I just finished observing a game. I think many fewer interesting result happened. My over all feeling is that the nations are more
static.
The areas where nations were wiped out and you can't predict who would be the powerhouse were, well, the areas that start out need to be resolved. Manchuria, Indonesia, India, Arabia, East Africa, and such. Of course the new world and other colonizable provinces also grant an element of uncertainly.
But Africa is completly boring.
Morroco; Tunis; Egypt. Check.
Ethiopa made an early run, owning Cairo and Jerusalem for a long time. But by the end of the game, Ethiopia is about back to starting boundries! Perviously, in that type of situation Mamluks would have been erradicated. But now, Egypt is a bit bigger than starting size. Notable for a country that "should have" been wiped out fairly early. This might be an easy example of the development mechanic at work. Mamulks were pounded to a small size early, but Egypt ended up pounding back those neighbors who had expanded throughout the majority of the game. But still, the snapshot comparision of Mamluks in 1444 to Egypt in 1820 is more boring than interesting. The fact that Ethiopia was an early monster has been dismissed.
Mali; Songhai; Kanen Bornu. Check; Check; Check. Boring; Boring; Boring.
Persia formed early, surrounded the Persian Gulf, and then.... was very static for the last 200 or 300 years. (In the pic, don't mistake the eastern half of the green blob. That is Kashmir)
Japan gained footholds in Manchuria and Korea a couple times. In the end, Japan looks like, uh, Japan. They Own Okinawa and Hokkaido, and nothing beyond. This result could not be more boring.
Ming started huge. Ming finished huge. Yawn.
Approaching Europe, we now consider the
Ottomans. After a long time they had finally expanded to Europe. Didn't last. Ottomans ; Persia; Egypt triangle is boring. Albania exists. Everybody but the Ottomans owned it at some point in the game, but Albanian nationalists are indeed the most eternal of creations. Bulgaria popped out right around 1800. But guess what?
Wallachia is still an independent completely unchanged state. While I am surprised, I also find the static nature almost incredible.
Once you note that Hungary dissappear, the rest of Eastern Europe is not notable.
Russia is a player in Caucasus. Russia owns most of Sibera, a few Aleuts islands, Wake and Hawaii. Nice to see he didn't invade China. Interesting to see he has Hawaii -- but that nations colonize islands isn't noteworthy, really. Russia is as Russia is generally expected to be.
Poland is Poland, and
Lithuania is Lithuania. Really quite static. Eastern Europa is quite a snooze fest in my book.
So, that brings us to Europe. Maybe it's notable that
Scandanavia kicked Norway out of Scandanavia, but that Scandanavia is very nearly no more and no less than Scandanavia is notably boring.
Great Britian is Great Britain.
Iberia was interesting to watch casually.
Portugal ; Spain ; Aragon. I kept expecting Aragon to be wiped out, but whether it was Castile, France, or Naples attacking, Aragon manage to get some land back. So, maybe everything was interesting, but in the end it turns out to be -- how should I say -- almost "static."
Eh,
France is France like, but a little less BBB than BBB had usually been expected to be. France is the only one that hasn't lost a colonial nation to indepence. (French Brazil, French La Plata, French Colombia, French Peru, and French Mexico are still his minions.) So, I guess France won South America.
But
Brittany? Brittany was annexed by Provence early. Provence was Brittany for a long time. But Provence was elimated, and what the Hell, Brittany is now the somewhat common "extended Brittany". Everything interesting in this session turned out to be temporary.
Italy? Okay, the islands had to be resolved, and
Sardinia has Corsica, Sardinia, and the Baleares. Good for them.
But
Naples is Naples. What, really? Aragon has Palermo. Sicily never showed his face... nobody ever invade Naples that I saw. So much more static than the usual fate of Naples.
Now, what did happen is that eventually Venice was eliminated.
Montferrat is a new nation of course. He annexed Savoy early, and ate most of Venice, but that didn't stick. Eventually Austria held on to some of Venice. I was surprised that late in the game,
The Papal State grabbed a bit. So Italy is comprised of Naples, The Papal States, and Montferrat.
So Germany. Well,
Bohemia got Burgundy, and, it seems never changed much. There are still three figurative islands of Bohemia. Very static.
Silesia.
Brandenburg had it rough.
Pomerania held.
The Hansa has Holstien.
Brabant is big. And I'm happy to see
Frankfurt is a bit of a monster, since they were the first OPM which I consider playing as a Tall Nation. (But to be clear, I did not play any nation in this observed game.)
But, Austria is the Emporer, always has been. No free cities exist in the HRE. Of course the HRE will never be static. But after considering Bohemia's three islands still exist and Austria's mild expansion into Hungary and Venice, well, maybe things were more static than ever before.
Oh, hmm. I just noticed the Netherlands are gone. I was thinking about complaining that both the Netherlands and Holland existed as colonial powers ... but at the end of the game the lowlands are just the nations of Flanders, Brabant, Gelre, Frise and Frankfurt. Idk. (The Netherlands live on as a OPM in Gabon)
tl;dr:
static
