French (Civ3)

France
Introduced in Civilization III
Leader	Joan d'Arc
Strengths (Conquests)	Commercial Industrious
Unique unit	Musketeer
Startingadvances (Conquests)	Masonry Alphabet
Aggression	1/5
Favorite government	Republic (government)
Shunned government	Monarchy (government)
Culture group	European
Production emphasis	Happiness, Trade, Culture
Colors
Default
Default
Alternate
Alternate

Back to Civilizations (Civ3)

The French people represent a civilization in Civilization III. They are led by Joan d'Arc.

The French are Commercial and Industrious. They start the game with Masonry and Alphabet and build Musketeers instead of Musketman.

Strategy

Overview

France got two great snowballing traits with Commercial & Industrious, paired with the formidable medieval defensive Unique Unit that is the Musketeer.

While they will struggle relatively more in Ancient Era than more early game focused civilizations (industrious workers remain a great bonus). They can easily stabilize and become a productive powerhouse by the Medieval Era in order to compete for whatever Victory Condition they want.

Musketeer

The Musketeer is an upgraded version of the musketman. Like musketmen, it requires saltpeter to build, but it also receives additional points of offense, defense and defensive bombard due to its skill and training. This makes the Musketeer a valuable multipurpose unit, capable of defending a city against almost any offensive threat, but also able to mobilize for offensive purposes if needed.

Unit	Attack	Defense	Moves	Bombard	Rate of Fire	Range	Cost	Resources	Notes
Musketeer	2	5	1	1	2	0	60	Saltpeter
Musketman	2	4	1	0	0	0	60	Saltpeter

Ancient Era

French Early game is a matter of patience and caution. They should extensively use their Industrious workers in order to keep the pace during expansion phase. A reasonable force of Spearmen, with the mobility a quickly built Industrious roads network provides is also important to stay safe against early game aggressions.

Since you lack any real early warmongering tools, getting Republic and switching Government should be your primary focus.

Middle Age Era

Your first priority in the Middle Age is getting Gunpower in order to gain access to the Musketeer. It is not only a formidable defensive unit than will keep you safe until the advents of Tanks & Bombers, but also a flexible way to trigger a prefectly timed Golden Age (either by using it to escort an Infantry/Bowman squad and waiting for an attack, or by striking himself weak or weakened foes).

You can use that Golden Age to build in all your cities all the costfull medieval Ameliorations that -with Commercial & Industrious- will turn them into populous productive monsters: Aqueduc, Temple, Cathedral, Library, University, Marketplace, Bank, Harbor... While securing a few Wonders. (while restraining your possibilities more, you can also perfectly use that GA to pump a lot of Knights and start your conquest earlier.)

Once all this building done and massive production & gold generation reached, every choices are available to you. You can still perform a conquest with Cavalry and then Bombers thanks to the huge production & science output your cities will have or lean your way toward a more pacific victory.

Industrial & Modern Era

TBA

Civilopedia entry

Modern France has its roots in ancient Gaul. In the 2nd century BC Rome intervened on the side of Massilia (Marseilles), a Greek colony founded in 600 BC, in its struggle against the barbarian tribes of the hinterland. The result was the formation, in 121 BC, of the Roman Provincia; between 58 and 50 BC Caesar seized the remainder. From 395 the internal problems of the Empire encouraged barbarian penetration of Transalpine Gaul. By 418, the Franks and Burgundians were established west of the Rhine, and the Visigoths had settled in Aquitaine. The period of the Merovingian and Carolingian Frankish dynasties (476-887) frames the Early Middle Ages.

Following his ascension, the first Merovingian, Clovis (481-511), consolidated the position of the Franks in northern Gaul. Clovis came to believe that his victories were due to the Christian God. Clovis' subsequent conversion assured the Frankish rulers of the support not only of the Catholic Church but of the majority of their own subjects. By the rise of the house of Valois in 1328, France was the most powerful kingdom in Europe. Its ruler could muster larger armies than rivals; he could tap enormous fiscal resources; and the king's courts maintained royal supremacy. The history of France in the Late Middle Ages is dominated by efforts of its kings to maintain their suzerainty, efforts that, despite French advantages, were long frustrated.

The Hundred Years' War was an intermittent struggle between England and France in the 14th-15th centuries over a series of dynastic disputes, including the legitimate succession to the French crown. The war's turning point was reached in 1429, when an English army was forced to raise its siege of Orléans by a relief force organized by Joan of Arc. Her insistence that only consecration at Reims could make a true king, chosen by God, led to further victories. Charles III was anointed in Reims in July 1429. By 1453, England retained only Calais, which it finally relinquished in 1558.

With the ascension of the infant Louis XIII (1610-1643), the security of the country was again threatened as factions disputed the throne. Crown and country, however, were rescued by the most controversial figure of the Bourbon dynasty: Armand-Jean du Plessis, Cardinal de Richelieu. He proved an indefatigable servant of the French crown, intent on securing absolute obedience to the monarchy and on raising its international prestige through the military prowess of the King's elite Musketeers. Under the last Bourbons, France became the industrial and commercial center of Europe.

These developments, although significant by themselves, gave rise to a still more momentous change: the French Enlightenment, a cultural transformation based on rationalism; empiricism, and an amorphous concept of freedom found in the influential writings of Rousseau (1712-78). Hence, what began in 1787 as a conflict between royal authority and aristocrats became a triangular struggle, with "the masses" opposing both absolutism and privilege. By any standard, the fall of the Bastille to the Parisian crowd was a monumental event, a seemingly miraculous triumph of the people. But the Revolution soon degenerated in a reign of terror and chaos. Unlike others before him, Napoleon terminated the bloodshed, but at the price of suppressing freedom altogether. In utter contrast to the Revolution, militarism became the defining quality of the Napoleonic regime. However, the revolutionary fervor of the French citizenry was undiminished by the Napoleonic experience, and led to further revolutions in 1830 and 1848, the latter leading to the Second Republic followed by the Second Empire (1852-1870).

Following defeat in the Franco-Prussia War, the Third Republic was formed - surviving the First World War but collapsing in the face of the German invasion in 1940. The period of the short-lived Fourth Republic (1947-59) was succeeded by the Fifth, adopted in September 1958 by popular referendum.

Cities

Main article: French cities (Civ3)

Great Leaders

Main article: List of historical figures in Civ3 § French

Military	Scientific
Napoleon	Louis Pasteur
Richelieu	Marie Curie
De Gaulle	Blaise Pascal
Charlemagne	Rene Descartes

See also

• Frank (Civ3)
• French in other games