Tips for a new player (Napoleon/France)

[nightraid3r]

Hey so I just bought civ 5 + G & K in the steam sale. I am looking for some advice on how to effectively play as Napoleon (France)

1. What techs should i "beeline" if any?
2. What should my priorities be?
3. Is my unique advantage (extra culture per city) any good? I think it adds up if I go rapid expansion.
4. What social policies should I go for?
5. Should I be aggressive/passive in nature? Or can I do both just as effectively.

I have looked around the forums and see France does not get much love. Is this because France is not worth playing? Maybe that is the case, but I have had fun so far learning the game as them.

 

[Heerlo]

I think taking the Liberty social policy tree sometimes works pretty good(well, at least on vanilla Civ 5).If I'm correct, you still get a free settler eventually somewhere in that tree.

It's also good to get alot of RA's(research agreements).They help alot with tech.

And if you have more than one copy of any luxury resources they don't give extra happiness.So sell them, and make a good profit.

I hope some of that is good advice at least.I'll guess I'll stop here and let the people who actually have G&K explain more.

 

[slobberinbear]

The answers to your questions will vary somewhat based on your map, situation, etc. I suggest posting a saved game or a screenshot so we can get a better idea of the specifics.

Generally, you want to pick a victory condition and a strategy to go with it -- wonderspam, expansion, conquest -- and exploit that to the fullest. France is great at all three, particularly early expansion and late-game conquest.

Good techs for Rapid Expansion include those that unlock happiness buildings (Construction, Printing Press, etc.) and wonders (Banking, Education). You also will need military techs so that you can defend your cities, as expansion tends to irritate the AI. You will also need worker techs to exploit the resources gained through expansion. Good expansion policies are found early on in Liberty and later in Commerce and Order.

Ancien Regime's +2 culture boost gives you more policies sooner early on and helps offset the policy slowdown as you expand. Consider that every new French can easily start with 5 culture per turn and fast expanding border with just three policies (Tradition + Legalism + Liberty + Ancien Regime ability). This is huge and since it's a per-city boost it has more value the more cities you found.

I would expand like crazy until you think the AI is going to declare war on you, then grow vertically or conquer.

 

[PvtFreddy]

If you have two of the same resource they don't stack your happiness? Is this correct, even in Gods and Kings?

 

[BlackMoon450]

Personally, my advice would be to pick another civ to play as, but that is neither here nor there. Just try to exploit your unique traits as much as possible, making your opponents wish they were you.

 

[King_Course]

Hey so I just bought civ 5 + G & K in the steam sale. I am looking for some advice on how to effectively play as Napoleon (France)

1. What techs should i "beeline" if any?
2. What should my priorities be?
3. Is my unique advantage (extra culture per city) any good? I think it adds up if I go rapid expansion.
4. What social policies should I go for?
5. Should I be aggressive/passive in nature? Or can I do both just as effectively.

I have looked around the forums and see France does not get much love. Is this because France is not worth playing? Maybe that is the case, but I have had fun so far learning the game as them.

France has always been a favourite of mine. They are good for beginners as the culture bonus really helps things get going in the start.

They can be played for cultural victories, but are also military strong.

Now you can play them many ways, but I always followed a scheme, where I kept my cities low (3 or 4), while getting gunpowder. This helped me fill out social policies, I always followed the combo of full tradition then full honor, it's just fun . Opening with trad, but getting a single honor point to hunt barbs down. The raging barb setting can enhance this strategy. City sprawling will actually quelch the France culture bonus, the policies just get too expensive. But it's a strong bonus with few early cities.

I would basically research a few early military techs, but generally aim for education. As soon as I could build universities I'd go into the tech tree and set it straight for gunpowder.

This way, I would defend with a couple of horsemen, later turn knights. You'll need those. A sword man or whatever my starting warrior turned into (he is the medic, with cover and rough promotion ), some archers, and very often I'd also have a catapult or 2 if I had been attacked.

I'd basically just hang back, while getting heroic epic and armory in my production city. When gunpowder showed up, I'd build and buy the backbone of my army, 4-5 musketeers and I would be on my way to take a capital or 2.

This was before G&K, where you couldn't upgrade swordmen directly to gunpowder. But by doing this still, you'll get the benefit of heroic epic strengthened musketeers so it hasn't exactly worsened, as strategy.

From there the game would be open for all victories, on Emperor and often Immortal too. You can get another military edge with Foreign Legion, but from there science and even culture (if you have puppeted mostly) are also possibilities.

 

[_invy_]

Since I'm just playing a game with France I can add few thing. +2 culture boost per city is nice and helps you get through social policies quick which always help. Good number of cities for start is 4, thats +8 culture early, and its probably best to try get these cities as early as possible.

Then basically France becomes a bit dull/boring. You can play standard peaceful game of your choice or go domination. +2 Culture is somewhat helpful for culture victory but since you need to stay small I find it a bit underwhelming

In case you pick warmongering you get better use of french unique units - go lower part of techtree for Gunpowder - Musketeers are very strong unit. As time passes pick cannons and later artillery. Artillery with +3 range helps a lot. Eventually get flight and some oil, and late in the game you can use french unique Foreign Legion infantry.