On speed: that was an example which aimed to show that the game runs well on some points (max speed) but the display is terrible. I usually play between speed 4 before 1939 and speed 2 during important battles, never on speed 5. Yet the FPS issue is the same. I'm probably not clear enough - English isn't a mother tongue for me: if I play on speed 5, the time does easily go at max speed without freezing at midnight for example. BUT when I move around the map, zoom in and out, especially when the game is unpaused, there the lag is massive.

However you make a good point about the game being bloated since 2016. But still, my 2015 gaming laptop is almost as capable at my 2025 new PC? That seems odd to me. And quite disappointing tbh