I just played another 50 years and it totally imploded :yahoo:
Unfortunately, so did I. All this stuff that came on my plate was just too damn juicy. First I liberated Finland to keep the Swedish busy. Then I kinda lost control of my urges and annexed it all together.
And lets just say that the game has some pretty neat balancing features in place if your infamy rises above 60 ^^'
Diplo is frustrating. All of the really major alliances are formed around the start, so if you're playing as Holland or Brandenburg at the 1399 start, they're in PU's under other nations and can't form alliances, or do their own major diplomacy, until they buck the yoke of their overlords. Then there's the fact that AI -despite how well it works compared to other games- tends to be unable to handle certain things, like fending off the Golden Horde (as of 5.1, at least) 'n' stoof.
"Things will not calm down, Daniel Jackson. They will, in fact, calm up."