Low ratings across the board..

[unmerged(2424)]

Playing as England (I really have got to try someone else one of these days) I find that although my Naval Strength is often 5 dots, my Stability is often 5 dots (of course), and my expansion went as high as 4 dots by the time I'd got pretty much all of the East Coast of North America (plus about half of Canada) under my belt, my Economy and Land Strength ratings have been 1 dot (an alarming red) pretty much throughout the game. This is disconcerting - presumably the strength here is relative to the number 1 power rather than to fixed levels. (My yearly income more than doubled between 1500 and 1650 from 1000 or so to nearer 2400) does anyone know how these rating 'stars' are calculated? On a thoroughly unrelated note, do you have to take all a nation's colonies to annex her, or just all of her home provinces? I've grabbed all of the Netherlands by previous treaty and I occupy their capital, but they've got some scattered demesnes in Germany and colonies all over the shop. Please advise.

 

[unmerged(2531)]

about annexing: You need to take the oversies colonies, too. I'm not quite sure about the TP's.

About dots: My land mil streght's at two dots at the moment, but I can - and have - kick anybody's ass. I've got four times as much troops as the next guy, and I've got a lead of some six techs. I suppose they're about as informative as the strenght values in combat.

 

[unmerged(548)]

I've got four times as much troops as the next guy,

Have you checked China & Japan ?

They start out with armies in the 5-600.000 range (sic!)

On a thoroughly unrelated note, do you have to take all a nation's colonies to annex her, or just all of her home provinces?

All cities (ie 700+ pop provinces).

 

[Dark Knight]

In my experience, the dot ratings (aside from stability) have very little actual meaning. Thus, I simply ignore them.

 

[BiB]

I ignore them too. Unless they're all shiny good, then they're a nice feature.

 

[unmerged(2531)]

I've got four times as much troops as the next guy,

Have you checked China & Japan ?

They start out with armies in the 5-600.000 range (sic!)

Yes, you're right, of course. I should have said "next MAJOR guy", as you only can see them from the graphs.

 

[unmerged(2424)]

Last time I checked up, the game had reached 1701, and the only nation with more than 3 dots in land forces, economy, and expansion were the Turks. The entire Spanish New World Empire (all of South America, Middle America, North as far as the Yukon and East to just west of my East Coast colonies) only netted 3 for expansion and 2 for economy. Land forces I can just about understand, but it beats me how the Turks had such a huge economy - on the other hand, they'd got the whole middle east plus persia, but I'm just surprised that it was worth so much. Even China was only a 1 in land power by then. As for England (me), the only good rating was naval power, even though I'd annexed mysore and chucked the other Europeans out of India in a series of wars. Hmph. Oh well.