Session 8
Player Changes:
Hansa didn’t show up, and given the state of his country I assume he’s gone.
Peace!
A few minutes before the session, Austria, Prussia and I agreed last-minute to peace (in return for Prussia canceling his core on Munster, and no other demands), in addition to our previously mentioned NAP to 1635. For the next few years I reorganized my army a bit and burned war exhaustion, but wasn’t interested in doing much work on my economy until WE hit 0. A slider move towards Free Subjects gave me a third Better Administration event in a row, burning off the last of my inflation from the war and letting me full mint for a few months.
Unfortunately it seems like the rate of this event is inversely correlated to how much inflation I have at any point in time.
The Great Leap Forward
With my WE at 0, it was time for some serious reforms to make up for 150 years of constant war and no real economic progress. I swapped National Conscripts (which I wouldn’t be needing for a while) to Seahawks for the purpose of passing Enlist Privateers eventually, regenerated one point of stability, and switched to Catholic, and switched to an Administrative Republic (this order costs the least total stability to do these three things). After passing the Declaration of Indulgences (which I forgot to pass earlier), I had Great Britain force-convert me to Reformed, leaving me at +3 tolerance of heretics thanks to the Declaration of Indulgences and the Edict of Nantes, with the chance to raise it to +7 later given a spare NI slot. Meanwhile, in the east, the Ottomans met the combined wrath of Italy, Austria, and the Netherlands.
It seems that the only person not aware of this inevitable gank was the Ottomans himself.
The Ottoman war raged on for quite some time, with the Ottomans steadily losing ground to the superior numbers and much better position (the Ottomans had very inconvenient borders for defence). While little went on at home (merely stability regeneration and arsenal building), Austria continued to push along the Crimea, and with little resistance from the Ottomans the trio soon managed to negotiate peace in return for five provinces to Austria.
The following peace was somewhat uneasy, with both sides knowing that they would no doubt be at war again soon (after all, only one of the three attackers had profited thus far). At home I passed Enlist Privateers, swapped Seahawks to National Trade Policy, and reached Government tech 25, allowing me to pick Merchant Adventures, pass the Merchant Shipping Act, move towards Free Trade, and then swap the Merchant Shipping Act back to National Conscripts, thus finishing my economic fixer-upper once I finished regaining stability. Meanwhile, I pushed my New World colonies slightly farther inland and seized a few provinces from the Iroquois. With Russia and Prussia also leaping forward in income as well as Russia burning off most of their inflation, the world (other than the Ottomans) was in much better economic shape than at the start of the session.
The second Ottoman war was significantly more brutal than the first. In the west, the Ottomans decided to scorch their European land and defend Anatolia and the Caucasus, while in the east battles viciously raged along the Indian-Indochinese border. Unfortunately for the Ottomans, Austria and Italy got enough warscore to stability hit them into ceding another five provinces to Austria, then immediately declared war again through the truce. After a few more years of Ottoman defeats, a new peace was agreed on; 5 Asian provinces to the Netherlands.
In France, I started teching Land again and spread my trade as far as I could. By the end of the session, France had come great lengths, going from a 1400s-level economy to being almost exactly tied for the top spot in income, while still maintaining formidable military capability. My tech is somewhat behind (Land in particular) due to the sheer amount of time spent regaining stability, but given how ahead of time Land is that gap will no doubt close shortly.
With the Ottomans brought down a notch and both Russia and France’s sudden prosperity, the economic scene looks much more competitive all of a sudden.
Stats and map
http://www.europa3.ru/cgi-bin/mpsta...e=int&season=comp-2013&game=XVI&yearsave=1600
Comments
This was a relatively unexciting session for France, but a necessary one to remain economically viable. Hopefully next session should involve some more international interaction. The Ottoman wars were fun though, and I felt a great deal of schadenfreude watching them reap the rewards of their isolationist diplomacy. The economic boost really was as simple as it sounds; it’s surprising how easy it is to get an economy running smoothly when you know what to look for.