Another session and largely more consolidation. Kudos to the colonizing nations for making a usually boring part of the world really interesting! The scoring system seems interesting, and is not as cripplingly punishing as last session's system, and encouraging building score from the get-go which is good, but could lead to some potentially undesirable outcomes like creating potentially insurmountable leads or encouraging someone to abandon their nations partway through eras so they get their "peak points" before their old tags see their scores collapse (think Scotland, but more blatant). Oh well, we shall see how things go and the experimentation is always heartening.
Burgundy and the Netherlands continued building their power base. The French Paradox better be careful however, or he could quickly find himself the junior partner in this alliance. A pity Burgundy's expansion was so inhibited by the protection on France this session.
The marketing department continues to peacefully trade around the Baltic and use Poland as their sledgehammer. However will the formation of Prussia force a response from their new allies in the Netherlands and Burgundy or will the AI alliance (and/or HRE protection) be sufficient deterrence?
Poor Blondie has had one of the strongest starts but unfortunately seems to have been shafted in points... oh well I'm sure he will do better now that he has laid the foundations of his empire so long as the Ottoblob can be contained.
India has been surprisingly quiet, but how long can the AI insulation really last before something sparks the thunderdome once more? The current sub-alliances seem to be Orissa-Nepal and Malwa-Gujarat, which doesn't look good for the former. Perhaps Hormuz could even the odds for the East?
A solid session for Dai Viet. Perhaps one day they shall follow in the footsteps of southeast Asians in past dev clashes and one day return to Europe to liberate Scotland.
The poor Italians getting constantly harassed by the neighbourhood bully... The Balkans have become a cesspool of corruption and crime, if only some Dark Knight could be found to free southeast Europe of its oppressors and make the streets safe once more. (Shoutout to Nitra however - the little AI that could!)
Meanwhile, Kaiser Johan betrays the republic once again... One could almost call him a
Caesar Imperator Bonaparte Non-etymologically contentious democracy usurper from the new world - El Presidente!
Regardless, good luck to all and here's to another excellent clash!