These guides are designed to help players who are new to Civ but still interested in Vox Populi, familiar with Civ but new to Vox Populi, or even those well versed in Vox Populi who just want to see if there's anything they didn't know about a particular civilization. I am actually a big fan of Zigzagzigal's Civ guide series, and it really helped me learn a lot about the game, and I wanted to bring a similar experience for fans of the Vox Populi or Community Balance Patch modpack. For those interested in the modpack it can be downloaded here[forums.civfanatics.com]

Anyways, without further ado, onto the French!

Before I go into depth with this guide, here's an explanation of some terminology I'll be using throughout for the sake of newer players.

Beelining - Focusing on obtaining a technology early by only researching technologies needed to research it and no others. For example, to beeline Bronze Working, you'd research Mining and Bronze Working and nothing else until Bronze Working was finished.
Finisher - The bonus for completing a Social Policy tree (e.g. +33% Great Scientist rate and +25% growth in all cities from rationalism.)
GWAM - Great Writers, Artists and Musicians. These are the three types of Great People who can make Great Works, a major source of tourism for cultural Civs.
Opener - The bonus for unlocking a Social Policy tree (e.g. +25% Great Person Rate and +100% construction of guilds in Artistry)
Tall Empire - A low number of cities with a high population each.
UA - Unique Ability - the unique thing a Civilization has which doesn't need to be built.
UB - Unique Building - A replacement for a normal building that can only be built and used by one Civilization.
UI - Unique Improvement - A tile improvement that can be made by workers that doesn't replace any other improvement that can only be made by a single civilization
UU - Unique Unit - A replacement for a normal unit that can only be built by one Civilization or provided by militaristic City-States when allied.
Uniques - Collective name for Unique Abilities, Units, Buildings, Tile Improvements and Great People
Wide Empire - A high number of cities with a low population each.
XP - Experience Points - Get enough and you'll level up your unit, giving you the ability to heal your unit or get a promotion.

France has no start bias. Nothing France has interacts with terrain so that's fine


+10% for each subsequent attack against a single target during a turn

When you conquer a City, gain Great Artist, Writer, and Musician Points in your capital, and a temporary boost to & in every city




A melee unit



Positive One-Off Changes

• Higher combat strength (29 instead of 24)
  
• Obsoletes at Replaceable Parts rather than Rifling

Positive Stay on Upgrade Changes

• +15% combat strength when attacking, ignores zone of control, +1 movement(Lightning Warfare)

These scores are merely my personal opinions from playing and examining this Civ, you may find other uses for the French uniques that make you disagree with a certain ranking


France is one of the strongest domination civs in the game. They are near unmatched in their ability to focus fire to take out single units and even cities. Their military bonuses even work pretty well on defense.
They are about as good at culture as they are at domination. They get tons of culture from conquering cities, as well as a lot of gwams, and their UI also gives lots of culture that translates well into tourism.
Their UI also gives them a bit of food, and their UA gives a nice bit of production. France doesn't have any science bonuses though.
The French UI does give some minor gold, but overall with a large army they still might struggle, and they also have no diplomatic bonuses.
While France may have no religious bonuses and absolutely benefits from going to early war, they don't have any uniques in the early game they have to rush, so they can afford to spend a bit of time founding a religion.

Note the Multi-Attack Bonus

The first part of the French UA can be easily applied once you start your very first fight, presumably with Barbarians. Each time you attack a unit, the next attack you make gets a stacking 10% bonus against that unit until the end of the turn. This allows France to apply pressure to a single unit like nobody else.



Against most units of similar tech level to you, the highest you will likely be able to achieve on a single unit is 30 or 40% before they die, but that is still a substantial combat boost. Use ranged units to build up your damage bonus, then, assuming the unit still lives, send in a melee unit for the final kill, and due to the extra strength, they will take either kill where they wouldn't have, or will take quite a bit less damage then normal.



While extremely useful against units, the true power of this ability is shown against cities. Cities have way more health, and often more defense then units, so it takes way more attacks to take them down. France completely cuts down the time needed to take out cities, as, with enough units of course, France can easily wrack up over 100% bonus damage on a city, maybe even more once siege units get 3 range. Even with a smaller army, France can still apply much more force to a single unit or city then any other civ can hope to achieve.



If having an unrivaled ability to conquer cities and kill single units wasn't enough, France also gets a ton of benefits when they conquer a city. First of is enough GWAM points to get halfway towards earning each type of GWAM. Every single time you conquer a city. That alone is insane, but there is still more, you also get a 40% boost to culture and production for 4 turns after conquering a city empire wide.


10% of 27 is 2.7, multiply that by 4 to get 40% of 27, which is 10.8, which would be displayed as 10 in Civ V

The French Chateaux are an excellent addition to the French Culture game. But early on, they actually serve moreso as slightly better farms that also give gold and culture, which is a nice plus because besides the temporary production boost from their UA France has no infrastructure bonuses. Chateaux however do have some somewhat strict placement requirements, so you need to make sure to plan accordingly. Anywhere near luxuries you will want to try to plan how to get the most chateaux out of the area, as they need to be both adjacent to a luxury and not to eachother. Just keep this in mind and it shouldn't prove too difficult to get the most out of chateaux, especially lots of tourism once you get flight.

One interesting thing to note about the Chateau is that it holds a decent amount of similarity to the Moroccan Kasbah. I give a brief comparison of the two in that guide, so if you want to see how I feel about the two check out the Moroccan guide

Fun fact, while the French term 'mousquetaire' originally just meant an infantryman with a musket, the word evolved away from the weapon to refer to elite members of select French royal cavalry companies

France's UA incentivizes the use of mounted and ranged/siege units in order to apply the most pressure to a single tile, as ranged units can hit from two or more tiles away, allowing for more units to effect a tile, and mounted units can move after attacking, allowing new units to take its place. The Musketeer complicates this because it is, in fact, quite good. It is a full 5 points stronger then the tercio it replaces, making it the unquestionable strongest unit of the renaissance era. Yes Lancers have more combat strength, but the Musketeer has Formation I, giving it almost 39 strength while fighting them. On top of all that, Musketeers also have Lightning Warfare, giving them +15% strength when attacking(around 33 combat strength, or a disgusting 43 against mounted units) as well as an extra point of movement and the ability to ignore zone of control. This in effect makes Musketeers into mounted units, so France truly can dominate with any type of unit


Ladies and gentleman, we have The Three Musketeers

France takes a pretty straightforward policy path for a cultural warmonger. Authority into Artistry and then finishing with Imperialism


Opener: Little bit of production to help early unit and building construction, plus easier barbarians and some culture out of them and any other units you kill to boot

Dominance: Get some science out of your kills too. The healing will allow your final kill units to be even better off once they advance forward

Tribute: The extra yields on occasion, whether from border growth or bullying city states, are nice

Imperium: You're bound to be conquering a lot of cities, so this will probably add up to several techs and a few policies

Discipline: France lacks strengths in two of the most important things for a warmonger, gold and happiness. This policy helps patch up both problems.

Honor: Should help add some units from time to time.

Finisher: Sometimes a quick purchased unit is exactly what you need.


Opener: Guilds normally take a lot of production, and now they don't!

Humanism: With your early GWAMs this will prove to be a solid amount of yields

Refinement: This should give quite a bit of happiness, which should help offset any conquering you may or may not be doing

National Treasure: Take whatever you need, maybe a great general if you don't already have enough, but otherwise whatever

Heritage: Some Golden Age points, although you'll probably be conquering more wonders then you're building

Cultural Exchange: Even more culture from golden ages never hurt.

Finisher: If you plan to go for the Culture Victory, then this will give another leg up if you can get those extra archaeological sites.


Opener: Your Great Generals now have a lot more mobility. Plus if you need to conquer someone overseas, faster navies can help with that.

Colonialism: You'll have lots of monopolies by now, get some more use out of them.

Regimental Tradition: Faster Great General and Admiral generation, as well as making them stronger, good to have on the land or on the sea.

Martial Law: You'll definitely have plenty of puppet cities, and conquered ones too. Both of them will be less of a burden now.

Exploitation: Some extra yields on almost every tile of the empire, and the expanded upgrade positions has some niche use

Civilizing Mission: Gold from conquering cities, and production in said conquered cities, everything you need to push the front line.

Finisher: A stronger navy, and a new way to use air units to help manage unhappiness.

France is perfectly suited to take advantage of Autocracy


Military-Industrial Complex: Cheaper upgrades which is good as your economy is pretty weak, and science on your chateaux, which is even better as your science is even weaker

Elite Forces: New units start better, old units get better quicker, all you could want for a world-conquering horde

New World Order: Warmongers need every bonus they can get to reduce unhappiness, and France is no exception

Futurism(Culture): Keep conquering cities and you'll keep building tourism, simple as that


Lightning Warfare: France is likely to have both gun and mounted/armor units, so this is a big help to them.

Syndicalism(Culture): Make sure you aren't building too many corporate franchises in your territory, and this can bump up your tourism a good bit.

Martial Spirit: An amazing bonus to clean up your last conquest or two, but it is a temporary boost. If you still have more then two civs to conquer, it might be better to postpone this, but it is always worth getting when the moment is right.


Cult of Personality(Culture): Keep a war going for as long as possible, preferably forever, and this will add a ton of tourism.

Air Supremacy: Free Airports in every city means that you almost don't need a navy as long as you have a city on every continent. Also makes air units quicker to build if you need to.

Statue of Zeus: You will be conquering tons of cities, so an extra 15% strength attacking them is very welcome

Temple of Artemis: Ranged units are very useful to France, so building them faster is a must


Oracle: Almost a free tech and social policy, no reason not to try for it

Parthenon: You are actually one of the few civs who can reliably theme this wonder either right when you build it or very soon after, so do that

Terracotta Army: You already get culture from conquering cities, why not get it from units too


Alhambra(Authority Only): Makes your already stellar mounted units more stellar, and your amazing culture more amazing


Globe Theatre: A good start to get your theming bonuses going, plus some golden age points can't hurt

Sistine Chapel: An extra 10% culture is always welcome

Uffizi: This is normally a hard wonder to theme, but for you? Child's play


Brandenburg Gate: The extra xp is nice, but you really want this for the extra supply cap

Eiffel Tower: Ok this wonder isn't really that good for you, but come on, you're France how can you not build this?

Louvre(Artistry Only): One of the hardest wonders to theme in the game. Well if you weren't French at any rate

Neuschwanstein: Happiness is probably a big problem for you. This won't fix it on it's own but it definitely helps


Cristo Redentor: A ton of tourism, this is a wonder you can't afford to pass up

Prora(Autocracy Only): A big help towards your unhappiness.


Pentagon(Imperialism Only): More air units, and better air units, what more could you ask for?


CERN: Two free techs is two free techs, can't say no to that

CN Tower: More tourism from every source of tourism, perfect to finish out your culture win

Great Firewall: Doesn't do much for you, but if another civ gets it they become significantly harder to culturally convert

France is a civ with some seemingly simple bonuses and a pretty straightforward gameplan, but their uniques hold a surprising amount of depth, and even if not entirely misused can be held back from their full potential


France's strongest ability is to take down single units much faster then any other civ. For most battles as any civ you do want to try to focus fire as much as you can, but it is especially important, and rewarded, as France


France may not explicitly state they specialize in ranged units, but their stacking damage is best able to be built by ranged units. Melee units, and especially mounted units are still very useful and important, but ranged units are France's best asset


The other part of your UA benefits you from taking out cities. So do that. Even if the city is trash, or not in your way, take it anyways, you can always raze it. The only two reasons you shouldn't conquer a city as France is if the defenses of the city are too strong, or the city is just ludicrously out of the way.


Chateaux are a great source of culture, and a solid source of food and money. You do need some planning to use them to their fullest potential though, so make sure you figure out how to best make them work in your land

France is a terrifying military force, with nearly as dominant a culture. However, there are a few things they struggle with that could be their downfall.


France is going to focus a lot on mounted and ranged units, but will tend to neglect melee units, at least until they get their musketeers. This means that France is quite vulnerable to mounted rushes themselves. On the defense, France has little advantage in combat. So if France is attacking you, you need to be aggressively fighting and trying to kill their units, attempting to fortify a defensive position won't work against France like it would against most civs.

As for the other half of their UA, don't forward settle France, you are just handing them free culture, GWAM points and production. Also make sure to keep any border cities against France well defended. Yes this is important for fighting any warmonger, but France especially benefits from taking your cities


Chateaux have somewhat strict placement requirements, so the less luxuries France has the less they can get out of their UI. Don't settle any territory that is close to France that you can't defend well, but if it is land close to your own core lands you should make sure to get it fast.


Musketeers are a very scary unit, as nothing from their era can truly fight them. One thing to note though is that France is unlikely to build many longswordsman earlier in the game, so they will likely build most of their Musketeers from scratch, meaning they will take some time to amass.


Early-Game Warmongers: Mounted units are your best bet. Focus down France's ranged units and they pose a much lesser threat

Mid-Game Warmongers: A poor time to attack France(Unless you are the Zulu). But if you have to, have a combo of ranged units to take out Musketeers, and melee units to defend them from both Musketeers and mounted units.

Late-Game Warmongers: Bring plenty of anti-air units, France gets a lot of use out of air units as they are an even better way to apply the stacking damage bonus. Air units of your own will be good to pick off the other French ranged units

Cultural Players: France has decent production, great culture, and if you are outcompeting them they might just come and kill you. Your best bet is to try to get some good science going, allowing you to have better units then France, and get ahead of them on building wonders.

Scientific Players: Use your tech lead to stay up to date on units and defensive buildings, and you should be able to repel France. If you are so inclined, use your tech lead to steal a few cultural wonders from France too

Diplomatic Players: Global Peace Accords strikes a pretty big blow to France's war efforts. If you really want to hit them hard Travel Ban hurts them a lot too, but passing Science Funding actually means very little to France, as they can just generate GWAMs by capturing cities

These guide cover every civ in the game, and can be used as a quick reference

• Civ Summaries

• America (Domination/Science/Culture)
  
• Arabia (Culture/Science)
  
• Assyria (Science/Domination)
  
• Austria (Diplomacy/Culture)
  
• The Aztecs (Domination/Science)
  
• Babylon (Science)
  
• Brazil (Culture)
  
• Byzantium (All)
  
• Carthage (Domination/Diplomacy)
  
• The Celts (Domination/Culture/Science)
  
• China (Domination/Culture)
  
• Denmark (Domination)
  
• Egypt (Culture)
  
• England (Domination/Diplomacy)
  
• Ethiopia (Science)
  
• Germany (Diplomacy/Science)
  
• Greece (Domination/Diplomacy/Culture)
  
• The Huns (Domination)
  
• The Inca (Science/Domination)
  
• India (Science/Culture)
  
• Indonesia (Domination/Culture/Science)
  
• The Iroquois (Domination)
  
• Japan (Domination/Culture)
  
• Korea (Science/Domination)
  
• The Maya (Science/Domination)
  
• Mongolia (Domination)
  
• Morocco (Culture/Diplomacy)
  
• The Netherlands (Diplomacy/Domination)
  
• The Ottomans (Domination/Science)
  
• Persia(Domination/Culture)
  
• Poland (Domination)
  
• Polynesia (Culture)
  
• Portugal (Science/Diplomacy)
  
• Rome (Domination/Science)
  
• Russia (Science/Domination)
  
• The Shoshone (Domination/Science/Culture)
  
• Siam (Diplomacy/Science/Culture)
  
• Songhai (Domination)
  
• Spain (Domination/Culture)
  
• Sweden (Domination)
  
• Venice (Diplomacy/Culture/Domination)
  
• The Zulus (Domination)