Fun nations to play?

[Seneca]

Having just finished with Turkey, and subordinated most of North America, Indo-China and Central Europe to the Sunni faith, I'm rearing to kick ass with some other nation - but who?

Recommendations for unusual nations to play? Every time I go for something different, I seem to pick a no-hoper - Golden Horde, Scotland (unless a conquistador turns up and you steal some maps), Japan - you just can't DO anything with them

[RobRoy]

Try combining two of the variants on the EU board:

- The Improved Grand Campaign; and

- The Holland - Grand Campaign.

The Holland variant separates the Holland province from Spain, turning it into the duchy of Gelre/Gelderland, which was independent in 1492 (though re-absorbed by Charles V a couple of decades after the game begins).

You'll need to edit the files, though, to do this. But it's certainly different from Turkey. If the warfare aspect was what you enjoyed about Turkey, though, be warned, this variant will start a bit slow - and you should be avoiding war, initially. Move things along at the 1 minute=2 years speed until the Reformation, when things'll get more interesting.

[Rogan Josh]

Branadenburg can be a challenge.

[Par4]

Number of Provinces is the lil number
These are all good minor nations
Venice and Denmark are pretty easy though
I can get the 3 letter codes for replacing majors if you want

Brandenburg(3)
Hanseatic League(2)
Teutonic Order(4)
Papal States(3)
Venice(8)
Hessen(2)
Saxony(2)
Denmark(8)
The Palatinat(2)
Hannover(2)
Narrava(1)
Courland(2)
Lorraine(2)
Thurington(1)
Wurtemburg(1)
Baden(1)
Ragusa(1)
Parma(1)
Naples(2)
Helevetina(1)
Tuscany(2)


To play a pagan nation you have to edit a lot, I say it's not really worth it...

[Par4]

Heres all the codes for IGC minor nations, minus the majors (including Sweden) and the pagans, and some of the nations that don't appear until they revolt, they are gone. Just replace france or whatever in the new scenario and you can play this nation

PRU;Prussia
VEN;Venice
ADE;Aden
ALD;Algiers
ARA;The Hedjaz
AST;Astrakhan
BAD;Baden
BAY;Bavaria
BOH;Bohemia
BRA;Brandenburg
BRI;Brittany
CRI;Crimea
CYR;Cyrenaica
DAN;Denmark
GEN;Genoa
GEO;Georgia
GRA;Granada
HAN;Hannover
HEL;Helvetia
HES;Hessen
HSA;Hanseatic League
HUN;Hungary
IRA;Iraq
KAL;Union of Kalmar
KUR;Courland
KAZ;Kazan
KLE;Kleves
KNI;The Knights
KOL;Cologne
LAT;Teutonic Order
LOR;Lorraine
MAM;Mameluks
MLO;Milan
MOL;Moldovia
MOR;Morocco
NAP;Naples
NAV;Navarra
OMA;Oman
PAP;Papal States
PAR;Parma
PER;Persia
PFA;The Palatinat
POL;Poland-Lithuania
PSK;Pskov
SAC;Saxony
SAV;Savoy
SCO;Scotland
SHL;Holstein
SIB;Sibir
SIC;Sicily
SPR;Ragusa
STE;Golden Horde
SUD;Nubia
THU;Thuringen
TOS;Tuscany
TRI;Tripoli
TUN;Tunisia
WAL;Wallachia
WUR;Wurtemberg
[This message has been edited by Par4 (edited April 03, 2001).]

[Victor Galis]

I played as Moldova for a little while, and annexed Hungary early(under 5 years) giving me a suitable base for expansion, but Poland just wouldn't leave me alone, and i made the mistake of attacking Turkey (I mean I won, but Poland attacked, and that was nasty )

I also tried Wallachia... not that much fun, though I did beat two provinces out of Turkey, but everyone hated me for breaking the vassalization. It would have been a viable game if Catholic countries in Europe didn't get mad at a Catholic country for breaking out from under the Ottoman yoke, and beating the Turks back severely.

[Hannibal Ad Portas]

Try the igc latest version,you dont have to type anything in and can
annex all countrys along with more new countrys,and a host of tweaks
and improvements,russia is my current favorite in v1.8.
Hannibal

[Victor Galis]

Annex all countries, where was the IGC when I was beating the snot out of Poland, Austria, and Russia... I could have have had possibly double the bad boy value!

[Imran Siddiqui]

It was there, you just don't look

[Coug]

I've played a game as Genoa now and it's been really really fun. I'll get the AAR out soon I hope. But, give it a go!

Venice was REALLY fun! They have great colonels if you know how to use them!

[Seneca]

Woohoo - Brandenburg kicks ass!

I was best friends with the Hanseatic League for 80 years, then suddenly declared war and annexed them (and got Silesia, Erz and Jylland as well in the same war).
I'm as popular as Satan, but hey, I'm the biggest bad-assed German power around, and I've gone from insignificant nobody to middle-ranking power in 10 years...

Now - can originally landlocked powers ever get explorers? I've got 6 colonists kicking their heels...

[Nicolas]

I've found it's actually pretty easy to get a whole bunch of maps without any exploring. What you need to do is trade your european map with one of the north african sultinates to get the middle eastern map, the trade that to one of the exploring powers. With that, you can become middleman between the different great nations, getting explored provinces from one then trading them with another, then tradeing those to yet another. Failing that, build twenty ship and go crush small enemy fleets to get maps.

[SandMonkey]

How do you switch to a minor nation? What exactly do I go and change?

[Ramo]

If you're up for a challenge, Prussia. I've managed to still keep my BB value relatively low, while becoming THE dominant power in the East, going from 1 province to ~30 with 4 COTs by the 1520's.

Other fun countries, I imagine, would be Navarra, Helvetia, and Holand. You simply need a major power near you, so your BB value won't go up too much in your expansion.

As for maps, you just have to sack some Western major power's capitol - with Scotland, you have England right next to you .
[This message has been edited by Ramo (edited April 14, 2001).]

[Allemand]

The Portuguese capitol is the one to sack, their maps are the best. Just have to have a navy.....