one country

Welcome to the second developer diary for the upcoming strategy game March of the Eagles from Paradox Development Studio. Today we want to let you find out more about the victory systemAs many of you know, most of our games are very open ended and you as a player set your own goals in what you want to accomplish. We have two exceptions among the games we have developed. The Hearts of Iron series that is very open, but still has the goal to win WWII and Sengoku, where we first introduced set victory conditions - which meant that you as a player had the overall 'goal' of uniting Japan.In our upcoming wargame March of the Eagles, we are introducing set victory conditions inspired by the games above. But the ‘goals’ is not as simple as winning a war, because people are making and breaking alliances all the time, switching teams and so on. So what we have done is that we created a 'Domination' system. Your goal is to become the dominant land and naval power in Europe, and there are several ways of making this happen.You can play as any country in Europe, but there are only eight countries that can really 'win' on their own. It's very similar to the set up in Hearts of Iron, where you can only really win the war if you're part of the Axis, Allies or Comintern. In the Napoleonic era, you have eight countries that can win the game on their own, and they all have different ways of winning.The following countries have victory conditions. France, Great Britain, Russia, Austria, Prussia, Sweden, Spain & The Ottoman Empire.To acquire Land Dominance, you need to hold 7 key land provinces out of a possible 11. To acquire Naval Dominance, you need to hold 7 key port provinces out of a possible 11.Each of the majors starts a with a different number of victory provinces already in their possession at game start, giving some countries a leg up when it comes to victory. This also gives the majors a differing level of challenge when you come to play them. For example: France starts the game land dominant and Great Britain is naval dominant. These two countries are already half way to victory.Onlycan be dominant in each category at the same time. This means that even if you meet the other requirements, you need to make sure the current holder gets defeated and loses its status as dominant country in order for you to become dominant.Each major power has different key provinces needed to achieve dominance, creating different natural enemies for each great power at the beginning of the game. This also allows countries to cooperate with each other, for a while, while still advancing yourself towards victory.If the game session ends without any power winning a conclusive victory (being both land dominant & naval dominant), the major power with the most prestige will be the winner. Prestige is gained for various actions throughout the game, victories on the battlefield being a key component.Playing as a minor country it is still possible to be one of the winners. However, instead of winning yourself you need to be the ally of the winning Great Power. As a minor power you need to work our which way the wind is blowing and be on that side. Then be ready to jump ship at the right time.Satellite states cannot jump ship so if you jump ship too early you may see the error of your ways at the point a bayonet. This gives minor countries an interesting gameplay all of their own. Also all is not lost if you happen to hold a province that is in the sights of a major power. A major power is considered to control a province if it is held by a satellite nation, so surrender is always an option.That´s all for now, stay with us next week where we spill the beans about diplomacy!