As the Netherlands player I figured I would weigh in considering my name has been tossed around a few times and I might as well briefly explain last session from my point of view.
I entered the session with the thought that I would be making continual gains on the Ottomans, however, after the original perm player left, and his co-op did not man up to face the situation he was in for two weeks in a row, Elcyion decided to take control of the nation for the session. In his mind, this was probably a good meta-game move for Elcyion (meta-gaming has never been a stranger to Elcyion). This allowed him to beat the Netherlands, something luke/Histaxin probably lacked the expertise to do, and thus remove a potential enemy for Russia from the game. Elcyion and Pilis had thus resisted playing any other country besides Russia, but when it became clear that they could as a nation benefit from doing so, Elcyion couldn't have been happier to take over the Ottomans.
I am not going to pretend that I coudln't have fought the war that I did against the Ottomans better, because I definitely could have. I made mistakes, but mistakes I imagine I could have gotten away with against a lesser player. It is interesting to note that every war I "lost" in this campaign, I lost to Elcyion, regardless of the nation I lost to. After losing the 5 provinces + 3000 ducats in Asia (with Elcyion electing to cut off many more provinces, an indication he would be back for those in 5 years), and the seven provinces I had in Europe, I decided that continuing this campaign was not something I would be interested in. This decision was made not only becuase I effectively lost my entire treasury, all of my customs houses, 20% of my provinces, and 35% of my buildings in one war, but also because any comeback I might make would not be before the inevitable campaign end, considering multiplayer campaigns never make it into the end date, and the sheer magistrate value of the provinces I lost was immeasurable. Amusingly, Elcyion criticized me for resigning from the campaign, when a day before he rage quit a campaign when faced with comparatively lesser demands.
The major thing I learned from playing with this group of players is that the minor nations really have no chance to succeed. If you do not start as one of the major powers (the major players left after this session), you are not likely to find success unless other players go easy on you. This was exacerbated by the fact that as a newcomer to the group, nobody took me seriously on the diplomatic table, and would rarely help me if it meant upsetting veterans of the group. When I raised this complaint on teamspeak before I left, Pewt made a big point of reminding me that I declined a split of China that Russia proposed when they were very weak a number of sessions ago (imo, Russia did a terrible job of nation building, they have an embarrassing amount of buildings for a nation of their size, and didn't modernize until the late 1500s.), but choosing to fight that war was the right thing to do for the Netherlands. However, Prussia blindsided me and gave Russia military access through their nation, forcing me to fight a two front war taking place in the Netherlands and China without a co-op, when Russia had one. This made an already hard war near impossible, and by the time I got a co-op I had already made so many mistakes due to the fact I could not focus on the war in Europe and Asia with as much care and attention as I would have liked to.
Had I won the war, I would have been in a position to take all of China and by doing so, be an equal power to either the Ottomans or Russia, and not dependent on other nations to help me expand.
Had I taken the deal, I would have given Russia half of China for effectively doing nothing (I did all the work in actually killing China), and plenty of time for them to become westernized, modernized, and put a huge army on my borders so they could come for what they gave me at their leisure. The only way I would have been able to defend myself would have been through outside help, which I was unlikely able to garner against Russia.
Anyways, it was an interesting experience for me as the Netherlands, but I was never more than a pawn on the board of Chess that was Europe, only there to be thanked or scorned at by the kingmakers in Europe. I will say however, I was particularly surprised Pewt came for the Dutch provinces, after the understanding I thought we had reached after I helped him in first war he would have had a much harder time winning without my support hunting rebels and fighting Hansa.