I have been playing a GC as Sweden, and so far I very much enjoy the changes to the game engine from EU I, the domestic sliders, the diplomatic options and the fact that you can´t expect to spend 95% of the time with a stab at +3 is great. However, I can see why the betazoids opionin seem to be that the balancing and AI is not *quite* finished yet...
It´s around 1540, playing at normal/normal and this is some of the things that seems a little far out...
*Denmark is huge in the east mediterranean, owning 4 provinces there and has also diplo-annexed the Hansa and a couple of other small provinces in the north HRE.
*Venice is also kicking Turkeys ass, and they have mil- and diplo- annexed the southern parts of HRE.
*Austria is almost gone. Hungary doing OK.
*Turkey is down to two provinces, Byzantium and the surrounding minors doing just fine against them togheter with Denmark.
*England dip-annexed Burgundy and Brittany, and has not lost any land to France so far, and by the size of their armies, I don´t expect them too in the near future either.
*Protestant Poland constantly at war against Lithuania.
*Portugal annexed by Aragon, Castille has become Spain but are much weaker than Aragon, might change when their colonies take off.
*Army and to a lesser extent navy sizes are very inflated, the Teutonic knights have around 200k on their 6 provinces right now, many other examples.
*Breaking the Kalmar union early, my swedish "nationalregenter" don´t recover from random events lowering monarch ability, and are now down to 1/2/2, might explain why nobody want´s to join my alliance or trade maps with me.
*The AI don´t seem very agressive with merchants, I have 5 merchants in every european CoT, and have not lost one due to competition in 20 years.
*A couple of other bugs that seems to be fixed by the patch. (constant revoltrisk in Ingermanland is a pain...)
Sure, I don´t want a EU where history just repeats itself every time you play, but this is just a bit over the top sometimes. All in all it´s a great game, and it is a LOT better than Civ3. When it reaches the balancing state achieved by EU 1.10 with IGC 2.3 it will be even better...
It´s around 1540, playing at normal/normal and this is some of the things that seems a little far out...
*Denmark is huge in the east mediterranean, owning 4 provinces there and has also diplo-annexed the Hansa and a couple of other small provinces in the north HRE.
*Venice is also kicking Turkeys ass, and they have mil- and diplo- annexed the southern parts of HRE.
*Austria is almost gone. Hungary doing OK.
*Turkey is down to two provinces, Byzantium and the surrounding minors doing just fine against them togheter with Denmark.
*England dip-annexed Burgundy and Brittany, and has not lost any land to France so far, and by the size of their armies, I don´t expect them too in the near future either.
*Protestant Poland constantly at war against Lithuania.
*Portugal annexed by Aragon, Castille has become Spain but are much weaker than Aragon, might change when their colonies take off.
*Army and to a lesser extent navy sizes are very inflated, the Teutonic knights have around 200k on their 6 provinces right now, many other examples.
*Breaking the Kalmar union early, my swedish "nationalregenter" don´t recover from random events lowering monarch ability, and are now down to 1/2/2, might explain why nobody want´s to join my alliance or trade maps with me.
*The AI don´t seem very agressive with merchants, I have 5 merchants in every european CoT, and have not lost one due to competition in 20 years.
*A couple of other bugs that seems to be fixed by the patch. (constant revoltrisk in Ingermanland is a pain...)
Sure, I don´t want a EU where history just repeats itself every time you play, but this is just a bit over the top sometimes. All in all it´s a great game, and it is a LOT better than Civ3. When it reaches the balancing state achieved by EU 1.10 with IGC 2.3 it will be even better...
