Epilogue 1.
Ok, so we ended the game in a Personal Union under king Boris II Rurikovich. But let us ignore that for the sake of my ego, shall we?
Fact is that most of the game, I couldn’t afford to have even +2 Advisors, let alone +3. The reason is quite simple, I think: France needed a large army that could be ready at a moment’s notice. This might be different if you’re playing a peaceful trade-colonialisation game. But even then, I can’t imagine ever spending 40 ducats per month on a single advisor.
Diplomacy. We ended the game with a prestige of 92. Not bad for a nation under a PU, right?
Nice income, tax base of 834, no inflation. Having a large number of warships and army are by far the main expenses.
Trade. It is here, more than anywhere else, that France is really dumped on, compared to earlier versions of the game. Because the trade from Africa passes Western Europe first, before going to Bordeaux, France loses a huge amount of potential income. This has been a problem since the start, and it never let up. Note that I had to keep a merchant in Bordeaux to limit the amount of trade lost to competitors. Grabbing all that West-African land really paid off, as did securing the Genoa trade node. But with only about 25% of our income, I feel like it could have gone better. Maybe I should have transferred to Antwerpen after all, but that is a 300 DP investment.
Technology. I did ok, I guess. The main reasons why I didn’t get to 32 Diplo, were our many wars, with a lot of costly peace deals, and the simple fact that every single continental province in France had at least a marketplace. Most had several trade buildings. A couple of them even had Canals and a Road System. And I still could have done it, if I had not chosen Trade ideas.
This brings us seamlessly to the Ideas tab. Offensive, Defensive and Quality, plus an inborn bonus of one kind or another, really is a winning combination. Economic and Administrative Ideas are really useful, but Admin Points are so very important for coring stuff, and they don’t exactly feel glorious. I have to say, that Trade “feels” more useful to me, even though it really isn’t (compare the various “merc” bonuses in the Administrative Group, for instance, which really saved my bacon in that last war against the Empire). I’m just sorry that I didn’t get to finish the group. Guess it’s true what they say: “War is bad for business”.
You will notice that I skipped a tab, but the only thing worth mentioning, is that I did not use any policies, simply becaue I did not feel like I could afford the expense in Monarch Points.
Rebels have been always present. In the next epilogue you’ll see just how many cultures comprise France. It should therefor come as no surprise that I had to use a lot of Military Points to supress the radicals. I must have missed at least 2 Ideas because of it.
Religion. Not much to say here. After the initial religious turmoil, I have never had any real problems here.
The French military is legendary in Europa Universalis, and rightly so. There are very few nations that can go one-on-one against her armies.
My main subjects. Outremer has always been satisfyingly reliable, both as a source of extra troops and income. Speaking of income, if any of the devs were to read this, those incomes could lign up a lot better.
Moving on to the Ledger, here is the countries page, sorted by prestige. Only 4 points seperate France and Russia. Great Britain comes in a close third.
Score, sorted by total score. Again, note Russia and Great Britain in second and third place.
France (blue), Russia (olive green), Great Britain (red), Spain (yellow), Portugal (green) and the Empire (white).
Technology, sorted by Admin Tech. Only Bavaria and 1 or 2 other minors have managed to get all techs maxed out. Naples had not 1 tech maxed out. Note that neither Russia nor the Empire made it to the list, which means they had a maximum Admin Tech of 29. Too many culture conversions? Who knows. Fact is that France is among the top nations.
Catholics come in first, followed by Orthodoxy as a distant second. Sunni is the only islamic religion in the world, while Hindu are still widespread enough to be respectable.
The Franch provinces with the highest tax. In 5th place we have Porto: 5th highest tax, highest production value. One of those provinces that are worth it going to war over. Luxemburg, in the mean time, only has a base tax of 6 ducats, but an actual tax of 16.31 ducats. Quite the catch.
Epilogue 2 will follow shortly. See you then!