In this post: the beginning of Part I of my mini-AAR. The second half of Part I will be posted immediately afterwards. Coming later: Part II, and possibly screenshots! I apologize for the lack of screenies, but at the time only Print Screen was available to me, and when I alt+tabbed out of the game it crashed. I didn't want to take any chances. I've now downloaded a handy freeware app Kevyinus pointed out to me, and I may go back, start a new game as Milan, and take some quick screens of various game features. Enjoy the AAR!
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For my first spin in the EUIII demo I chose Milan 1492, a handy medium-sized nation with a center of trade, three universities [a type of manufactory], and a strategic location for dominating the Mediterranean. I have three mainland provinces, centered on Milan and Genoa, plus the isle of Corsica. I also start with one advisor, who boosts my production tech research by a few ducats every month.
I begin by checking out the interface, paging through menus, toying with all the fiddly bits, and figuring out how the game works. Then I decide what gameplay path to take. I have a truce with Venice which will last five years, but unsure what this means and sure Venice hates my guts, I decide to spend those five years preparing for war should they choose to jump on me after the time is up. I ally Mantua and Modena, and also engage in royal marriages with them and with Sicily (which includes Naples) too. Tuscany is allied to Venice, so I ignore them. Urbino, a dinky land along the opposite Italian coast between Venice and Sicily, offers a royal marriage and I accept.
I notice I only have 45 ducats, and spend them chucking merchants into my center of trade, into Venice's, and off to Portugal. They spend much of the rest of the game quietly dropping out without telling me, before I remember the place in Game Settings where I can have the game let me know when this happens. My money mainly flows into research, though, and I reap huge rewards. By the time I had to quit in 1498, I had level 7 government, production, and naval tech, among other things.
I hired two more advisors. One added to my government tech, but one (a philosopher named Ponce de Leon) added each year to my prestige. For those who haven't played, prestige is like EUII's victory points: the sum total which comes out of good gameplay and ranks you against the European greats. I started with 2 prestige, but Ponce de Leon gradually began to build this number up.
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For my first spin in the EUIII demo I chose Milan 1492, a handy medium-sized nation with a center of trade, three universities [a type of manufactory], and a strategic location for dominating the Mediterranean. I have three mainland provinces, centered on Milan and Genoa, plus the isle of Corsica. I also start with one advisor, who boosts my production tech research by a few ducats every month.
I begin by checking out the interface, paging through menus, toying with all the fiddly bits, and figuring out how the game works. Then I decide what gameplay path to take. I have a truce with Venice which will last five years, but unsure what this means and sure Venice hates my guts, I decide to spend those five years preparing for war should they choose to jump on me after the time is up. I ally Mantua and Modena, and also engage in royal marriages with them and with Sicily (which includes Naples) too. Tuscany is allied to Venice, so I ignore them. Urbino, a dinky land along the opposite Italian coast between Venice and Sicily, offers a royal marriage and I accept.
I notice I only have 45 ducats, and spend them chucking merchants into my center of trade, into Venice's, and off to Portugal. They spend much of the rest of the game quietly dropping out without telling me, before I remember the place in Game Settings where I can have the game let me know when this happens. My money mainly flows into research, though, and I reap huge rewards. By the time I had to quit in 1498, I had level 7 government, production, and naval tech, among other things.
I hired two more advisors. One added to my government tech, but one (a philosopher named Ponce de Leon) added each year to my prestige. For those who haven't played, prestige is like EUII's victory points: the sum total which comes out of good gameplay and ranks you against the European greats. I started with 2 prestige, but Ponce de Leon gradually began to build this number up.