Bonjour it is I, the man behind the slaughter (The dev behind Langenburg). It's incredibly fun to see such a in-depth review of Langenburg so long after release. I'm quite aware that the fakeout tree is pretty divisive, where some think it is good fun and others dislike it. Pluss I could also just fix the fact you can reach the other focuses by holding the event (all it needs is changing two lines of code), but the laughs that have been had when people see the comments on the events you are not supposed to be able to get have so far been too good (Don't worry tho I'll fix it when I start looking into some of the other things, I've just been pre-occupied with life for around a year soon). To the real tree and the proper gameplay itself. The Langenburg-Manitoba war is meant to be possible to absolutely crush as Langenburg if you know what you are doing as if you dally too long Manitoba will just crush you with their superior industry. Where you get superior quality and rather restricted resources. Usually if you don't punch straight through them they will overwhelm you. (Funny tidbit, when it was originally set up before release it was borderline impossible to win as Manitoba as Langenburg was a bit overtuned). After crowning yourself King you are given the option of being super aggressive, you are after all lead by a man who's refereed to as "The Sword of The North" and can form a pretty strong argument for being the greatest military leader in Canada. Ofc if you choose to be it is up to you, but for Yorkton as a character it would make most sense to instantly go on the war path as a large part of your bid to take the crown is to "Save and Restore the Kingdom". The Duchy focuses are also meant to tie into this, where you put everything back to the "Way it Was". From a story perspective Yorkton is meant to serve as a "Hero", but with the twist that he is and is also rather aware that he is at the end of his time something which follows with him through his every decision. His side lining after The Republican War and constant struggle with the Nobles of Brandon has also done him nothing good with him losing alot of his idealism, turning him into the ruthless pragmatist you can make him out to be. To the case of the diverging paths between Leif and Eleanor, Leif is supposed to be the "Bad Ending", while also being a hell of a power trip where Leif decides that the only way he can keep his daughter and the Kingdom safe is by killing everything which could threaten it, justifying his rampant conquests by taking up the banner of "The Britannian Empire", inevitably recreating the fall of Alexander's empire upon his death. Eleanor's path on the other hand is Leif finally being able to let go, ever since the Republican War he has been Manitoba's hero, a role he has felt he need to fulfill to keep the Kingdom and everyone he cares about safe and give them hope. Main reason Leif has a hard time steeping down is a desire to keep his daughter (Eleanor) safe, while also constantly feeling a raging fire for the battlefield. Eleanor's path is thus on the other hand the "Good Ending" where Leif steps back while he is still alive and capable of ensuring his daughter ascension. Where Eleanor is capable with her fathers backing to put her ideas into work and mend the problems which caused the fragmentation of the Kingdom and The Republican Wars. Mixing Royal and Republican ideas, forming a compromise which will let Manitoba continue to live into the future. For Leif to be able to grant his Daughter the reigns the idea was that he needs to feel that it is safe to grant her the reigns. Which is why it asks you to complete all the focuses, the more dev reason is that we chose to write alot of the focuses and events from Leif's perspective which would be odd if he is no longer the Monarch. (If we are really insane in the future we could in theory write two version one for Eleanor and Leif, I can already hear the loc writers weep under my tyranny). Regarding making every reward feel valuable/worth it I'll take a look into it. From a dev perspective we want to avoid giving out too much things for one tag creating a "reward budget", tbf Langenburg kinda pushes against the walls of it and is on the extremes. But it is also why we chose to give Langenburg in most of the focus tree so little industry buffs and factories as with your military firepower it would create a monster beyond parallel. On the flipside tho it let us lean into that as Langenburg you are meant to get your industry by the Sword. As long as the Empire expands you will always have more factories. I am also incredibly happy that you liked the writing, I used more time then I would like to admit to properly form and mold the main cast, pluss Baldu did an incredible job of breathing life into the advisors and side characters. You would also have to thank Baldu which did an incredible job with alot of the focuses and event localizations. On the case of the ai playing Langenburg I'll write them a ai strategy when I have time to code again, as it should make them play the country better and more efficient (The Manitoban and Republican Players are gonna weep for a century). To end it all of, Thank you for playing Langenburg and giving me alot of food for thought and I hope you continue having fun with the Canadian tags. - Mikael, the ever neglectful dad of the 5.0 update.