The story isn't quite starting yet, but I am going to set it up and show you the rules. I did some WikiResearch (tm) again to prepare for this, and have settled on the following for myself...
RFC-style Historical Goals:
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Acadian Diaspora: Construct New Orleans in its historical location and do not lose it, or Portland, to anyone, especially America or England.
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Alcan Headquarters: Control at least 3 sources of Aluminum in 1900.
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No, no, the Other Notre Dame (a.k.a., Deliberately Misunderstanding What the Game Designers Meant): Build Notre Dame in Montreal.
Because those goals are much easier than any actual RFC goals, I will also have the self-imposed rule of never trading with the damned English under any circumstances.
Here is our starting location.
The default copper resource on the map has been moved one tile south and gold was added to the original tile to represent the deposits of both metals in the
Abitibi gold belt region. Additional copper was added to the far north for the
newer copper and nickel operations in Nunavik. Wine was added to the tile I live on IRL to reflect the
Finger Lakes and
Niagara Peninsula vineyards because eastern North America needs more luxury resources, damn it!
I placed Montreal and Portland (Maine) as Barbarian cities to get around the limit on closeness of cities because (1) MONTREAL IS AWESOME and (2) New England in general and Maine in particular have historically had a huge Acadian population, as well as attracting lots of immigrants from Quebec (when my parents moved to New Hampshire in the 1980s, lots of businesses, even at the southern end of the state, still had "On parle français" signs). Maine currently has either the largest percentage of French-speakers in the U.S. or second-largest after Louisiana. I don't remember and don't feel like looking it up.
More observant readers will also notice: this is clearly the Mac version. I was playing BTS on Windows, which is why I can't play it even with that "play without the disc" patch... I do not have BTS for Mac. Embarrassingly, I did not know it had come out until a few weeks ago. Usually having access to Girlfriend's computer, I have not attempted to buy it.
Anyway, so... Turn 1! Hurrah!
I accidentally put myself in contact with Egypt by misclicking in Worldbuilder... (Why does it default back to Egypt every time you switch to a player-specific tab?!) And obviously I was in contact with England from the beginning because I'm France. I'm starting with Animal Husbandry and a warrior because I find myself next to pigs and barbarians, so it seems like a reasonable start. I'll start on another warrior, I think, then switch to a worker once Quebec grows. Seeing as Montreal and Portland will probably culture-flip to me quickly, I'm wondering if maybe I should place some more barbarian cities out in the wilderness or pump up America with some extra starting units or something so I don't start with an absolutely insane advantage.
So without further delay, let's start... after a little more delay!