France 1.18 2nd UHV Condition (Need Help)

[OldGuard]

Hi,

I am having trouble completing the 2nd UHV condition of France: Control 40% of Europe and 40% of North America by 1800. I looked at guides at earlier versions for France but it seems the enlarged map in the newer versions made the victory condition harder? Despite having 5 colonies in North America, I control roughly 25%. I haven't settled in the American core area but I would assume that would make my tenous stability crash even harder. As for Europe, I have vassalized England and Spain and have conquered Italy. But even if I conquer/vassalize Germany (Prussia and Austria), it still falls short of the 40%. I am not sure whether I am too slow or am not focusing on the right areas. If anyone has any tips for France, it would be greatly appreciated.


Note: I am playing the Dawn of Civilization version from the GitHub link in the forums, which I believe is v1.18 (could be v1.17, I am having trouble finding out what version I am playing)

 

[AOS9001]

Napoleon's French Empire is a good blueprint for what you'll need in Europe:

That's Spain, Italy, Amsterdam, Germany, Austria, Poland, and Denmark-Norway at a minimum. England is way more useful than Norway in-game. If you're still short of that 40%, grab something in the Balkans or Russia (if you dare).

In North America, you need to make New France and Louisiana:

Never mind that in reality the vast majority of this was wilderness or inhabited by Indian tribes who had no idea that France even claims their lands. Quebec, the Maritimes, Ontario, and the Mississippi river valley from north to south are what you need.

I'm not sure how this can all be achieved in 1.18 yet. Your core is smaller, you have more land to cover and conquer, and you have to do it in roughly the same amount of turns. Tech rate is messed up on normal speed too right now. It also bugs me that after so many years France still doesn't have any goals pertaining to Africa or Southeast Asia...

 

[GoneFishingX]

For north america get all the historic area except Detroit/ohio, Those two areas will flip to the US. This will get you about 35%. I suggest just going west into Canada/the Great Plains for your last 5%. Vancouver, Calgary, and San Antonio got me enough. Spreading out cities really helps, plus the free Estate from Versailles.

For Europe, if you look at the map europe goes all the way to the Urals. So you could just conquer Western Russia/Poland/Baltics and likely make the 40%. I got 32% with Spain, Italy (vassal), Balkans, Austria (vassal), Netherlands, and parts of Ukraine/Poland/Finland. If I had managed to take Germany I'd prolly had made it. The other way could have been done by taking/vassalizing Sweden and Norway/Denmark.

 

[OldGuard]

Thank you everyone for your help but I have reverted to an earlier version. The enlarged map makes it too difficult to reach the necessary control percentage on time. But I will keep these tips in mind for version 1.17. Of course, now I am struggling to reach legendary culture for Paris by 1700 in 1.17, lol.

 

[GoneFishingX]

You've got this. Generally conquest HVs are easier on Epic Speed. Once I was on ~100% culture for Paris to get to 75000, I just pumped out military for 60 turns (on epic speed). I made it to 32% of europe in just 60 turns. If I had been more aggressive in making military in my other cities I could have done it. I just spend valuable time building infrastructure I didn't need and making units for America that could have just been built there.

 

[Kott]

Thank you everyone for your help but I have reverted to an earlier version. The enlarged map makes it too difficult to reach the necessary control percentage on time. But I will keep these tips in mind for version 1.17. Of course, now I am struggling to reach legendary culture for Paris by 1700 in 1.17, lol.

How many cathedral do you have? You can get three easily, 4 or 5 is more complex, but doable.

 

[Apple111111]

Thank you everyone for your help but I have reverted to an earlier version. The enlarged map makes it too difficult to reach the necessary control percentage on time. But I will keep these tips in mind for version 1.17. Of course, now I am struggling to reach legendary culture for Paris by 1700 in 1.17, lol.

I think the 40% control is definitely possible. I did it by starting early, conquering and vassazling Spain and HRE, then going to Poland. Paris produces exclusively culture buildings, while the rest create a big military. Tech shouldn’t be an issue since you’ll have loads of cottages. Get as many high-culture wonders in Paris as possible. Notre-Dame is key. Versailles gives free estates, which is key for when you start settler spamming I’m North America. I vassalised Sweden and Russia by the early Renaissance and then just waited until 1800, whilst spamming settlers to deal with North America.

If you take everything early, it can’t be too hard.

 

[Dracosolon]

You have to get more cities, including outside your historical territory. This in an IN goal, so you cannot accomplish it before the Americans spawn and have to account for what they'll flip - which is everything south of the Great Lakes and east of New Orleans (which inconveniently overlaps a lot with your historical territory). It might be possible to squeeze an extra settler once their "Rise of the Americans" phase ends. In Canada the American Arctic region doesn't count as North America for the purpose of the UHV, which is both a good thing (it's a pretty large region so the total "North America" tiles you have to get 40% of is smaller) and a bad thing (some of your Canadian cities will have their third ring going into either that region, or America's core).

The good new is you have everything west of that to expand into, especially the Great Plains which are almost entirely free of annoying water or peak tiles. It's worse for your stability though, but even just two of these make a big difference.

Anyway the most important thing with France is, as usual, tech and wonder building. So popping Great Scientists for Academies, then Great Engineers once you have Companies for a Manufactory (or several), then a Great Artist for a Museum with Heritage, then remaining Great Artists for culture bombs. The first Great Spy should be used to steal techs from Italy when it spawns (they have Commune, Paper, Compass and Doctrine).

For wonders, you want, besides Notre-Dame, Versailles and an early Louvre (an awesome wonder), Santa Maria and the Sistine Chapelle. Four of these have faster with Marble, one with Stone, and you'll want them all in Paris. That means Marble is imperative to get early - there are several options, but settling in Algeria is the most reliable and provides Stone too (watch out for Barbarian ships though). For Paris is in a much better situation than on the old map since it has access to Iron, but riverside Lumbermills are still very important.

Other cities focus on troops (especially in Bordeaux and your Algerian city, and especially to defend against the more aggressive Spain and HRE) and economy buildings, while Paris' non-wonders building can usually be built with relative security if you're ahead in tech and don't need to worry about your Catholic rivals building wonders from techs they don't have.

For the Europe goal it's still useful to conquer/vassalize some territory early but not as urgent as it was on the old map: you have more and bigger cities outside of Paris so isn't as tight, you get enough in France alone to get ahead in tech and get better troops later, and expansion is harder in the Medieval era. Since you have a lot of neighbors and anywhere in Europe is good, opportunistic early attacks against a weak enemy can still pay off if you don't mind the maintenance and stability issues, with Ireland, post-spawn Italy, a pre-colonial England, or a divided Iberia being prime targets.