You’ll even get handy stats, so you can tell it will take 62 days to raise that infantry unit in Barbados but only 53 days in Tortuga, or that your Constable will give you an extra three ducats income in the Gold Coast but only one in the Azores. There’s now a production window that color-codes your holdings based on whether you can construct the unit or building in question. You no longer have to waste time telling each province individually to raise units or construct buildings. EUIV is a great update for longtime fans too most of the improvements over the previous game are incremental, but welcome. So whether you got your start with Crusader Kings II or EUIV is your first grand strategy game, Paradox has certainly done a lot to bring you in. It’s a neat feature, albeit one we haven’t gotten to test out yet-the converter was not available at the time of review. You could start a game of Crusader Kings II in 1066 as the Count of Ulster, unify Ireland, conquer England, maybe inherit part of modern-day France, and then bring that save game into EUIV to begin your global empire. Though technically unaffiliated, the Crusader Kings II developers went back and built a converter that will import their saves into EUIV. Or, at least, playing the same basic save file. In fact, it’s possible you were playing the same game. At this point, you could start a game of Crusader Kings II in the year 1066 (or 867 if you bought the Old Gods DLC) and it would still appear like you were playing the same game when you finished your game of EUIV in 1820. The two games shared a single art team, and thus have a very similar style-enough that you could pass off screenshots of Crusader Kings II as EUIV and vice versa.Ĭape Verde: The first of many Portuguese colonies. For those of you who used Crusader Kings II as a gateway drug to Paradox’s grand strategy insanity, loading up EUIV will feel like a favorite blanket. Veterans will probably scoff and turn the hint system off immediately (it presents you with that option each time you load your game) but it’s just one more way Paradox has made the core EUIV experience more accessible without all the negative connotations that word commonly invokes.Īnd, much as I’m sure some hardcore fans will complain the game now looks “too fancy,” the improved graphics make for a better first impression. Confused by Trade Nodes? Why not learn about Trade Goods, Trade, and Trade Value while you’re at it. Once you’ve pulled up information on what topic, EUIV will also prompt you with related topics. I never thought I’d be so happy to tout glorified tooltips as a feature, but it’s a welcome addition for those times when you just need a quick refresher on some of the game’s many systems. The hints system (lower right) should help newcomers surmount the grand strategy hump. Within minutes of starting the game I found my entire country partitioned up by four other tribes. One game I decided to play as the Golden Horde because it sounded like a suitably bloodthirsty experience, only to find out the Renaissance was far past the Golden Horde’s prime. When I started playing EUIV for review, I forgot there wouldn’t be any helpful tutorials out there for me to fall back on. I did it with Europa Universalis III, with the Hearts of Iron games, and even with Crusader Kings II. With that in mind, let me tell you what my “grand strategy” has traditionally consisted of when approaching a new Paradox title: launch the game, marvel over the epic menu music, load the tutorial, complete the tutorial, feel like I’ve got a pretty good handle on the game, start a real campaign, play twenty minutes, realize I understand nothing at all, watch as my empire crumbles to dust, exit the game, and load up YouTube videos with titles like “Learn to Play Europa Universalis!” or “Europa Universalis for noobs!” On the trade map, arrows represent trade routes. You spend a lot of time looking at beautiful maps in this game.
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