France
Catherine de Medici (Magnificence)
Uniques and adjacency effects read from the game data.
Victory focusCulture
Kit at a glance
Magnificence Catherine throws parties instead of plots: luxuries adjacent to her Theater Squares power court festivals that convert into culture and tourism. France becomes a spectacle economy — opulence as a victory strategy.
Opening: the first 60 turns
City placement decides this game before turn 20. Settle the capital where at least one luxury sits within the first ring, then earmark a Theater Square tile that touches it; two luxuries in the same arc is the dream. Send the scout to map every luxury cluster nearby and route Settler two and three toward them rather than toward rivers or coast. Build order runs Scout, Warrior, Settler, Settler, Monument, with Astrology skipped in favor of Mining, Irrigation and Masonry so luxuries get improved and worked quickly. Civics should sprint to Drama and Poetry, since Theater Squares are the only building that makes her festivals possible, and Early Empire for the loyalty and settler card. Trade for any luxury a neighbor will part with on turn one of contact.
Unique to this civilization
Unit
Garde Impériale
Replaces Line Infantry
Technology: Military Science
Adjacency effects
No adjacency bonus — standard district rules apply.
Try Catherine de Medici (Magnificence) in the adjacency calculator →
How to play it
Place Theater Squares next to luxury tiles when founding cities — the adjacency is the whole engine. Collect every luxury you can trade for, run festival projects in the gaps, and finish with France's usual wonder-tourism flood.
Victory paths
This is a single-lane culture leader, and the lane is unusually fast. Luxury-adjacent Theater Squares give culture from the classical era on, which accelerates the civic tree, which in turn unlocks the medieval wonder window earlier than other France builds. Court Festival projects then convert luxury count into tourism during the lulls when a city has nothing better to queue, so every city with a Theater Square can contribute even without Great Works. Mid-game, the standard French wonder discount and doubled wonder tourism take over as the main source, and the festival tourism layered on top is what pushes the win into the industrial era instead of the modern one. There is no realistic domination or science branch; if an opponent forces war, defend and return to the festivals.
Synergies: city-states, wonders, policies
Anything that adds luxuries adds tourism. Zanzibar is the single best city-state on the map for her, and any trade-focused city-state that hands you gold to buy more luxuries is second. Pingala's Curator promotion and Reyna's Contractor in the festival city keep the queue funded. Aesthetics-line policies matter early: Literary Tradition for Great Writers is fine, but Charismatic Leader feeding envoys and later Free Market for luxury purchasing power do more. Goddess of Festivals is the thematic pantheon pick when three or more plantations are in reach. Colosseum next to an Entertainment Complex covers amenities so you can afford to sell duplicate luxuries rather than keep them, and Great Merchants who add luxury copies are worth chasing over Great Engineers.
Weaknesses and counters
A start with luxuries scattered one per city, or none within Theater Square reach, strips the leader down to plain France with a weaker early game. Luxury-rich terrain is often desert or tundra, and settling for adjacency can leave cities without food or production, so the festival engine stalls while the city struggles to build the Theater Square in the first place. Opponents counter her by refusing luxury trades, pillaging the resource tiles rather than the district, and by out-pacing the modern-era tourism threshold with Rock Bands. The typical mistake is spamming Court Festivals in cities that should be finishing wonders or Amphitheaters; the project is filler, not a substitute for the Theater Square building chain and its Great Work slots.
Similar civilizations
Related guides
- Culture Victory: Planning Cities for TourismHow tourism actually beats other players' culture, where Theater Squares and Great Works belong, how to protect appeal from the first settle for National Parks and Seaside Resorts, and the late-game push with trade routes, open borders, and Rock Bands.Last reviewed: 2026-10-03
- Which Civilization Should You Play? Picks by Victory TypeThree to four leader picks for each victory type — science, culture, domination, religion, and diplomacy — with the reason each one teaches that victory well, plus flexible all-rounders and a guide to matching a civilization to how you actually like to play.Last reviewed: 2026-10-03
- Early District Planning: The First 100 TurnsHow to read city sites for future adjacency, decide between settling for yields now or reserving tile clusters, and know when a planned layout should be abandoned.Last reviewed: 2026-10-03
- City-States and Envoys: Where Your Influence Should GoWhere envoys come from, how to spend the first handful, which city-state types match each victory plan, how to win and keep suzerainty against the AI, and when conquering a city-state is the right call.Last reviewed: 2026-10-03
Last reviewed: 2026-10-03