VH post 1.02: still way too easy...

[Slaists]

I 'clicked' through the end turns of my Russian VH campaign after the point when I had satisfied the long campaign goals (30 provinces, etc.) in 1780.

Here is the result (see attachments).

1799: Russian empire has per turn income of 86K+ (and growing)
1799: Russian empire has treasury of 2,750,000 ... (need I comment? and that's after I've been buying 1 province protectores for 100K a pop just for fun or just granting AI factions 100K/turn)
1799: The count of Russian provinces = 32 and has been so for the last 40 or so turns. So, there was no "blitzing" involved; neither there is real 'world domination' involved.
1799: No AI faction even tried to challenge the Russian empire's position since it gained the last two required provinces (Poland and Lithuania) 40 turns ago.
1799: Russian empire has 4 full stack professional armies + garrisons + 3 large fleets.
1799: Russian empire has an awful monarch... Still: no problem with unrest, diplomacy or anything...

The second attachment shows commodity prices in 1799. Note: Russians do not control all of the trade nodes: 3 in Indonesia, 1 in Madagascar, 1 near Nigeria, 2 near Brazil. The rest are AI owned.

So, if you ask me: it's still way too easy on VH campaign difficulty. And, game-play wise, there is still no challenge in the end-game, no challenge in 'maintaining' the empire. Correct me if I am wrong, but wasn't the end-game challenge the goal of the last patch?

I suspect, the intent of CA when establishing a system whereby a player needs to MAINTAIN an empire until 1799 was to give the player some (meaningful, hopefully) challenge after the provinces required for long campaign win were conquered. In that regard, I find CA has failed to deliver. And don't take me wrong: I find the start-game and early-mid-game quite engaging and fun. Good job in that part, CA!

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update: I have added screens with minimaps showing the extent of Russian holdings in all three theaters.