If your demands are for more than he has in his treasury, he only has to pay you what’s in there. This applies to you also: this is why the AI will sometimes present you with a demand for 27 ducats. He actually wants 250, but you don’t have that much so you can escape for just 27. You’re never obliged (and neither is the AI) to take out a loan to cover a peace demand - unless, you’ve spent money in between getting the demand and accepting it. ie. if the demand comes through for 27 ducats and you send out a trader and only have 19 left, and then accept it, you will be forced to borrow money. Because the AI always responds instantly, this never happens to it.

Now I understand. But I think you should be able to know if he can pay you what you want when he accept, otherwise you maybe want to demand another territory. If you wan’t to get us much money as possible out of your enemy you should wait until the January 1st to make your demands so the AI wont have time to spend the money it gets. I use this strategy almost always and it works well. Well if you did all the work in eliminating a country, I think you should get a bigger share. An ally that sits on his ass shouldn’t get any. Play great babysitting games free. Just like I don’t need rewards when I do the same. A nice way of splitting the money would be if it was based on number of stars that the country had. If countries A, B and C are allies and A has 4 stars, B has 2 stars and C has 1 star, then A should get 4/7 of the money, B 2/7 and C 1/7. That would be fair. But I don’t think that’s the way it works in the game.

If the AI demands 250 ducats from you and you only have 7 in the treasury, you only have to pay 7. If you demand 250 ducats from the AI and it only has 7 in the treasury, it only has to pay 7. Whether or not it’s the AI or the game engine that changes the demand to 7 ducats doesn’t really matter much - I prefer to think it’s the game engine working the same way for both sides. If you OFFER 250 ducats, you will be forced to take out a loan to pay it. There’s no way to make an offer of 7 ducats. The AI never offers cash if it has less than 250 ducats (in fact, I don’t recall seeing the AI ever offer cash at all).

What he meant I think that the Ai considers the his offer as if he asked 250d. So the AI will offer you peace regerdles of you having or not having the money. Even more it is possible to think of the AI and the game engine as two separate entities. In this case the AI sends his peace offer of demand 250d to you which is interpreted by the game engine as a demand of 10d. I’m not sure though if this reasoning is correct. The question is wheter it makes sense to say that there is an AI and a game engine. It might be your impression when you play the game, but actually it’s just a program running and if you were given the opportunity to read the source you might not know which part is the “AI” and which is the “game engine”.

When I get a screen from a country asking to conclude peace in which I get asked for 7D, I get asked for 7D. But of course it can very well be they are asking 250 but because I ain’t got it or whatever I get asked for 7, but that still is getting asked 7 ducats, no matter how it got there. Does it really matter how it got there anyway ? I got asked for 7D, I pay 7D. That’s it really. I get a question to pay 7D. Wouldn’t it be pretty cool that all this complaining about the AI not paying up is actually the same thing as the ai “experiences”, human players not paying up?

I agree that from a coding point of view it might be hard to separate the two, but I look at it like this: “The computer” is not trying to beat me in this game; if it were, it would make sure that all my colony attempts failed, I got lots of bad random events etc. The game engine is just sitting there processing developments, whereas the AI is actively trying to win the game. My mac game downloads today. Not only that, but there is a separate AI for each country; otherwise on Jan. 2nd 1492, every single country in the world would DoW me and “The AI” would be certain of winning, since I’m no way in any shape to beat the world that early. So from a gameplay point of view, I think it does make sense to distinguish between what the AI is doing for any given country, and what the game engine is doing. Like BiB said - I like to think that the AI is actually sending a demand for 250 ducats, but is only going to get seven of them.

The AI (or AIs) and the game engine are human abstractions. Very good abstractions actually but they leave some questions unanswerable. Like wheter it’s the AI or the game engine that asks 7d. Of course with some premises, like the “the game engine works the same for both sides” this question is easily answerable, the problem however still remains becouse this premise contradicts our experiences. So I have to agree with you again everyone can believe what they want.(edit:though you never explicitly said that) I believe that both are true, but that doesn’t mean that anyone who thinks oterwise is wrong, quite the contrary actually.

They’ve been quite good about grabbing a port in my recent games-they’ve just got even crapper, if that’s possible, at breaking past the Khanates (although it doesn’t help when the Crimea is the nation that annexes the Golden Horde, Astrakhan and Sibir-Russia only got about one Golden Horde province)! I don’t know if anything was altered in the Russian AI file… But in my last 7 games or so, they never succeeded in getting to the Siberian corridor. Their annexations stop after the Golden Horde mostly.

It seems that Bib use IGC 1520. Inc as he often said. Play it and see Russia in Siberia! Let Russia without Ingermainland in a 1492. Inc and you will have to find Pie I for the AI. Never really play 1520.inc, since I need to edit to annex great powers… But anyway, I will play it ASAP, less warmongering then for me. The reason for Arkangelsk not having a port in the GC, it had back in the Beta days, is because Russia starts getting colonists when she owns a port. Play superb strategy virtual villagers 4 game. So if you play with Arkangelsk as a port Russia get too many colonists too early.

Thats why its strange in IGC. You give Ingermandland and leave Arkhangelsk without a port.
I think that the following things should be fixed: Arkhangelsk – coastal, Kola – coastal, Free Novgorod. Also the caspian provinces should be coastal too. Anyway I still can’t get how you change the Novgorod to be free on start and the game crashes after I alter the provinces file with wordpad.

This is the one aspect of the game that the AI averages a better performance than historically at-although it does make it a little historically ridiculous that Russia’s required to have a port for colonists-they didn’t get to Azov etc. until about the same period. A port in Archangelsk would fix this nicely. Just add a historical event in that time frame that puts a port in that province. Historically accurate and helpful to any Russia that doesn’t have a port by 1564 (or whatever the date was). No need to make things too complicated.

Seriously, I’ve seen Russia do quite well with colonizing Siberia, and I always play with TO owning Ingermannland. I’ve played 12 hands off with IGC2.3, and a few more with IGC2.0, 2.1 and so on. A big problem is EU1.09. All colonization by the ai is reduced by this patch. I’ve seen Russia be very aggressive early and then crippled by its ToT, but still end up colonizing a great deal. I’ve seen Russia be very passive early, but still end up colonizing a great deal. But, either way, colonization is not going to occur seriously (by the ai), until the mid-1600s. Download great virtual villagers 4: the tree of life game. Given PTI, this is historical. The only problem I see is with EU1.09. It fixed tech progression, but seriously broke colonization.

It’s been a long while since I played 1.08 and I only vaguely remember the colonisation there but I don’t recall that big a gap. Also the tech issue was more important to me. MAkes playing a non colonial nation quite interesting IMO. However that being said colonisation still needs some serious tweaking. What I do remeber is that the Spanish and Russian colonisation was at least as good. The English is quite crap but then has it ever been different? Holland gets its TPs, depends quite a bit on when they break free. France is so so. I just thought colonisation was always quite crap.

Quite true, although I do have a vague suspicion that Russia did better with 1.08. The big problem I notice with Russia’s colonisation is that on the few times they do get going, they seem to have a habit of stopping short of the Pacific four times in five. It seems to me that they don’t reach the Pacific because the try to colonize all the way across Siberia. When I am playing Russia I make only the necessary TPs and colonies to complete the corridor (and get the gold provinces) and then go back and fill in the gaps. And not being the Uber-player, there are always some gaps left by the time the game is over.

Now with Meath still belonging to England, I must find a way to take the province from them, despite lacking a CB. So for years I built up a navy (without the benefit of a shipyard) and after getting into a BB war with the hope of England attacking me, I soon realize that every nation *but* England wants to go to war. So I DOW, take the stability hit, and soon major portions of my empire are rebelling. Now with France I could take stability hits without any worry, but with P-L’s multiple religions (I had every religion possible) this wasn’t possible.

I land at Meath, and conquer it…but I only have one star against England, and they refuse to forfeit the province. So I send my ships back to the mainland, and have to reissue orders about 100 times because of all the different ships that hate my guts. (The Netherlands, Spain, Denmark…) so I finally make it back to the mainland, load up some troops, and set sail for England. I drop off 55,000+ troops into the English capital, only to watch in horror as a army of 85,000+ kicks them all over England, until they eventually die. I persist in my demands for Meath, but they won’t accept. And to top it off, they take Meath back, as well as a few of my underdeveloped North American provinces.

This is the part of the story where I lose it. I’m cursing like a sailor, slamming my fists onto my computer desk, etc. I feared that I’d never annex Eire. I give England 250d rather than lose my North American provinces (One of the rules that I impose on myself is that I refuse to cede land in a war…I don’t care if I have to wait 50 years to build up the troops necessary to reclaim land, or offer 500d for a few provinces, I just don’t give up land).

So I’m sad…Poland will never be a force in the British Isles. I then notice that Eire has a TP (or it may have been a small colony) in North America, located right next to one of my cities. I give them a state gift; I see the “annex” feature light up in the diplomacy window, and YIPPEE! They join P-L! All that trouble with the stability hit and loss of troops to England for nothing. But I don’t complain, and happily welcome them into my empire. And here’s the kicker: they had a shipyard! So thanks to this move, I was now getting an extra colonist a year!

Moving right along, I let the French alliance expire, because I want the province of Tyrol, which will give me a link to my Italian provinces. After this, I flooded their markets with merchants, received my CB, and went to war for Tyrol. I sent about 60,000 troops into Tyrol, and quickly took it. Just as I was ready to march through Helvetia, I see 80,000+ Frenchmen looking quite perturbed marching into my general direction. The white peace was signed with France soon after.

Things went a lot smoother in Italy, as I took Modena and Milan. In the East, I took Saratow and Bougutjar from Russia, and annexed the Crimea. At this time I joined the Sicily/Venice alliance, and vassalized Sicily. Speaking of Russia, earlier in the virtual villagers 4: the tree of life game they annexed Prussia. Prussia re-appeared in my BB exploits, and allied with The Order. By this time, the Netherlands took Kleves, and the Order was down to a couple of provinces. I DOW on the Order, annexed them, and took out Prussia for good measure.

Spain was all over the map, as they took Kurland from the Order years before, and the Dutch province of Gotland, while losing The Belares to Algiers. About this time, I got the idea of unifying Italy under my flag. I desperately wanted Naples, so I could annex Sicily. The Papal States, down to two provinces, were my main target. I would destroy them early, and sent my troops into Naples, where they would hopefully meet my Sicilian allies, who had amassed an incredible army thanks to my countless state gifts. The States were allied with France and Naples, so I decided to DOW on France, and to pour all of my troops into annexing The States and Naples…but the States dishonor the alliance, leaving approximately 90,000 soldiers lined up on their border, twiddling their thumbs. So I hurried up, and sent my entire fleet to where Tuscany once stood, to ship my soldiers around the States, and into Naples…but the Genoan navy thoroughly crushed me, which sent the fleet up toward Modena.

I sign a peace agreement with Genoa, and finally have a clear path to the sea outside of Naples. I unload my siege force into the capital (this after having to go back and load up additional troops, since my original siege force wasn’t large enough) and after a while, I annex Naples.

The war is now over, so I thank Sicily by giving them a state gift, followed by an annexation offer. Certainly they would want to thank me for all of the hard work that I did to make this possible, but nope, they refuse, and cancel their vassalization with me. Months later, they are my vassals once again, so I get to wait another 10 years before I can annex again.

By now I’ve built up a substantial amount of troops in North America, and get into yet another BB war, which England dives into. They are allied with the Iroquois, and I *try* to sack their capital (I once read that they can be annexed, even if the only province you owned was the capital). But I couldn’t get there. They continually sent small cavalry detachments against my huge army, and my army’s progress was stopped short. They were also outproducing my troops, and I eventually signed a white peace with basically everyone but Russia that time around (I took Kalmuk and Kouban).

During this time, Yukon rebelled, despite being a level 2 colony. The rebels marched down through my other 3 N.American West Coast provinces, leaving me with 4 colonies in a state of rebellion. With my small navy, there was no way in Hell I could afford to send it all the way over there to straighten that mess out. Luckily I had Kitimat up to city level, but the tax base was too low to build troops. I promoted a tax collector, and slowly built up a four ship navy, complete with four cavalry (this province churned out one unit at a time. I sent the troops over, and reclaimed my land.

In yet another BB free for all, I annexed the Iroquois, and took two N.American provinces from England. And for good measure, I won Malta and Meath (remember Meath?) from Spain. Yes, Spain somehow landed in England. With my money and manpower exhausted, I decided to lie low for a while. So thank goodness that Venice, a nation that I tried to vassalize for decades (and did once, but the virtual villagers 4 game crashed)DOW on Turkey. I dishonored the alliance, quickly rejoined it, and have been waiting for y-e-a-r-s for this thing to end. It turns out that Venice took all of the money from my state gifts, and built troops on its two remaining islands, without any transport ships in sight to ship them to Turkey. All that remains of Venice is its capital, and these two islands.

I believe that my game may have an error in it, because this war, as well as some Spanish wars, drag on wayyyyyy too long. +10 revolt risk due to war exhaustion in Spanish colonies? Some more notes in 1713: Austria is a vassal of Spain, and has been for at least 50 years. All that remains of Austria is Ostmarch, Alsace, and the capital, Austria. The Netherlands has Gerona, located on the Iberian Peninsula. They also have Friesen, Oldenburg, Munster, Kleves, Hesses, and Hainaut. Spain has Cologne, Gotland, and Kurland, as mentioned earlier. Scotland still exists (I’ve never seen them last this long) as does Navarra (ditto). Navarra is Spain’s vassal.

Savoy has managed to survive, and is France’s vassal. France has annexed Portugal! I have the following New World provinces: Detroit, Saguenay, Matagora, Bayou, Savannah, Carolina, Connecticut, Catskill, Chesapeake, Kitimat, Yukon, Sitka, Nanaimo, and Olympia. Talk about ahistorical. And help me out here: Erie declaring war? The Order marching through how many provinces to get Kleves? New Spain? Sicily? Serbia? And how would I post screenshots? England and P-L both have red as their color, so that part may be misleading.

All I can say is that a bunch of countries would be more than happy to attack you. At this point any ally will be helpful as long as they can get to both you and them. Sorry but I am not well versed in the strategies of Venice. I am sure someone else will help you out better.

Best thig to do is to Annex he Mamelucks when they are at war with the Ottomans. Then you can consider diplo - Annexing the hell out of all northen Italy and when your BB drops you go for the rest of the Boot. Note that I was recreating the Roman empire with my Venise. So you can skip the Italy part.

I’d try to take out Hafsids and Algeria. That gives you a nice foothold on North Africa, for you to launch your Italian campaign. From there, stab the Mameluks and seize their land before confronting Turkey. Some time in the middle, sieze a bunch of Austrian territorys as a buffer zone between yourself and the Austrians.

I enjoy the fanciful and impractical more then the simple. But yes, annexing Austria is a good objective. Just that you don’t want Spain and Austria to hate you.

When you are fast enough, you are able to annex all provinces from Egypt to the west in the first war the Ottomans fight against the Mamelukes. Wait a month after the begin of the war and all mamelukian troops are in combat with the Ottomans. This is when you should start your show.

Take Styria and get the Mamlukes in an alliance with you, Hungary, and Bavaria (try to get Brandenburg if you can, tough). You must stop Austria or you are toast in 100 years! Download new virtual villagers 4: the tree of life game now.

After you get Styria use your alliance to weaken the Turks. Do not just fight and take a few provinces, occupy, beseige, and bset to torch as many provinces as you can for as long as you can hold out withour your own rebellions. IF you wage a 10 year war against the Turks you will buy 100+ years of peace and a few provinces. Plus, when they have their own revolts, they will be too weak to put them down.

Now, once you have Austria so she can’t unite with Hungary, have taken her gold province and Carniola, and have weakened the Turks, start active diplomacy to vassalize your allies and colonize in the new world. Ally with Spain and arrange a circle of allies to harrass France. Your fleet allows you to land troops to take their Med provinces and with the loss of Provence, they have no Med harbor and have to come at you by land (but you have a ring by now around them of neutrals and allies). Take a province in France that is prone to rebellion and don’t put the rebels down, let it crank out guerillas to damage the French economy and provoke further revolts.

OK, Now turn to Spain. Spain is easy if you hit her right and with your fleet you should be able to take out some coastal provinces and some inland provinces. As you do, always drive to Madrid, set Spain ablaze like you did Turkey. The key here is to damage the infrastructure in a protracted war or if short, then use your provinces adjoining her to do so in subsequent wars.

We have recently played one with me being Portugal and a friend of mine playing as Venice, which ended in me crushing Venice in the beginning of the 1700s HEHEHE. I guess one of the main reason for being more dominant in the later part of the game was COLONIZATION!!!!!! Although Venice starts out much stronger and more developed (especially the fine art academy is of great importance once You declare wars!!) it gets tangled up in many wars with Turkey and Austria diverting thus most of its resources to these wars.

Therefore my advise to You: grab the Mameluks, (use their bases in Nile) and go for INDIAAAA, get those rich provinces, and the CoTs (remember You have a golden port, which gives one settler a year for sure). Once You have a solid background there turn to Europe again, either Austria or Turkey. I would go for Turkey, (You always have a CB on them, and this will also improve Your relations with other Catholic countries, Venice being THE CHAMPION OF THE CATHOLIC WORLD!!!), however be prepared for a long and bloody war (remember those Turks benefit of an extra morale, for being sunite), but You also get some nice Generals in the second half of the 1500s.

I love to play Venice:
Now #1 –> You need Tunis/Cyrenaica for money AND/OR the Mameluks ASAP.
# 2 –> You start by exploring/colonizing North America to get the tobacco provinces…
# 3 –> Spain, you need SPAIN, the nascent superpower. Join whatever alliance SPAIN has, and be stronger.
# 4 –> If you are thinking of expanding in Italy at the start, go for the 2 papal provinces once france has declared war on england OR stael Milan from under them (Rich…)
# 5 –> You will probably get attacked by Turkey within 10-15 years, so all you efforts must be towards that end by 1505 or so…

Limit the damage, let attrition kill many turcs, nail them when they are vulnerable, SPAIN will help a lot here. I usually get the Spain/Austria/Hungary alliance in my virtual villagers 4 game, so the turcs are spread around, not just on me. Venice is one of the best (read: more fun) countries to play with. Hope this helps.

If I were you, I would try to vassalize and later annex the Italian states and try to defeat the Mammeluks first. Later I would try to get a large part or the major part of the Ottoman Empire, than it will be no problem to defeat Austria and its allies. Than in the 18th century you will be able to do what ever you want.

Why not make an ambitious goal, like the unification (i.e. total conquest) of the Italian homeland? You have 300 years to accomplish this. Certainly it’s achieveable? Just be careful at the beginning, many countries hate Venice at the start of the game. Most of the smaller Italian nations look to you with contempt and jealousy. They could backstab you when you least expect it. Also you should strive to become a colonial super power. There is no reason why you cannot achieve this. You have an awesome navy. You already receive settlers(due to the ownership of that naval shipyard), and you may get some explorers later on. Having a strong colonial empire means money money money and it also means you may inherit some awesome colonial CoTs later on. Just make sure never to let the Horses of St. Mark fall into the hands of the Enemies. Otherwise, your blessings are over.

I played Venice before, pretty sucsessfully. I’d reccomend joining the Austrian alliance. Austria will ally with other nearby nations, which will you give you a strong alliance agaisnt your enemy, Turkey. Besides Austria is a real threat if you aren’t allied with them. Definitley annex the Mamelukes, at the start you need more money. If you can manage it by becoming the leader of the Anti-Turk alliance, get some Italians in it for future diplo-a nnexation. Colonize North America, getting the Tobbacco provinces. Continue the persecution of Turkey, stealing provinces from them. The main focus for your game is fighting Turkey.

It seems you miss some major chunks of the world. What will you do afterwards? Is the world enough?

What I was curious about was does anybody else have any other opening strategies (for 1492)? I thought someone might have something to say about how they begin in France. Is it better to declare war on Spain or Naples in 1492 for example? Declaring war on Spain will remove England from the Spanish-English alliance. But then England can create its own alliance and that makes more potential enemies for you. Preserving the Spanish-English alliance is probably better because it is a weak alliance that can be split up at almost anytime. But then you have to take ships out to Naples to end the war. You get 250 from Naples, so I think that’s good. But Spain must give a separate peace before invading Naples.

Who do you want in your alliance at the start? What territories do you want? Are Flanders and Artois better, or quicker to capture, than Andalusia and Toledo? Where do you send your troops at first? How do you organize your attacks? If you have another country you want to discuss the opening moves for, post here or start a new thread.

Summer of 1492 DoW on Spain. Completely take Spain out of the game. 1505 Take out Portugal. 1515 take out England. After that it’s no big thing since the major colonizers are gone it a walk. Except forThe Netherlands. I keep them small So I can take the colonial provinces every 5-10 years.

Personally, I don’t like remote territory unless it cannot be avoided. Andalusia and Toledo are nice short term goals, but will bring you into future conflict, pretty much until the end of time. Play virtual villagers 4: the tree of life game and read game guide.

The thing with France, is that whatever you do, you are pretty much guaranteed to succeed, but though it’s an easy nation to play, it’s also the most fun as there are endless options.

I usuaally do nothing for the first 2 decades. Trying to catch up in the tech race with everyone else, as well as upgrading tax revenue and fortifications at home.

There’s a couple of things I almost always do with France: avoid the Spanish Netherlands, and expand into Italy. Taking Milan, and if at all possible Naples, to stop Spanish expansion there. First thing to do is vassalize Savoie, so that you can attack Milan alone.

Alternatively, DOW on England immediately, Milan may not go to their aid, and get them in your own alliance. You can then diplo-annex at your leisure.

One of the keys is not to expand too quickly, the CB shields against Spain and England can wait, and it takes a while for the Badboy to be reduced after Naples and Milan are annexed.

From there, taking Calais, and the Catholic Netherlands, getting Helvetia into the alliance, and protecting them before the civil war hits. I usually play with 0 tolerance to heretics during the 16th century, so 20-30 years go by while the Hugenots are slaughtered.

With colonists, a nice block of Canada, and frequent wars with England should they dare to gain a foothold on the Eastern Seaboard.

The money should be rolling in, colonizing some choice spots in Africa, as well as the Pacific spice islands on the way to India.

Slow expansion in Europe, and attacks on Spanish colonies, should have you in the position France might have been in sometime in the 17th century. Attack anyone who is growing in strength, and maintain good relations with the German minor states.

It was Arnold von Winkelried who said that during the battle, before he grabbed several Austrian pikes by the wrong end on purpose. That means they speared him. And by doing that the Austrians opened up their phalanx so other Swiss soldiers could break into the enemy formation and carried the day. Short: He knew he would be killed but did it to give his “team” a decisive advantage. Winkelried was one of our few war heroes. My virtual villagers 4 game - The sequel to your favorite sim game!

Conflict until the end of time is great. That’s why I play. Anytime Spain or Portugal want to go at it, I just march my armies from Andalusia and Toledo to the capitol cities. I also grab whatever two colonies or land I want. The Iberian penninsula quickly becomes French territory.

It’s interesting to hear someone trying to play the game in a way that follows history. I don’t want to bother with Italy. All those BB points aren’t worth it. I can get way more territory somewhere else for all the BB points that Italy costs. In addition to my usual goals, it is quite possibile to annex Naples by 1494. I just have to take one more province than usual is all. I just don’t want the BB points and bother defending Naples. I consider Naples to be remote territory. Andalusia and Toledo are not really remote as ships go in and out of there all the time in the process of colonizing. Plus Spain keeps giving up Iberian territories; Valencia is less remote.

To any nation with a standing army, the game is pretty much a land-grab from the start. Go ahead and take what you like ASAP to give yourself some free BB points that eventually go away.

In the case where you DoW England immediately, do you take Calais at that time? I usually let England keep Calais so I always have causus beli. Just don’t even complete a seige in Calais since the English may continue rejecting peace offers until you agree to control Calais.

As for the Spanish Netherlands, I only want Flanders. It is a nice CoT at the beginning of the game, not that you can make much use of it since French trade-tech is so low at the start. You can keep Flanders until sometime after 1550 and then recapture it after The Netherlands delcares independence. It’s nice to have a front-row seat for the fireworks when Calvanism hits. You can really cause Spain and The Netherlands some extra difficulties. You can vary the chance of revolt between 10% to 45%, so you get rebels on demand.

I forgot to mention that I accomplish all of my goals without help from my allies so that I get all the money Spain and Naples have, something near to 400 total.

If I were to go after Italy, I would try to help Savoie to capture and annex Milan. Help the Papal States to be able to annex Naples. But for me it’s wait and see, I don’t want to annex a thing myself.

And I agree with not wanting remote territory because the bother and expense of armies to defend it. But the beauty of Andalusia and Toledo is that the armies there are very useful for crushing Spain and Portugal anytime you like. And Spain and Portugal are mostly what I worry about early on since the Pope goes and decides they can just claim any of my colonies without DoW.

Also the armies at the tip of Iberia are ready for transport to colonies and can put down Muslim revolts. I only require a small force in France to defend. If things heat up I usually can build armies fast enough. But if not, I can move troops from Iberia. Since France’s naval tech sucks, this can be slightly risky. I like it better once I have Valencia.

Alawar Friday’s Games recently released Natalie Brooks: Mystery at Hillcrest High, a full featured hidden objects adventure game. The game play is actually styled as more of an adventure game that the other games in this series. You are spending so much time trying to solve item manipulation and inventory puzzles that you forget your technically playing a hidden objects game until a scene suddenly pops up, reminding you.

The game has ten chapters that take place in locations consisting of a handful of rooms. When you mouse over the background, tool tips are revealed that describe exits, additional characters, objects, and more. When you see a magnifying glass appear, this means that an object should be examined further. If a set of gears is displayed this indicates that the object can be physically handled and a doorway reveals an exit that Natalie can access. When useful objects are clicked on they are added to Natalie’s inventory.

Most puzzles are solved by clicking on an object from the inventory before clicking on the screen where you want to use it. You can use a set of keys to unlock doors, pop balloons using darts, access wrenches to remove bolts and all the other staples that are expected with adventure gaming. Natalie is simply unstoppable when it comes to her quest to repair all the gadgets that she comes across. She somehow knows that all these items will be helpful to her in the future.

On the bottom right corner of the screen you can view Natalie’s goals so you will have an idea of what you’re trying to accomplish. If you’re in doubt, just click on everything in sight. You will find clues in the most unlikely places!

Hidden object scenes are pretty standard for this hidden object games genre and do occasionally pop up. You might be expected to find 10 objects in a terribly cluttered room or a purse that’s stuffed full to the point of looking hilarious. Some of the objects you find will be added to your inventory to use later. It should be mentioned that there’s no penalty for clicking randomly. Hints are plentiful if you’re unable to find an object and the hint button, which also doubles for giving out clues for the games multiple manipulation puzzles, quickly recharges.

Each of the ten chapters contains several logic or mini-game puzzles. For instance, you might need to drive a boat to a rendezvous, catch a spider using maggots, connect wires, and enter a variety of secret codes in all kinds of strange locks. These can be bypassed after trying for a few seconds if you’re just not in the mood or you’re deathly afraid of maggots.

The crisp graphics really pop from the screen and most of the rooms have a nice, curvy, comic book appeal to their designs. Some are of course better than others, but Natalie Brooks: Mystery at Hillcrest High seems to be somewhat inconsistent but not enough to come off as amateurish. The game is pretty lengthy and doesn’t really have a strong replay value. However, the background score is enjoyable and I sure wish I could purchase it at iTunes.