The developer Paradox Interactive has been creating large historical strategy games for 25 years, which are particularly popular on Steam. Next up is probably Europa Univeralis V. Paradox Tinto, based in Barcelona, is working on the series. They have now published a map of the Holy Roman Empire and it is so detailed and fragmented that history fans are already gasping for breath.
Which game does this crazy card belong to?
Central Europe is divided into 357 nations
This is the map: Paradox Tinto has released the map showing the region in 1337 (via forums.paradoxplaza).
The map shows the political landscape of that time, fragmented into tiny states. With 357 playable nations, the map is even more fragmented than in Part IV. The area includes present-day regions such as the Czech Republic, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and of course Germany itself.
Especially in the center and south of Germany, more nations have been added. Bavaria is now divided into Upper and Lower Bavaria. The historically significant diocese of Fulda is a region of its own and many other special features can be recognized.
The map from 1337 reflects how fragmented the country was at that time.
In comparison to the map from EU V, here you can see the current starting map of Europa Universalis IV. You can see that Austria and Venice have grown a lot and that France is no longer so fragmented more than 100 years later.
Political situation is extremely confusing
This is what the developers say:
Developer Pavia, Content Design Lead at Paradox Tinto, explains how complex the situation was:
What can I say when the map speaks for itself… The lands of Germany are heavily fragmented into various principalities, making the political situation extremely complex. The emperor in 1337 is Louis IV of Wittelsbach of Upper Bavaria… Because, yes, Bavaria is also divided. He is married to Margaret of Avesnes, daughter of Count William of Hainaut, Holland and Zelland, while his son Louis is Margrave of Brandenburg. Arguably the strongest power of the era, however, is the Kingdom of Bohemia, whose king John is also Duke of Luxembourg and rules over both lands in personal union, while he is also overlord of the Margraviate of Moravia, ruled by his son Charles, and the Silesian principalities. The third contender is probably the Duchy of Austria, ruled by Albert II of Habsburg. He also rules over some lands in the formed duchies of Swabia and Carinthia. In addition, there are a variety of medium and smaller countries with very different forms of government throughout the region, which will likely make this HRE a very playful experience…
And you can play all the nations? Yes, theoretically. But usually you start in the region with Austria or Brandenburg. The nations in Europa Universalis IV have sophisticated mission trees that favor a certain style of play:
In the function of these large nations, they try to diplomatically make as many small states as possible into vassals and then annex them.
Essentially, Europa Universalis V will be about uniting the multitude of tiny states into one large entity.
How do players react? Most reactions are initially enthusiastic. Memes are posted, but there is also serious, well-founded criticism of the map from history buffs.
If you want to know more about the Europa Universalis IV phenomenon and want to delve deeper, we recommend our article about Europa Universalis IV and what makes the strategy giant so unique: A gigantic strategy game for €370 on Steam is crazy: Each country plays completely differently