While some are excited about the changes to France, I'm skeptical to the point of suggesting that the powers that be lost perspective as to what France is and should be. France was a major Medieval power, and it blossomed in the Renaissance under the Sun King. And within the game, France has always been a Medieval-Renaissance power, ready to expand and consolidate in the mid-game. It nearly always possessed both military might and cultural importance to the extent that much of WWI was an effort to keep the Germans from desecrating Paris. The château may or may not be a game-changer, but since it means "castle" I hope for some defensive bonus (it would have been appropriate as a UB available after constructing a castle that would provide a culture bonus). But the UA was never a satisfactory pairing for Napoleon. It was tolerable because it was a good UA (in the rights hands even a great one), but it was a mediocre reflection of France itself, and worse still of Napoleon. It would have been better if after Steam Power, the bonus changed to adding to the cultural output percentage (+2 per city before Steam Power, +25% culture afterwards) -- which would also have given an incentive to not dread Steam Power, or weigh the options between military technology and cultural output. But what does that have to do with Napoleon? His UA should have been the Grande Armée, giving gunpowder units +1 movement, +25% production, & -25% maintenance cost -- or the Napoleonic Code could give gunpowder units +1 movement, -25% building maintenance, and free courthouses -- or the Hundred Days: if defeated, regain control of capital and first four cities; if defeated again, restart in mid-ocean island called Helena. &c&c&c.
The musketeer was passable, but unloved. He would have been better if he boosted a city's spy defense when garrisoned to reflect his counter-espionage pedigree á la d'Artagnan. And while the Foreign Legionnaire was a beautiful, beautiful unit, especially when there were 50+ built in a city with the Alhambra Palace and Great Epic (Morale + March + Combat bonus outside friendly lands) to form a truly terrifying, formidable, and perhaps unstoppable army that could conquer Russia in winter and win a land war in Asia... it was also a painfully short run between Legionnaire and Infantry.
But for all its faults, I loved France: an early culture sprinter that could turn into an ordinary empire into a leviathan fed by culture-pumping puppet states; a solid front line that could hold its own battling those wretched Siamese elephants, eventually upgrading into an army ready to bring you victory from one end of the globe to the other.
The musketeer was passable, but unloved. He would have been better if he boosted a city's spy defense when garrisoned to reflect his counter-espionage pedigree á la d'Artagnan. And while the Foreign Legionnaire was a beautiful, beautiful unit, especially when there were 50+ built in a city with the Alhambra Palace and Great Epic (Morale + March + Combat bonus outside friendly lands) to form a truly terrifying, formidable, and perhaps unstoppable army that could conquer Russia in winter and win a land war in Asia... it was also a painfully short run between Legionnaire and Infantry.
But for all its faults, I loved France: an early culture sprinter that could turn into an ordinary empire into a leviathan fed by culture-pumping puppet states; a solid front line that could hold its own battling those wretched Siamese elephants, eventually upgrading into an army ready to bring you victory from one end of the globe to the other.
