The Virgin Queen

Sequel to Here I Stand with similar mechanics, mostly.  We played 3 turns in what was agreed was a learning game.  Simon was the Holy Roman Empire, Richard France, Stephen the Protestants, Mike the Spanish, Jeff the Ottoman and I was England.

As the Virgin Queen I toyed briefly with one suitor, before giving the matrimonial game away to collect the VP each turn for remaining a virgin - how many games give that benefit?  What really caused me to stop trying to marry was when the Earl of Leicester died under mysterious circumstances during his honeymoon with some lass from the HRE.  Mary Queen of Scots did marry some French dude.

I tried hard to get Scotland peacefully and was aided by some cards to do this.  However in general the cards I had were few and poor.  I did have a very successful scientist and established two colonies in the New World as well as indulged in a bit of piracy against Portugal which was a bit mean of me, but needs must.

And the need was to deal with the Irish who had been provoked into rebellion by the French and put the French dangerously close to outright victory which is not a good place to be as they found out.  

After the French fleet gained naval supremacy over the English fleet they were surprised by a rejuvenated English navy lead by Hawkins and supplied with some Spanish fire ships.  That put paid to France being able to secure a final key from England, especially as Spain declared war on them and a battle ensued for Metz. 

In other world events there was a long and ultimately futile siege of Malta by the Ottomans.  They might have had more success against Cyprus later, but that part of the board was a faraway from me.

Hard to know the best strategy as a lot depends on cards and how the other players perform.  Things certainly start off slow for England and the Protestants, not unlike Here I Stand.

I snapped this just as things started to be packed up 

and at least some of the Spanish counters have already gone.  

Annoyingly I now see I missed getting an image of the VP chart.