Well for the first time ever since Shogun Totalwar I've got so disgusted I've decided to abandon a campaign before the end. (3 years before the end in fact)
Everything has been going fine up until 1745 (5 years before the end) then all sorts of weird and stupid things started happening.
First of all France which is at war with Britain decided suddenly to sacrifice its last few ships to blockade London. Cutting off all my trade with Britain and leaving me with a cash flow crisis. I managed to survive that by selling one of my Indian provinces to the Mughal Empire, and Britain sent a few sloops to sink the French fleet. So, that sorted that out.
Then Westphalia (Feeble and Destitute) decided to declare war on the entire world, including me, effectively cutting my trade routes to Hannover and all my northern trade partners. Nothing I could do, in terms of bribes threats or offers would get them to back down so my army took out their faction in a single turn. But once again my treasury was empty.
Then everyone except Britain cancelled their trade agreements with me, and Britain is the only country I still need to go to war with because I have to capture New York to win the campaign, and even when I was rolling in cash Britain would not consider any offer to sell it to me. Even my Eastern Allies cancelled their trade agreements with me, and whilst still allied consider it beneath their dignity to buy anything from me.
So, plan B, stockpile as much cash as I can from British trade, then blitz New York on the last turn or two. Not very happy about that strategy as its obviously gamey, but I have no real choice. Literally, 4 turns of saving up and then blitz the British.
Next turn, Britain moves its fleet out of London to Portsmouth, France builds a sloop and captures London. Imminent Bankrupcy.
Ok! Britain has at least two 2nd Rates in Portsmouth and a huge Army in London, so I just need to survive one turn and Britain will kick the silly French sloop out of its main trading port.
Nope! the British are too scared of a French sloop to do anything. Ok! I shall sink the stupid sloop and go to war with France. Nope! not allowed the French Ship is in a harbour, albeit an allied one, I would have to invade Britain to get at it whereupon we would be at war and the issue of trade irrelevant.
Sooo! checkmate as far as I can see. If I press the end turn button I'm bankrupt, and there is nothing I can do to resolve the problem.
I think checkmate is an apt description really, more than any previous title, ETW plays much more like chess than a strategy game. The victory conditions alone are contrived to force players along a specific script. I mean I never really understood why the Dutch would want a mix of territories that included New Andalusia (forcing war with Spain), French Guyana (forcing War with France), New York (forcing war with Britain) and Carnatica (forcing war with the Maratha Confederacy). But I figured it was just a blantant attempt to force me to fight the big boys rather than pick on the weaker nations, so I went along with it.
However, the AI's end game strategy seems to be to conspire deliberately against the player by using whatever means the program has at its disposal, sacrificing nations and units like pawns even though they have no interest in the outcome. The only solution to this sort of strategy is World Domination, kill off all the pieces so the AI has nothing to sacrifice, and I've never been interested in that sort of game.
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