I first got the game quite a while back, installed it, played the tutorial, loaded up a game as England, was absolutely vexed by the UI and immediately gave up and uninstalled it.
So I reinstalled it a few weeks back in search of boredom soothing. I went into it with a little more conviction this time. I decided to go with Scotland, figuring I'd be vaguely safe while I can sit back and watch the world unfold as I learn how to play the damn thing. Unfortunately the early mission Scotland usually gets is to claim that one little island in the far north that's held by Norway. I tentatively moved my army up to the island and threw out a Declaration of War hoping the large sea between Norway and here would be large enough to belay retaliation, perhaps at least as long to seize the island then promptly sue for peace.
Less than a month of siege and Norway dropped a stack twice the size of my army onto the island.
So that was a bust. I decided to look for a better newbie nation. I was trying to avoid picking a larger nation (which are generally safer and indeed easier) because I didn't want to have to figure out how to manage a large number of territories at once. I discovered that Portugal is an excellent newbie nation since you can pretty much just ally Castille and forget Europe exists as you sail off to colonize the entire sunset. However, Portugal has a very boring early game since you basically do nothing but wait on your tech in order to get Quest for the New World. Not yet having accustomed myself to the pace of the game, I felt weird sitting and doing not much for literally decades at a time in game, so I gave that game up.
Next I decided it was time to dive into a larger nation, but I thought I might shy away from Europe since I was unfamiliar with the politics of the period. Instead I went over east and picked Ming, which occupies a comfortable position sitting on most of China. Ming turned out to be an excellent choice for someone who's not-completely-new-but-still-doesn't-have-the-hang-of-things. Ming has a solid strategic, economic, political, and diplomatic position but has its choices limited as a function of the Imperial court mechanics. Basically your nation has three factions which each enable only a select number of gameplay options at a time, which as it turns out is excellent in not only teaching you that these mechanics exist as distinct organisms but also teaches you when and how to balance using them. When Eunuchs are in power you can trade and colonize, you can only build when Bureaucrats are in power, and you can only allocate missionaries and most effectively build armies when the Temple faction is in power. Also, since your policy slider choices influence the balance of these factions (and if you go looking for guides they'll tell you to prepare to Westernize) it also serves as a very crude introduction to slider strategy. Finally, since your north borders are lined with multiple barbarian hordes you get plenty of practice engaging in warfare.
At some point I got bored with Ming (once you get used to what every faction allows you to do it quickly becomes stifling not being able to do everything at all times), so I tried Portugal again but couldn't get a solid grasp on colonization mechanics.
Briefly tried a game as Iroquois in an attempt to recreate this amazing AAR but quickly gave up and decided I might come back to try again later.
So I started a Muscowy game instead! And here's where I finally got the hang of things. Set out with a goal of Westernizing and forming Russia and things ballooned nicely from there. Being that you're landlocked for most of the game it's nice only having to focus on land power, and since you're in a great position to maintain military dominance you don't have to spend much time puzzling out early economic and production policy--you kind of grow into it as your expand your territory. Westernizing is not as brutal as it is for other nations since you start in the Oriental tech group, so it's a nice little intro to that mechanic.
This screenshot's now two days old and a few years short of a century have passed. I've since colonized all the way to the east coast of Asia (grabbing all land that wasn't already claimed) and swallowed up all the barbarian hordes between me and Manchu/Ming (including Kazakh which you can see here). Had a brief war with Persia, grabbing all their northernmost provinces. Every couple decades Lithuania declares a reconquest war, dragging Scandinavia and an assortment of other random allies with them. Every time I punish Lithuania pretty heavily for it. The first few times I barely beat back Scandinavia, who would always ask for peace as soon as my eastern armies where in a position to end their stack, but I got sick of them re-signing treaties with Lithuania so in the latest war I took about a third of their European territories (they have a ton of colonial territory in the west).
It's fun managing the absolutely massive empire, but it's basically just down to waiting for someone to blunder into a war with me so I can steal their stuff. I'm looking forward to finishing this game off and moving onto a more challenging nation. I might try Portugal again now that I have a firmer grasp of most of the game's mechanics.
Also, this is my 100th post, am I cool yet?
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