Shame you can't see all the portuguese empire there.
Now here's my little analise of the game (remember this is all from my point of view and it took bloody long to write so read it!
):
Austria: Promising start and was doing well against France and OE until chosing the wrong choice (imo) in the Karl V event, giving Northern Italy to spain. From there onwards it was all down hill, almost dieing to rebels and the OE and then becoming the bitch of France. Towards the end of the game Austria started giving the Turks a good kicking and finished off on a high.
Brandenburg: Poor Brandenburg was dead before it even started. Losing to AI forces, it went under and was annexed by Austria.
Denmark:A very good start, eating up north germany together with Sweden and then colonizing parts of NA. Unfortunatly this was paid for dearly when she lost her colonial empire to England and then being beaten again badly to Sweden. After the Great Northern War (Denmark - Poland - Austria - Russia vs Sweden) Denmark was vassalized and later annexed.
England:A fairly passive England in this game, not really going far on the colonization scale compared to Spain, Portugal or even Sweden. Having being AI or "vnetted" for a few sessions she found herself losing ground to the Danish in NA. But after beating them soundly twice (with Dutch and Portuguese help) England became a world power, easily controling the Northern atlantic.
France: Called the uber power from 1600 onwards, France was the centre of most conflicts from the start up until the Napoelonic wars. Having vassalized Spain early on and gaining Spanish and old Austrian Italian turf, France became
the power to beat after the waxing of the Ottoman Empire. After being jumped on twice by the Naval Alliance, France still managed the beat Spain - Portugal - Ottoman Empire - England in the endgame, with help from Sweden and Austria.
Holland: Unfortunatly a weak NL, caused by a strong Portugal and Sweden having taken most of the good colonizable spots and then being crushed by France. Holland although took part in the Danish wars, holding off the Danish and Swedish armies in Germany while England and Portugal moved to support. Apart from this though, Holland took little part in world politics. In the banging of France, Holland was also targetted by Portugal and Sweden and lost German holdings to Sweden and Belguim to Portugal, also causing a break up of the East african holdings if not for a while.
Ottoman Empire: The uber power of the early game. Unfortunatly this caused the fall of the Empire and the rising of France. Having pushed Austria within inches of death, the Ottomans were at the height of their power. Only after trying to balance the BoP upset with the Austria - France alliance with help from Spain did the Turks start their decline. After this deciding war, she pulled away slightly from Europe, helping the Portuguese in the East. Every so often the Ottomans were DoWed by the Austrians, but these wars were "small" and only concluded in small teritorial loses. The empire didn't take part in the French Banging, but came to the rescue of Spain during the Napoelonic wars.
Poland: Always the country to feel sorry for in this game. Always in the wars, always getting beaten up. It was finally beaten in the Great Northen War, and later annexed by Austria after being half eaten by Sweden.
Portugal:A strongish Portugal in this game, caused by a weaker England and Holland. Portugal always was the one to try and be neutral and skipped around alliances 24/7. Having being "robbed" of Malacca by Sweden, Portugal warred many times against Sweden controlling Malacca for a few years before losing it again to Sweden. After this Portugal withdrew from the European scene, concentrating on China and India. Unfortunatly in a war of morals Portugal was on the wrong side of Spain and France and was lain waste to. After this set back, she made up by buying French islands and then helping Spain and England in French banging and winning a few more. Dutch Belguim was also conquored only to be lost to the French in the napoelonic wars.
Russia: Russia in this game wasn't extremely active, except the early wars with the Ottoman Empire, the grabbing of Shanghai and the Great Northern war and other Swedish wars, Russia sat back and watched Europe kill it's self.
Spain: AKA the money collector. After a very bad start, being vassalized by France and then France getting to Mexico first... well it was a lot to make up. Spain cruised along though for a while, losing to France every 10 years. Spain finally teamed up with the Ottomans to beat France and Austria around 1600 but lost, losing Italy. After this with a new player, Spain went from strength to strength, by allying with France, unbalancing the BoP until she saw the light. But this only after seeing Portugal, Sweden and the OE defeated. Spain organized the banging of France, taking bits of Italy but all that effort was lost when beaten by France, and would of been totally overrun without the help of the turks.
Sweden: The most succesful power in this game, staying uber and not being targetted for it. Even when she was banged Sweden came through and kicked ass. All this mainly helped by someone (who will stay nameafonzo) selling Portuguese maps to the Swedes. With these Indonesia was annexed and colonized. Malacca was fought over with the portuguese too, but even being out-shiped Sweden still came out on top. Sweden after "helping" Denmark out a bit turned on them and had vassalized them (even with help from Portugal, Denmark still lost
). Sweden was banged by Russia, Austria, Poland and Denmark who took the chance to break their vassalship. Bad move. The war ended Denmark, started the fall of Poland, Russia lost even more ugric provinces and Austria... got away with no loses except a few 100 000 men dead...
. Here I may add, this proberly wouldn't have been a success for Sweden without funding from their new found ally Portugal.
She then joined up with the Naval Alliance to beat the shit out of France but then switched sides over the Austria - OE war and helped France to Victory.
Edit: after a chat with Daniel A I declare:
Seen the most cleverly, backstabbing, gamiest, stratigic "player" in ER2, Come up Seen and collect your 24 crate of Amstel.