French (Civ6)

The French people represent a civilization in Civilization VI. They are led by Black Queen Catherine de Medici, under whom their default colors are blue and light yellow; Magnificence Catherine de Medici, under whom their default colors are white and olive; and Eleanor of Aquitaine (with Gathering Storm), under whom their default colors are pink and light yellow.
The French civilization ability is Grand Tour, which gives them +20% towards Medieval, Renaissance, and Industrial era wonders and doubles from wonders of any era. Their unique unit is the Garde Impériale (which replaces the Line Infantry), and their unique tile improvement is the Château.
== Strategy ==
Starting bias: Tier 3 towards Rivers
France, under either Eleanor or Catherine, is still quite focused on a Cultural Victory. As a matter of fact, this is one of the simplest and most straightforward cultural civilizations, especially when led by Catherine de Medici, so it is suitable for newer players to try out and get used to the Cultural Victory path.
=== Grand Tour ===
==== Extra towards mid-game Wonders ====
Another wonder-focused ability, Grand Tour shares more similarities with Egypt's Iteru than with Qin Shi Huang's First Emperor, as it gives a percentage to cities' when they are constructing wonders. However, Grand Tour comes with its own restrictions as well as advantages: its bonus only applies to Medieval to Industrial wonders, but there is no restriction of wonder placement for the bonus to kick in. Since France focuses on a cultural game, a few wonders they should prioritize in this time are:
* Great Zimbabwe: Not a straightforward cultural wonder, but no one would scoff at an extra , especially when combined with Great Merchants like Sarah Breedlove and Melitta Bentz (this Wonder also helps with competing in the Great Merchant race) plus the Online Communities policy card.
* Forbidden City: One of the best wonders in the game, so versatile that it is a brilliant addition that any empire can use.
* Taj Mahal: An alright wonder but pretty good with the French. Earning Golden Ages is easier with it, allowing the French to earn the Dedication Wish You Were Here a bit more consistently. This Dedication allows a total of 150% extra from Wonders. However, if you believe that you are in the front seat and can earn Golden Ages quite easily, ignore this Wonder.
* Hermitage: A purely cultural wonder that helps earn Great Artists faster. This Wonder is weak, so don't go out of your way for it. The fact that you build Theater Squares en masse means you will earn Great Artists pretty quickly already. Its only selling point is the 4 slots of Great Works of Art, but Wonders are non-themeable for everyone except for Kristina, so it is not the best investment for a whopping 1450 . Only consider this Wonder if you are able to build it in your main cultural hub, where the Governor with the Curator promotion is assigned (Reyna in Rise and Fall or Pingala in Gathering Storm).
* Bolshoi Theater: An even stronger cultural wonder, as it has a rare Great Work of Music slot, and helps earn Great Musicians faster as well. If you can only build either the Hermitage or the Bolshoi Theater, prioritize the Bolshoi Theater - Great Musicians and the Great Work of Music slot are generally more powerful later in the game.
* Big Ben: A boost to your treasury is always welcome. Most importantly, it gives you an extra Economic policy slot, where all of the -boosting policies can be put. An absolute must, even situationally more important than the purely cultural wonders. And of course, it makes recruiting Sarah Breedlove and Melitta Bentz easier.
* Oxford University and Ruhr Valley: These two wonders do not directly lead you to a Cultural Victory, but are worth considering if you want a strong scientific backup route. If you have time and , try to build them. They are arguably more useful than the Hermitage, even when you try to push for a Cultural Victory, as they help you advance scientifically faster and build wonders like the Eiffel Tower, Golden Gate Bridge, and Sydney Opera House when Grand Tour's bonus is no longer active. Oxford University also offers +2 Great Works of Writing slots, which is nice, but not game-changing by any means.
Of course, straightforward civilizations like the French often meet their downfall when their only preferred victory path is hindered, so it is always useful to have a backup. The best backup routes for the French are scientific (focus on Ruhr Valley and Oxford University, as outlined above) and diplomatic (focus on Országház and Statue of Liberty), considering the passive and defensive nature of cultural civilizations on the whole and the Garde Impériale in particular. Religious Victory is weird, since having a religion is nice and France can build midgame religious wonders but they don't want to build too many Holy Sites, and most importantly, spreading your religion can provoke unwanted animosity when all you want to do is to develop your in peace.
==== Extra from Wonders ====
All wonders have a base yield of 2, which increases by 1 every time you enter a new era through technology or civic research (this is independent of the current world era), so early wonders always have higher potential than later wonders. For example, the Great Bath, an Ancient Era wonder, will start generating 2 per turn when built; however, after you research the first technology or civic of the Classical Era, it will generate 3 per turn instead, increasing to 4 per turn when a Medieval technology or civic is researched, and so on. If you successfully build a wonder of a past era, this has no effect on its yield, so if the Great Bath is built when you have already researched a Classical Era technology or civic, it still generates 3 per turn like normal. Therefore, this ability helps French mid-game wonders keep up with the output of earlier wonders, and even exceed these Ancient and Classical Era wonders just a few eras later. All French wonders will start generating 4 per turn and gain a +2 bonus with each passing era, making their wonder pursuit even more worthwhile on their path to a Cultural Victory.
=== Catherine's Flying Squadron (Black Queen Catherine) ===
==== Free Spy with Castles ====
Espionage is the name of the game when Catherine de Medici leads the French, and she is truly the queen at it. Spies are getting stronger and more vital than ever, as every expansion adds at least one or two new tricks into their repertoire, opening up their possibilities to pretty much, well, anything. Having the first possible Spy in the game is actually much more important than it sounds, as it is synonymous to the fact that there is no counterplay to your espionage besides sheer luck. The first Spy a standard civilization can have is unlocked with Diplomatic Service, a Renaissance Era civic. This means that -focused civilizations (e.g., Korea, Australia, Arabia, Sumeria) unlock their first Spy long after you have yours, making them prime targets from which to steal tech boosts. You can pretty much warrant your Scientific Victory backup just by stealing from your neighbors. You have a competitor in gathering Great Works? Have a Spy steal from them. A civilization is dominating in relationships with city-states? Send a Spy to Fabricate Scandals. Your neighbor is having Loyalty issues? Neutralize Governors and Foment Unrest can bring their cities under your control faster. Someone is attempting to venture into space? A Spy with the Rocket Scientist promotion can quickly solve the problem. Just want to be an incessant annoyance and as mean as possible? Run Recruit Partisans on repeat. The possibilities are many. This is a truly terrifying ability whose impact is often underrated.
==== Spies start with a free ====
Not only is Catherine able to earn the first Spy in the game at Castles and have more Spies than anyone else, her Spies start with a . This promotion allows her Spies to save a few turns of running Gain Sources, or have to delay harder missions (e.g., Steal Great Works, Disrupt Rocketry, Steal Tech Boost) to undertake easier, less important missions to level up (e.g., Foment Unrest, Siphon Funds). Thus, Catherine will still be tough to beat well after other civilizations have Spies of their own.
Because of this, the Intelligence Agency is the obvious choice for Catherine de Medici. The free Spy will also receive a free , and it will make her high capability at espionage even greater.
==== Extra Diplomatic Visibility ====
Other cultural civilizations are afraid of warmongers, as they are often ill-equipped to defend themselves. Not France, especially under Catherine: against the AI, the Gossip system will keep them well-informed about what their neighbors are up to. Also, Catherine's extensive Spy network and the military implications of the flat extra level of Diplomatic Visibility ensure that the French army will almost always have the upper hand from intelligence against their invaders.
=== Catherine's Magnificences (Magnificence Catherine) ===
==== Can perform Court Festivals in cities with Theater Squares ====
The true power of this ability lies very much in the Court Festival project. It takes into account every Luxury Catherine currently owns, including the ones traded to her and the ones in her tributary city-states. When finished, the project grants 50 and 50 for every copy of a Luxury. The burst of applies to every civilization in the game, including ones she has not met yet, which can allow her to win a Cultural Victory extremely quickly on a Large or Huge map with a lot of players even without meeting everyone. Amassing Luxuries, therefore, is the name of the game for Catherine. The only requirement for this project is the Theater Square district, so you will want it to be built as soon as possible in every city. In order to keep the 40% district discount for as long as possible, just do not research technologies that unlock a new district for as long as you can. (Read more here.) 
==== Bonus from Luxury Resources if next to Theater Squares or Châteaux ====
The crux of playing a Cultural Victory as Magnificence Catherine is to achieve it in the quickest way possible, so that extra on improved Luxuries is a nice touch, but you do not need to go out of your way to maximize it. It is important you collect as many types of Luxuries as you can; building Theater Squares next to them is much less important. The extra also provides for Mines and Plantations that improve Luxury Resources. 
=== Court of Love (Eleanor of Aquitaine) ===
Court of Love is a weird ability since it is impossible to evaluate its power level in a vacuum: it ranges from completely useless to totally broken. The reason for this is that this ability, in nature, is very similar to a game of conquest. It is all about snowballing: once you are able to conquer one neighbor city, it will trigger a domino effect to every nearby one. The main difference between Court of Love and a traditional warmongering ability is that it is utterly passive, and you need a whole lot of luck for certain factors to align perfectly in your favor to get this snowball rolling. In a true warmongering situation, on the other hand, you can just amass your army and use strategies to run your neighbors over (which can be totally controlled by you).
The following factors affect this ability's efficacy:
* How fast you can accrue Great Works.
* Your neighbor needs to be in a worse Age than you (or at least the same Age). While you can control what Age you will receive (for the most parts), you cannot decide that for the enemy.
* Population size of the neighboring cities. The bigger they are, the harder it is to Loyalty-flip them. If you happen to spawn next to civilizations with a tendency of going tall (Khmer, India, etc.), you are just out of luck.
* In order to successfully flip one city to trigger a domino effect, you will need to surround the enemy empire with your cities, which is considered as a transgression and may trigger an unwanted war even before your Loyalty pressure starts to kick in. As a cultural civilization, you most likely just want to stay away from war since you do not like building a large army.
* Who your neighbors are is also an important factor. There are civilizations that come with an innate bonus to Loyalty that making loyalty flipping their cities onerous, or downright impossible. They are England (when playing as French Eleanor, with their +4 Loyalty from the Royal Navy Dockyard), the Netherlands (+1 Loyalty from s), Persia (+5 Loyalty from occupied cities with a garrisoned unit), Spain (+2 Loyalty to cities on foreign continents with a Mission next to the City Center), and the Zulus (+3 Loyalty in cities with a garrisoned unit, +5 Loyalty if cities garrisoned by a Corps/Army). The worst neighbors you can have as Eleanor, however, are Phoenicia and the Ottomans, since both of these civilizations have the ability to negate Loyalty pressure completely.
* This ability can only work in single player games, and works wonders when it does. In multiplayer games, human players are much more intelligent in terms of dealing with Loyalty pressure; they are less bound by warmongering penalties or , so they will just wage war on you if your empire poses a threat to theirs. The best you can get out of this ability is to force other players to put Governors where they do not want to balance the Loyalty pressure, or to spread Governor titles out to many Governors instead of spending many titles on one.
Nonetheless, there are certain measures you can take - not enough to ensure the odds will always be in your favor, but they can definitely help your peaceful conquest:
* Build Entertainment Complexes and run Bread and Circuses. This is a kind of high risk, high reward play. When you surround enemy cities with your own cities in which Entertainment Complexes are built, you can run Bread and Circuses at the same time in all of them to exert a large wave of Loyalty pressure. If it works, great, your snowball has started to roll; if it doesn't, well, basically you shoot yourself in the foot. Entertainment Complexes are still the weakest specialty district in the game, and while you may want to build only one for the Colosseum, having to expend not only to build them but to run their equally unimpactful projects without getting anything in return can just ruin your gameplay and set you back a ton. Definitely not something you would want to do in a multiplayer game since, again, human players can deal with this with relative ease. In single player, only attempt this when you are in or anticipate a better Age than your neighbor, or they have forward-settled next to you and now their cities are dwindling. Never attempt this when their cities are full Loyalty and exerting a high amount of pressure, as it is suicidal.
* Your most valuable asset: Spies. Neutralize Governor and Foment Unrest are the two missions to focus on. Aim for Diplomatic Service and build the Intelligence Agency, as this is the fastest way to earn the first 2 Spies; send both of them to a nearby city and run both of these missions together. Foment Unrest can be run on repeat. This is more effective when the enemy has a worse Age than you, most ideally if they are in a Dark Age and you are in a Golden Age. If your Age is not favorable to you, it is better to run other traditional missions, like Steal Great Works or Steal Tech Boosts; otherwise it will feel like a Sisyphean task.
* Always try for a Golden Age. This goes without saying, since when you cannot control what Age your neighbor will get, you can (relatively) control what Age you will get, and it is important for Eleanor to be in a Golden Age, since the worst case scenario, the enemy may just have a similar age, not better, so your Great Work loyalty pressure can kick in. The Taj Mahal can be a great Wonder, as it is supported by the Grand Tour ability and helps you earn Golden Ages reliably.
* Earn Great Works (duh!). This goes without saying as well, since this is the core of your power. However, consider this paradox: Genghis Khan can be as "cultured" as Eleanor if he builds Theater Squares en masse, meaning Eleanor has an interesting incentive to accrue Great Works, yet has absolutely no upper hand in getting them compared to any non-cultural power. Therefore, any edge you can create for yourself in the race of earning is greatly appreciated. The easiest combo is Ancestral Hall + Colonization to go wide, plus the City Patron Goddess (preferably) or Divine Spark pantheon and build a Theater Square first and foremost in every city. Of course, you can go for other more extravagant strategies like Holy Sites + Oracle + Divine Spark + Pingala (Grants promotion), which is also extremely strong if you can get your hands on the Oracle. City Patron Goddess is more reliable than the Divine Spark strategy because you do not have to rely on the possibility of getting a certain Wonder, and City Patron Goddess is unlikely to be picked up by the AI; also, faster Theater Square construction benefits all types of Great Works, not just Great Works of Writing. Or if you cannot earn Great Works yourself, you can buy them off from the AI at a reasonable price.
Overall, Eleanor of Aquitaine is not as good of a leader as Catherine de Medici, as her ability is too unreliable in single player and can be borderline useless in multiplayer. It requires either a risky setup or too many lucky factors to align.
=== Château ===
The Château has improved greatly since the April 2021 Update but still manages to be somewhat underwhelming as a unique improvement. It is stuck in a spot similar to other improvements with lax restrictions: it can be built almost anywhere, but going overboard with it can stunt the city's growth and productivity, as it provides no , , or . The arrival of this improvement complicates the matter even further, since it is unlocked around the same time France needs to focus on to make use of their civilization ability.
The Château functions similarly to the Sphinx: both provide , , and Appeal bonuses, can be built on most terrain (including Floodplains), can't be built adjacent to an identical improvement, and get bonuses from adjacent wonders. The Château, however, is unlocked later than the Sphinx, provides 1 less Appeal in Gathering Storm, provides rather than , and has resource-adjacency restriction, but has multiple wonder-adjacency bonus like a Theater Square and provides more and , which works better towards a Cultural Victory. Magnificence Catherine is a little better at using this improvement since all her improved luxury resources next to a Château will receive 2 ; however, the catch here is that Magnificence Catherine's expensive unique project makes her even more -hungry than Black Queen Catherine or Eleanor, so she has even more things to consider when deciding if it is wise to fill all empty tiles with Châteaux.
Later in the game when is easy to come by (and especially after unlocking Flight), the Château is worth building on any tile with both a resource and either a wonder or River. However, it isn't strong enough to win a game on its own - you will need to focus on France's other bonuses for that.
=== Garde Impériale ===
France is a -driven civilization, and as everyone knows you have to be able to defend yourself to win. Since the Garde Impériale gets a combat bonus when fighting on your home continent, it makes an amazing defensive troop. The best strategy for these guys is to make one for each city and a few extra as support. If anyone tries to attack you, spread out your extra troops to the areas most in need of help and make sure your is well defended. Every time you successfully kill an enemy, you will gain points which will allow you to recruit a Great General to aid you in defense.
Of course, the Garde Impériale's special combat bonus is active not only in your lands, but on your entire home continent. This gives the French player some...interesting opportunities for expansion. An aggressive neighbor aspiring to smash the weak culturally-oriented civ that only thinks about wonders and Great Works will hardly expect a devastating retaliatory strike with a newly-earned Great General!
=== Victory Types ===
Under either Catherine or Eleanor, France is a cultural civilization through and through, despite some slight differences in playstyle. You should have yourself a backup route just in case your cultural path is hindered. This backup route can be greatly facilitated by the Wonders you choose to build in the midgame.
=== Counter Strategy ===
France is very much defined by which leader they have; they have three (counting Catherine's personas separately) to choose from, and although they all aim toward a Cultural Victory, how they go there has a lot of variations.
==== Catherine de Medici (Black Queen) ====
Arguably the most reliable choice of leaders, the Black Queen relies heavily on espionage to get things done. In the Medieval Era/Renaissance Era when Spies are unlocked, you can never truly match her espionage prowess since she will have more Spies than you, and they all start with a free . When you find out Catherine is in your game, you should make some changes to how you settle cities and place s. Closely settled cities with a lot of adjacent s make counterespionage a lot easier. At this point in the game, the one Catherine is most likely to target is the Theater Square, so if you have any Great Works, you had better send a Spy to protect them.
Since Spies gain s quickly and easily, Black Queen Catherine's head start with every Spy becomes less of an advantage as time goes by. Considering that she doesn't have any bonus towards Spies and France isn't a powerhouse, every French Spy you kill is a huge setback for her. It's even better if you manage to capture one instead: captured Spies still count toward her total and can't be sent on missions, so her espionage power suffers as long as you don't release them. The Ethiopia Pack even introduced the Diplomatic Quarter, a brand new dedicated to counterespionage that makes this job even easier.
==== Catherine de Medici (Magnificence) ====
Magnificence Catherine is only powerful because of her unique project, since the extra from developed Luxury tiles is meaningful but in no way game-changing. Furthermore, the Court Festival project relies heavily on how many Luxury Resources she can get her hands on, including developed Luxuries in her territory, Luxuries from her tributary city-states, and Luxuries traded to her. The only counterplay you have for this project is to deny Catherine's access to as many Luxuries as you can, since completing this project affects even civilizations which Catherine hasn't met. Fortunately, this isn't too hard to do: settling next to her to prevent her from expanding, competing with her for Suzerainty of or just straight up conquering her tributary city-states, not trading Luxuries with her, and pillaging her Luxuries all work very well. You can also limit the number of trading partners Catherine has by declaring a Joint War on her.
==== Eleanor of Aquitaine ====
Eleanor is the least reliable leader choice for France, since her bonus is rather random and way too passive. There isn't much she can do if things don't go the way she plans. If you're far away from Eleanor, she's the least of your problems, since her bonus won't do anything to you. If you spawn next to her, try your best to not give her anytime to establish her foothold. Eleanor doesn't have any bonus towards earning Great Works faster than a non-cultural civilization, so the early game is crucial to her. Most importantly, her defensive capabilities don't kick in until much later into the game, so feel free to wage wars on her to force her to build armies instead of infrastructure. Not to mention, human players (i.e., you) are much better at dealing with Loyalty pressure, so assigning Governors, counterespionage, or just the good old war declaration whenever her Loyalty pressure poses a threat can put a complete stop to Eleanor's power.
== Civilopedia entry ==
== Cities ==
== Citizens ==
Males 	Females 	Modern males	Modern females
Alban 	Aalis 	Antoine 	Babette
Benoit 	Adélaide 	Armand 	Delphine
Christophe	Blanche 	Claude 	Gabrielle
Corentin 	Céleste 	Dacey 	Honoré
Déodat 	Daphné 	Jerome 	Linette
Émeric 	Élise 	Marcel 	Noelle
Judicael 	Geneviève	Orvil 	Odette
Laurent 	Jocelyne 	Percival 	Renée
Renaud 	Solange 	Tristan 	Severin
Yves 	Tiphaine 	Verne 	Yevette
 	Charlotte	 	
 	Isabelle 	 	
== Trivia ==
* The French civilization's symbol is the fleur-de-lis, which has a long history of use in French heraldry.
* The French civilization ability is named after the traditional trip through Europe undertaken mainly by young aristocratic men in the 17th and 18th centuries, which is considered a precursor for present-day tourism.
* France is also playable in The Black Death, in which it is led by King Philip VI; and the War Machine scenario, in which it is led by the French High Command.
==Soundtrack==
== Gallery ==
File:Civ6 Garde Imperiale in game.jpg|The Garde Impériale, France's unique unit
File:Civ 6 Chateau.jpg|The Château, France's unique improvement
File:French capital.JPG|French capital in Medieval Era
== Videos ==
thumb|center|300px|First Look: France
== Related achievements ==
== See also ==
* French (Civ6)/The Black Death
* French (Civ6)/War Machine
* French in other games
ru:Франция (Civ6)
Category:French