The Mellow Campaign Part 2 (GC England)

[Doomdark]

>At this point [ca 1600], really, I am pretty much unbeatable.

Hmm, once again a report where the player is top dog after a third of the game time. This trend is starting to worry me... I won't say anything about the colonies. After all, domination overseas could have gone pretty much any which way, although Spain and Portugal should perhaps be pissed off enough by now to declare war on you.

What worries me more is the fact that a great power simply inherited another huge nation without having to shed a single drop of blood.

Similar things did happen in history (Habsburgs), but I really doubt that any non-Scandinavian regent would be allowed to rule Sweden peacefully for very long (Sigismund, eh, Sapura? ). I.e. you should be facing massive revolts by now; both for historical reasons and matters of play balance.

I very much doubt that this 'inheritance' event can happen with another formal great power like Turkey or Spain (it would also be pretty weird if it happened to the Papal States or the Hanseatic League), which gives even more weight to my opinion that Sweden and Austria should be playable nations with great power status.

Alternatively, this event could simply be cut from the game entirely.

/Doomie

 

[Johan]

Inheritance events happen VERY, VERY rarely.

And its a random event, and random events can be set to on or off at start of the game.

/Johan

 

[Doomdark]

Hmm, well I will certainly be playing with random events on (unless they are mostly negative and only affect human players ). And I do like the concept of the inheritance event...

However, I think it might be a good idea to disallow this event for all Great Powers (including Sweden, Austria and possibly Denmark) for play balance reasons, and for all nations that are not Monarchies (Papal States, Netherlands, Hansa, etc) due to the absurdity.

Furthermore, I find the concept of Royal Marriage quite suspect when applied to Republics, Holy Orders and Merchant Leagues. E.g. Hanseatic League, Teutonic Order, Venice, Netherlands, Papal States etc.

These types of nations should not be able to offer nor receive Royal Marriages, and should not be subject to inheritance.

/Doomie

 

[Doomdark]

Gentlemen,

I can accept Royal Marriages for all nations, mostly because it is too late in the development process to start fiddling with the diplomatic system... However, it might not be too late to rename it 'Political Marriage' and get away clean. =)

>REPUBLICS WERE VERY SUSPECT IN EU TIMES AND WEREN'T THE AUTOMATIC CHOICE THAT THEY WOULD BE TODAY.

No need to shout, Graham - it makes you look like an AOLer. The rarity of Republics and the fact that they were regarded as inherently suspect is a reason as good as any why they should be deprived of the 'Royal Marriage' diplomacy option.

>THE RANDOMNESS OF THE FLOW OF HISTORY IS ONE OF THE STRENGTHS OF EU AND WHAT KEEPS IT INTERESTING.

Absolutely! And I would not even object if Turkey inherited Spain (well, not too much anyway )... as long as Turkey was not played by a human.

I want a real challenge when I play strategy games, and let's face it - the AI is never quite up to providing one without cheating. Thus, I would have been disappointed if I had been in Scott's situation and suddenly inherited 13 provinces, making me most powerful nation in one random stroke.

>You mean apart from Bernadotte? I know he is outside the time period, but only by c.20 years.

Ah, I was being unclear. What I meant to say was that the ruler of a foreign nation would never have been allowed to inherit the throne of Sweden. This happened once with the Polish King Sigismund, but the Swedes did not accept his rule and his claim was eventually renounced. The Polish claim to the Swedish throne was the root of all the wasteful wars between Sweden and Poland in the 17th century.

Scott,

>If Turkey conquers 90% of Austria, should it still be considered a Great Power and be immune to this very rare random event?

Good point. The solution is simple and should require two or three lines of code at the most:

If a nation consists of more than a certain number (say... 7) of territories it can not be inherited (at least not by a human player ).

I think this is a reasonable abstraction, without delving into economic power etc.

Johan?

/Doomie