1700

Lore & Background

Whether one plays as France seeking to consolidate the Bourbon union, as the Habsburgs defending the old inheritance, as the Dutch protecting trade and the barrier fortresses, or as a smaller power hoping to carve out territorial gains, the scenario's central tension is the same: who inherits Spain, and at what cost to the continental order.

In Their Own Story

The candle guttered in the Alcázar's antechamber as the court physicians whispered over the king's thin frame. Outside, Madrid held its breath. A clerk unrolled the sealed testament on the oak table, his ink-stained fingers trembling. The name at the bottom was French. Somewhere across the Pyrenees, in the gilded halls of Versailles, Louis XIV raised his glass a fraction higher. In Vienna, Leopold I set down his pen and turned to the empty chair where his son Charles would one day sit. In The Hague, the States-General convened before the bells had finished tolling. The old order was not dying. It was being auctioned, and every bidder had already chosen his price.

Reader's Guide

The central event chain presents the succession crisis: the player (or the AI, depending on which nation they control) must decide which claimant to back. The primary branches are the Bourbon candidate (Philip of Anjou) and the Habsburg candidate (Archduke Charles), with the possibility of a third-party claim or a negotiated partition. If the Bourbon line is recognised, France and Spain enter a de facto union, prompting the Grand Alliance—typically the Habsburg Monarchy, the Dutch Republic, and England—to declare war. The player can fight on either side or, as a third-party nation, choose to remain neutral, join late, or exploit the chaos to seize territory in Italy, the Rhineland, or the colonial theatres. The resolution mirrors the Treaty of Utrecht: the recognised Spanish king retains the Iberian crown and colonies, the Spanish Netherlands and Italian Habsburg holdings pass to the victor, and a new diplomatic status quo is established. Divergence from history is possible: a player-led France can attempt a full Franco-Spanish union, a Habsburg victory can restore the old composite monarchy, and aggressive smaller powers can partition territories that remained intact in the real treaties. The scenario rewards both military projection and careful alliance management, as the war's outcome depends as much on diplomatic standing as on army size.

Did You Know?

• The War of the Spanish Succession was the first major European conflict fought with the extensive use of field artillery and siege warfare on a continental scale, a period that shaped the military doctrines modelled in E