First let me say that I think I have spent more time with this game than any other game in years — it's rivaling my massed hours spent on the original Railroad Tycoon, still my favorite PC game of all time.
That said, all those hours have bought me exactly ZERO completed campaigns! the problem: by the time my empire begins to get really huge and domiating, I sort of lose interest. the farthest I got was my first campaign as Portugual, which I played up until about 1750 or so. Regardless, I thought I would jot down some notes on how my campaigns have gone, and where a few of them went a bit askew.
PORTUGAL: Of course, the name of the game as Portugal is exploration and colonization. After setting up a colony in Cape Town (Table) and another in Mombasa, I settled, with mixed colonies and trading posts, coastal India, which is quite a money maker. I eventually made my way East to southeast asia, colonizing or trading posting the entire coast, including the Philippines, Java, Sarawak, etc., wiuth the exception of Australia, which the Brits got to first.Eventually I colonized all of Siberia as well; by the time I conquered Japan, (and most of those hated Spanieards as well),I had run out of steam.
TURKEY:I decided i hadn't been nearly wartlike enough as my mild,expansion-through-colonization Portuguese, so for my next campaign, I played the bloodthirsty Turks. I started by annexing Venice and Hungary, Crimea, and Georgia, eventually moving on to take austria, Bohemia, Helvetia, genoa, The Savoy, most of the northern european city-states, Iran, vassalized The Hedjaz, took most of Persia and the Mameluks, and generous bites out of Poland as well. At quite a few times, I literally had the rest of the world declaring war on me, but was always able to conquer them or beat them off -- until the rebellions began. I was so often at war, and had so many non-moslem countries, that at one point I probably had more countries rebelling than the other way around. I had proven myself to be an able general but poor administrator, so, after conquering all that territory, I ditched my Empire as it burnt around my ears. Were I to play the Turks again, I wouldn't have worked so hard to make so many enemies in europe, instead focusing first on Persia, North Africa, and eventually India.
RUSSIA: A nice mix of my Turkish and Portuguese strategies served me quite well here. I conquered all the wayward Khanates first, then Georgai and The Crimea as well, and began my colonization of Siberia unmolested in that area, eventually making my way all the way to the Pacific. By that time, I had also taken Sweden, Pskov, the Teutons, moldavia, and, in an epic, monster struggle, Poland. Crimea rebelled and I let them go; they would continue to be a pain and wouldn't be hard to defend against. Just as i decided to turn my wrath against Persia in earnest, and make my way to India, I lost interest, but certianly found my formula to be effective.
ENGLAND: so much more of a challenge than any of the other three so far. I'm eagerly waiting for the reformation so I can generate some serious colonists, and have 2 colonies in Chesapeake and Roanoke already. My darn explorers keep dying young -- is that a random thing? I've got my eye on Cape Town next, then India. We'll see!
That said, all those hours have bought me exactly ZERO completed campaigns! the problem: by the time my empire begins to get really huge and domiating, I sort of lose interest. the farthest I got was my first campaign as Portugual, which I played up until about 1750 or so. Regardless, I thought I would jot down some notes on how my campaigns have gone, and where a few of them went a bit askew.
PORTUGAL: Of course, the name of the game as Portugal is exploration and colonization. After setting up a colony in Cape Town (Table) and another in Mombasa, I settled, with mixed colonies and trading posts, coastal India, which is quite a money maker. I eventually made my way East to southeast asia, colonizing or trading posting the entire coast, including the Philippines, Java, Sarawak, etc., wiuth the exception of Australia, which the Brits got to first.Eventually I colonized all of Siberia as well; by the time I conquered Japan, (and most of those hated Spanieards as well),I had run out of steam.
TURKEY:I decided i hadn't been nearly wartlike enough as my mild,expansion-through-colonization Portuguese, so for my next campaign, I played the bloodthirsty Turks. I started by annexing Venice and Hungary, Crimea, and Georgia, eventually moving on to take austria, Bohemia, Helvetia, genoa, The Savoy, most of the northern european city-states, Iran, vassalized The Hedjaz, took most of Persia and the Mameluks, and generous bites out of Poland as well. At quite a few times, I literally had the rest of the world declaring war on me, but was always able to conquer them or beat them off -- until the rebellions began. I was so often at war, and had so many non-moslem countries, that at one point I probably had more countries rebelling than the other way around. I had proven myself to be an able general but poor administrator, so, after conquering all that territory, I ditched my Empire as it burnt around my ears. Were I to play the Turks again, I wouldn't have worked so hard to make so many enemies in europe, instead focusing first on Persia, North Africa, and eventually India.
RUSSIA: A nice mix of my Turkish and Portuguese strategies served me quite well here. I conquered all the wayward Khanates first, then Georgai and The Crimea as well, and began my colonization of Siberia unmolested in that area, eventually making my way all the way to the Pacific. By that time, I had also taken Sweden, Pskov, the Teutons, moldavia, and, in an epic, monster struggle, Poland. Crimea rebelled and I let them go; they would continue to be a pain and wouldn't be hard to defend against. Just as i decided to turn my wrath against Persia in earnest, and make my way to India, I lost interest, but certianly found my formula to be effective.
ENGLAND: so much more of a challenge than any of the other three so far. I'm eagerly waiting for the reformation so I can generate some serious colonists, and have 2 colonies in Chesapeake and Roanoke already. My darn explorers keep dying young -- is that a random thing? I've got my eye on Cape Town next, then India. We'll see!