Can someone describe, and give pros and cons of Europa Universalis?

[Leonidas]

Folks - this is a very complex game. Everything works fine once you understand it. You simply can't build armies and then go marching off to war. You will be defeated every time.

There is a downloadable index for the manual at Paradox's forums. There is also a ton of advice there. My best advice is to go to those forums and you will learn everything you need to know about this game. Within a very short period of time everything will make sense. BTW in the next patch a save feature will be available for the tutorial.
http://www.europa-universalis.com/

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Go tell the Spartans, passerby:
That here, obedient to their laws, we lie.

[Dr Strangelove]

If the game prohibits the annexation of a great power, what happens if you occupy all its provinces, destroy its forts, and take its capital city?

Could you strip a great power of all its provinces by occupying them one by one and negotiating them away? If you stripped a great power down to its capital province, what would happen if you then took the capital province?

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"I say shoot'em all and let God sort it out in the end!

[Kyle]

Use the -/+ keys on the number key pad (along with CTRL). Works much better.

[Kyle]

That's the odd thing. I'll admit it, I'm not very good when it comes to strategy games. I love playing them, but usually, I only do well on the lower difficulty levels.

So, I did that with EU. I picked Spain, as they're the easiest to win with and have been cleaning up. It's worth it for the person who bought the game to actually invest time into it, rather than playing for a day or two and then slamming it. Set the game up on Easy and play the Grand Campaign as Spain. If you can't win with them, then maybe the game isn't for you.


Some people just won't like it, understandable (not really, but whatever but occasionally people jump the gun deciding if they like it or not.

[Imran Siddiqui]

quote: If the game prohibits the annexation of a great power, what happens if you occupy all its provinces, destroy its forts, and take its capital city? Could you strip a great power of all its provinces by occupying them one by one and negotiating them away? If you stripped a great power down to its capital province, what would happen if you then took the capital province?

Can't take the capital city. If you strip away the provinces, and then get to the capital, you'll only be able to take money (250-500 gold) in the peace.

[Slax]

Is trade separated into different materials? If so, what are they?

[connorkimbro]

Lots, yes. Remembering from the game i played (and i was only exposed to a small portion of the map)

Cloth, grain, fish, salt, iron, copper, gold, sugar, wine. . .hmm each with different trade values, different rarities, different places to find them. . and i'm sure theres lots more in the rest of the world . . .probably more from my game that i don't remember

[Urban Ranger]

quote: Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui on 03-05-2001 02:55 PM Can't take the capital city. If you strip away the provinces, and then get to the capital, you'll only be able to take money (250-500 gold) in the peace.

What's the logic behind this?

[Kyle]

Great Powers cannot be annexed without tweaking the game.

The Great Powers are the one's that are playable out of the box, in the GC. So, even if all their provinces are taken, they're still considered a GP and all you can do to them is get money from them.

I'm wondering if they'll include GP annexation in the next patch.

[Steve Clark]

Pros: Incredible historic modeling for a strategy game and to quote Imran, "You have to balance money, technology, religion (especially with the Reformation and all), colonization, trade, and war." Plus, war comes at a price to all facets of the game.

Cons: The Learning Curve is steepest maximus, but it didn't have to be. Even with a verbose manual and a Tutorial, neither one teaches you how to play the game. The manual needs far more gameplay examples (and less historical lessons). If any game cries out for a Straegy Guide out of the box, it's EU.

[Allemand]

You can turn off their great power status by tweaking the file, but the game is more fun when you can't annex everyone. This is not just another war game, despite the fact that most players seem to want to play it that way.

The tutorial is okay if you don't worry about doing everything it asks you to do. I just went off and did what I liked at the time. Can always come back later to complete the task that was set. In many cases, the tasks are completed before the tutorial gets to them.

The game excels at giving you a taste of history. Some players are actually starting to read history books again, to learn about the period and to try to figure out what to do next.....

If you like war, play Russia. If you like to explore and colonize, try Portugal, Spain, or England. If you want a really tough game, play one of the minor countries.

[Par4]

I turned off portuguals GP status, annexed the lil piece of crap

Also got rid of that 250 VP lead they had

[lord of the mark]

quote: Originally posted by Leonidas on 03-05-2001 11:31 AM Folks - this is a very complex game. Everything works fine once you understand it. You simply can't build armies and then go marching off to war. You will be defeated every time. There is a downloadable index for the manual at Paradox's forums. There is also a ton of advice there. My best advice is to go to those forums and you will learn everything you need to know about this game. Within a very short period of time everything will make sense. BTW in the next patch a save feature will be available for the tutorial. http://www.europa-universalis.com/

unfortunately (because this sounds like a game id love) this adds one more reason to wait to buy it. In addition to my usual disinclination to spend
$50 US on a game, when i know that waiting 6 months will save 30 of that, and the fact that i need extra RAM to get the game to run (yup, ive only got 48 meg) there is the issue of additional patches coming up.


Lord of the Mark

[Imran Siddiqui]

Don't worry, the price will fall soon enough... you have the REAL strategy gamers buy it up, but then sales will fall dramatically (unfortunetly, I might add).

[Dr Strangelove]

Babbage's has it for $42.