Belated impressions

[Cecil XIX]

These are good points, and it makes me wonder why I gave up on the game so soon. I take it you're a fan of the period, econ? Perhaps that's the difference.

Also, Huzzah for econ being back! I was reading the Imperial Messenger Service and all of a sudden I was like, "WOAH! Where'd that avatar come from?"

[Ratwar]

Interesting comments.

Honestly, I find your comments on Naval Battles perplexing to an extent. To me they're probably the biggest let down of the game. There's simply no balance. As you yourself say, the big ships always win out. This should happen when it comes down to a broadside to broadside battle, but the end result is that almost every ship type is redundant by the end of the game. The most you'll ever really need is sloops (cheap blockades), 5th rates (running down routers), Indianmen (Trade), and Heavy 1st Rates(Killing things). I also find it highly annoying that some poor sap over at CA spent his time designing the Xebec, and then to see only three of them appear in game. If you're going to introduce Naval Battles to the series, you need to hit the ball out of the park, and I just don't think that happened (or maybe I'm just bitter because in my most recent game one of my admirals committed suicide just as the battle began, you be the judge).

Also, to correct what may be a factual error, I'd say it is virtually impossible for gaining the 13 colonies to result in a loss of income. See, E:TW calculates money from trade based on a Commodities+General Trade+Length of Trade Agreement. Since any commodities you were trading with the colonies are simply redirected to your other trading partners (and you gain the commodities of the 13 colonies, that's actually a net gain), and since commodities are easily the most valuable part of the equation early in the game, I'd be surprised if you didn't actually gain trading money.