EU III

Well here we go, I'm finally gonna blog about Europa Univeralis III (EUIII), a game I bought a while ago and have played a decent bit since then. I still don't think I've played enough to really get the full picture, but the game is so freaking huge I'm not sure if that's entirely possible.

EUIII is a game much in the vein of the Civilization or Total War series of games, except rather different. Like both of these games, you rule are placed in charge of a real-life nation and given little to no firm objectives except “rule the world.” Unlike both, its real time, but with an emphasis on empire management. Battles are more like Civilization, taking into account stats like your general's ranks and your soldiers morale and ability to complete certain kinds of attacks. Unlike Civilization it uses a real-world map for its basis and starts at around 1399, playing up until 1821 when the game ends.

However, unlike Total War, the scope of this game is huge, bigger than even Empire Total War, which only had North America, Europe and the Middle East/South Asia covered. This game literally has the entire world, maybe not Australia, but that's about it (honestly I haven't checked to see if Australia is on the map, I bet it is). Because of its open ended nature you can chose to pretty much do anything. You can play as Japan and launch a full-scale invasion of China by the year 1420. Or you can play as the Golden Horde and finish what the Mongols never really managed to do: conquer Europe. Or you can play Castille (a Spanish nation) and attempt to do what I have found myself doing: a combination of defeating the muslim and African nations south of me as well as conquering the New World.

I started in 1399 and began with a conquest of Granada, with nothing else to do and my alliances with the other Iberian nations too strong to risk war, I proceeded to conquer much of Northern African and eventually send my troops down into Western Africa where I am currently involved in conquering Mali, I believe, Mali or Ghana. In the meantime I've sent out a few colonists to some Islands near the New World and I sent a 6000 man force to battle the Aztecs when I realized my ally Portugal has already conquered about half of what became the United States in “real” history.

The game is addicting. I played it for hours yesterday, finding it really entertaining. My war with Ghana got me involved with the rather powerful Malmaluks who rule the bits of Northern Africa I don't. At first, I hoped to ignore them until I had conquered Ghana … Or Mali or whoever they are... completely, but then I realized just how much of a threat they were and scrambled to hire enough soldiers just to hold my own lands, let alone conquer some of theirs! This was rather surprising for me since it was the first challenging war I faced since the beginning of the game. Essentially, I've been praying on poorer and less equipped nations, Castille is in a very good position to do this, and facing Malmaluks was something I expect, but it was really a good battle and forced me to declare an early peace with Ghana so I could actually have a chance of getting a decent deal out of the Malmaluks.

Anyways, I've played through just over 100 years now and still have 300 more to go. The Reformation is going on strong and a few of my provinces have been hit, I haven't decided if I want to actually change to Prodestanism just yet, mainly because it will likely involve my powerful neighbors claiming my throne and a bloody war in the Iberian Peninsula. It could probably end my favor, if I'm careful and I make sure to preemptively build up a huge army and claim several of their provinces quickly, but then I risk getting all of Europe involved in the War. The last thing I need is a French army or English navy hitting my borders.

And, mind you, these experiences come from the first 100 of what is basically a 400 year full-fledged playthrough as one of many, many, many nations. I could attempt to conquer India as one of the many princedoms that existed in 1399, or I could be silly and play as the Aztecs, anything could happen, and its a really well designed game.