So my first game! Start 1399. End 1774. Normal difficult, no lucky nations. I'm thinking I might go back to it later, but I'm bored and frustrated with it and I made some pretty crucial mistakes. Did you know that buildings can give quite substantial bonuses?!?!?! I didn't until about the 1650s.:wacko:
Bohemia is HRE. Austria expanded and destroyed France during its stint as HRE. Vijayanagar used to control most of India until it collapsed. Ming nearly collapsed, but is putting itself back together. GB and the Netherlands(Brabant) used to have nice little empires until they took turns trying to prove they were stronger than me and I had to prove them wrong. Tver formed Russia very recently. Tachibana have had wild swings back and forth in power and prestige. My ally Connacht formed Ireland with my help, but later betrayed me. I defeated and forced them to release their holdings in Europe, so now they are a North American TPM. Naples also used to be my ally and ended up holding most of Italy until they also betrayed me. I ended up vassalizing them as a TPM, but they've grown since then. I have PUs with Pisa and Hainaut.
I don't know for sure, but I feel like I have a pretty anemic economy. I think this is mostly because I never really built economic buildings until the 1650s (again my first game).
Below is basically the reason I'm getting frustrated with this game. I'm so far behind in tech. I think this is due to my weak economy and I've had a lot of stability issues (although that may be par for the course). Also, my NIs weren't really suited to what I was doing for a long time.
Basically, I make it through European wars by recruiting more powerful units from provinces captured from more advanced nations, picking off weaker enemy allies and sheer weight of numbers (what I like to call the Russia strategy). And my ludicrous navy blockading everything within sight also helps. (Even with all those ships my Tariff Efficiency is still only 60%)
PIE!
For giggles, here is my current game as the Mamluks. 1399 start and it's 1426 right now. Normal difficult, no lucky nations. These TSCs mean that I'm having more rebel problems in this game than in my Portugal game. That's even with all those colonial countries starting to rebel and most of my American holdings lacking forts! Should be fun.