French 150 Attack
Written by HalfLotus
This is a strategy for my new favorite nation, the French. I like all of the French bonuses, they allow for aggressive play from the start. Lumber bonuses are awesome, great for booming, and you can go offensive early with raiding or siege and still have plenty of lumber for Unis, Mines, Markets, etc. Their siege bonuses (cheaper, faster, faster to build), free early wagon, and UUs are great. And the free general, what a fun nation.
This is basically a modified 150...there are dozens of ways to do a 150 and this is one of them. If someone has written this strat before, then by all means give them credit for inventing it.
I go with an early Classical: Sci, Civ, Comm, then Class. at around three minutes. A very early Classical gives you significant raiding initiative. The opponent is forced think about preparing raid defenses (in under 4 minutes) before he can raid you. Also you start gathering metal sooner for siege and heavy cav UUs. Build a market but not a temple, temples are defensive buildings which you shouldn't need early on with this strat.
At Classical build one Uni and a scholar or two (with consideration to knowledge rares), you want just enough knowledge to get Commerce 2 asap, the rest of your wealth goes toward heavy cav and some archers. Build two mines, but only fill up one of them (maybe 4-7 miners depending on rares). You can afford a second mine with the extra timber, and the metal completion bonus will help pay for siege and more HC.
Immediately after Commerce 2 is Military 1 (you will be at the pop cap by now). Max resources and build a stable and barracks. Build some cav for raid defense. You want to avoid building towers (metal/wealth) so you can get more HC. Better to make several cav and place them at key spots; you should be able to handle any raiding. If you are certain the opponent won't raid, go HAs and raid him.
Next go Military 2, build a siege factory, 2-4 catas, and as many HC as you can afford. Make several infantry as well. Archers and HI are preferred, though you might need to buy metal to afford a few HI, do so if you have enough wealth. Upgrade the infantry and head out when you have two catas. Keep sending units as you can afford them. In this game I came with 3 LI, 3 archers, 4 cavalry, 2 catas and wagon at 7:30 minutes.
So the basic build is Science, Civic, Commerce, Classical, Commerce 2, Military 1, Military 2. The early Classical and stable keep you safe from raiding, and the cheaper siege and free early wagon should make taking a city easy. Once you take a city, fortify it and plan on going Medieval soon (get more scholars) so you have large cities for defense. Always press your military advantage as long as you have it, go after his military buildings or another city, don't sit around. The healing wagon lets you stay aggressive.
It is in the Infidels strategy catalogue archives as teh original site (RoN Universe) is no more. Unfortunately, we are having a change to our hosting connection so our site is down for about a week at the moment.