I have to admit that I never played any title of the Europa Universalis series but I’m convinced that will probably change with this 4th installment, which Paradox Interactive announced about a week ago.
Europa Universalis is publisher Paradox Interactive’s flagship game (where all began for them) and it is based on a French board game of the same name by Philippe Thibault. The idea behind the orignal Europa Universalis game was to let the player take control of one of seven European nations, but that evolved in the next installments and it’s now possible to play with up to 300 playable countries all over the world in Europa Universalis 3 and “any country in the world” in this new installment.
Europa Universalis IV is, like the previous installments, a grand strategy game played in (pausable) real-time. Grand strategy because the focus is on a series of wars over a specific period in real history, where you need to co-ordinate and direct all the resources of a nation towards victory or to some political objective. Gameplay involves military tactics (usually highly abstracted), but also political and economic conflict.
Paradox Studio manager Johan Andersson (lead game programmer of the original Europa Universalis game) walks us through an interesting gamespot video on what’s new in EU4. In summary, the major changes in EU4 are UI and graphical improvements, enhanced trade, a technology overhaul and overall performance optimizations. Johan also talks about spies having less impact now and an increased focus on diplomacy aspects. The game will set starting on 1444 till late 18th century in the Napoleon era.
Europa Universalis IV is scheduled for release on Q3 2013 for the PC and Mac, and on the blog’s community best interest we’ll be following it closely.
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EU 3 + all expansions is one of the best strategy games out there. In fact Paradox Interactive makes some of the greatest strategy games. EU Rome, HoI 3, Victoria II together with EU3 are some of the most epic strategy games out there. They have a grand scope, EU3 covering something like 500 years of history. You can pick any nation in the world and raise to become an economic power, military power, politic power or all together. Perhaps the exception would be HoI 3 which focuses on WW2, so the options are more limited, but it’s awesome to be in Hitler’s (or any other leader’s) place and be able to command each division (or even independent regiments) or entire theaters of operations at once. There’s also the popular Crusader Kings II, but I don’t own that one, so I can’t say much about it. I hear it’s great though.
I have to say that Crusader Kings 2 is not as complicated as HOI series/Victoria but is much closer to EU3. The best part of CK2 is that its more focused on your dynasty and sort of accumulating dynasty points which is the overall score of your dynasty from the initial character down to his descendants. I think the game ends when all your heirs die thus eliminating your dynasty or as usual when it reaches a certain year.
The thing about CK2 is that you will feel more attached to your ruler/main character since you will be developing his/her skill, finding a bride, and plotting to kill someone you don’t like. I have more sense of emotional attachment to my dynasty and the characters around him/her over my country in EU3
Great series, great company. I hope for a more detailed warfare experience too and not just the economy. Less abstracted battles & battlefields would do much good for me. And taking the char system from CK2 (not as in depth ofc) mixed with increased political & economic depth and we’d have a winner!
Hi Adam
They are superb games…out on their own…classics of strategy. But they are very deep and complex and not for everybody.
That said after EU3 I dont know what more they can do with the game.
I guess Paradox will show us.
I hoped that EU IV will have more units and not just the standard infantry/cavalry/artillery thing.
I enjoyed EU 3 but it could help if they improve the tech research (make it like hearts of iron 3) and the merchant and centre of trades system.
Would also be interesting if they include CK2’s system so we could handle internal affairs while trying to conquer the world
Yes, EU is really a classic, i own all the EU games (not the spin-offs) and the board games and played EU 1 and 2 to the excess and really like the mechanics. It’s really hard to not go bankrupt. And total victory is rarely the goal of a war.
Yay!
God I love this game franchise.
I’m glad you are covering EU IV and was excited to hear they are having a 4th installment. I have EU3 and all the expansions and is a great game to play.
If you going to cover games like EU IV and the Civilization series (strategy games but not space sci-fi) I would HIGHLY recommend covering ELEMENTAL FALLEN ENCHANTRESS. It’s identical to Civilization series but with way better features in my opinion.
You start off like Civilization, but you have a “champion” to start off with that levels up from combat experience. You can also recruit and tailor other champions to you’re liking. City management is identical to the Civ series where you construct buildings in your city to provide, food, research, production, and other bonuses. Units on the other hand are way better than the Civ series. Here you can design your own units, no only with different armor and weapons, but you can also specify what abilities you want your units to have. This makes for a lot of design choices and it is great for those who love games with design.
Second off its a turn based game, like Civ, but it is also has turn based tactical combat. Your champion has many spells for him to not only use in combat, but spells to also help improve cities, or to damage units on the world map.
The exploration part of the game is wonderful. I know how much you feel about having random events when exploring, well this is the game. When you first start off you explore like in any other game, but with this game there are many treasure spots where you can go to get random items, such as weapons, armor, spell books, ect. In addition to that there are quest locations where someone will offer you a quest and by fulfilling the quest you can earn money, gold, armies, or equipment. There are also a ton of monsters you encounter while exploring and are good for leveling up, but don’t engage on the strong ones until you build up your army.
I highly recommend you give this game a try, its currently in Beta and just released its Beta 4 phase the other day. There are still some bugs to work out but its a solid game. If you cover Civ and EU IV you owe it to yourself to give this game a try. If you want to see some gameplay look up Elemental Fallen Enchantress Beta 4 on youtube. It would be cool if you covered this game.
Did I mention its a Stardock game too? Makers of GalCiv and Sins
Yes! Definitely cover Elemental Fallen Enchantress! Think about it… they’ll apply everything they learned from GalCiv 2 to a fantasy 4X game. Recipe for awesomeness? I think so… The game is looking great already and it’s still in beta.
Don’t worry guys, we have top men working on it right now :) Keith Turner will have a FE preview here on the site very soon. Probably end of the week or a bit later.
Good to hear.
One funny Idea would be to couple such a game with space4x..
something like USA vs Sowjet.. and both start their expansion in Space and fight on earth..
And sometimes reunite to fight against aliens..
Would be funny..
With real tactical fighting with tanks and mechs on earth and mars..
Ans Space fights. That would be a mega 4x game :)
Start project on Kickstarter??
I need 5 Years and 10 Developer.. and 100 beta tester :D
something like that is already in the making :).
the name is “Red Shift” and you can find it here on indiedb:
http://www.indiedb.com/games/red-shift
Wouldn’t it be something if the makes of Europa Universalis could make a game like this but set in space?
Wow there is such a game in the making you say? Yes its called Red Shift, in the making…by a clever Brit! ^^ Let’s hope its as amazing because it looks like a winner so far and will consist of planet territories too.
Oh God! its the other game series that could pull me off my space 4x game
I wish I could pull off restoring Byzantium this time. Over the years I came so close but in the end I fail! Almost restored castille as well but Aragon and Portugal are tough ones to crack at times so I ended up making castillian morroco and the new world