Every country plays completely differently

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MeinMMO author Schuhmann has been playing strategy games for more than 20 years, but what fascinates him about Europa Univeralis IV (Steam) by Paradox is how different the gaming experience is depending on which country you start with.

This game is about:

  • Europa Univeralis IV was released in 2013 and has since received 16 expansions. The whole bundle costs €370.
  • In Europa Univeralis you control the fortunes of a country from 1444 to 1821. You have the entire world to choose from and can wage wars, research or build up your country.
  • The game has become extremely complex over the years.

    • Europa Universalis 4: Trailer

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    The Turks are powerful, but are crumbling due to decadence

    This is how I played Europa Univeralis IV for a long time: I have spent hundreds of hours playing the game and have almost always played the Turks. The Turks, or “Ottomans”, are nominally the strongest nation at the start of Europa Universalis, but they have a “programmed disadvantage”: decadence.

    Due to the bloated court and the intrigues in the harem, the empire becomes decadent over the centuries, the army becomes weaker and weaker, the Turks become effeminate and about 200 years after the start of the game, i.e. a good 8 to 12 hours into a game like this, various catastrophes begin that repeatedly threw me out of the game.

    A game usually goes like this:

  • In the first 2 hours you conquer Byzantium and Greece, establish a position of power and can expand the empire in all directions.
  • For the next 10 hours I feel all-powerful and push Austria and the Mamelukes ahead of me; the world is a sandbox: I am in control.
  • But from hour 13 onwards, your own castles fall within seconds, while you have to besiege enemy fortresses for minutes. Your own armies crumble under enemy fire. The entire empire falls apart.

    • Because you really have to play the Ottomans strictly according to the guide, flipping certain switches, granting and withdrawing privileges in order to reach tipping points and complete missions in the complex mission tree. But playing by plan isn’t my thing.

    This was my alternative: So I’ve been trying to play other countries over the last few days and noticed how much the gaming experience changes, even if you stay in Europe:

  • As Brandenburg, you form Prussia and become a military power, but you constantly have to fight against the small states of the empire forming a coalition and getting on your nerves.
  • As Austria, you are the Emperor of the Holy Empire of the German Nation, you conquer Italy and you are involved diplomatically. But it is surprisingly difficult to put together a decent army and you have the damn powerful Turks on your doorstep.
  • As France, you first have to capture the annoying duchies, you have to fight the Hundred Years’ War with England and if Burgundy forms an alliance with Austria, that will cause real headaches.
  • Whoever plays with Castile will discover the new world and Christianize all of North Africa.

    • And these are just the big European nations, you can also play in Japan, India or as the Incas and find completely different conditions and situations that you have to make the best of.

    This also provides variety: The leader you play is extremely important. Every leader has certain values ​​that have a significant impact on how quickly a nation develops. Anyone who is a complete idiot (0/0/0) will lag decades behind in the fight for power. A genius (6/6/6), on the other hand, is an advantage.

    Events cause such characters to appear and give the countries an additional advantage or disadvantage, often based on history.

    A strategy game like no other

    This fascinates me: In normal strategy games, even very complex ones like Stellaris, the game is ultimately always the same and only changes in nuances. Usually it’s always about the 4x: you explore the world around you, build cities in the best places, try to take over enemy cities early on to gain an advantage.

    In Europa Univeralis IV, however, the game changes completely due to the individual mechanics with which the 16 expansions have refined the different nations. The game goes extremely deep mechanically in order to simulate the historical situation of the different countries.

    The great thing is that it’s not just faked, it’s not just cosmetic like in many other games, but really profound and deep. It’s often unfair and frustrating, but also great.

    It is certainly not a game for everyone and many will have to spend days trying to understand what is going on and how to read the game, but once you have really got into Europa Univeralis IV, it has so much more to offer than many other games: A strategy game on Steam costs €370 – I played it

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