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Any fans of Europa Universalis III here? It's pretty big amonst nerds.
Or any other Paradox games, Hearts of Iron, Victoria etc.
For the unitiated, EUIII lets you take control of ANY nation on earth from 1398-1800(ish), controlling warfare, trade, colonisation, diplomacy.
Europe, in all its medieval patchwork glory!

Never heard of it but any game that allows me to build an empire on the bodies of my enemies and sustain it with the blood of innocents or otherwise is definately a good looking game to me...

I love this game and it's certainly the best (in my mind) Paradox Game if you enjoy diplomacy and politics.

I find that most grand strategies (especially the Total War series) do not punish you for embarking upon grandiose crusades of conquest. EU3 isn't about that. At all. An impossible Empire stretching from France to China isn't going to be won over as easily as in Hearts of Iron.

I've never encountered a more 'accurate' rendition of western medieval politics either. Unfortunately I keep losing my saves so I have never actually made it past about 1600 :p

Henners91 wrote:I love this game and it's certainly the best (in my mind) Paradox Game if you enjoy diplomacy and politics.

I find that most grand strategies (especially the Total War series) do not punish you for embarking upon grandiose crusades of conquest. EU3 isn't about that. At all. An impossible Empire stretching from France to China isn't going to be won over as easily as in Hearts of Iron.

I've never encountered a more 'accurate' rendition of western medieval politics either. Unfortunately I keep losing my saves so I have never actually made it past about 1600 :p

I'd recommend multiplayer. I do the same in single player, by late 16thC it's not really difficult any more.
Human player keeps you on your toes, you end up competing for spheres and suddenly a naval base in the right place is important.
Which HOI have you played btw?
I mainly play Darkest Hour atm, can't get into HOI3.

I played HoI I and II a lot, though only a couple of times online. When HoI III came out my brain exploded and I've still not managed to adjust; it's too hardcore. I won't fault the game but it's just too complex for a mind like mine.

I've never played EU3 on multiplayer except with housemates and they were all newbs... Though I got in a fun little trade war with my friend who was playing as the Hansa (I was Dutch).

I'd go back to Darkest Hour but I can't help but feel bad for not playing the latest game in the series, as weird as that sounds, I feel like it's less complex and I'm thus doing it all a disservice.

Na I could never get into HOI3 either, and I find Darkest Hour to be a satisfying end to the series, it's head and shoulders above HOI2.
If you fancy a EU3 MP game I have plenty of free time, just drop me a message with your msn/skype.
Currently involved in an epic MP game myself as Russia vs Venice, in our last war I found myself fighting in the Balkans, the Middle East, AND Persia...it was short but bloody, I ultimately ran out of manpower (yes, as Russia), but my opponant got squished when he actually invaded the homeland, so it was a WP(though I had about +10% on warscore).
yeah, EU3 MP with people who know what they're doing is a right blast.

Screenshot please? (can't be arsed to search) What style of gameplay is it.?

There's a screenshot at the top Sol...

I thought that wasa just a map of europe.

How many maps of Europe have a freaking HUD?

Every interactive one?

Anyone, back on topic.

Is this one of those games where all gameplay comes down to lines of text?

Soladrin wrote:Every interactive one?

Anyone, back on topic.

Is this one of those games where all gameplay comes down to lines of text?

Nope. You have provinces, in which you can build tax offices (to increase income), forts (to increase defensiveness), etc.
I'll grab a couple of screenshots from my game to show you the interface, etc.

A lot like Total War then?

Also, where can I get this, and what's the cost.

I've been ill for a week now, could use a time sink.

Already unlocked every class on BF3 so...

Tenner on steam.

It have a demo?

Mhm.. is that full package worth it? All I want to do anyway is use my own country I guess XD

Yeah, downloading that now.

Soladrin wrote:It have a demo?

Mhm.. is that full package worth it? All I want to do anyway is use my own country I guess XD

Totally gonna invade you now

If this has multiplayer... mind blown..

The "stardard" province interface. You can see taxes, tariffs(these are only collected on colonial holdings), production, as well as the religion (that cross thing means they are Orthodox) and the culture, manpower etc.
On the top you can see national manpower (having just finished a disasterous war mine's very low at about 7k, it should be around 180k after its stablised), stability (variable from -3 to +3, affects pretty much everything), wealth (ducats), prestige (from -100 to +100) and infamy (you get this for doing "bad" things like randomly invading countries that you have no Casus Beli for).
Then you have all your advisors, merchants let you compete for trade to get stinking rich, colonists let you...colonise, diplomats send messages to other countries, missionaries convert provinces to your religion, spies do cunning things and magistrates are required for civic things, buildings etc.

This is the government screen.
My form of government is Administrative Republic, this a)gives a bonus to trade, b)means i don't have a gakky monarch and c)I am more tolerant of non-state religions (having colonised the steppes there are a lot of muslims in my realm).
The icons below that are National Ideas, they give you a boost in specific areas. To name a couple of examples, the one with a crown on the blue background gives a bonus to trade, while the scroll (Bill of Rights) gives -2 to Revolt Risk.
Then you have the sliders, they all range from -5 to +5 and you can change one every ~10 years (though events often allow you to change them as well).
Centralisation vs decentralisation is a no-brainer, plutocracy gives you more merchants, I am in the middle with serfdom vs free subjects, although free subjects gives a tech boost it also makes stability more expensive (as a large empire stability costs can be excruciating). I am also narrowminded to help convert muslims, free trade because it makes you filthy rich, slightly defensive for the fort defence bonus, edging towards land over naval for the manpowr boost, and ambivilant about quality vs quantity.



Automatically Appended Next Post:
Glad to see so much interest! One caveat I should mention is that it has 4 add-on packs, the first three are pretty much essential to enjoy the game, though the fourth can't hurt.

Mhm.. going to look into this now.

Soladrin wrote:If this has multiplayer... mind blown..

It does, and it's stable as feth too.
Multiplayer is AWESOME.

Begun downloading this now...
Sol's already started playing... stupid super fast dutch internet...

purplefood wrote:Begun downloading this now...
Sol's already started playing...

Which version?
Or do you mean the demo?
If any of you get the full version (either divine wind or Heir to the throne) I will happily go through a tutorial game with someone as England/Scotland (since the starting royal navy is so big the AI won't declare war, and if it does then it won't invade so you can safely play around on your island).

Joey wrote:

purplefood wrote:Begun downloading this now...
Sol's already started playing...

Which version?
Or do you mean the demo?
If any of you get the full version (either divine wind or Heir to the throne) I will happily go through a tutorial game with someone as England/Scotland (since the starting royal navy is so big the AI won't declare war, and if it does then it won't invade so you can safely play around on your island).

The demo...
I may get the full version after my bio exam (the 25th).

Joey add me on steam, I might just buy the full pack right now then.

I'll pm you my steam name.

Alright well let me know what you think.

I'll give this a whirl either after my exams are over or after I give up on revising.

Okay so...
Scotland has a weird amount of friends...
Also, i'm not sure why killing 2 people out of 8000 makes them all run away but i guess they got scared?

Ingame with solarim now.
He seems to be enjoying it!