So, this was the last session; let us take a look at the strategic situation just pre-conversion.
We can identify roughly 3 tiers of players:
The First Tier: Major Powers (BT > 400):
1. Persia (BT = 538(!)); the major winner of the last session. We all expected him to eat King of Men's Rome, even though Von Roundstedt did his best to prevent such from coming to pass. What I didn't expect was for him to also eat a lot of outlying pieces of Rome, such as Malta and Djerba, nor did I expect Greece to end up Persian; if anything, I expected OrangeYoshi to at least snap that up. Well, I guess Blayne isn't such a great hand at the up-snapping. So much the better for Persia.
On the minus side, Persia can't expect to do well in conversion. Not only will the provinces in Persia proper lose a lot of value, many provinces have non-primary culture, as Persia's main culture is Arab, not actually Persian, and quite a lot of provinces are not Arab (but Persian, Greek, Russian or Turkish - not even close to the correct group).
2. Bavaria (BT = 496); not much has changed for Bavaria since last session. Why would Fivoin try? He's in a great position. He recently conquered large swathes of Italy, and has a great money-making central blob in Germany, come EU3.
His conversion will go much better: due to there being many provinces in Germany in EU3, his CK average base tax won't be diluted much. He also has the benefit of the large German culture, though that will be fractured somewhat by EU3's subdivision of German cultures (in Rheinländer, Saxon, Hannoverian and the like).
3. Al-Andalus (BT = 449); the least of the big boys. My session has been somewhat more active than Bavaria's, what with my intervention in Croatia's intervention. Pity that it didn't make any difference: for some reason, Croatia's DG increased quite a bit this session and King of Men's demise does not make much of a difference. I also had a bit of a snafu when I gave a king title to one of my vassals, and all vassals in the area of that king title joined the newly-minted king. Crisis averted, fortunately, due to rapid application of military might.
My conversion is so-so; I have a decent single-culture base in the south of Iberia, but a lot of foreign cultures in France and Italy. My base tax and manpower are all-right, though.
The Second Tier: Secondary Powers (BT > 200)
4. Russia (BT = 344); The Green Menace. Well, we are not all that sure, really. Russia has not seen an upward move in its graph the last few decades, and as far as I can tall Von Rundstedt has been preparing for conversion, shifting his demense around, getting rid of king titles and the like.
In that conversion, Russia's main boon is that it is a single blob of one culture. I haven't checked out whether it gets fragmented in conversion: not much, I think. Von Roundstedt is reputed to be quite a hand at EU3; I'm quite interested how much of that is true.
5. Dônmark (BT = 331); The United Dôndom. They also mostly sat on their asses this session, doubting whether or not to piss off Russia and scoop up some Croatian provinces in the mean time. More interesting: conversion analysis!
Dônmark has strengths and weaknesses: their power is distributed over a lot of water. This is good and bad, as they can fend off land-based powers with just a navy, but that navy is not optional taking away their ability to specialize. Culture is fragmented; Scandinavia has a culture that differs from England, which is not all English, either. To top it all off, the current head Dôn is still a Finn. Fortunately for Gollevainen, EU3 has the option to change primary culture if his capital is in a different-culture area (it is).
6. Croatia (BT = 258); The Octopus. Croatia consists of a poor heartland in Yugoslavia, with tendons into rich Poland, Italy and Thrace. This session, OrangeYoshi foolishly decided trying to save King of Men was the right thing to do. Instead, he should have taken Greece when I presented my ultimatum to back off or face the wrath of Al-Andalus while all Croatian armies were off to Anatolia to fight the Necromancer. Oh wait - he didn't; it was Blayne, who was subbing Croatia this session. Oh well.
In conversion, Croatia loses some, but not more than most. A problem for him is that his richest bits are wrong-culture. OY is reputed to be quite good at EU3 as well, so I'm sure he will manage.
7. Egypt (BT = 232); Civilized Africa. The Fatimids are down but not out. Decent subs have restored a semblance of order to the North-African power, and negotiations with Foels could clean up the East considerably. Another benefit is that nobody wants Africa.
The Third Tier: the Dead.
Cruel, perhaps, but there are no more minor powers left. This has been a harsh game: failure's price is high. A look back at the nations that have left us:
Toulouse. Once Fasquardon's major power of Western Europe, it faltered when first it was gang-banged (followed by the Fiat), and then when it was taken over by Jakalo, who did not manage to gain the trust of any one of his many, many neighbours.
Poland. First played by Orago, then by Ike, Poland remained a minor power lodged between big boys, first Toulouse and then Bavaria on the west and Russia on the East. When Ike finally betrayed Russia once too many, Poland's time was up; it was mostly swallowed by Croatia, once a fellow minor Central European power.
Loire. The second western European to fall, Loire was not very conspicuous. When its player, Carillon, fell away, the vultures swooped in and not even a new player, Ike, could reverse their greed.
Sicily. Sicily went away before I joined.
Byzantion. King of Men made the mistake of having only one friend in a spot where at least two friends are necessary. When that one friend, Foels, turned on him, his time was up. He also should have killed his nemesis, OrangeYoshi.
Finally, the pictorial evidence of the session:
the graph, this time with thicker lines and only bearing those nations which actually played this session:
And the map:
We can identify roughly 3 tiers of players:
The First Tier: Major Powers (BT > 400):
1. Persia (BT = 538(!)); the major winner of the last session. We all expected him to eat King of Men's Rome, even though Von Roundstedt did his best to prevent such from coming to pass. What I didn't expect was for him to also eat a lot of outlying pieces of Rome, such as Malta and Djerba, nor did I expect Greece to end up Persian; if anything, I expected OrangeYoshi to at least snap that up. Well, I guess Blayne isn't such a great hand at the up-snapping. So much the better for Persia.
On the minus side, Persia can't expect to do well in conversion. Not only will the provinces in Persia proper lose a lot of value, many provinces have non-primary culture, as Persia's main culture is Arab, not actually Persian, and quite a lot of provinces are not Arab (but Persian, Greek, Russian or Turkish - not even close to the correct group).
2. Bavaria (BT = 496); not much has changed for Bavaria since last session. Why would Fivoin try? He's in a great position. He recently conquered large swathes of Italy, and has a great money-making central blob in Germany, come EU3.
His conversion will go much better: due to there being many provinces in Germany in EU3, his CK average base tax won't be diluted much. He also has the benefit of the large German culture, though that will be fractured somewhat by EU3's subdivision of German cultures (in Rheinländer, Saxon, Hannoverian and the like).
3. Al-Andalus (BT = 449); the least of the big boys. My session has been somewhat more active than Bavaria's, what with my intervention in Croatia's intervention. Pity that it didn't make any difference: for some reason, Croatia's DG increased quite a bit this session and King of Men's demise does not make much of a difference. I also had a bit of a snafu when I gave a king title to one of my vassals, and all vassals in the area of that king title joined the newly-minted king. Crisis averted, fortunately, due to rapid application of military might.
My conversion is so-so; I have a decent single-culture base in the south of Iberia, but a lot of foreign cultures in France and Italy. My base tax and manpower are all-right, though.
The Second Tier: Secondary Powers (BT > 200)
4. Russia (BT = 344); The Green Menace. Well, we are not all that sure, really. Russia has not seen an upward move in its graph the last few decades, and as far as I can tall Von Rundstedt has been preparing for conversion, shifting his demense around, getting rid of king titles and the like.
In that conversion, Russia's main boon is that it is a single blob of one culture. I haven't checked out whether it gets fragmented in conversion: not much, I think. Von Roundstedt is reputed to be quite a hand at EU3; I'm quite interested how much of that is true.
5. Dônmark (BT = 331); The United Dôndom. They also mostly sat on their asses this session, doubting whether or not to piss off Russia and scoop up some Croatian provinces in the mean time. More interesting: conversion analysis!
Dônmark has strengths and weaknesses: their power is distributed over a lot of water. This is good and bad, as they can fend off land-based powers with just a navy, but that navy is not optional taking away their ability to specialize. Culture is fragmented; Scandinavia has a culture that differs from England, which is not all English, either. To top it all off, the current head Dôn is still a Finn. Fortunately for Gollevainen, EU3 has the option to change primary culture if his capital is in a different-culture area (it is).
6. Croatia (BT = 258); The Octopus. Croatia consists of a poor heartland in Yugoslavia, with tendons into rich Poland, Italy and Thrace. This session, OrangeYoshi foolishly decided trying to save King of Men was the right thing to do. Instead, he should have taken Greece when I presented my ultimatum to back off or face the wrath of Al-Andalus while all Croatian armies were off to Anatolia to fight the Necromancer. Oh wait - he didn't; it was Blayne, who was subbing Croatia this session. Oh well.
In conversion, Croatia loses some, but not more than most. A problem for him is that his richest bits are wrong-culture. OY is reputed to be quite good at EU3 as well, so I'm sure he will manage.
7. Egypt (BT = 232); Civilized Africa. The Fatimids are down but not out. Decent subs have restored a semblance of order to the North-African power, and negotiations with Foels could clean up the East considerably. Another benefit is that nobody wants Africa.
The Third Tier: the Dead.
Cruel, perhaps, but there are no more minor powers left. This has been a harsh game: failure's price is high. A look back at the nations that have left us:
Toulouse. Once Fasquardon's major power of Western Europe, it faltered when first it was gang-banged (followed by the Fiat), and then when it was taken over by Jakalo, who did not manage to gain the trust of any one of his many, many neighbours.
Poland. First played by Orago, then by Ike, Poland remained a minor power lodged between big boys, first Toulouse and then Bavaria on the west and Russia on the East. When Ike finally betrayed Russia once too many, Poland's time was up; it was mostly swallowed by Croatia, once a fellow minor Central European power.
Loire. The second western European to fall, Loire was not very conspicuous. When its player, Carillon, fell away, the vultures swooped in and not even a new player, Ike, could reverse their greed.
Sicily. Sicily went away before I joined.
Byzantion. King of Men made the mistake of having only one friend in a spot where at least two friends are necessary. When that one friend, Foels, turned on him, his time was up. He also should have killed his nemesis, OrangeYoshi.
Finally, the pictorial evidence of the session:
the graph, this time with thicker lines and only bearing those nations which actually played this session:
And the map:
