Welcome back to France IA Redux, the game that takes place in France where the French people are.



16 votes this time around, with 7 of them going to West Germany! 4 votes for the Gauls, and 2 for New France (de Champlain), while Monaco, Napoleon, and de Medici all have 1.



We start the part off with a capital capture by the Visigoths, capturing Aurillac from Rome. Rome is looking fractured, as they're split in at least 3 separate empire regions, even if Neapolis' borders touch Narbo's.

New France captured Stafford from the Anglo-Saxons, removing them from the continent. Its not like the Anglo-Saxons were going to make a cross-Channel empire work, but its sad to see them be removed.

The Visigoths go to peace with Rome, with Rome giving Narbo to the Visigoths to get it. In the background West Germany builds the Kremlin.

We're finally here! Sancho's Navarre has declared war on Pelagius' Asturias. Asturias has more troops on the border, Navarre's troops are of higher quality.



Offscreen, the Franks build the Louvre.

Soon after their declaration of war, Navarre captures Santander, former Spanish capital. The Navarran Navy is pulling its weight, it should be able to capture Leon as well pretty easily. In the south Seville is under siege by a large Asturian force.

The Papal States adopt autocracy, as there is peace in southeastern France, for the moment.

Louis XI and the Gauls finally go to peace. This war was devastating for Louis, as he lost all of his former lands taken from the Franks and Burgundy. They should take this moment to rearm and maybe conquer their southern neighbours.

In Spain, Seville falls to the Asutian army that had it under attack. Santander has flipped a few times, and as predicted Leon is under attack from Navarre's Navy. Flanders now has The Bomb.

The major event of this turn however is the West German invasion of the Franks. West Germany has their unique infantry replacement, the Bundesgrenzshutz, which gains +5% combat strength in friendly territory for every bordering civ that has a different ideology. We can see that West Germany's superior military should make easy work of the Franks riflemen. Except for the 3 pikemen that Adenauer is sending in for some reason.

There goes Leon, however I don't think that Navarre will be able to hold onto it for long as its right in the path of Asturian reinforcements from the capital. Seville is under attack from a Navarran recapturing force as well, and Santander is a battleground for sure.

The Visigoths have a ball of a time, and declare war against Gallia and Andorra. Andorra has an up to date military, except for their artillery pieces. Unfortunately for them the missed damage of better artillery may well cost them in the long run. Louis XI also declares war on Gallia, perhaps hoping to capture some cities to be stronger in the future against Gaul. The Hainaut go to peace with people that don't matter.

Catherine de Medici now has The Bomb, and a lot of high population cities. I'm not sure that they've got a lot of production, but with enough specialist slots even those cities should be capable of production. De Champlain declares war on Monaco for moral support.

Huh, quick detour to the Channel to see that West Germany has an admiral for some reason. Probably one of the wonders they built gave them great admiral points. Asturias also declares war on Andorra, while the Hainaut and Papal States go to peace.

Return to the West German invasion of the Franks to see that Luxembourg has fallen, and that Metz and Soissons are about to be surrounded and taking damage, respectively. Monaco vs Andorra, should be exciting.

3 turns later, both cities fall to West Germany reducing the Franks to the city-state of Treves.

Tourism is a big thing in Francois' France, with 2 cities in the top 5.

We go to the Pyrenees to see that modern artillery did make the difference between Andorra and the Visigoths' military: Escaldes has fallen to the Visigoths, but Andorra may flip it yet.

Navarre goes Freedom for some strange reason. Santander looks secured, as does Seville and you can see that Madrid has flipped in the past. Leon is still flipping as well, and Oviedo is under fire from Navarran frigates but it isn't a coastal city so there's no likelihood of it falling.

We look away for just a second (in actuality: 4 turns) to see that West Germany has captured Treves from the Franks.



Charlemagne of the Franks (Rank: 24/40) had a good run of it. He warred multiple times with all of his neighbours: Luxembourg, the HRE, the Carolingians, Louis XI, Georges clemenceau, the Gauls, and probably some others I'm forgetting as well. While warring is good, he never captured many cities in his wars, averaging 6 cities, which is good in early game but not good enough when next to the powerhouse that is West Germany and their many times that. War against the HRE weakened the Franks, costing them 2 cities, which led the West Germans to sense weakness and take them out.

The Visigoths are taking the fight to their neighbours, currently they're at war with Rome, Gallia, and Andorra, and they've just added the Papal States to the list. Not much should happen as a result due to the mountains in the border region, but its the thought that counts, probably. They convince de Champlain and Francois to join in for the fun of it, and Switzerland and the HRE go to peace again.



Next turn, Andorra will declare on the Papal States as well.

You know, I forgot that de Medici was at war with Napoleon... Good thing that she didn't, as she's managed to capture Chartres and prevented Napoleon from recapturing the city by going to peace.



Napoleon of France (Rank: 23/40) didn't live up to his Mediterranean AI reputation this game, as he died instead of being one of the victors. He warred against the Gauls, where he flipped Alesia long enough to distract the Gauls from his northern holdings. He never developed a strong empire, and I had to go to part 3 to see his empire at its height. This game was a disappointment for Napoleon, however he did last much longer than he should have due to good defensive play until his opponents out-teched him.

It wasn't obvious from the map, and I didn't visit southern Andorra, but they finally got around to building a coastal city just in time for Monaco to capture it. Andorra has managed to recapture Escaldes however, but it looks like it'll flip back in just a second.



If you look really hard, you can see the Papal States going on the offensive against the Visigoths around Narbo. It isn't much, but at least they're showing up to the fight.



Offscreen Asturias adopts Autocracy.

West Germany completes the Great Firewall and has an impressive empire of high production and population cities. I can see why they're dominating the polls.

Monaco and the Papal States are at war, and its about time I show you it. Andorra has moved to surround Rome (the city, not the civ) and it look slike there isn't a Papal soldier anywhere around.



The Gauls develop The Bomb.

Two short turns later, Rome falls (again, the city, not the civ). Narbo has a bit of damage from the Papal States' offensive, but they should probably focus on defending their empire and not fighting through mountains to attempt to capture someone else's.

Four turns later Avignon falls as well. How embarrassing. At this point both of the Papal States' cities are captured cities, one from the Burgundians and one from Gallia.



In the north of this shot, Clermont-Ferrand is taking damage from Louis XI's army.

Speaking of The Bomb, de Champlain develops it as well... Andorra and Monaco go to peace, with Andorra retaining their coastal city. I think.

Hey look, Louis' forces have done it. They've trekked through Gaul to capture Gallia's capital. Well done. This reduces Gallia to Gergovia, unfortunately for them.

Holy cow, I can't believe I forgot about developments in Spain. The war is over now, but It looks like Pravia fell when Rome did and that Cangas de Onis was a peace treaty giveaway. Good timing on the peace deal Sancho, it looks like Leon was about to flip back to Asturias.



Francois increases culture by building the Sydney Opera House.

Adenauer really like his military, huh. Impressive scores up here, including, somehow and against all odds, Rome (the civ, not the city). If they have the 6th biggest military, how are the doing so badly against the Visigoths, who have the 9th largest and are engaged in 4 wars?

Oof, poor Gallia and Papal States, things are looking bad down here. I like how Sancho (17th military) was beating up on Asturias (20th military).

Holy cow, that's why Adenauer is leading the military score, look at all of those paratroopers... And a few of those 'planes' are actually atomic bombs, so its really scary to not be West German at this point.

Happy with her recent addition of Chartres, de Medici declares war on Louis XI, hoping to take Clermont-Ferrand. This'll be a complicated war as both warring powers will need to go through the Gauls' territory to get to the front. Thankfully, Louis XI reacts well to this declaration and goes to peace with Gallia, while Francois goes to peace with the decimated Papal States and Sancho builds the Statue of Liberty, granting him extra production from his specialists, probably one of the best wonders to get for raw production.

Upon building the Statue, Francois and the Visigoths declare war on Sancho. This will be an interesting war, as San Sebastian is now the only Navarran city above the Pyrenees (Toulon was captured in one turn, a very impressive feat). Strasbourg will likely fall, if Sancho can get his navy to do to it what it did to Leon and Santander. For the Visigoths, they're now in a two front war, which might overstretch their forces. Either way, Francois is set to make some gains here as long as he has open borders with the Visigoths.

Seeing Louis XI distracted with Catherine de Medici, Caesar declares war on him in an attempt to capture Clermont-Ferrand. Its a good strategy, but Julius didn't think that Louis could just capture Neapolis and then have an open route to the rest of the Roman empire.

San Sebastian falls to Francois forces, and he's successfully defending Strasbourg from Navarre's lack of attack. This will limit the Visigoths' involvement in the war, as they'll have to wade through the French units and the Pyrenees to get to Navarre. The combined Franco-Visigothic fleet is working wonders on the under-teched Navarran Navy.

Rome has managed to capture Clermont-Ferrand, former capital of Gallia, while Louis XI's forces approach Neapolis. Unfortunately for both Caesar and de Medici, the Roman capture of Clermont-Ferrand completely blocks off de Medici's forces from fighting Louis' forces, so the brunt of the war is now on Rome.

Andorra has finally upgraded their artillery into, well, artillery. This should help weaken the Visigothic advance on their capital hopefully. If I was Roger, I would stop hoarding troops near Engordany and have them fight the Visigoths already. On top of that, Andorra should really use The Bomb that they just developed on the Visigoths.



You may have noticed that Arras has fallen to Monaco. This doesn't eliminate the Papal States, as they still have Borbetomagus, but I was hopeful that it would.

The Anglo-Saxon navy consists of 7 ships, none of which are near the front. I can't blame them though, as one of the New French navy units is the missile cruiser, which is doing a lot of damage to Wareham.

Oops, well, there goes Andorra la Vella. The city doesn't look like it'll flip back, as a couple of artillery block the path to the city from the infantry in the south. Encamp[Sheep] likely won't hold out either, as the forces there are weak. If Andorra wants to survive, they should try for peace and hide behind the Pyrenees for as long as they can.

A massive coalition arranges itself against Navare as Bilbao is captured by Francois. Gallia, Flanders, Cornwall, Louis XI, the Papal States, and Switzerland all team up to fight Sancho. None of them really matter, unless Cornwall or Flanders send a navy, but the likelihood of that happening is so slim its barely worth mentioning, even though I just did... Wait, that's not how that works...

The Anglo-Saxons go to peace with New France, with quite the impressive peace deal for New France. The Anglo-Saxons have given away Chester, Warwick, and Wareham to secure that peace. Good peace dealing de Champlain.



Charles de Gaulle, the Anglo-Saxons, adn Monaco join in against Navarre.

The Visigoths go to peace with Monaco, with Encamp in their pocket. A good war for the Visigoths, they've solidified their hold of southern France north of the Pyrenees. They go to peace with the Papal States too, but, eh, whatever.

Monaco develops nukes as Asturias declares war on Navarre in an attempt to regain former territories. Leon and Cangas de Onis should fall pretty quickly, at least in theory. Bilbao is still under Francois' control and his navy is taking the fight to Santander, along with the Cornish and de Gaulle's navies.

Holy cow, Cornwall of all people captures Santander, and as he isn't at war with anyone or open borders, the city's borders expel everyone else. Leon returns to Asturian control and a wall of Visigothic paratrooopers land east of Pamplona.

Gergovia is captured by the Visigoths eliminating Gallia, finally. They also develop The Bomb, and Borbetomagus is deep in the red while Neapolis is in the yellow.



Vercingetorix of Gallia (Rank: 22/40) created a long thin empire which was quickly taken advantage of. While reduced to two cities, Rome out-settled him settling a city on the other side of Gallia sealing the Gallians' fate. This final killing is a mercy, as Gallia didn't have a good game, but at least they settled the city that eventually got Petra.

Monaco managed to capture Borbetomagus the turn after, and instead of keeping it revived Burgundia. This won't affect their ranking, as they have their old tech levels and such, so they're effectively a non-player in the game.



Innocent III's Papal States (Rank: 21/40) are notable for warring with their neighbours a lot to no gain and founding the largest religion in the game. That's about it honestly. Their sparring with Louis XI and Monaco was meaningless their entire history, and to be frank, I have no problems that they were finally eliminated as they were an annoyance...

We see Cangas de Onis fall to red under the Asturian advance, as New France builds the CN Tower and West Germany builds the Pentagon.

Thankfully for Sancho, he goes to peace with the Visigoths. Unfortunately for him, he flipped Cangas de Onis, tried to burn it, and lost it again. Francois is still at war with him and closing in quickly to Pamplona. I like how you can see the two Cornish GWI attacking Madrid, its just unfortunate that they won't be able to take the city. You can also see a Spanish... uh... Scout upgrade... Look upon Franco's final resting place.

Francois has high tourism in his capital, dang.

Oh no, there goes Pamplona. That infantry won't be able to flip it either

And there goes Madrid. Francois' conquest of Navarre is going very well, he's greatly expanded his empire doing so.

Return to the outside world as, somehow, Gallia captures Borbetomagus from Burgundia... I'm ridiculously impressed. Sancho recaptures his capital in the background. Its interesting that Louis XI is having trouble capturing Neapolis due to the UU of the Papal States.



The ranking of Gallia will be updated, as they were eliminated 7 slides ago.



New Rankings for those affected: Papal States are now rank 22.

Asturias managed to recapture Pravia, well done. I don't see them continuing to make major progress though, as a 2 tile passage isn't a good path to maneuver and army down.

Hey look, these two are at war again thanks to an offscreen declaration of war 4 turns ago. Looks like the HRE is losing this time around, but whatever. West German units spread into northern France (Louis XI).

Surprise, a look at Cornwall, probably the most ignored nation in the game, apart from this episode as they actually did something. A bunch of people go to peace with Sancho.

Well, RIP Gallia 2.0. Monaco shouldn't have too difficult a time taking the city if they can get to it.

Well, guess I was wrong. Asturias captures Seville and eliminates Navarre. Meanwhile, Louis XI and de Medici go to peace.



Sancho of Navarre (Rank: 21/40) should have been 20th, were it not for some black magic... He was effectively trapped by geopolitics. A strong Spain to his west blocked expansion that way until he teamed up with Asturias to eliminate Franco not long ago and then warred successfully against his former ally. The Pyrenees should have blocked him into Iberia, not that that stopped him much. He settled the southern coast of the Bay of Biscay but foolishly left a space for Francois to settle to split his empire in two. After many turns of doing sod all, Francois rolled over in his sleep and accidentally conquered the place with some help from the Visigoths, Asturias, and Cornwall of all nations. I'm a bit sad to see them go, as I liked their colour-scheme and their UU had a cool emblem.

Oh FFS... Burgundia is back, with an unupdated rank... Remember what I said last time Gallia was eliminated? Good. Their rank is 20th, and you can add that they were resurrected.

Hah, ok, that's pretty funny. Napoleon thinks that his 3 units can capture Borbetomagus. That's a good one. In more pressing news, the Visigoths declare war on the newly enlarged state of Monaco. Those mountains around Arras will hopefully pull their weight in defending Monaco.



Offscreen, the HRE develops The Bomb, as does Louis XI.

What did I literally just say??? The complete opposite of this... Arras falls to the Visigoths after 5 whole turns of fighting, but it'll flip a few times offscreen. Also, Cornwall gets The Bomb.



How is Neapolis still Roman Louis?

Francois leads the tech race, closely followed by de Champlain. De Medici and Adenauer follow up in joint third.



Speaking of de Medici and Adenauer, they've both declared war on de Gaulla offscreen.

Things are looking bad down here, it might be time to focus on science a bit lads.

Things go from eh to EH? for the Hainaut as Flanders, Cornwall, Rome, Switzerland, de Gaulle, and Franncois declare war on them. The southwestern front has many citadels but looks quiet due to New French peacekeepers, but Mons is alread in the yellow from Flemish air attacks.

There goes Lyon, fallen to the Flemish. Mons is at 0hp and Flanders has a melee unit nearby so expect it to fall.



Francois builds Jurassic Park, a Future Worlds v6 wonder where zoos provide +2 science, gold, and happiness. Until Designer Lifeforms is researched, dinosaurs may randomly appear as barbarian units around the empire. Neat.

Speaking of Future World wonders, de Champlain builds the Shanghai World Financial Center, which grants him 1500 gold and +2 gold from merchants. Not that deity level AIs need even more gold.



Some Future World units around as well, Airborne Forces have the winged emblem and are stronger but less jumpy paratroopers, while Drone UAVs are the drone-looking emblems. They do scout stuff with a ranged attack.

Mons falls to Flanders, leaving only Chavonne, former capital of Georges Clemenceau. The Anglo-Saxons develop The Bomb.





Thanks a bunch for reading this, I really appreciate it, and would love it if you voted in this poll to determine who you think will win the game: We'll end here, with the Roman Empire developing The Bomb and West Germany building the Enrichment Center, giving +1 science for every citizen in the city that produced it. Its totally a Portal reference. Asturias, Monaco, and Louis XI will also declare war on the Hainaut.Thanks a bunch for reading this, I really appreciate it, and would love it if you voted in this poll to determine who you think will win the game: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScu97hls0v8tmjRyDSYuk31vKlz9rHzed6A9_SbtUcdCZL8nA/viewform

Stats time! Gaul lead the population game, followed by the usual suspects.

Yeah yeah, Burgundia exists as well again. Richelieu's France is the true loser here.

West Germany dominates production however, with 500 more than their closest rival.

I don't expect this list to be too different from the loest population rankings to be honest.

Gaul is catching up to West Germany, only 200k behind.

I'm including Burgundia in this list as they still exist (for now), but the true loser here is Richelieu's France again, in 19th.

Tech, I know we saw it not long ago, but Francois leads the race by 2 techs.