After his first failed attempt, xriz decided no more fooling around, and went after Portugal. The loss of that country decimated my economy and chopped my legs out from under me. Without it, the army I had was already putting me 6 PP in the hole per turn, so I could see bankruptcy on the horizon. My opponent also conquered Spain, which gave me about 100 extra PP, though that didn't help much. In the meantime, he made excellent use of bombard sloops, pounding the walls of the English cities and forts into rubble. Soon after, xriz landed in England again, this time all along the Southern English coastline. I didn't have enough units to guard the coasts and effectively respond, and once he got a foothold it was over. The French marched into London two turns later.
Well, we learned that 1805 on minor French advantage clearly favors the French player. I lasted until late 1812, but the final result was really decided 5 years earlier on the plains of Austria and Prussia. My early strategic blunders cost me, but I think xriz would have won even if I played perfectly. Even so, this was an entertaining game, more so than the ones we played on even advantage. But they have made changes with the patch, so maybe we'll have to try even again.
