France - A Geographic Overview and Opening Considerations (Part 1)

For this post, we will quickly go over the fifteen territories that make up France and what they mean to you.

Wait Vlad, what? I count six.

You, my friend, count wrong.

France, circa 1901 (colourised)

These are the 15 centers that you as the French player are concerned about in 1901. Breaching of these centers must be dealt with either tactically or diplomatically because loss of your control over them almost certainly means your doom.

We'll begin with the obvious:

1. Paris

Paris is one of your starting dots, the only landlocked one. In exchange for this limitation is the dot most capable of supporting the other two, as well as the only dot capable of defending anywhere along your main land frontier. I'd say its importance is easily understood by new players. It is also the most flexible dot early in the game. It can move to Picardy to guarantee an adjacency to Belgium in Fall 1901 and thus giving you some influence on Belgium's destiny. It can go to Burgundy for a more threatening move (or to bounce Munich, either announced or not). Or down to Gascony in order to pick up one of the Iberian dots. Only Paris --> Brest is a dud in Spring 1901.

When I first started playing Diplomacy, the general consensus was (A) Paris --> Bur with an announced bounce was the best opening, with (A) Paris --> Bur, (A) Mar S Paris --> Bur as extremely hostile to Germany and a de facto declaration of war. For a long time I preferred (A) Paris to Gascony and then in the fall I would convoy it to Portugal, as an excuse to leave my Fleet in the Mid Atlantic (more on this later) going into spring 1902.

Nowadays, supporting Paris to Burgundy I believe is the most popular move, and is seen as slightly hostile but not unreasonably so to Germany. Perhaps the meta will change again. Point is though, (A) Paris has lots of very reasonable, solid moves available to it out the gate that can be part of your overall game plan. And none of them commit you to war with anyone else in 1902, nor do they commit you to grabbing or defending a dot in the fall. Very versatile.

2. Brest

Brest is your fleet base north of the main stalemate line. It is also able to rapidly reinforce the south by way of Brest --> MAO --> WES/Spain (sc). 

I remember early on thinking Brest really had no choice but to bounce in English Channel in the spring and then either take a second stab at ENG or move to MAO in order to free Brest for a build. But the reality is most English players want two adjacencies to Norway as well as a chance to convoy to the continent, so English Channel you can usually work out a demilitarized zone ("DMZ"). If you get tricked it puts you on the back foot, but usually not catastrophically so.

Brest --> Picardy isn't bad, but it is risky. First of all, it needs Paris to be in Burgundy to have real teeth, and that means in the spring you've used all three units to have two on Burgundy. Usually there are better options. Two, if England has gone to the Channel then it's impossible to prevent him from going to MAO, and that is a catastrophe.

Brest --> Gascony is never an opening move and even in the rest of the game is extremely niche, and usually the result of France losing against an invader and having nowhere else to go. Gascony is really, really good for an army, but terrible for a fleet. So try to keep a fleet out of Gascony if you can.

Brest --> MAO is the single strongest naval move for France, all else being equal. If I had to define Brest's primary 'role' for the French player, it is ensuring complete French dominance of MAO.

3. Marseille

Marseille is your fleet base south of the stalemate line. It is also probably your 'secondary' army build, although because of the geography of the board it becomes possible that you will need to station a garrison in Marseille permanently, in which case it becomes useless as a build location. Your primary goal for Marseille is not to lose it, but your second goal is to keep it open.

Opening, Mar has some versatility. It can capture Spain or Portugal. It can support Paris to Burgundy and still capture Spain. It can bounce Munich in Burgundy (or move itself) while Paris goes to Picardy. Long term it can hold a southern land invasion by itself indefinitely, although that has the problem mentioned above or effectively removing it as a build, which can really hurt if you need fleets in the Med especially.

4. Picardy

Picardy is the least important of the three non-dot territories of Metropolitan France. That's not to say that you want an enemy unit there or that it can't be useful to be there yourself, but generally speaking if you have no choice but to have a foreign unit in France, somewhere, you'd prefer it to be Picardy. It's a transit channel between Paris and Belgium.

5. Burgundy

Burgundy's importance is clear to newbies. It borders two dots the French player wants. It protects two dots the French player starts with. But probably the one thing about Burgundy most newbie's don't pick up on is its most important element, it is a sword that if taken by Germany is pointed right at France's jugular... Gascony.

6. Gascony

Arguably the most important province in Metropolitan France, from the viewpoint of the invader. It touches all three home dots and Spain. An army in Gascony can defend against Med fleets without danger of being dislodged or its support cut. If you are in an alliance with England but especially Germany, as soon as you begin to move forward in earnest, I highly recommend keeping a reserve unit back to protect from stabs, and keeping that unit in Gascony. As an added bonus, Gascony is extremely non-threatening for a reserve defender (as opposed to an English-German alliance where England sits in the North Sea). 

As a new player, you simply cannot afford to underestimate the value Gascony has to the integrity of your national defense. If a German player successfully takes Burgundy (especially in the spring), your first reaction will be to cover your dots. Sometimes you have to guess this way. But an experienced German player is almost certainly going to ignore your dots even going into the fall and take a stab at Gascony, because from there it sits in the back of your line helping its friends tear you apart from the inside. Brutal.

7. Belgium

No French player can afford to not have a plan about what to do about Belgium. If you take it, England is likely going to feel snubbed (even if he wasn't planning on taking it in 1901) and for Germany it is going to be an obvious first target going into 1902. On the other hand, you will often find it to be intolerable for it to be in German hands, and only slightly less odious in English ones. Whether you treat Belgium as a territory to be seized as soon as you can, one to be grabbed and then bartered with, or a tool to offer right away to England or Germany to get them onside, you must come up with a plan - you can't ignore it.

Geographically, it's a bit of an odd duck. It's usually surrounded so there's always a danger of an army there being dislodged or even popped. A fleet is theoretically useful as it touches the Channel and North Sea, but getting a fleet there is difficult, and even if you do it's likely on the front line, which means any support it could theoretically give is almost certainly going to be cut, in practice.

My personal takeaway is early on Belgium is better used to alienate Germany and England against each other. Take it if you can and use it for a year to get some extra muscle, but don't commit too much to holding it early on. Be flexible. If it unites Germany and England against you, it's not worth it.

8. Switzerland

You can't enter it. Doesn't matter, you must learn to control it. Switzerland is the southwest cornerstone of the main stalemate line - the line which divides the 34 dots into two groups of 17-17 in the east/west, from which a properly positioned force can never be dislodged by the other side. Crossing this line and holding a center on the other side of it is a necessary condition for a solo victory. As France, you have territory - and even more crucially, dots - already right on the line. For you, Switzerland is the opportunity to provide both Burgundy and Marseille with an indestructible flank... or it is an obstacle preventing growth into the south and center of the map. Understanding the large and small stalemates formed around Switzerland as well as the composition of rival forces in the area is instrumental for France from 1901. It's not the most important thing you are dealing with right away, but it should always be somewhat on your mind. Especially if you are considering an early move against Italy (less common, but not impossible).

9. Spain

Your most important dot to capture. Unlike Belgium, control of Spain is existentially important, as it is your secure path between Brest and Marseille. An army here is fine. A fleet here is amazing, especially south coast. The only reason most of the time to ever be on North Coast is if you're afraid of antagonizing Italy (and if Italy is antagonized by south coast Spain, your Diplomacy needs work), or because Italy or Turkey are busting through the med and the only place you could get a defender was in North Coast. Seriously, do not let anyone hornswoggle you into going to North Coast if you don't absolutely have to.

10. Portugal

Your second unconditional dot to capture. Portugal is a bit weird and can be integral in the late game. Basically, only two places can attack Portugal - MAO and Spain. And as MAO is a sea territory that means only one army can ever attack Portugal. The long and the short of it is a fleet in Portugal supporting a fleet in MAO is extremely difficult to crack given what most Turks or Italians will have on hand in practice. It is also (in games where you care about surviving over elimination) a place of last refuge, as an army in Portugal can usually last forever if Spain and MAO are divided between two rivals, as only with one supporting the other can they eliminate you. But for early game, for the most part once you've captured Portugal you leave and will forget about it unless things are going terrible wrong.

11. Piedmont

If it's a bit cheeky including neutral dots as part of 'France', it's downright outrageous including the sovereign starting territory of another player. But as France you've got to consider Piedmont right off the bat. That said, you usually think about it diplomatically, not tactically. Sometimes Italy will make a cheeky push right off the bat into Piedmont to try and force you to guess on Marseille, but if they don't do this (or if they do and either blink or guess wrong), then you're probably at most just going to stare at each other over the border until the midgame, when Italy has either conquered a chunk of Austria or sailed over and conquered a chunk of Turkey - or both.

The trick then is just to convince Italy to stay out of it. Which, if you offer to extend the DMZ southward, through LYO, WES, and even North Africa, most Italy's will be happy with for the first few years of the game. The trick then is knowing when Italy is about to breach this and being ready to repel, or else knowing when to breach the deal yourself before Italy is able to do anything about it. Remember though that there's a second chokepoint in TYS, so if you're going to stab Italy you've got another barrier to get over if you're going to do meaningful damage to him.

Still, a newbie France who successfully just gets a diagonal DMZ through the med is doing very well for himself. I'd say make sure though to lay out the following caveats.

DMZ in Piedmont, LYO, WES, North Africa does not include south coast of Spain, nor does it prevent fleet builds in Marseille. I would always frame these things as anti-English. Ie, poor old France might need to build two fleets in a year and then zip them into the Atlantic to fight the beer swilling savages, so Italy must understand that a fleet in Mar or Spa (sc) is anti-English and never ever ever ever anti-Italian.

Part 2 will cover the four sea territories that are an integral part of the French player's homeland (homesea?)