What if the practical steam engine had gone differently?

Newcomen, then Watt, turn coal into reliable mechanical power.

If it had gone differently: Power stays tied to water, wind and muscle; factories cluster on rivers and stay small.

The real history on Wikipedia ↗

Later turning points that leaned on the practical steam engine. Change it in the game and the ripples reach all of these.

1. 1780The Industrial Revolution. Without it, Growth stays flat and Malthusian; most people alive in 1900 live about as their great-grandparents did.
2. 1830The railway boom. Without it, Interiors stay isolated; cities stay walkable-sized and national markets never really knit together.