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Europa Universalis

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: May 11, 2008
Author: Amazon User

This game is nigh on to impossible to play. I found the tutorial also very difficult to understand. Unless you are very bright or into self torture, I would recommend you take a pass on this version and get either EU II or EU III.

I am playing EU III and find it much better but I warn you this is one game you need to read the manual.

It's great, but...

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: July 07, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Let me preface this by stating that RTS games are my passion. Hearts of Iron is my favorite, which led me to Victoria (also great), which led me Europa Universalis. Having received great enjoyment from HOI and Victoria, I was looking forward to a similar experience with EU.
PROS:
If you like being challenged, this game will do it! I suggest starting out as Russia to learn the basics, then trying England on for size once you have some confidence with the system. Austria has an "interesting" strategic position to start the complete game with. For those who routinely beat the game, try Poland for the long haul; if that doesn't bring you back to a respectful view of the EU system, nothing will. The "historical events" can be used as good barometer of how you are doing; being rude and obnoxious to the AI will result in a short game, so be "polite" until you have what it takes to defend yourself. The basic unit types are OK to begin with, although as you become more familiar with the system you will wish for more variety. The research tree is also good, considering it goes for 300+ years.
CONS:
The economics in the game didn't do a lot for me. Maybe I'm biased by my focus on working the research tree to upgrade my military capabilities, and this really isn't a fair assessment. Maybe others think differently about it, but I'm looking for gaming simulation driven by the military, research, and infrastructure aspects, not trading partnerships. Another con is the constraints placed upon you by the EU system by the "family relationships" between countries. I agree it is historically accurate; I also better understand why Henry VIII ended up with six wives! Last but not least are the pools of leaders to choose from. Granted, there were very few generals of notable quality between 1492 and the inevitable tide of revolution. More (better) leader choices would have been nice, but the net effect is to make the game more challenging.

Simply boring!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: June 15, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I'm a fan of turn-based strategy games, I love civilization (1,2,3), I also like rts games like rise of nations, but this one is simply boring... and complicated. It plays as slow as a turn-based, and doesn't even have half the depth! I couldn't play more than half an hour without wanting to run away screaming!
Horrible!

Boooooring!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 1 / 6
Date: June 15, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I'm a fan of turn-based strategy games, I love civilization (1,2,3), I also like rts games like rise of nations, but this one is simply boring... and complicated. It plays as slow as a turn-based, and doesn't even have half the depth! I couldn't play more than half an hour without wanting to run away screaming!

Horrible!

great game

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 2
Date: August 19, 2004
Author: Amazon User

This game provides me hours of enjoyment. I've been able to create different scenarios where different countries are the dominant one. Also there are downloads available online.

Meglomania?

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: August 11, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Based on the famous (infamous?) French wargame by the same name, Europa Universalis turns the unplayable boardgame into something manageable. It is a very ambitious grand strategic game which generally works. If you are a grognard you don't me to recommend this game - you would of already bought it.

If you are not a wargamer but have an interest in the period covered or want to see if you can beat historical Russia to the Pacific (historically 1659) this is the game for you. Be warned that the game has a steep learning curve and will take a few tries to truly master.

Be aware that you are very limited in terms of what you can do (limited by history). You are not totally forced into a historical mould but you are limited. It is almost impossible for Russia to compete in the new world, but you can get Siberia earlier then historical. Essentially, if the nation you are playing did something historically, you can usually do it earlier. If you try and do something a-historcal for that nation, it will be almost impossible.

Don't they play a game before releasing it?

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: July 16, 2003
Author: Amazon User

This is, down underneath, a deep and fascinating game, as many reviewers say. But before we can appreciate these depths, we have to put up with several serious annoyances that compromise practical playability, and hence fun, in a major way.

The worst feature can be summarized in one word: pirates.

When the game is well along, one is continually distracted by the appearance of these vermin all over the globe. If you don't deal with them, you lose income from every maritime province next to which they hang out. Furthermore, if one of your fleets runs into a pirate on the way to a destination, it may stop to fight the pirate, win, and just sit there forever, forgetting where it was supposed to go. You can lose a large fleet this way if you don't discover the amnesia soon and remind it.

At first your warships may be simply too weak to take them on. Fair enough. Eventually, however, you can safely beat any number of pirate ships with one of yours. But this does not stop the little bastards from multiplying like flies.

You may discover that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure: post just one ship in every sea sector next to your provinces, and they seldom give you trouble (in fact, this is useful even before you can beat them in a fight). However, your ships die of attrition when kept at sea. So you need to go around periodically, return each of them to the nearest port, and post it again. You must do this every few months at first. When you have done all your naval research, you can safely leave them out for a year and a half. Nevertheless, it's a major nuisance. You might need almost a hundred ships all over the world on pirate patrol, and if you miss returning any of them to port-- DISASTER! This micromanagement is, aside from tedious, totally unrealistic. I doubt that the King of Spain needed to give orders to each little ship in the Caribbean exactly when to stop at the nearest port for supplies.

What really rankles is that one of the research advances is said to be unlimited time at sea: in other words, you shouldn't have to worry about attrition. However, THIS IS A LIE. You can never overcome the problem.

Two other occasional inanities: you might have to engage natives in battle as much as thirty times (that's two or three mouse clicks each) to eradicate them from a province. You win each battle easily, but they're still there. Sometimes you can't see that you have made any progress at all. The click fest gets quite mindless and stultifying. There are, of course, hundreds of provinces in the world. Sixty clicks per province to clear out natives, times 400 provinces, equals repetitive stress syndrome.

Finally, events occur at more-or-less random times. You may be watching important action at one location, and suddenly a message pops up needing your attention somewhere else. You might forget to return to your first location after you have dealt with the interruption; and even if you remember, it's sometimes a chore finding it again.

We should be able to deal with these interrupts the same way a computer does: in either a stack or a queue, including being able to save where we were before one occurred.

With these improvements, I'd give the game a much higher rating. As it is, life is too short and patience limited.

A Strategy Game for History Buffs

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: August 04, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Conquering the world is a popular objective for strategy games, but in Europa Universalis, that is not necessarily the goal.

In EU's Grand Campaign, the biggest scenario from about a dozen you can choose from, you are in control of a number of European nations at the beginning of the 1400s. It is your job to lead the nation to a glorious future through exploration, diplomacy, trade, research, and good old-fashioned conquest. Your empire begins small, anywhere from a half dozen territories as Austria to twenty plus as France. In EU, not all nations are created equally. Some have very distinct advantages at the beginning of the game. However, even if you begin with a small nation, you don't have to conquer as many territories or make as much money as you would if you were a larger nation to win. The game uses a point system. You achieve victory points by completing missions, such as defending territories, discovering parts of the world, or conquering certain enemies. You have two hundred years to score as many points as you can to win.

EU is a very involved historical simulation. While you steer the fate of a nation and the world around you develops differently every time, there are many historical events that come up at more or less the same time that affect the entire European continent and add a historical flavor to the game.

The game is a good mix of diplomacy, combat, discovery and exploration. You can discover much of the world, though it is disappointing that many portions of it remain unexplorable, like much of Asia as well as central Africa and central South America. Combat is not very involved. You tell your armies where to go, and if there is an enemy army there, battle rages on and both sides take casualties until one side retreats or is destroyed. However, in order for your army to perform optimally, you need to think about things like the terrain of the territory, the composition of your army (infantry, cavalry, and artillery), the quality of your leader, etc. The system is fairly simple but effective.

Overall, EU is a great strategy game. It is a combination of a real time and a turn based game. The days run by at intervals that you can set to however fast or slow a speed you like. It is historically based, has fairly intelligent AI, and most importantly is good fun. On the down side, the manual is more of an explanation of why the game plays the way it does rather than an explanation of how to play, but the controls are fairly easy to figure out, so this is not a big deal.

deep, perverse and compelling

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: March 02, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I love this game for its deep alt historical gameplay. I've had the Turks conquer India and half of Germany, I've had France carved up into pizza for all Europe to enjoy, I've had the English Civil War come a century early. so cool.

the good stuff, noted by many many other reviewers, is all true.

the bad stuff:
a)this is a tough game to learn, and i believe you need experience with board strat games to really crack the nut.
b) and the box lies on the specs you need to play the game. even with patches etc., i am unable to finish any campaign game i start unless i want to buy more hardware.

the silver lining
since i can't finish any game i start, i now have my life back. i found this game very, very compelling.

close, but no cigar

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 4 / 10
Date: December 18, 2001
Author: Amazon User

The idea behind the game is certainly great. The simulation of the time (including the Gold Standard and Balance of Power in Europe) is excellent. Gameplay, however, is too difficult and intricate, making it less fun, in my opinion.

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