Gameplay

Stick with what works

Gameplay has changed very little since the original Europa Universalis. Armies, technology, generals, explorers, wars and diplomacy are all almost identical to how they were in the first game. The typical Europa Universalis game involves the creation of strategic alliances and royal marriages. Alliances allow you to secure yourself or single out a victim for attack, while royal marriages help improve relations and minimize the effects of negative actions such as declarations of war, particularly if you lack a Casus Belli. ‘Casus Belli’ is Latin for ‘Lawful cause for war’, or a good reason for one country to war on another. For example, if a national (ie, historically-belonging-to) province is being held by that foreign country, or that country somehow slights another, that victim nation will have a Casus Belli. A Casus Belli also goes a long way to having your Stability hit reduced for declaring war.

They have many national cultures however

Grr... lesser of two evils

These graphs are so cool

Diplomacy is key in the EU games. The most important concepts are the Relations rating and Bad Boy rating. Relations is a score from –200 to 200, with highest being best. Good relations with countries mean those countries are less likely to go to wars against you – they may even break their alliance with other countries hostile to you rather than declare war. Countries that have good relations with yours will look poorly on nations that declare war on you, and vice-versa.

Relations improve quicker with countries that have royal marriages, and even quicker if you are allies. These relations worsen based upon religious differences and your tolerance towards those religions. Declaring war against allies, vassals or royal cousins of a country tends to have disastrous effects with that nation. Declarations of war, annexations (whole or partial) also tend to worsen your Bad Boy rating.

Bad Boy rating is a score, invisible to the player except in general terms (your reputation) which indicates how other countries view your actions. If you are a warmonger, wholesale conqueror and breaker of treaties, your Bad Boy rating will worsen. The worse your reputation, the more likely countries are to go to war with you despite your relations with them. If the reputation hits disastrously low levels, do not be surprised to see constant declarations of war, as well as unreasonable peace demands. Bad Boy is the ultimate key to the Balance of Power concept so prevalent in EU.

Most advanced army in the world

Historical summary

Quite the war mobilization

Trade, technology, exploration

Trade is vital to a healthy economy, particularly early in the game. There are Centers of Trade (provinces which are ‘capitals’ of an economic region that tends to disregard national borders) that all countries can send merchants to. To send a merchant costs money, but if successful, that merchant will gain part of the trade present at the Center of Trade. The benefits of controlling the province with the CoT are two-fold. One is that you gain all the extra tax income from trade tariffs, the other is the ability to deny access to the trade center to any you have diplomatic relations with. There are penalties to denying access, but if the CoT happens to be large and important to the enemy, the benefits tend to outweigh any negative consequences.

Technology is a monthly investment from your monthly budget, set in the budget screen. Land, Naval, Infrastructure and Trade are the technologies (though Stability is in this budget window as well.) Part of the investment comes from a Monarch’s skills, the rest from the neighbor bonus (how advanced the nations around are – ie, technology leaks over borders) and finally from the monthly infusion of cash. Higher technology allows certain provincial improvements like Conscription Centers or Shipyards, and improves the morale and combat effectiveness of units. With higher Trade and Infrastructure, your merchants become better and provinces can build manufactories to increase their production income.

A key part of the game for colonizing nations is exploration. To discover new lands, you must have a conquistador, and to find new seas, an explorer is required. Thus, the conquest of say, the Aztecs could not happen unless Columbus discovered the sea route to America, and a conquistador found the land paths to all their provinces. Barring conquistadors and explorers, a certain (relatively high) technology level will suffice, or the exchange/theft of discoveries.