No, i didnt bother touching the Moroccans in the end. Ive recently had an economic boom, so those 700 florins (or whatever) arent a big deal anymore. I did disband my fleet, but have not gotten round to getting a new one. I dont really have a rival navy anyway. If Britain decided to tango with me, then i think i will have to build a fleet.

Anyway, some small Wuttemburg state declared war on me and i stomped them. The Italian states also declared war on me and i marched into Italy. In Europe, other than France, i hold Stuttgart, Wuttemberg, 1 other germanic state, Genoa, Milan, Rome, Venice, Corsica, Sardinia. Done rather well thanks to the silly AI diplomacy.

Oh and i researched "fire by rank" ... OMG! This is awesome. Now my infantry fires volleys, 1 rank at a time (up to 3 ranks).

Cool. I beat the road to independence thing... totally massacred a crapload of indians in the process. I'll be starting a real game soon. Looking forward to kicking some ass.

I recommend ramping up the difficulty to max on Grand Campaign. The Brits declared war on me but their American colonies (practically all of the east coast) were undefended. In 2 turns i took 4 cities. I think that might be down to me having the game on mediium or something.

Anyway, now the Brits have no presence in America and ive got a good deal of extra-frankish terriory in europe. Might go on a stomping spree in India, but i get the feeling that may not be a big challenge.

I started a campaign playing as Prussia, long campaign on normal. I took eastern prussia and pissed off the hungarians and all their (many) allies in the process. So far I've done a decent job of crushing my opposition, and even wiped one of their allies out entirely. If I end up beating this with little difficulty I'll probably bump of the difficulty level on my next run. Right now I'm surrounded by enemies and am surviving on only a few thousand (gold?) per turn. Hopefully I can turn that into a world-conquering empire shortly.

Playing as Prussia is definitely not the easiest route. I'm hoping beating the game on campaign unlocks all the other factions as playable. It'd be interesting to play as Greece or some other small country. Though I admit I was very tempted with the Ottoman empire.

BTW...what's the point of ministers/priests? In medieval 2 it was pretty obvious, but it's not so well-defined in this one. Also...does putting gentlemen into your colleges boost your research abilities? It would appear so, but having bought the game digitally I have no manual to consult.

keep it coming guys Derf, I plan on playing on Hard/Hard too ony my first grand campaign.

I actually got the game yesterday...found it on my table when I stumbled in at 1.30 in the morning, totally shit-faced. I actually fell asleep in my pc chair and woke up at 4.45 again . So yeah, I didn't play it yet. And now I'm at crappy work. I think I'm still drunk...but just buzzed, not walking into things or talking with a double tongue or anything.

I'm tempted to cancel on the party I'm going to on Saturday. Not enough time for gaming lately.

I think there are just 2 lines the manual regarding priests. Basically just put them in a region to "convert a religion". The manual is kinda shit.



http://cdn.steampowered.com/Manuals/105 ... 1236938539

ah, thanks. I'll have to check it out.

Haven't gotten in too much game time yet - trying to give the game the attention it deserves, which I can't really right now, but I played the first two mini-campaigns of the Road to Independence and butchered some Indians and Frenchies, good stuff.

As I was saying to Satis yesterday though, the battle dynamics are very different from the Rome and Medieval titles with the static ranged combat and not-so-hot melee qualitiy of your troops. Oh and the cavalry is now ultra-specialized and vulnerable, which is a weird feeling.

Loved the little naval combat I've done so far, but I can imagine the smaller-scale battles become rather tedious after a while. The full-scale naval battles must be a sight to behold though (and a bitch to manage ).

Diplomacy being a button rather than dependent of diplomats running around is a breath of fresh air too. Took a look at the grand campaign starting factions, doubting between the Dutch and the Spanish. Arathorn, you planning on buying this game anytime soon? If not, I'll try your countrymen...after all Flanders was historically part of the United Provinces back then.

My game as Prussia continues. I'm having some expansion woes, unfortunately. Warsaw is unhappy with my occupation and I've had to kill off several insurrectionist armies already. Between that and the occasional enemy incursion it's a bit of a struggle maintaining my empire. However, I do have 3 colleges (all level 1) researching various economic bonuses, so hopefully my cash problems will soon be alleviated and I can do some decent murdering. Russia thankfully went along with my peace requests, so between Russia and Sweden not being too mad at me my northern and eastern borders are secure.

I won't be buying the game soon, since I won't be buying a new pc soon. And I'll probably buy a laptop for my studies, so that's were my money goes (apart from just surviving).

Less money on important things, more money on gaming!

Jeez man... what could be more important than wasting hours and hours of your life in a virtual dreamland? What will you do when the zombie apocalypse happens? I'll tell you what! You'll become one of those poor zombies! And I or one of my three companions (only one of which is female) will be forced to kill you or set you on fire or beat you to death with the butts of our pistols! Do you think we want this? No! But a health pack and bottle of pills will be behind you and we need those to survive! To survive!

/me twitches and foams at the mouth

I actually laughed at that. Am i a weirdo?

i laughed at it, but I laugh randomly and for no apparent reason quite often. So I'm probably not a good judge.

lmao. Never imagined you having such qualms about shooting zombie Arathorn tho. Especially not when there's a medkit behind him! Do you even know how rare those are on expert?! And real zombie apocalypse = expert²!

Anyway, good to hear you're all doing so well. I actually fired up the Dutch grand campaign on H/H and well, i'm not doing so well. It's not disastrous, I still have all my territories...but I kinda of underestimated the campaign. I figured i'd be easy and manageable, with one starting area in Europe alone (Holland) and a colony on Curacao...turns out they also have one in Ceylon. So basically I'm forced to switch between three continents from day one, and safeguarding shipping transit lines. And it takes a while to build up a really fearsome navy...especially from the wreckages of my previous pirate-killing campaigns gone terribly bad.

I might continue with it, might not. We'll see. Lot of fun though, the land battles as well as the naval ones. The detail on the ships is amazing. Oh and the loading screens are hawt too. What's with the LONG turn calculations though? It takes about 30 seconds to cycle through all 454153 nations after every turn. Kinda kills the buzz.

Captain obvious to the rescue. The loading times (probably) get better once you eradicate a few nations. Without playing the game though it is hard to tell.