Languishing like a Virgin Queen

[Solmyr]

And you have 4r 5m in Vienna.

[Solmyr]

Charles IX and Elisabeth of Austria have no issue, but Elisabeth allows France to suppress heresy.

Henry Anjou and Anna of Austria found a dynasty, giving 2 VP to France and HRE.

Henry Navarre and Marguerite Valois found a dynasty, giving 2 VP to France and Protestants and +1 card to Protestants.

[Viking]

I'm waiting on the spaniards. I'm suggesting they go back to Spain and never come back.

[Solmyr]

Clouet nabs 1 VP award. Brahe gains 2 VP and a science bonus (to be picked by Tamas).

[ulmont]

Ships and naval leaders to Istanbul, leave 4 regulars wherever Sokullu is, take the rest and Sokullu back to Istanbul.

[Solmyr]

All of this means that France ends the turn with 27 VP.

Keys: 8 VP
Valois marriages: 4 VP
Weddings: 7 VP
Paris: 3 VP
Piracy: 1 VP
Artists: 2 VP
Polish election: 2 VP

[Tamas]

I assume you are taking the 4 diplo-mercs?

yes

[Viking]

12 VP in one Turn. I'm impressed. Did you just win and is there any way for us to stop it?

[Solmyr]

Final VP tally per my calculations:

France: 27
Spain: 17
Ottomans: 16
HRE: 15 (I assume Tamas is supporting Protestants which give no additional VPs)
Protestants: 14
England: 12

[Tamas]

All of this means that France ends the turn with 27 VP.

Keys: 8 VP
Valois marriages: 4 VP
Weddings: 7 VP
Paris: 3 VP
Piracy: 1 VP
Artists: 2 VP
Polish election: 2 VP

the fuck

[Solmyr]

12 VP in one Turn. I'm impressed. Did you just win and is there any way for us to stop it?

Seems so. Tbh, I had some pretty amazing wedding rolls. And it helped that I negotiated 3 marriages in the same turn.

And Sbr's Polish election out of nowhere certainly helped.

[Solmyr]

The only way you could conceivably stop me would be for Tamas to use Anna's special power and reroll one of the double 6s I rolled for the Henry-Anna wedding. However, it would not help in this case as I'd still lose at most 2 wedding VP and still be at 25.

[Solmyr]

My analysis of why I won: French diplomacy. I was left alone for the entire game after a brief first-turn spat with the Huguenots. I saw quickly that Spain was gunning for England and there was suspicion on the Ottoman-HRE border, so my only concern was the Protestant revolts. Those I negotiated away with Viking, who was then free to be a big thorn in Spanish side. At the same time I kept Spain happy by allowing them access to the Netherlands. Being able to negotiate all my Valois weddings asap was a big bonus, and random stuff like getting and keeping the Pope and the Polish election were the icing on the cake.

Militarily, I only really considered HRE a threat, because I thought Tamas would go after Metz. That the Turks made a quick peace with Spain helped divert the Emperor's attention, though.

Anyway, I'm up for a new game.

[Viking]

Solmyr won this in diplomacy. When I think about it it was the William and Mary Marriage that did it more than anything else at least from my perspective. Once I had scotland I had my 2 non-dutch keys and at that point I was going to be able to deal with Sol to both our benefit. I only had one key in france and he could live with that. Max choose to fight, probably because he and ulmont made a deal in the first turn over the game theory matrix spat. The tridentine catecism meant that I was moved out of southern france leaving me to focus in the north and game me more reason to deal with Sol.

I know france gets a shitload of VP from marriages... thats why I was already dealing with Max for a truce and hoping to get him to lend me his fleet to deal with the french one in brest.

To be honest max, trying to take amsterdam while I had two non-dutch keys pretty much guaranteed that I'd ignore france and get english help.

Finally, Tamas, if you had told me you had kniggots then we could have made it happen. We were all willing to deal, you just gave me the impression that you wanted to wait until next turn. I gave you the card hoping for kniggots myself.. or a cool religion card I could use this turn. It would have been sooooooo sweet.

[Solmyr]

Yeah, I was pretty much expecting to end this turn somewhere in the low 20s and was bracing for the coming grand alliance next turn. Hence why I was turtling up, researched Ravelin and filled my keys with units. I wonder if Tamas would have kept our merc deal (he gave me 2 mercs this turn and promised his 4 diplo-mercs next turn in return for me giving him Venice via Holy League). Ultimately, the great marriage rolls this turn plus the extra VP infusion from Poland were just enough to push me over the top.