French Allies

This article is about the consulate ally in Age of Empires III. For other uses, see French.

The French are a Consulate ally in Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties available to the Chinese and Indians. Like all Consulate allies, it requires 100 export to ally with them (25 export if the Diplomatic Intrigue Home City Card was sent). Doing so grants the player +5% gathering speed for villagers and fishing boats, and +5% auto gathering speed for Haciendas.

Description

The French are a Consulate ally focused on the economy and boom and with technologies that give resource crates. The army options grant the player access to Young Guards, Gendarmes, and Horse Artillery. The time required to train these armies varies, but can be reduced by 50% with the "Good Faith Agreements" Home City Card.

Technologies

Age	Improvement	Cost	Research time	Effect
	Food Crates	150 export	30 seconds	Delivers 4 Crates of Food (400 food)
	Wood Crates	300 export		Delivers 1 Huge Cords of Wood (500 wood)
	Coin Crates	350 export		Delivers 1 Huge Chests of Coin and 1 Chests of Coin (600 coin)
Imperial Age	French Brigade	2,300 export	90 seconds	Delivers 15 Gendarmes

• The Good Faith Agreements card reduces technology cost by 40% and research time by 50%, except for Brigades, whose cost are reduced by 300 export and do not research faster.

Armies

Age	Army	Cost	Train time	Pop.	Consists of
	French Expeditionary Company	400 export	20 seconds	8	4 Young Guards
	French Expeditionary Force	800 export	40 seconds	15	3 Gendarmes 3 Young Guards
	French Expeditionary Army	1,600 export	60 seconds	30	6 Gendarmes 2 Horse Artillery

• The Good Faith Agreements Home City Card reduces army train time by 50%.

Strategy

The French serve as an economy-focused ally with their passive bonus that increases all gathering speed by 5%. For the Chinese, the priority should be the Food Crates technology, which can be used to advance to the next Age faster. This can be combined with the Summer Palace that also gives food once built, and can spawn banner armies for free. For the Indians, since the Hindu Villagers cost wood instead of food, they can use Food Crates to advance to the next Age faster. Wood Crates can be used to build a base faster, or invested in economic and military technologies or on water maps, train more Fishing Boats to improve the economy. This technology is more useful for the Indians.

In the Fortress Age, Coin Crates can be used to advance to the Industrial Age faster, or to train units, such as Arquebusiers and Meteor Hammers for the Chinese, which are useful units that together counter heavy infantry, light ranged cavalry, and artillery. For the Indians, it can be invested in Sepoys, Gurkhas, and Howdahs, which are an expensive but effective combination that together counter heavy cavalry and heavy infantry.

Young Guards can be used for an early siege. Chinese Steppe Riders and Qiang Pikemen can protect Young Guards from melee units and the Chu Ko Nu and Keshiks can provide support at distance, especially the latter, since they defeat heavy cavalry that are a great counter to Young Guards. The Chinese can upgrade Young Guards with Home City Cards. The Indians can use a similar combo with their Rajputs and Sowars as shock force and Sepoys and Gurkhas as ranged support, while Young Guards focus on destroying buildings.

In the Fortress Age, Gendarme is a powerful cavalry with a lot of hit points and great attack with Area of Effect, which is superior to any Chinese heavy cavalry unit. Combined with Arquebusiers, Steppe Riders, Keshiks, Meteor Hammers, and Flying Crows, they will be a deadly combo that can counter a wide variety of units, with Gendarmes serving as a shock force and the other units serving as support. The Arquebusiers and Flying Crows can eliminate the dangerous heavy infantry units that can cause great damage to Gendarmes. The Indian heavy cavalry have weaknesses that Gendarme does not have. Gendarmes can be combined with Sepoys, Gurkhas, Urumi Swordsmen, and Howdahs. The Gurkhas and Urumi Swordsmen can fight against heavy infantry and light ranged cavalry, which are the weaknesses of Gendarmes, while the Sepoys and Howdahs support against heavy cavalry.

Gendarmes can be even more powerful with Chinese or Indian Home City Cards and certain minor civilization technologies that affect cavalry.

In the Industrial Age, Horse Artillery can be combined with Chinese and Indian cavalry units, and with Gendarmes, to create a mobile attack force, but this combination must be used carefully if the enemy have a lot of heavy infantry units. Additionally, the Chinese can greatly improve Horse Artillery with Home City Cards.