Damn, this game is *FUN*!
After my previous round on a random map with easy difficulty, I decided to give a go to the scenario, and decided to play France in the Unification Scenario (So, normal difficulty).
My first move was to invade Sardinia, 'cause I needed the iron and coal. The war proceeded smoothly enough (although Rome was a bitch to take), but I lost my alliance with the Ottoman (Big deal!) and made Russia declare war on me (All they did was take an Italian province from time to time, then die the next turn).
I also manage to convince Belgium and Spain to become my colonies, and was turning an handsome profit from my foreign earning (Those gem and gold mines in my colony of North Africa were the best investment ever).
The problem is Great-Britain. The bitches turned down all my offer for alliance, and kept growing. Soon enough, they had Egypt as colony, then Sweden (cutting me from the Swedish iron). Sure enough, they declared war on me. The war was low-key for a while, a couple landing in Italy from time to time, and a lot of naval combat (Every 2 years or so I'll pop a big navy, take down theirs and blockade London. Then they'll slowly grind it down, and blockade Paris for a couple of year, then I'll plop another one).
Prussia also declared war on me, making me at war with the whole world save Austria, but Fortifications in Lorraine kept them at bay.
Then, Britain managed to colonize Portugal. I frankly didn't want to let them have a foot in Iberia so I decided to invade it ASAP. My first army manage to take the two northernmost province, but stalled in the South. I brought back most of my troops from everywhere (Mostly Italy, I let some troops in Lorraine), but still no way to break their defenses. Then, they landed in Rome, cutting me from a lot of iron. I quickly brought back the army from Portugal to kick them good (They are going to take over Sicily anytime soon anyway), but failed to do any significant progress. And Prussia used that time to invade the two provinces in Portugal I had taken from the Brits.
So yeah, it's a mess right now. I see two strategies: 1) Investing in land units, wrestling back Italy, holding the line in Spain, build a huge navy and blockade the shit out of them while I take their colonies one by one.
2) Invest everything in a sizeable navy, an attempt a landing in London. With any luck it'll be left without too many troops and I can kill the beast in one swift stroke. Does feel a bit gamey though.