Medieval Kingdoms Total War: Kingdom of France Preview news

The current king of France, Philip II Capet, is also known as Augustus, and is truly deserving of that title. He has been a remarkable ruler who has turned France into arguably the most powerful nation in Christendom. By promoting the foundation of guilds of all kinds, the prosperity of France's budding merchant class has increased from year to year, and their taxes have enriched the royal treasury. A happy effect of this patronage is that many French architect and mason guilds have produced the finest examples of Gothic cathedrals in Christendom, and have transferred the architectural lessons learned to other building projects.

Philip II is an astute general, having united the cantankerous French lords behind his rule, and led them to glory against the Saracens in Palestine, and against the English closer to home. He has taken the measure of the current king of England, John I, and found him wanting. The English once owned more land in France than the French, but through brilliant campaigns Philip has routed the English at almost every turn, and recaptured much territory that had been taken by stronger English kings.

French knights have taken the concept of chivalry and gallantry farther than any other nation in Christendom, and their knights are commonly accepted to be the finest on earth. This focus on nobility has made the nobles more powerful overall, and they keep a substantial amount of tax wealth for themselves, to maintain their fighting potential at its peak. This focus on knighthood has also made the French army more imbalanced than their neighbors, with infantry roles suffering as a result. The power of the French knights, however, should be more than enough to see them through most encounters on the field of battle.

King Philip II is the most powerful monarch in Christendom at present, and his reign has been nothing if not successful. But he may yet be a victim of that success. A powerful alliance has been forged against him consisting of England, the Holy Roman Empire, and the rebellious county of Flanders. With three powerful forces arrayed against him, Philip will need to use every ounce of strength from himself and his subjects to see off these foes and establish the power of France once and for all.

Units:

A couple of the units are designed for very late game and you can only have a relatively small number of them. Also the blues on some of the units will have their saturation turned down a bit, don't worry.

Spear Militia:



Crossbow Militia:



Voulge Militia:



Scouts:



Spear Serjeants:

Serjeants:

Crossbow Serjeants:

Voulge Serjeants:



Mounted Serjeants:



Knightly Retinue:



Foot Knightly Retinue:



Heavy Voulge Serjeants:



Pavisiers:



Heavy Crossbow Serjeants:



Men at Arms:



Foot Men at Arms:



Halberdiers:



Scot's Guard:



Grendarmes:



French King (Early and Late):





Like before, I made other noble versions of some of the units, using other notable nobles coat of arms as a baseline. Also if there are some inconsistent units from the albums below, that's just me flubbing up, all the mini rosters will have the same units.

Noble Mini Rosters:

I think that's it from me. Next preview you'll see from me will be about the Duchy of Burgundy, the County of Toulouse and Provence! Also the faction icon might change due to it being from slightly later. We are aware of that difference.