The France map
The France map uses the 96 departments of mainland France and its 13 administrative regions. It is the map for quick games: 10 minutes by default, short distances and tight borders.
The map in numbers
- 96 territories, all of value 1: each department yields 0.5 gold per second.
- 13 regions, from 2 to 13 departments.
- About 13 barbarian camps at the start (13.5% of the map).
- 3 sea links, all to Corsica.
- Rival Houses: Montfort, Lusignan, Coucy and Foix, four great lineages of medieval France.
Regions and their bonuses
Controlling every department of a region yields the bonus below, in gold per second, and multiplies the defense of each of them by 1.25. For comparison, a mine yields 4 gold per second.
| Region | Territories | Bonus (gold/s) |
|---|---|---|
| Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes | 12 | +9 |
| Bourgogne-Franche-Comté | 8 | +6 |
| Brittany | 4 | +3 |
| Centre-Val de Loire | 6 | +5 |
| Corsica | 2 | +2 |
| Grand Est | 10 | +8 |
| Hauts-de-France | 5 | +4 |
| Île-de-France | 8 | +6 |
| Normandy | 5 | +4 |
| Nouvelle-Aquitaine | 12 | +9 |
| Occitania | 13 | +10 |
| Pays de la Loire | 5 | +4 |
| Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur | 6 | +5 |
The most profitable regions to complete are the small ones: Brittany (4 departments for +3), Hauts-de-France, Normandy and Pays de la Loire (5 departments for +4). With 2 departments for +2, Corsica has the best ratio, but it can only be reached by sea. Conversely, Occitania (+10) and Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes (+9) pay big but take long to lock down, and a single loss is enough to break the bonus.
Map quirks
Corsica
Corse-du-Sud and Haute-Corse touch no mainland department. They are linked by sea to Var and Alpes-Maritimes: these links count as borders and are crossed normally. Both Corsican departments cannot be chosen as a start. Once taken, they form a small fortress: an opponent can only get in through two departments of Provence.
Paris and its inner suburbs
Paris, Hauts-de-Seine, Seine-Saint-Denis and Val-de-Marne are tiny on the map. Marches there are very short, which makes Île-de-France easy to fill but also hard to defend: a neighbor who grabs just one of these departments costs you the regional bonus. To select them, zoom in with the mouse wheel or the + and − buttons.
Coastal departments
Brittany, the Cotentin or the Landes have few neighbors. A territory with few borders is easy to defend, but expands slowly. A start in the Centre has many neighbors, many free lands to take, and many threats.
Recommended starts
- Brittany: four departments, a quick bonus, a short land border, only to the east, towards Normandy and Pays de la Loire. Ideal for beginners.
- Hauts-de-France or Normandy: 5-department regions, coasts to the north, a +4 bonus reachable in the first minutes.
- Centre-Val de Loire: six departments at the heart of the map, for an aggressive style. You touch almost every region, but also almost every House.
Whatever your start, rival Houses settle as far as possible from you and from each other, and no barbarian camp is placed within two departments of a capital. You therefore always have a few free lands to take around you.
Which duration to pick?
The France map is tuned for 10 minutes, but all three durations work on it. In 5 minutes, mines barely have time to pay off: everything is about expanding into free lands and one or two barracks. In 10 minutes, the classic balance between economy and army works, and a complete region often makes the difference. In 15 minutes, level 3 upgrades and wars between Houses take over: it is the duration where the most castles fall. For a first game, keep 10 minutes on Normal, with all four rival Houses.
Want a longer challenge? Try the Europe map.