Check out our review of Paradox’s last game, Crusader Kings II, for more reasons you should be interested in this ambitious grand strategy game. Europa Universalis IV is a grand strategy video game in the Europa Universalis series, developed by Paradox Development Studio and published by Paradox. Any protracted conflict will require deficit spending that could bankrupt your nation if you’re not careful, or if things go poorly on the battlefield and you’re forced to accept peace terms that hurt your economy even more.Įuropa Universalis IV comes out worldwide on August 13 for PC, Mac, and Linux. Just like in real life, a rich nation’s war chest will only pay for so much. To that end, loans are much cheaper to take out. However, the studio doesn’t want to make war impossible to wage – it’s still an integral part of the game. As Paradox points out in the developer diary above, monarchs of the time invented whole new systems of taxation to fund their wars with. An imperial power like France can afford to throw men at a war of conquest that could pay off in the long run, while a nation like Denmark or Venice that draws its strength from trade and money will quickly run out of young men to fuel their war machines.Īdditionally, wars are much more expensive in EU IV than in its predecessors. Once upon a time the franchise was the providence of grognards, history aficionados, and lovers of strategy. The game lets you take the helm of any country in.

Rule 5: Images need to have an explanation comment. Europa Universalis IV is a stage for all sorts of savage political and war-time drama. Im playing Europa Universalis IV, a real-time grand strategy game by Paradox Interactive. Rule 4: Follow Reddits Content Policy and Reddiquette. Rule 2: No memes, reaction pictures, or similar. This slowly replenishing resource defines much of the world’s martial landscape. Rule 1: Posts need to be directly related to Europa Universalis. Unlike a game like Civilization where you build units and send them on their merry way, fighting a war in Europa Universalis requires you to deplete your nation’s manpower to fill your army’s ranks. Paradox is making some changes to its richly detailed political/mercantile/imperial sandbox sim to bring it closer to its lofty goal of simulating the rise of nations across Europe. Wars in this grand strategy game are built to have the impact – and the cost – that the conflicts that shaped the European Renaissance did in real life.

Europa universalis 4 review