It's ridiculous - I played until 1713 and when declaring independence, there were 365 british dragoons, 150 cannons, and 114 man of wars! Insane.
The liberty bell dynamic running up the REF is out of control. You can exploit the game and beat it in 40 turns, and if you play correctly by maximizing liberty bells, you get penalized.
Who beta tested this game, anyway? It's an embarrasment to Sid Meier's record to have a release like this that is basically unplayable. ALL of his other games going back nearly 20 years have been better than this when they were released.