to harbors and normally, takes 20+ turns to build. If we have other things to build (e.g. military units against invasions), it is okay to drop it.
Eiffel Tower
Signature for France, this modern era wonder that provides +2 appeals for each tiles in the city. It is great in helping to place national parks and seaside resorts. However, it needs Steel technology, a different path from flight on the tech tree. Also it needs flat lands besides the city centre, which may be filled up with Chateux and wonders (e.g. Forbidden city). As the AIs tend to research Steel first, we have little chance to get it except for Beelining it, which is, very risky. And we can always plant woods to boost appeals so Eiffel Tower is not that vital to grab.
Estadio do Maracana:
We don't really have amenity problems if we have national parks. Moreover, it needs a entertainment complex with stadium. We'd better build water park other than entertainment complex for the tourism. And, look at the astronomical production cost it needs.
Cristo Retendor
We don't need to stop others from pushing religious tourism to us, based on our vast culture from Chateaux and wonders. And AIs like to build this wonder.
Broadway
It comes with Mass media, and gives extra music slots, which are very useful in boosting tourism (they can provide +50% tourism with a policy from space race civic). It is also on the path to social media. Therefore it is worthy to build. The only thing that we need to concern is its scary production cost, and AIs may catch up Mass media in civic first.
Big Ben
Its in another branch on the tech tree, not really recommended.
Amundsen-Scott Research Station
Well, in 9 out of 10 games, we don't have snow tiles. And cities in such a location normally wont be productive (say, it will take 50+ turns to finish). We don't need too much science right now, thus building it is very discouraged.
Spoiler Government & Governors :
Government (and governors)
There is no direct cultural benefits in government choice, but one with more economic policies will better fit maximizing tourism output (we have 3 economic policy cards to + tourism). Therefore, Fascism is usually a rarer choice, but not in every cases. Bear in mind that tourism is affected by government type in Civ6.
Different Government Modifier Formula and stats: (from Eurogamer.net)
- Differing Government Modifier = (GovA + GovB) x 3
- Chieftain: 0
- Autocracy: -2
- Oligarchy: -2
- Classical Republic: -2
- Monarchy: -3
- Theocracy: -4
- Merchant Republic: -2
- Fascism: -5
- Communism: -6
- Democracy: -3
(-5 + -3) x 3 = -15% Tourism-per-turn.
Therefore, we can see that the choice of governments affects more than the policy slots they offer. Check the leaderboard and see who is/are our greatest rivalry, that is, to have the greatest amount of culture
(not tourism). Switch the government to fit them is sometimes necessary. If we really need some extra policy cards (usually economic), Democracy is the best, as the modifier is the smallest (-3).Policies
Military
-Depends on need
-Usually Levee en Masse (-2 maintenance cost)
Economic
-Satellite Broadcasts (from Space race)
-Online communities (from Mass media)
-Heritage tourism (from cultural heritage)
These 3 form the core of our government in boosting tourism output. Policies giving more gold are secondary focus usually. We need money to do a lot of purchase (e.g. builders for creating appeals/ seaside resorts; districts purchase from Reyna's function.)
Diplomatic
-Arsenal of democracy (democracy government limited)
-Cryptography (from cold war)
-Macheiavellianism (from diplomatic service, a very early one)
Choose cryptography if we don't have any quartermaster spy, or else Macheiavellianism will be more useful.
Governors
For governors, in late game, Reyna is extremely useful, above all the others. Maximize her promotion and place her in the cities for various functions:
1, If we need faith to buy naturalist, Reyna in city allows us to purchase a holy site immediately.
2, If we need more great work slots and we have empty space that serves as good city spot, do not hesitate to place one there. And then plant Reyna inside, click purchase theatre district.
(Do not pick Liang to boost constructions of districts. Reyna allows us to buy them directly.)
3, Reyna can boost tourism from great works. After we have settled the above matters, place her in the city where most great works are held to get extra tourism.
Beware to keep our spy with quartermaster promotion within the city centre to protect Reyna.
And Magus......? He can retire now.
Joking, lol. He is not as powerful as he was in wonder rushing, but the production and city growth bonus can still be great.
(Still under construction)
Mid game: (A challenging one in Immortal)
Spoiler Game-play :
The AIs, no matter what we do, will have double science and culture output by now. Therefore, any hope in building wonders and grabbing great people is lost. The only chance to beat them is to meet them with Grande Imperiale. The entire mid game is a race in rushing our UU and invasion, along with stopping rocketry, and planning of seaside resorts.
Build industrial zone+workshops in every cities while we should research education in the process. Universities should be available after industrial zones are established, then build the uni and beeline Military science at all costs. Campus research is a replacement to any city construction now.
Once the UUs come in handy, build them with every single resources. Each of them costs about 6-9 turns so don't hesitate to chop any woods/jungles to speed it up. When we have gathered 6-9 of them, they are good to go for an invasion.
Notice that we have to check which victory condition is most feasible right now. If every civs are siting on the same continent, we shall try a domination one. If the answer is no, then there is little hope in winning a domination victory. A cultural one (our original goal) or a science one should come into consideration.
Based on the above concept, bear in mind that we can only chase after one particular route and there is no heading back starting from this spot. Therefore, choose well
If we have neighbors filled up with great works and wonders, then we should surely go after tourism. If there is only religious civs bearing no interest in wonders nor great works, we can try (very likely to fail) a science one.
Before R&F, we can go straight towards the capital and force our foe to surrender. Now we have the loyalty system that greatly restricts warfare. Therefore, we have to get our governors prepared. 2 cities are needed to capture at minimum in order to maintain sufficient loyalty pressure.
In case of a cultural victory, do not try capturing cities anymore if there are no more wonders/great works left. Our goal is not going domination so we have to save resources for something later on. And stretching the army thin will be dangerous too.
Grande Imperiale has little problem in defeating enemy units. They can be stronger than modern infrantry on the home continent. (+10 combat strength on top of original 65) Make good use of the new combat strength bonus in visibility access level
Remember to bring battle ram/siege towers to bring down city walls. In high difficulties, city strikes can be deadly so make sure that our Grande Imperiale can deliver a decisive blow before getting near the cities. Have no shame in pillaging for units healing and keep producing the UU to maintain the military momentum.
It is always good to have a joint war against a foe. Therefore, as stated in the early game strategies, try to maintain an ally nearby, as long as he is not our invasion target.
Try to fight together rather than being alone.
And an economic alliance is always sweet for supporting the conquest.
Meanwhile, train up the spies into two groups:
1, with steal great work promotion
2, with rocket scientist/ demolition promotion
Notice that this is the mid game for us, but its already late game for the AIs. Therefore, we should take stopping others from Space victories as one of our top missions.
Try our best to target great works in distant lands with the first group of spies. And more importantly, disrupt the space projects by any means possible.
At the same time, build some builders in the capital once the conquest is concluded. They will be useful in spamming chateau in every river tile possible to roll up the culture. This will be a defensive means against others' tourism and increase our chance to survive one.
Edit: Not yet finished, sorry for the long paragraph.
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