I was going through my PC game collection looking for something to play when I realized that I had this. Since I have not tried it yet (damn you FO New Vegas! Damn you for being such a time waster!), I decided that I will install it over the weekend. Has anyone else ever played this and what are your thoughts on it?
Oh, and my copy is EU 3 with the first two DLCs.
Also, are there any good tutorials out there for EU 3? Are the 3rd and 4th DLCs worth picking up? Steam has them, but I think they are only for the Steam Download of EU 3.
I have been intrigued by the EU franchise but have not taken the plunge. Is it like Total War or Iron Hearts?
Let me know if it's any good.
I've had wierd things happen with EU3. Not all of the expansions are compatible, or play anywhere near eachother, and steam decides which ones to install randomly for me (and sometimes after I'm 40+ hours into a campaign). So I had to turn off auto-updating.
I had a friend walk me through the controls for EU2 in person. EU3 In Nomine was very similar, but one of the other expansions added in a lot of extra material to the point where it overwhelmed me. I found the game harder to learn than Dwarf Fortress, so good luck.
I recommend starting as France. They are reletively easy and you can get a feel for the controls. Pump your land tech and stability research. Hire the best advisors you can, and try to increase the centralization of your government. Send all of your merchants to trade centers you own. Build ~20K in troops off the bat. Do not ally with Burgundy, they will be attacked hard early on by people you can't reach and wont join you if you declare war. Send diplomats to your many vassals to make them your allies. After a year or so, declare war on England (you will have a causus belli because of disputed territory). Bait them arround for a while but do not engage their primary force (whereever Henry IV is) unless you have a strong advantage. You will not be able to make it accross the chanel. Your goal is to drag the war out as long as possible to increase their revolt risk while not having your territory captured and increasing yours. Once their revolt risk has maxed (~30) make peace. Try taking as many territories as you can, but leave at least 1 disputed one so you can declare war again some time. If Cornwall secceeds from England, get military access from them. While at peace with England, ferry 10-20K troops over and have them wait for the next war. You can also do this with Scottland, but there you have more attrition problems.
Pay attention to attrition. It will increase your revolt risk. Troops 10 strong are effective. Don't focus too much on cavalry, but get 1-2 in eachs stack. They are strong early game but lose a lot as land tech advances.
Thanks for the info Caineach. Did you like EU 2? As for EU 3, I will definately try out France. I also want to play as England, Italy, and maybe Russia. ~sighs~ My one issue is that my Win XP computer might not handle EU 3 as well as I like. If that is the case, then I will pick up EU 2 sometime.
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I actually liked EU2 more than EU3. EU3 cleaned up some of the twinkable mechanics, but it also eliminated a lot of the historically unique events without adding much to make up for their removal. I think if you get some of the later expansions into EU3 you add in the functionality that makes up for it, but the game starts to get significantly more complicated in managing political relations, and that wasn't what I wanted in my war game.
England is a decent starting nation, but harder to learn the basics of the game from since you get this wonderful defensive starting position and no offense. Initiating your first war is difficult.
Italy is interesting because you start divided. Venice, Farrar, Scicily, The Papal States, and a few others make up modern day Italy. It can make it hard to break past the early game.
Russia doesn't exist, at least in its current form, at the starting period of the grand campaign. The Golden Horde is an interesting beast. If you can prevent yourself from tearing appart you can be a force to be recconed with. The ability to go east or west is fun, as opposed to my France campaign where it is just a (not so slow) march to consume China.
Spain also makes for a fun start, but they can be so powerful it can feel a little too easy. They have a little too defensive a position and a sizable offense and ecconomy to back it up. If they eat lower France, they are set.
Also, a few more bits of advice.
Be wary of your reputation early game. Once you take out your immediate rivals, it becomes less important, but you don't want everyone declaring war on you all at once, and if it gets to high it will happen. You gain reputation by capturing territory in wars, and get more if you are the aggressor. Getting people to declare war on you when you want them to is a good thing.
Do not annex countries with large coffers unless you really want their last territory. THis is especially true for savages that europe doesn't know about. The Aztecs could be gobbled up in 1 shot, but instead you can milk them for 4K+ gold defeating them in a few wars. Grab 1-2 teritories and then pillage their coffers.
EU series is from the same company that does the Hearts of Iron series. I *love* Hearts of Iron and played a while for in EU2.
I'm looking forward to (someday) acquiring a PC that can run the much more graphically intensive EU 3 & HoI 3 games.
Naturally, by then there's a good chance that their will be #4 in each series ... :)
I want to pick up Hearts of Iron and Crusader Kings I & II. I will also probably pick up EU 2 just to be nice to my old machine. So the mad hobbit approves of Hearts of Iron? Then I must get it, when I get the extra moola.
Hearts of Iron is what I meant it was very good very in-depth.
Hearts of Iron II, especially with the expansion packs, is awesome. If you have copius free time, head over to their forums at "paradox plaza". The number of well-researched Grand Campaign AARs with *lots* of pictures and game play screenshots is staggering.
If you thought Civ II was a time-sink, wait until you attempt to take the Chinese or Italians further than they went historically ...whew.
Hearts of Iron II, especially with the expansion packs, is awesome. If you have copius free time, head over to their forums at "paradox plaza". The number of well-researched Grand Campaign AARs with *lots* of pictures and game play screenshots is staggering.
If you thought Civ II was a time-sink, wait until you attempt to take the Chinese or Italians further than they went historically ...whew.
Yes, Civ I & II could be a time sink, but nothing like SMAC or MoO II.
I was planning on picking up the Hearts of Iron Anthology to begin with. Past that, I will probably pick up HoI II & III at a later date.
So what other games do you play often, Turin?
Ok looking at Hearts of Iron on Steam - Is III better than II?
There is a sale its only $18 US for III and all the DLC.
Ok looking at Hearts of Iron on Steam - Is III better than II?
There is a sale its only $18 US for III and all the DLC.
III *looks* very good, but my sorry computer can't run it so I can't personally attest to it's game play. If it's at least as good as its predecessors, there's months and months of replay value to be had.
I recommend hitting the forum mentioned above and perusing the many AARs (After Action Reports) - analagous to the campaign journals here, although theirs will have game play pictures posted - to get an idea of what the game actually plays like.
I know that will be my first stop when the time comes that I can actually play the yummeh beastie. I fully expect to spend the better part of a week of down time doing so. ^__^
The modding community there is phenomenal, so don't be surprised if you come across ones that add in massive gobs of additional historical events or alternate history mods - a CSA / Union split is fairly common for HoA, for example.
So what other games do you play often, Turin?
Besides Hearts of Iron II, my tied for favorite is Civilization: Call to Power. 2nd place goes to the original Stronghold, tied with the original Diablo with Sierra's Hellfire expansion pack.
Civ:CTP for me is hands down the best out of the box Civ game in terms of replay value. One of the unique features is an awesome "hotseat" game play mode where multiple players take turns on one computer.
CTP also provides so much past "you now have nukes and can build a colony ship" that even Civ V doesn't really go beyond that I always get a bitter aftertaste from playing the regular Civ games. CTP goes sooo much past where the regular Civ games usually stop, it's almost heartbreaking.
Civ:CTP has always looked good. Sadly, I seem to not be able to make it work on my machine. ~thinks` I will have to FIND it and pull it out to try it.
Civ:CTP has always looked good. Sadly, I seem to not be able to make it work on my machine. ~thinks` I will have to FIND it and pull it out to try it.
You might have to use an emulator to run it.
I am a huge fan of Europa Universalis III (and I highly recommend all the expansions, as well as mods such as MEIOU), as well as Victoria II (which is the XIX counterpart). Sometimes I can spend entire weekends playing them and not even notice.
As far as gaming tips go, lets see:
-Generally speaking, the easiest countries to play as (assuming you are playing from the earliest date; things change later on) are the big western european realms, such as Castille, France, England and Burgundy, as well as Sweden in northern Europe; while realms such as Bohemia and the Ottomans are very powerful as well, they suffer from being in highly fragmented regions that, furthermore, stand in cultural and religious conflict zones, meaning that war will be a constant and conquered regions will be hard to pacify.
-Do not be afraid from minting a lot of money in the early game. While inflation will escalate quickly, it is only a real problem later on, and the benefits of having enough cash to improve your infrastructure and maintain a sizeable army in the first century of play (when the world is highly balkanized and there are lots of easy grab opportunities) far outweights the issues. And generally, once inflation starts becoming problematic, you should already have some measures to counter it (particularly if you are in the Western European Technology Group), such as Masters of the Mint, the Central Bank idea, and the like.
-In times of peace, always reduce the maintenance of your armies and navies, unless you expect someone declaring war on you soon or revolts are happening constantly. Soldiers are a big drain on your coffers, and if you can invest that money in building markets and roads, you should.
-Always try to go for provinces with a high base tax; you can check that by using the Economy overlay in the map, or by clicking a province and hovering the mouse over the Tax data on the right. Most tax modifiers work as a % of the base tax, so this number makes a huge difference. When winning a war, if you have to forego 5 provinces with a base tax of 1 for a single province with a base tax of 3, it is probably worth it (unless there are other strategic advantages, such as gaining access to a coast or isolating an enemy).
-It is better to focus on one or two technology paths than invest in all of them, but try to avoid neglecting one for too long, as eventually you'll need a bit from everyone (even if you play a land-locked nation, Naval techs will eventually help you expand if you ever want colonies).
-Though big countries are enticing, sometimes it is better to release conquered territories as vassal realms. This has many benefits, but the most important ones are A) Pacifies the region and minimizes rebels, B) Reduces micromanagement, C) Vassals pay you 50% of their income and, since they will be fully pacified (although this depends on how you create the vassal), this amount can be bigger than what you would get otherwise, E) Vassals are still under your control, so they will join your wars and even hunt down rebels in your territory, F) They make a great buffer zone with enemy nations, G) They will likely get ahead of you technologically (being smaller and more efficient), meaning better troops to help you out, H) Doing so reduces your infamy.
-As an addendum to the above point, when releasing vassals it is important to consider how, as many potential realms overlap. For example, if you play France and conquer the entire Iberian Peninsula, you can release Spain, or release Castille and Aragon, or release Navarre and Galicia, etc, all of which occupy the same territory. The smaller the vassal, the more pacified it will end (since the culture group will be more cohesive) and the less likely to eventually revolt against you (as sufficiently powerful vassals can declare war on their masters to gain independence).
-Colonization can be both a great boon and a great curse, depending on how you do it. Once you starts discovering empty territories, it is easy to get carried away and send colonists across half America, only to drop into ruin a few decades after and get conquered by, say, Tunisia. Colonization is a long-term investment, and you should do it carefully. Sometimes it is best to just get a handful of colonies and wait for other countries to develop their own colonies, which you can conquer or steal after they are made profitable. But the biggest thing to look after are native Centers of Trade (CoT). Since by the time you reach Mexico you will probably have a good level of Trade tech, once you meet natives and gain access to their CoTs (just gift them lots of money and then ask for them to open their markets), your merchants will be able to dominate them and gain monopolies, funneling massive amounts of money back into your coffers.
-Unless there is a golden opportunity you can't skip, never declare wars without a Casus Belli, since it will end up being quite punishing. Instead, manipulate events to get a reason for war. An easy way to do this is to move your National Focus into a border province; once you do it, you'll start getting "Border Tension" events with neighbouring realms, giving you a Casus Belli to conquer the surrounding territories.
First - thanks for all the advice everyone.
Second - Barring any unforseen complications, I will be starting my first game of EU 3 tonight. My copy of EU 3 contains the base version of EU 3, Napolion's Ambition and In Nomine. As of right now, I do not have the other two expansions.
For my first attempt at EU 3, I plan on giving the game a go as England. These are my goals...
-Survive to the end of the game.
-Rule well.
-Unite England.
-Be ahead in tech.
-Have the best and largest navy in the world.
-Colonize the new world, aiming for the Azores, Iceland / Greeland, and the Carribian.
-Establish an outpost in Africa, India, and Asia.
-Eventually cripple or eliminate France and Castile as well as anyone else that upsets me.
Any other suggestions?
Another thing. What mods would you suggest for EU 3, Victoria, and Hearts of Iron 2 and why?
*paying attention for later playing*
This Europa Universalis III wiki has some really good stuff there. I have browsed the Strategy Guides as well as the England Strategy Guide. The Paradox Europa Universalis III forums have some good ideas as well as some good advice and play throughs. There have been some good Let's Play video series on YouTube that I will post later. My one (very) big question is...
what button do I push to pause the ~insert string of curse words here~ game so I can examine what the ~insert another string of curse words here~ I am doing with my ~insert another string of curse words here~ country!
~GRINS~
Any one know if they have a "great history campaign" bundle? I've always wanted to try to start with Crusader Kings --> Europa Universalis --> Victoria --> Hearts of Iron "grand mal seizure campaign" and play the beast all the way through to post-WW2. Talk about a funny-looking world map. ^__^
From the manual pg 17
Game Speed: Beside the date, you will see a graphic indication of the current game speed setting. If the game is paused, you will see two red bars. Otherwise, you will see a number of small gold arrows. The more arrows you see, the more rapidly each day will advance to the next.
I know Quill18 was attempting to do that over on YouTube. I will post his YouTube site here tonight or tomorrow.
From the manual pg 17
Game Speed: Beside the date, you will see a graphic indication of the current game speed setting. If the game is paused, you will see two red bars. Otherwise, you will see a number of small gold arrows. The more arrows you see, the more rapidly each day will advance to the next.
Ah! Thanks!
A good colonization thread over at the EU 3 forums.
Gela's EU3 AAR for beginners - A Guide.
That looks helpful.
Ah, I sunk so many hours in this game.
As each expansion changes a lot in the gameplay, I would suggest you grab the latest 2 expansions already. Else, you'll have to re-learn a lot of the game mechanisms when you finally get them.
HttT is a must have anyway, and DW is pretty good. Anyway, you'll need them if you plan on playing multi.
Now, back to Crusader Kings 2!
~grrrrr~ It seems that I got a bad disk when I ordered my copy of EU 3 - Complete. Even patched, it freezes up and I have to force it closed. I contacted the seller to get a refund and I just went ahead and ordered the Chronicles version that contains all 4 DLCs. After the refunds, I will have only paid a little extra.
~sighs~ Well, that is what I get for just installing it and going to the main screen. NEXT time I need to start a game.
I am not totally giving up either. I am downloading the PC Demo of EU 3 from Steam. That way I can at least start learning the game.
Yep. It must have been my game disk that was bad. The demo works fine. That still means I can do the tutorials and run a sample game while I wait for a new game disk.
Castille is definately the strongest state and probly the best to get a feeling with the game.
That said, it is different from how many other games function.
Pause. Most important button of them all.
Hire advisers. Set budget to a 0, later when things are going along and you have an idea or two, you may set the budget on a slight surplus. Still, gotta pay attention tpo budget and spet money all the time, as troops can spend huge amounts and increases in troopnumbers can set you above supported and thus ave costs go astronomical.
Never lose stability volontarily. It goes down way too much on its own.
For castille there are basically 3 strategies to follow:
1) abandon iberia for the new world
2) abandon iberia for africa
3) Screw colonisation, conquer your way across the globe from madrid to beijing and cairo never building a single ship!
The quiet decades. Adding territory means there are inherent instabilities and lack of shields on the provinces for the first 50 years means you fall behind in tech when conquering/colonising. Thus you need the quiet decades of just sitting tight and not even trying to fight anything.
Besides a pacifict castille/portugal that has taken over all of americas and never fought any but indians... being thus fully pacifict for centuries! Is kinda fun too.
Plenty of lil details to know too
such as being able to steal colonies, what tropical climate is and how it works. and the importance land connection, right religion and right culture (those ones ateast are fairly intuitive)
EU3 Chronicles (with all the expansions) is on sale today for 8$ on Gamersgate. Just saying.
http://www.gamersgate.com/DD-EU3C/europa-universalis-iii-chronicles
Done!!! Thanks!
No problem, let us know how it's going.
I have been doing the tutorials and reading the manuals. As someone said, "EU 3 is like Civ on steriods."
~grumbles~ [sarcasm]Well THAT went well.[/sarcasm] ~sighs~ I figured that I would not do well on my first go on learning the game after the tutorial. I will try go number two tomorrow night after I get some housework done.
I decided to get the game started tonight and think on it tomorrow. I picked two other advisors, leaving the initial one in place. I picked up a +15 Trade Tech Investment advisor and a +3 Production Tech advisor. I am thinking about keeping the +15 one and trading out the +3 one in a year or two-ish.
Also, after loosing to France so easily, I have come to the conclusion that until I get better at the game, I will sell of aat least two of the provences in Europe.
Now for trade and the to see what I plan on doing with the rest of England.
I keep buying these games but they're sort of daunting when you finally boot them up.
I really need to get around to really getting into one.
I keep buying these games but they're sort of daunting when you finally boot them up.
I really need to get around to really getting into one.
"Civ on steroids", courtesy of Sharoth. :)
I consider the Civ series to be training wheels for the EU/HoI/CK/Victoria set. Civ is fun - although I personally think Civilization: Call to Power was by far the best of them all - but there's nothing like literally seeing an alternate world history unfold right in front of you.
Just like IRL, it is easy to get caught up in the minutae and completely forget your long, long-term goals. One thing I recall doing, after reading various AARs, is setting up a series of "rough goals" at 50 year marks in EU. Warfare in EU is nasty business simply because it is pretty difficult to get far enough ahead in the military tech to make a significant difference. IF memory serves, it often boils down to your commanders/generals and the sheer number of men you can throw at your enemy. Ideally, you catch them with their attention occupied elsewhere by some one else...
Another thing. What mods would you suggest for EU 3, Victoria, and Hearts of Iron 2 and why?
For EU3, I'm a fan of MEIOU, which alters a lot of gameplay mechanics, adds dozens of new elements, hundreds of provinces/nations, improves both the map structure and the graphics, and adds a new UI. Though I advice playing the vanilla game first for a bit to get a hold of the game, as the mod adds even more stuff to an already complicated experience, once I installed MEIOU I've never looked back.
For VII, I advice both the expansion (which fixes a lot of structural issues within the game, such as the way the market works) and the Pop Demand mod, which was originally just an economy fix, but ended being sort of VII's MEIOU in terms of reach.
I've not played HoI 2, I'm afraid, so I can't give advice there.
For CK2, though, CK2Plus is a fantastic mod that really improves the game in many ways (and it's great to have such a good mod so early in the game's life too).
what button do I push to pause the ~insert string of curse words here~ game so I can examine what the ~insert another string of curse words here~ I am doing with my ~insert another string of curse words here~ country!
~GRINS~
If you check in the upper-right corner of the UI, you will see a pause/play sign. The pause one serves to, well, pause!
I've seen some people who like to play the game in non-stop real time, sort of if it were an RTS. Personally, my brain melts down, so I need to pause a lot.
The quiet decades. Adding territory means there are inherent instabilities and lack of shields on the provinces for the first 50 years means you fall behind in tech when conquering/colonising.
I detect a Civilization player!
I decided to get the game started tonight and think on it tomorrow. I picked two other advisors, leaving the initial one in place. I picked up a +15 Trade Tech Investment advisor and a +3 Production Tech advisor. I am thinking about keeping the +15 one and trading out the +3 one in a year or two-ish.
It's always a good idea to focus on a couple of strategies in regards to your advisors, and to keep in mind both the nature and context of your nation (and your sliders!). For instance, tiny merchant nations such as Lübeck benefit a lot more from +Trade advisors than large, mercantilist countries such as Bohemia, as latter cannot quite squeeze their Centers of Trade in the same way the former does. Fast-growing nations might benefit a lot from -Inflation advisors, since it gives you more leeway for the minting you'll need to improve your ever-expanding infrastructure, while countries expanding in regions plagued by low-tax provinces (like the desertic regions of the Middle East or central Asia) really don't need +Tax advisors, as the increases will be minimal (the bonus acts upon the Base Tax, not the modified Tax, so getting +0.5% of 1 really isn't going to help anyone).
Also, after loosing to France so easily, I have come to the conclusion that until I get better at the game, I will sell of aat least two of the provences in Europe.
A good way to keep France in check is to give assistance to Burgundy, both economical and military. A moderately strong Burgundy can easily impede France from unifying all its vassals. As it is, the poor Burgundians usually get squished between marauding HRE states going bananas on the Emperor and France gobbling up every tiny piece of land, so they usually don't get the chance to shine. But if backed (particularly if you can help deter nearby enemies from attacking them so much), it can counter France. Of course, then you'll have the problem of Burgundy taking over and becoming a potentially bigger problem, but that's a problem for future kings!
Hearts of Iron 2 vanilla is my "bread and butter" game. The logistics are complex enough to require paying some attention to them without becoming overwhelming, the strategy of the Grand Campaign reflects well on how important your early decisions are and of course you can watch a different WW2 unfold each time you play. This seems to be generally true of all of the SF titles.
Mods were numerous for it of course, some involved alternative histories (CSA survives to the start of the game) while others involve a massive expansion of the entire game. The Total Realism project IIRC was one of the best of these latter.
There is/was one or two posters on their boards in particular who took the game apart and outlined the best overall strategy from a purely numbers point of view for I think each of the major powers. Soviet Union was all about the infantry with crack units of armor and purely interceptors for the air force. Italy was (of the majors, besides France) decidedly the most difficult to achieve victory with. The US of course has several huge advantages that lend itself well to learning the game without getting slaughtered early on. The biggest challenge in vanilla I never completed was attempting to keep France intact much past the winter of '39-40...
The biggest improvements by many mods were typically to the AI, addressing the issues of land-locked powers researching naval tech and suicidal espionage. Tech and trade comes second to maintaining your own core anti-espionage ring. Diplomacy is only for when you have nothing better to do with your $.
Germany of course is always fun to play as is Japan and, oddly, Nationalist China. I did an Italian GC that resulted in the Allies' nuking two provinces that Il Duce's main body of forces happened to be traversing through. Needless to say, the losses were catastrophically bad, resulting in my unconditional surrender in November 1945. (The Chinese had managed to push the Japanese back into Manchuria before the US's war engine proceeded to grind the Empire of Japan into kibble; my northern front against the Allies and Soviets was holding on although the Med was an Italian lake; the Brits were slogging through the attritional deathlands that are most of Africa although they were reeling from losses against Italian might in the mideast and India. It was crazy good fun!)
~sighs~ I am finally getting back to this after my computer being down for about 8 months. It turns out my monitor was bad and my video card was going bad. Plus I was having too much fun playing on the X-Box 360.