Part 74: Q&A - January 2

Empire Total War: The Second 80 Years War quick online Q&A

Q: Why did you refer to the infantry as V.O.C. company infantry? Isn't adding "company" to it redundant?

A: When discussing the V.O.C. and their armies, not all of their infantry battalions or regiments were technically company property, but fought for the V.O.C. The Dutch V.O.C. colonial marines for example, were funded by the Dutch government funded by taxes taken from their colonies, but were run by the V.O.C. By comparison, the Dutch V.O.C. infantry funded by trade income and armed by the V.O.C. itself were considered company employees, or mercenaries within the company. For disambiguation sake, the V.O.C. infantry that were company men are sometimes referred by this program as company infantry. They could also have been referred to as "V.O.C.'s infantry" which is also linguistically awkward. This program opted for the redundancy, as in audio, V.O.C.'s infantry sounds very awkward.

Q: What other inventions did the Dutch have by this point in time?

A: The Dutch had accumulated thousands of inventions by the mid 1700s. Their major discoveries were several types of artillery, explosive shells, several industrial looms, cast iron production techniques, machine tooled roads, machine standardized parts and the steam engine. All in all, the Dutch were probably the most industrially advanced nation in the world, focusing most heavily on factory technology, purchasing or stealing other advancements, such as British Naval architecture and German Philosophy.