Impressions of Faction balance.

[anweRU]

Techs and buildings actually still cause unrest. Only under constitutional monarchy they don't since that type of government does not have the lower class. I know, it's silly.

Actually, the enlightenment tech "clamor for reform" penalty has gone AWOL in this patch. It is still in the description, but not in the game!

I agree that trade factions will have it harder than before with this patch. GB at least is still relatively easy. I am currently on turn 32 or 33, and took 3 regions during the last turn and this turn (two in NA, one in India). I purposefully did not take a fourth one (Punjab), because I didn't way Persia to DoW on me... I guess I have been averaging 1 region/turn for the last 10 turns or so - though I number of those in NA were gifted to the 13 colonies to make them whole again... Can Prussia blitz with the same tempo on H/M (not having tried it...)?

Two full stacks, and two half stacks are sufficient to go on a rampage in two theaters, because the AI priorities are messed up. The AI recruits too many units and doesn't improve its economy - and it doesn't use them properly to add insult to its own injury. France has a larger navy than mine (one stack in NA alone has more ships than my total combat navy!), and has built decent garrisons in its colonial possessions. But that has broken its back - it can't even repair a damaged weaver's cottage in Flanders, it has been that way for at least 10 turns!

The Marathas looked like they might prove a challenge - but I can't find a single decent stack anywhere. It has garrisoned each and every single regional capital with 6 to 10 units, but its main army is AWOL. I think the Mughals wore them down. To be fair, the Mughals had a 16-17 unit stack which they were using first to recapture their regions from the Marathas - then trying to attack me (just destroyed it this morning).