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Imran Siddiqui
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The Potterverse
Jan 1970
time: 00:14
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I can do pros and cons.
Pros: One of the most in depth historical strategy/simulations you've ever played. A cross between Civ, Risk, Diplomacy, and Imperialism. You have to balance money, technology, religion (especially with the Reformation and all), colonization, trade, and war. Very complex and good.
Cons: The complexity might get to some people. It is real time, but with pause function, but real time might turn people off. Some parts can be a bit boring.
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Leonidas
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Here is an overview of the game:
1) covers 300 years from 1492 to 1792.
2) time advances continually, but there is a pause button. ALL game functions can be conducted while the game is paused. It feels more like a turn-based game - having the clock ticking just adds a little tension.
3) you can play up to 90 different nations (potentially)
4) there are 500 historical missions to choose from
5) over 200 historical events occur (hey, this is historical)
6) 800 named provines, 550 named sea zones
7) map is huge! The entire world folks. Even when playing a smaller scenario, you play on the world map - so all other nations carry on as usual.
8) there is military development. trade issues, trade embargoes, political annexations, royal marriages, diplomacy, colonization, alliances, seiges, supply issues, weather conditions, attrition, historical commanders and leaders, tech research, ... well, you get the idea... 
PROS:
All of the above. This is the biggest strategy game I have ever played. It has a beautiful manual (127 pages). You will learn a lot about history, and have fun too. Many more scenarios, campaigns, etc are being made for this game. Very high support by the game's developer.
CONS:
Depending on your computer system, some people have experienced crashes. Most people have not. The game developer, Paradox, is committed to fixing this game the very best that it can. I am impressed with its level of committment to this game.
This game can suck the time right out of your day. When you think you've just played one hour, 4 hours have passed - a very addictive game (is this a negative?)
I highly recommend this game. It is very thoughtful, and requires some study and attention to the finer points of the game. If you like Civ games, Alph Centauri, Imperialism, Master of Orion II, type games, then you are going to love this game.
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Go tell the Spartans, passerby:
That here, obedient to their laws, we lie.
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JimMac
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Belfast, N.Ireland
Mar 1999
time: 05:14
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Is it OK if I give a different view?
My tastes in strategy games are mostly TB such as Civ2, CTP1, HOMM, SMAC, but also some RTS such as the Caesar series, 7 Kingdoms, Majesty and to a lesser extent AOK, (too arcade like, but that’s another story)
I bought Europa Universalis on Friday and worked solidly (and I mean worked) over the weekend at trying to get in to it. I really, really want to enjoy this game but so far I have to say that what fun there is, is buried under the effort required to get anywhere.
Some specifics.
The interface. The interface is awful. If you thought that CTP took a while to get used to you haven’t seen anything yet. It is too often silent on why certain things that you would intuitively expect to happen don’t. Some menus clear by right clicking, while others don’t; -you need to find the “go back” button. Regions on the map frequently change colour depending on what menu you are on, but often with little obvious meaning. At the beginning I can promise you a highly entertaining time trying to figure out how to manage your armies, while trying to select the correct icon in a small province in the world map is a case of trial and error. Yes, getting used to the interface is a major task.
You may say “Look at the manual then,”
Well, no matter how quirky the interface is, it is not as bad as the manual. Apart from a few actual errors, the translation ( which it must be?) is very poor. There is no contents or index pages, so trying to find anything that you actually want is pretty much impossible. When the meandering economic and history lessons that make up the bulk of the manual appear to be heading towards something useful that may help with the game, you come across its most common phrase –“more about this later”. OK, so this is a slight exaggeration, but I would seriously recommend anyone hoping to play this game to read the manual with a notebook upon which you can record anything useful.
So how else to get into this game? If the interface is so unintuitive and the manual such a chore? ,-Why the tutorial of course!
Ha!
The tutorial (which doesn’t correlate with the tutorial guide in the manual), lasts between 6 to 8 hours. So what? Surely that should then mean that it goes through everything you need to know in great detail? ‘Fraid not. It often tells you what to do but doesn’t tell you how the game wants you to do it. But even if it did, the killer is that there is no save game in the tutorial. What a design decision, an 8 hour tutorial with no save!
The final straw for me this morning was a bug which is preventing me from receiving any more missions.(Yes, I d/loaded the latest patch). In a game that runs from 1492 to 1792 I have to hold on to a certain province until the year 3158 when I will receive my next mission.
I have experienced many more frustrating moments with this game over the last weekend. (For example why when I have 2 armies in a province where I wish to rebalance the forces by using the reorganise button, I suddenly have 3 armies? What is the best way to merge armies? How do you tell the best way to combine arms anyway?)
Despite all the above, I feel that there is a potentially good game hidden underneath the frustration. I can understand why PC Gamer UK slated it though. I shall try again, but if there is no light soon, it is going back to EB tomorrow.
Jim
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Kyle
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Evil and I'm also a Capitalist
Jan 1970
time: 00:14
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quote:
The interface. The interface is awful. If you thought that CTP took a while to get used to you haven’t seen anything yet. It is too often silent on why certain things that you would intuitively expect to happen don’t. Some menus clear by right clicking, while others don’t; -you need to find the “go back” button. Regions on the map frequently change colour depending on what menu you are on, but often with little obvious meaning. At the beginning I can promise you a highly entertaining time trying to figure out how to manage your armies, while trying to select the correct icon in a small province in the world map is a case of trial and error. Yes, getting used to the interface is a major task.
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Not really. The interface is quite useful. All the information you need is right there, either on top or available with a click or two. Games have learning curves, this might take an hour or two to get used to.
You have multiple map views. One is the regular view, where you can see armies, seasons, etc. The colors change due to seasons. The next is the political map, while the third is the resources map. Also, the colors for the diplomacy menu are either Alliances or Relations. In Alliances, the greens mean either alliance, royal marriage, or vassalage, brown means no alliance, and red means Cassus Belli. The Relations menu is quite easy too. The color of your country is the overall regard in relations to other nations (if you're deep red, they don't like you much). The other colors is how others feel about you. Ranging from deep red to dark green, with the latter being good relations. Not hard at all.
quote:
You may say “Look at the manual then,”
Well, no matter how quirky the interface is, it is not as bad as the manual. Apart from a few actual errors, the translation ( which it must be?) is very poor. There is no contents or index pages, so trying to find anything that you actually want is pretty much impossible. When the meandering economic and history lessons that make up the bulk of the manual appear to be heading towards something useful that may help with the game, you come across its most common phrase –“more about this later”. OK, so this is a slight exaggeration, but I would seriously recommend anyone hoping to play this game to read the manual with a notebook upon which you can record anything useful.
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The lack of ToC and Index was a bad idea. I'll give you this one. I was able figure most things by playing the game, but I was able to get help from the manual.
quote:
So how else to get into this game? If the interface is so unintuitive and the manual such a chore? ,-Why the tutorial of course!
Ha!
The tutorial (which doesn’t correlate with the tutorial guide in the manual), lasts between 6 to 8 hours. So what? Surely that should then mean that it goes through everything you need to know in great detail? ‘Fraid not. It often tells you what to do but doesn’t tell you how the game wants you to do it. But even if it did, the killer is that there is no save game in the tutorial. What a design decision, an 8 hour tutorial with no save!
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Didn't play the tutorial, just jumped in on one of the scenarios. You pick a country that's rated as "Very Easy" and play around. The best way to learn a game.
quote:
The final straw for me this morning was a bug which is preventing me from receiving any more missions.(Yes, I d/loaded the latest patch). In a game that runs from 1492 to 1792 I have to hold on to a certain province until the year 3158 when I will receive my next mission.
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Hmm, are you sure you didn't set the game up to not play any missions? If not, go to the official forums and report it. Unlike some companies, Paradox is actively working on updates and fixes (with the next patch due out soon).
quote:
I have experienced many more frustrating moments with this game over the last weekend. (For example why when I have 2 armies in a province where I wish to rebalance the forces by using the reorganise button, I suddenly have 3 armies? What is the best way to merge armies? How do you tell the best way to combine arms anyway?)
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You're really streching on this one. The reason you get a third army is because there are two seperate armies. By selecting one army, you are reorganizing that army. To merge armies, simply select the province they're in, then right click on the army. Select merge. I believe you can also drag a box around them (ala the click fest games) to select both armies, then right click and merge. Now that the two armies are merged into one, you can reorganize them.
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Leonidas
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Folks - this is a very complex game. Everything works fine once you understand it. You simply can't build armies and then go marching off to war. You will be defeated every time.
There is a downloadable index for the manual at Paradox's forums. There is also a ton of advice there. My best advice is to go to those forums and you will learn everything you need to know about this game. Within a very short period of time everything will make sense. BTW in the next patch a save feature will be available for the tutorial.
http://www.europa-universalis.com/
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Go tell the Spartans, passerby:
That here, obedient to their laws, we lie.
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Dr Strangelove
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If the game prohibits the annexation of a great power, what happens if you occupy all its provinces, destroy its forts, and take its capital city?
Could you strip a great power of all its provinces by occupying them one by one and negotiating them away? If you stripped a great power down to its capital province, what would happen if you then took the capital province?
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"I say shoot'em all and let God sort it out in the end!
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Steve Clark
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Colorado Springs, CO
Oct 1999
time: 22:14
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Pros: Incredible historic modeling for a strategy game and to quote Imran, "You have to balance money, technology, religion (especially with the Reformation and all), colonization, trade, and war." Plus, war comes at a price to all facets of the game.
Cons: The Learning Curve is steepest maximus, but it didn't have to be. Even with a verbose manual and a Tutorial, neither one teaches you how to play the game. The manual needs far more gameplay examples (and less historical lessons). If any game cries out for a Straegy Guide out of the box, it's EU.
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connorkimbro
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Seoul Korea
Jan 1970
time: 23:14
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Lots, yes. Remembering from the game i played (and i was only exposed to a small portion of the map)
Cloth, grain, fish, salt, iron, copper, gold, sugar, wine. . .hmm each with different trade values, different rarities, different places to find them. . and i'm sure theres lots more in the rest of the world . . .probably more from my game that i don't remember
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Allemand
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Olympia
Feb 2000
time: 05:14
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You can turn off their great power status by tweaking the file, but the game is more fun when you can't annex everyone. This is not just another war game, despite the fact that most players seem to want to play it that way.
The tutorial is okay if you don't worry about doing everything it asks you to do. I just went off and did what I liked at the time. Can always come back later to complete the task that was set. In many cases, the tasks are completed before the tutorial gets to them.
The game excels at giving you a taste of history. Some players are actually starting to read history books again, to learn about the period and to try to figure out what to do next.....
If you like war, play Russia. If you like to explore and colonize, try Portugal, Spain, or England. If you want a really tough game, play one of the minor countries.
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Dr Strangelove
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Babbage's has it for $42.
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03-03-2001 01:08
almost every where. 
but occasionally people jump the gun deciding if they like it or not.
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