Well the theme/flavor isn't the same as the era necessarily as you think.
Take
NetherFreek 's recent example, and
Ivan Kolev 's suggestion. Both covers the very same era but has a completely different flavor. Also look at the style of prestige in TW11 and think about it as a yet another flavor of almost same era.
To be sure, yes... industrialization was partially responsible for the boom of colonization (providing technology but also presents an unsatisfied demand for raw materials that could only be provided from overseas). I'm not saying that those two didn't work together. Historically, they were interwoven into a self-promoting system cycling back and forth on both ends.
It's a question of HOW do you represent those things into a game. Let say both: If a GM wanted, it would've been a industrial feature that allows a prompt of resource demand, then the players seeks out sources to acquire. Then the colonies provides the materials, and industry grows. As industry grows, the players are forced into needing more colonies (or improve resources gathering).
Or maybe it's the GM's preferences to not make his TW so focused on economic management. If he likes the idea of encouraging players to be more warlike, being either expanding or shrinking in a limited world... he would have taken out the possibility of improving the colonial resources or maybe minimize the industrial part to just keep things simple and keep the focus on the acquisition of colonies.
Now... that's the idea of having a fairly different flavor even though the era didn't change.
Don't stop there. What flavor/theme of gameplay you want... what if it doesn't really fit the era best, but maybe a different era fits better?For example, what if someone wanted a WorldWar2-style clash centering around Europe? You would have the Axis and Allies etc... but let say, the idea of sides bothers the GM, and he wanted to allow each nation to be independent to choose whomever to ally with or to war against.
One problem, the setting of WW2 in Europe 1939 has Germany a huge towering superpower and Russia likewise has the whole eastern side as a superpower of 1939 too. You would have two big boys sitting next to each other. They would either be the best of buddies forming a juggernaut team amd annihilate everyone else on the map or the awkward questions becomes too uncomfortable between them and they goes into a maddening self-destructive bloodbath.
The Russian and the German doesn't really have any 3rd option because there's no point in dealing with any of the little shrimps (UK, France, Italy, etc) if the superpower question isn't settled properly.
As for everybody else, they better pray that they don't happen to catch the eye of a superpower. Sure, that superpower would doom himself by going after the shrimp while the other superpower is smart enough to take him down from behind... that shrimp is still dead even though he was an useful bait.
What can the GM do to avoid that? What if he keeps the independence and Europe in general, but shifts the clock to a more balanced era?Let say he turns the clock back to 1914. The difference is quite helpful... instead of 2 big boys and shrimps aplenty, the GM can offer players 7 different positions on the map that aren't too far apart in terms of power. (UK, France, Italy, Germany, Russia, Ottomans, and Austria-Hungary).
Maybe 7 slots are too small for the TW playerbase... plus...
Maybe the GM prefer something closer to the Napoleonic era but doesn't involve the French Supersayian, Napoleon himself. How about the Seven Years War? It starts in the year of our Lord one thousand, seven hundred, fifty-six (1756 AD).
It could have ten slots available for players to pick from (I will just use a pre-existing example from a different website):
-The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Electorate of Saxony
-The Kingdom of Sweden
-The Kingdom of Spain
-The Kingdom of Denmark-Norway
-The Hapsburg Empire
-The Kingdom of Great Britain and the Electorate of Hanover
-The Kingdom of France
-The Russian Empire
-The Kingdom of Prussia
-The Ottoman Empire
(I didn't come up with this list btw, so don't credit me with undeserved brilliance on my part lol)
Anyway, the GM would be happier with 1756 instead of 1939 due to the flavor/theme of alliance play among independent powers attempting to rule Europe.
Frederick the Great , that's why I recommend you to decide what you really want to focus in your TW
before settle on an era. What you choose to include or leave out encourage or discourage different behaviors of players within your TW system.
