When the last DLC released I went all in on a new game. All DLCs (recently I’ve been disabling Sunken Treasures because I find that when Crown Falls comes in it throws off my momentum) and even the campaign. I put it on 3-star difficulty for the first time with 3-star enemies (but didn’t get the achievement, sadly).
One key thing I learned is that if you don’t go to Enbesa, the AIs will still colonize the islands. I thought this was only true for the New World, but it’s the case for Enbesa, too–I put it off for a long time, and when I got there George and Maggie had split it up between them (Alonso didn’t bother, for some reason). I still got Taborime (scripted) but it was… unfortunate.
With no way to get the higher level resources, I geared for war with Margaret. Replaced my key trade routes with zeppelins (some of them, anyway) and built 10-15 dreadnoughts and kitted them out. (Some of those legendary items are really good.) The war was a mess–lots of trade ships sunk and I even lost an island or two but in the end I took what I needed without issue. I decided not to finish her off out of curiosity–I’ve never successfully made lasting peace with an AI after a war, but maybe this time.
After the war I was in a huge influence debt, of course. Sold off a ton of warships. In the process of reworking my trade routes to incorporate a new possession in the new world I hit a game breaking bug–ships on trade routes would sometimes just go to a fixed point in the ocean and sit there. (Reported also by many others.)
So that’s it for the game for now. I could rework my trade routes to not use the new island, I think, but ugh. Very disappointing.
On the positive side, both the tourism and skyscraper DLCs are fun. I like the idea of greatly increasing density in the “downtown”. (I did get a legendary town hall item that provides 100% coffee, so I put ~all my skyscrapers within its radius and that has been huge in enabling me to actually, you know, provide the goods they need.)
Amusing note: a minute or so after the end of the war I got hit with a newspaper that had a +100% and a +50% riot chance article. (Why they decided to focus on the islands I lost, that I’d long since recovered, instead of any of the numerous ones I had gained, is a mystery to me. Editorial discretion my ass.) I had no influence left to use for propaganda so I had to let them publish. This resulted in some massive riots in my industrial area.
(Hard to see because a bunch of the fist icons are at an oblique angle, but >50% of the industry is striking, including the power plant.)
And here’s a glory shot of all the pollution:
So for rather incorrect reasons, I ended up with a historically accurate severe wave of strikes immediately after the end of a major war.
(I am also amused that the game conflates “riot” and “strike”.)
