Virgin Queen Again - Completed (More or Less)

The game must go on!

England, with some delay, retook Dublin.  The Scottish nobles rebelled giving Edinburgh to England along with Mary Queen of the Scots.  Francis Drake circumnavigated the world (after a careful reading and rereading of the rules for this endeavour) and is now Sir Francis Drake.  A lovely fleet of raze galleons was built and deterred the Spanish (who were busy fighting the Ottomans anyway).  Unfortunately, the Scottish nobles rebelled again, and Edinburgh went to France and contributed to that country being declared winner.

For the record, France has 24 VPs, almost a win and so close and with our time having run out, won.  The Ottomans were second with 21, then there was a tight cluster with England and Spain on 18 with HRE on 19 (and one key short of automatic victory).  Protestants trailed at the back with 11.

There is a degree of complexity (along with chrome) that made play a bit challenging.  Piracy, once the Spanish have fortified and put out patrols, doesn't seem much value.  No spying/assassinations were attempted.  These things all require precious cards which are in short supply, particularly for England.

Patronage seems good value, and I would say a must. Marriages can be a bit hit and miss, but at least don't cost cards (unless they fail).

A wider view of game events is provided here by Richard (Protestant player):

Ottomans - built the Suez Canal, colony in Mombasa, captured Tunis

fought Spain in multiple gigantic naval battles, nearly circumnavigated.

Spain - Awash in treasures from the New World with Treasure Fleet Card

appearing 3 times, but mired in trying to put down the Dutch rebellion

and ultimately failing, surprised by a late game attack from the HRE

which saw the loss of their Italian capital, Milan, built the Armada but

directed it at Ottoman naval power, fighting it to a standstill. Finally

buckling under the weight of three conflicts in different parts of the map.

England - Elizabeth still unmarried, reclaimed Ireland after a

rebellion, allied Scotland, but lost it to French diplomatic influence.

Regretted making peace with France as this limited opportunities to

recover. A couple of successful colonies and scientific discoveries.

Came up with a novel interpretation of what "circumnavigate" means.

France - Busied themselves organising very successful Valois weddings,

sponsoring artists and scientists, a couple of colonies in the new

world. Avoided Huguenot rebellions. Avoided doing anything actually and

ended up leading at end of play.

Holy Roman Empire - Backed the wrong horse in the religious war at least

initially, although protestant fightback well underway at game's end,

nearly pulled off the first ever military victory across Here I Stand/

Virgin Queen games. Generous to protestants with free mercenaries. 

Protestant - Failed map reading/understanding the power of rebellion

until turn 4. Appalling card draws (one hand full of Mandatory events),

limited cards, pounded mercilessly by Spain, including loss of only

colony, staged a turn around late in the game.