posted
How many hatrack readers are owners of Europa Universalis or Europa Universalis II?
I have found this game to be one of the most indepth war games ever produced. Yet it remains easily accessible to new players.
The game starts in 1419, with the player able to choose from over 100 nations that existed at the time. Despite it's name, the game is not Euro-centric. I have played many a game as the Empire of Benin.
The gameplay is similar to that of Risk, only much more complicated. The map is divided into provinces, each with a religion, major commodity, population, etc. Each nation has a current ruler with certain abilities: diplomatic, administrative, and military. Each nation has a national religion. Such relgions include: Catholics, Protestant, Reformed, Counter Reform Catholics, Sunni, Shia, Hindu, Buddist, and Confucian. Bohemia, for example, begins the game in 1419 as a Catholic nation, but quickly has an event involving Jan Hus, and has the option of becoming protestant, or remaining catholic. These choices effect your relations with other countries and your nation's stability.
If this is the wrong place for this thread, I apologize.
posted
Every played SuperPower? Its for the computer, but sounds like that. Only it takes place in the 1990's, and you choose any nation to achieve some goals, like taking over the world, or forming an alliance. Amazingly detailed and complex, though I got rather bored after I conquered the world as Iran...
Posts: 28 | Registered: Sep 2003
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posted
I have thought about picking it up on a number of occasions.
However, I am a wuss and wimp out for fear of it being too intimidating for me. Or perhaps it is simply more correct to fees up to the fact that I have relatively short attention span when it comes to computer games.
Yep, that's it. Maybe I will have to check it out.
Posts: 240 | Registered: Jun 2003
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posted
EU II rules. It completes the vision of EU I. I love playing as Tuscany though (lots of good rulers).
It was developed by the Swedish company Paradox Entertainment, who also made the games Svea Rike 1-3, Hearts of Iron, and has co-produced some other games.
I'm still waiting for the EEP to produce a deeper Grand Campaign, events-wise. The mod community is amazing (and very much encouraged).
posted
Superpower I was jonesing for, ever since this old mid-80s Mac game that pitted the USSR vs. USA. But it was released with a messed up AI, and lots of stability issues.
They've mostly been patched I think, but I don't trust it.
posted
Just a tangent: welcome, Robespierre. I love your name. I can't read it without hearing Daffy Duck's spittle-spewing pronunciation of it in my head.
posted
I think it is important to point out that EU is a strategy game NOT A WAR GAME. For war games see Combat Mission, Tacops, and Strategy and Tactics in Western Europe.
Posts: 28 | Registered: May 2003
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posted
Svidrigailov, you have made an important point. My apologies for a poor word choice. Indeed one can pursue many means to achieve victory in this Strategy Game. War is almost a certainty due to the aggressivness of the AI. I have played games as Denmark and avoided wars by remaining un-allied. However, for this to succeed, one must also be very powerful. An un-allied weak nation is a target for the big imperial nations.
I just marvel at the depth of play that can result from such simple concepts as national territory. The game gives each country a set of national provinces at the beginning of the scenario. Some countries, like France, start with only a few of these at once, and are motivated by the value of having these provinces in the foreign affairs. A nation who's national province is controlled by another nation has an automatic Casus Beli against them, allowing them to declare war with no penalty to national stability.
This game has seriously affected my overall thinking on foreign affairs. I have become much more pragmatic.
Posts: 859 | Registered: Oct 2003
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posted
Indeed it can be tedious with many revolutions. However this is a direct result of your ingame decisions. If you play as England for example, and conquer India and SouthEast Asia, you will be wrought by revolutions. Your state religion plays a big part in maintaining stability. Also, you can set religious tolerance. Basically you have a finite amount of tolerance to spread between the many religions, so the more provinces with different religions you have, the less tolerant you can be to each individual one.
Also, your domestic policy settings can greatly effect this. If you choose to be innovative, you get breaks on research and trade, but lose stability. If you go closeminded, you get more colonists and missionaries, but trade and research become much more costly.
Posts: 859 | Registered: Oct 2003
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but -- Is Europa Universalis a physical board game, or a computer game? I cannot tell from what has been posted here. It sounds like something my family would be interested in.
posted
Okay -- after reading all these posts recently, I purchased Europa Universalis II for my son (for an upcoming birthday).
My question -- does it run okay on Windows XP? We have four different computers at home, all networked, and I want to see if we can play it LAN -- but it doesn't say whether or not it is compatible with XP. Anyone here know?
posted
Good question, it IS compatible with XP. You should have no problem playing over the LAN. I would however suggest going to www.europa-universalis.com and downloading the latest patch. The forums on there are usually pretty lively too, so if you have any problems, just speak up and someone will help you.
Posts: 859 | Registered: Oct 2003
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posted
Thanks Robespierre, for the info! We will definately check out the website and apply the patches. And it is great to know the website, because he is the type that likes to read EVERYTHING about a game before he begins it. (yes - girls -- a guy that likes to read directions!)
(We don't get to try the game until he opens it for his birthday Nov. 16th). I'll let you know what we think of it!
posted
Hear Hear! or is that here here! Oh never mind. But civIII definitely rocks, and this euro thingy sound pretty durn good.
Posts: 1103 | Registered: Apr 2002
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posted
I personally like Civ III more, to date. I got EU Crowns of the North and starting playing without doing the tutorials. No go. I played through like 10 tutorials and there is just too much to know. I started a game and crippled myself by trying to keep track of all of the important info. I am sure that once I sort out the complexities it will be very enjoyable, but for now it just sits quietly on my shelf until I have like a week to play it.
Posts: 4548 | Registered: May 2001
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quote: So how does this game compare to, say, Civilization 3? (Which I enjoy greatly.)
They are very different in game play. For me, Civ III involves way too much busy work. EU II is more about the overall picture. There are a few provincial improvements to build, but these do not swamp you with work. The military units are much less differentiated. There are infantry, cavalry, artillery, and naval units. However, as time progresses, you do not get new types of units, but the ones you can build get better in quality.
Again, there is a difference witht he technology side too. In CivIII you must research a certain topic to get some specifc unit or improvement. In EU II, your budget is divided between several areas of research and tax income. The more money you divert to income, the more you increase inflation. If you take out a loan, and don't pay it back or go bankrupt, you will cause inflation to soar. Its a really cool system. The diplomacy simulation is really the best part. Its head and shoulders above Civ III.
The BIGGEST difference of all, more than 8 civilizations at one time! I was so angry with civ II when it came out and you could still only play 7 civs at one time. Then civ III comes out, and its 8. Well EU II has every country in the world represented, and many that do not even exist anymore.
Historical accuracy is big in EU II. The Grand Campaign, which is the longest running scenario you can play, starts in 1419 and ends in 1819. Obviously at the beginning you cannot play as the United States. However, over the course of the game, if a country colonizes the east cost, it is usually the Brits, there is a chance that the US will rebel and declare independence. This is true of many nations. If England gets into too many wars and has other trouble, Wales can split off and create an independent country.
Here is a screen shot of one of the cooler games I have played of EU II. The purple empire in greece and turkey is Byzantium. Since the game starts in 1419, they are still around, but usually the turks run them over. However, for whatever reason, in this game the Byzantine empire survived. I was playing as the Papal States, and as you can see, I have unified Italy. I later went on to colonize Siberia with Italian Catholics. Of course this view is fully zoomed out so you cannot see a lot of the detail, this is just a view of borders.
posted
The version you got, Jacare, includes the game Svea Rike III, which is an older game (pre-EUI) that Paradox made.
EUII is well worth the time to learn. I reccomend taking Austria, or Russia in the Age of Exploration (??) scenario. That way, you can ignore naval rules, and deal with just war.
Also, in some ways, despite a high probability of being crushed early, a single (or better, 2 or 3) province nation is great because it is simpler to manage.
I like Tuscany, and so long as you can get into an alliance early on, they have lots of good monarchs which makes learning trade easier. And since it is a 1 province nation, it isn't too overwhelming. Actually, it can be a tad boring, and you'll be speeding up, slowing down the game speed, since it takes time for you to get more diplomats and the like.
I am curious, how did you expiriences with Tuscany look compared to the map of my 1602 Papal States? Difficulty settings maxed of course.
Posts: 859 | Registered: Oct 2003
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posted
Very difficult, I bet. You start with neutral relations (0) with everyone on the peninsula, and stuck for a couple years with the "The Republic" monarch, which is 3/3/3, I believe. I tend to ally with Siena (for vassalization and diplo-annex) and prepare to attack Modena, I try to ally with someone OTHER than Papal States (like Venice, Naples, or the NW power that owns Smyrna, whose name currently escapes me), but as often as not am forced to join their alliance. My aversion is because they tend to be drawn into wars fairly often early on, and they are the largest peninsular power, which will make them a prime warfare contact.
Technology-wise, I ignore naval and land at start, usually trying to get trade up to monopolies, and infrastructure to governors (though less so with Infrastructure with the post 1.07 beta patch changes). Usually the neighbor bonus, plus being a one or two provinces, keeps my military close.
With the Medicis appearing, I use that to increase trade, but not in venice. Due to the the monarch stats I can send merchants for 1 ducat apiece. I try to increase land morale and decrease merchants and tech costs with the domestic policy sliders.
In the end, I will go down early out of a) boredom/itchy trigger, or b) bad luck getting into/inviting people to my alliance.
Oh, complicating things is the fat that Tuscany has the Duchy of Athens as a vassal, which means war with the Turks is inevitable if you actually decide to keep the Duchy; also, Tuscany and Athens has a military alliance, so you hve to invite nations early, or kill the alliance and try to join another alliance.
posted
BTW, I often play for 100 years or so, and then get distracted, so I usually just restart a new game. The farthest I've gotten with Tuscany is by ~1500, I have every province north of Rome (5 or 6).
Ak Konyulu is fun, since you learn how to deal/suffer with a gold-producing 1 province nation, and the inflation that causes. You tend to go warmonger pretty quick. I also have played as the Iroqois once
posted
It sounds interesting, Rob, and I suppose I will have to try and find it one day. Some of what you describe as busy work, I enjoy (though not all), and I like being able to radically depart from normal history in ways this doesn't seem to allow, but EU still seems to be fun. (One really fun radical departure--playing the Iroquois with nukes.)
For what it's worth, you can in fact play with up to 15 opponents in Civ, and if you choose them yourself I think you can get all of Europe in. I found, however, that I was squeezed for space and usually got wiped out by the Zulu or some other aggressive country and had to cut back.
ADDIT: Say, Rob, what would've happened if you, as the Papal States, had tried to take over Byzantium? (Nothing good, I imagine....)
quote: Say, Rob, what would've happened if you, as the Papal States, had tried to take over Byzantium? (Nothing good, I imagine....)
Well, I had already greatly reduced my relations with european contries when I went on a rampage and united Italy. Italy starts as many different small countries. So by the time I declared war on them all, and annexed them all, most of the european powers didn't like me much.
Had I decided to attack byzantium, I probably could have won that war, and taken whatever land I wanted from them. However, some of the byzantine land is also claimed by austria and other land by turkey. I would have had to fight both of those powers and somehow keep the religious revolts in control. I would have been ruling over 3 religions then, catholic, eastern orthodox, and Islam. This would have caused much trouble.
Posts: 859 | Registered: Oct 2003
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I tried to e-mail you private, but it wouldn't go through...
Wanted to say thanks for recommending EU II -- it has been a huge hit with my teenage boys. They are playing it constantly (including when they SHOULD be studying...)
However, they are reluctant to download the patch....can you give us a clue as to what the patch fixes/changes?
posted
The 1.07 + beta patches (on the EUII website forum) DO change a lot, but generally for the better. There are also some good mods for the game to create an even more enriched game).
The changes are all documented in the EUII general forum, they include stability fixes, game system tweaking, and even some completely different game mechanics, particularly where inflation is involved.
posted
These games sound fun, but I have little cash on hand these days. Can any of you recommend any similar shareware/freeware games? World Empire V is sort of getting old.
Posts: 4534 | Registered: Jan 2003
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posted
Well, you can get a copy from a boutique shop (through amazon, of half.com) for 20 bucks, with shipping.
It's well worth it, in my opinion. I mean, how often can you play as the Iroqois, knowing at any moment the full force of the English Redcoats could be landing on your shores?
posted
Farmgirl! I am glad to hear that. The game does indeed have a tendency to shred free time.
Bok is right on about the patch, 1.07 is much improved over whatever it ships with.
A suggestion for a good game is Brandenberg. You start with 2 provinces around Berlin. If you can survive with Poland Austria and France throwing their weight around, you can eventually become the kingdom of Prussia, and thats just a rip-roarin' good ol' time.
Posts: 859 | Registered: Oct 2003
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