GameStar Revie (German magazine)

[Sir Beane]

I don't see why CA would remove Switzerland, what possible reason could they have? It makes no sense, especially considering they clearly were in the game at one point.

[Monk]

I don't see why CA would remove Switzerland, what possible reason could they have? It makes no sense, especially considering they clearly were in the game at one point.

It was likely due to no-one having any strong feelings, one way or another, toward keeping them in the game. You could say CA was really neutral on that issue.



I'll be quiet now.

[Ituralde]

I watched the videso concerning the campaign map and they give a very good overview over that aspect of the game. Nearly every window is shown. Every part of the map is shown so you know exactly where which provinces are. Each of the playable factions is introduced with their starting provinces. I don't have the time right now, but if you're interested I can provide those lists for every faction.


Also some more information:

- 11 playable factions referst to the Grand Campaign. The US is a protectorate of Great Britain.
- The US can be played from 1783 to 1810 as last part of the Road to Independence Campaign
- There's a graphical overview where you can see the relations of each faction towards all other factions in the game. A small campaign map will colour from dark green to dark red depending on the relations to the country chosen.
- Once a minister gets fired there is a pool of five ministers to choose from. I guess the random replacement referred to the pool being filled with new random candidates.
- The screen where you set your taxes also shows the campaign map and automatically indicates what effect your tax setting has on the population. Adjusting the taxes is very intuitive and simple.
- The trade routes look like the known green lines from M2TW. Now you can hover over them though and get a detailed description on how much money each faction makes from this trade routes. The same applies to the road network.
- Every map region has transit zones. Once your ships enter them you can choose if you want to send them to a trade theater or to North America/India. It takes them some turns to get there.

That's all for now. Gonna watch the videso about land and sea battles later.
Cheers!

Ituralde

[Ituralde]

So here are the starting provinces of each faction:

Great Britain:
London, England
Edinburgh, Scotland
Dublin, Ireland
Port Royal, Jamaica
Nassau, Bahamas
Moose Factory, Rupert's Land

13 Colonies Protectorate:
Savannah, Georgia
Charlestown, Carolina
Williamsburg, Virginia
Annapolis, Maryland
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Albany, New York
Boston, Confederation of New England
Falmouth, Maine

France:
Paris, France
Strasbourg, Alsace-Lorraine
Quebec, New France
Fort Nashawaak, Acadia
Montreal, Upper Canada
New Orleans, Lower Louisiana

Spain:
Madrid, Spain
Gibraltar, Gibraltar
Cagliari, Sardinia
Naples, Naples
Milan, Lombardy
Brussels, Flanders
La Habana, Cuba
St. Augustine, Florida
Santo Domingo, Hispaniola

Austria:
Vienna, Austria
Preßburg, Hungary
Klausenburg, Transylvania
Zagreb, Croatia
Prague, Bohemia & Moravia
Breslau, Silesia

United Provinces:
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Trincomalee, Ceylon
Punda, Curacao

Prussia:
Berlin, Brandenburg
Königsberg, East Prussia

Ottoman Empire:
Cairo, Egypt
Jerusalem, Palestine
Damascus, Syria
Baghdad, Mesopotamia
Yerevan, Armenia
Ankara, Anatolia
Istanbul, Rumelin
Athens, Greece
Patras, Morea
Sofia, Bulgaria
Belgrade, Serbia
Iasi, Moldavia
Sarajevo, Bosnia

Russia
Moscow, Muscovy
Petrovskaya Slobodz, Karelia
Arkhangelsk, Arkhangelsk
Uit-Syvodik, Koml
Kiev, Ukraine
Cherkansk, Don Volsko
Karzan, Tatarya
Astrakhan, Astrakhan
One Eastern province, I can't make out the name

Poland-Lithuania:
Warsaw, Poland
Gdansk, West Prussia
Vilnius, Lithuania
Minsk, Belarus & Volhynia
Lwow, Galicia & Podolia

Jelgava, Courland is allied with Poland-Lithuania

Sweden:
Stockholm, Sweden
Abo, Finland
Riga, Estonia & Livonia
St. Petersburg, Ingria

Maratha Confederacy:
Arcot, Carnatica
Satara, Bijapur


That's all the provinces from the starting factions I could see on the map. Obviously there are some missing, if you look at the Spanish holdings in North America for example. Also Sicily is never shown in the videos, I assume it belongs to Spain too. Also I apologize if there are any misspellings. It was often extremely hard to make out province names and their capitals.

Cheers!

Ituralde

[Polemists]

This review is packed with info, I prefer it much more over the other pc review.

Also nice to see that Austria gets lots of land and it's very diverse (as it should be which later will lead to division of the Austro Hungarian nation)

Prussia only gets two regions at start..hmm...I guess if you like smaller countries that's good. Looks like smallest is Prussia or Marth and largest is Spain or Ottoman's depending on which Spain regions arn't listed.

All in all i'm happy and can't wait to play, I'm trying to find a good 18th century map to print off until I can get the game map in the mean time :)

[Sir Beane]

This is fantastic information Ituralde Keep up the good work!

I wish I could read the magazine and watch the videos.

[Gaius Terentius Varro]

So we get the first patch on release which means we will only get one more untill the exp pack comes. Sigh

[Polemists]

Dosn't it usually take them a year to year and a half for a expansion?

[Gaius Terentius Varro]

exactly

[Monk]

So we get the first patch on release which means we will only get one more untill the exp pack comes. Sigh

So, do you have a source for the arbitrary number of only two patches allowed?

[Sir Beane]

There will be more patches due to the fact that Steam allows the game to be easily updated with a variety of small patches rather than several huge ones. Ca can easily bring out a patch every couple of days as they work on fixing small bugs and balance issues.

[Gaius Terentius Varro]

it has been CAs policy since Shogun?