My first Prussian campaign just drew to a sad conclusion.


I was trying for victory on a short campaign, and my initial land grabs during the first few years went well enough. I kept an eye on converting the provinces that I took from Catholicism to Protestant and was actively building church schools to keep the conversion going along and the population happy.

The years has started to creep by and I had three provinces left to take, and since you have to hold them for until 1750 I thought it would make sense to make my final series of attacks - against Sweden, France, and a stronger then normal minor power (it had grabbed a few provinces and knocked out the United Provinces lol!) towards the end of the game so that I only had to hold them for a few turns.

I had three armies on the borders, just waiting for the right time to strike (I thought to hit around 1745, figure a few years for moving and seiging, and then just hold out and wait). My neighbors all around me had been battered into submission on my other fronts and it seemed that all I had to do was win these three battles in order to cinch a victory. A pretty promising position, all things considered...

Then there is a warning message as one of my universities finishes researching one of the later Philosophy techs.... human rights? Something along the lines of "there is going to be a revolution soon due to some newfangled ideas at the university"

So, feeling like a proper tyrant, I burn down the university. All of them, actually. And all the schools. I've come too far to risk a revolution at this stage, with victory right at hand in just a few scant turns...

Flags are waving! Gates are crashing down. There's a massive uprising and I'm asked to side with the government or the rebels. Of course I want to side with the government - I am the government!

So I make some attacks at the rebels scattered across the country. It's looking like I should be able to knock out the rebellion in short order - and just possibly have enough time to get my troops back into position to launch those final three attacks that get me all my victory conditions and win me the campaign....

...when a stack of rebels that I had failed to account for that turn captures Berlin, and the game suddenly ends! I'm shown the defeat screen, my soldiers bodies draped ignoblely over the cannons.

It was a really great learning experiance though, and a lot of fun. :)