Yesterday I finished my France 1492 game by speeding the last 25 years. To most intents and purposes it was my first game, and for reasons I'm not all sure about I'll share some impressions.
First of all, it is tempting to start shouting about how the game is too easy. After all, towards the end I totally dominated Europe, annexed Austria "just because", forcevassalized Russia after a war lasting March to October. It almost felt like I was cheating in the end. My manpower was largely irrelevant, and the only time I even had to glance at my treasury was when I built my FAA number 39 and 40 (they were expensive!) and when I decided that every province of "France proper" should have a manufactory.
But such shouts wouldn't be totally fair. To begin with, starting as France 1492 is hardly an underdog position. But foremost, I have had access to this forum, read FAQs, asked questions, listened to other questions. Without doing that, I would probably still go on 100% maintenance all the time, run up huge inflation when I try to keep a balanced budget every month, blunder about with huge armies in the winter seeking battle instead of sieges, attack over rivers towards mountains with cavalry... you name it. So this game was easy, partly because of France, but mostly thanks to all you awesome and helpful guys. Thank you!
More impressions or questions:
I had looked forward to the French revolution, hoping it would be an interesting challenge. When it came around, it was very tame. Some modest stabhits, that was almost everything. In all likelyhood, there were missing triggers, because I had Louis XVI as monarch... well, a long time, and he was replaced by Louis XVII. I poked around a bit in the event files, but to be honest, I suck at reading those things. Does my missing turmoil have anything to do with the facts that USA never appeared in the first place, or that I picked the middle, moderate option ("modest social change" or suchlike) in an event close to the revolution?
When I was rummaging in the event file, I found the Masters of Europe event that appeared to trigger between 1801 and 1814 if you had Spain, Austria, Prussia and Russia as vassals. (I don't have access to the file now, but that's how I remember it.) That sounded neat, so I set out to achieve that. Both Austria and Russia were vassalised before 1800. But Prussia didn't exist, and I annexed Spain 60 years before that. The event never triggered. I had hoped that the vassal condition would imply that if the countries didn't exist I needn't have them as vassals. Was this wrong, or did I miss anything else?
(Hmm... come to think of it, such an implication would be problematic. For example, if other countries had annihilated those four, that would automatically make France Master of Europe. Hardly fair. Well, I'll see what you say.)
First of all, it is tempting to start shouting about how the game is too easy. After all, towards the end I totally dominated Europe, annexed Austria "just because", forcevassalized Russia after a war lasting March to October. It almost felt like I was cheating in the end. My manpower was largely irrelevant, and the only time I even had to glance at my treasury was when I built my FAA number 39 and 40 (they were expensive!) and when I decided that every province of "France proper" should have a manufactory.
But such shouts wouldn't be totally fair. To begin with, starting as France 1492 is hardly an underdog position. But foremost, I have had access to this forum, read FAQs, asked questions, listened to other questions. Without doing that, I would probably still go on 100% maintenance all the time, run up huge inflation when I try to keep a balanced budget every month, blunder about with huge armies in the winter seeking battle instead of sieges, attack over rivers towards mountains with cavalry... you name it. So this game was easy, partly because of France, but mostly thanks to all you awesome and helpful guys. Thank you!
More impressions or questions:
I had looked forward to the French revolution, hoping it would be an interesting challenge. When it came around, it was very tame. Some modest stabhits, that was almost everything. In all likelyhood, there were missing triggers, because I had Louis XVI as monarch... well, a long time, and he was replaced by Louis XVII. I poked around a bit in the event files, but to be honest, I suck at reading those things. Does my missing turmoil have anything to do with the facts that USA never appeared in the first place, or that I picked the middle, moderate option ("modest social change" or suchlike) in an event close to the revolution?
When I was rummaging in the event file, I found the Masters of Europe event that appeared to trigger between 1801 and 1814 if you had Spain, Austria, Prussia and Russia as vassals. (I don't have access to the file now, but that's how I remember it.) That sounded neat, so I set out to achieve that. Both Austria and Russia were vassalised before 1800. But Prussia didn't exist, and I annexed Spain 60 years before that. The event never triggered. I had hoped that the vassal condition would imply that if the countries didn't exist I needn't have them as vassals. Was this wrong, or did I miss anything else?
(Hmm... come to think of it, such an implication would be problematic. For example, if other countries had annihilated those four, that would automatically make France Master of Europe. Hardly fair. Well, I'll see what you say.)
