Victoria (The Game)

Spent the weekend playing this. It is a strategy game set in the 19th. century. I took the USA. Discovered that the best way is to build up and then launch an early colonial war against Britain. It was important to launch the colonial war even though there's a 100 point loss in prestige because waiting for the various in-game opportunities to get a war "for free" results in a full-scale war where Britain can invade all your territories. In a colonial war, the combatants are not allowed to invade each other's states. I took over the NW territories that Britain would have conceded with the Oregon Compromise but this way, I got to snap up western Canada, too.

Launched a quick colonial war versus Russia in order to get Alaska. Then came the Mexican War in the 1840's. - A bunch of quick wars, but the result was an early domination of the North American continent. Now, I'm set to expand beyond it - after the Civil War, of course!