Europa Universalis III
Fleckenstein
11-02-2007, 00:05
What a wonderful game. I loved both original games and played EUII for years. The historical dynamic is my favorite part.
So what do you guys think about it? Fav countries or strategies, thoughts on the 3D engine, attempts to unify historical countries, the new unit system, the time span. . .
Right now I'm preoccupied with uniting Germany with Prussia-Brandenburg from 1702. Its around 1750, only a few German states remain, and France insists on eating up small principalities. My early strategy is to ally and vassalize two or more of your neighbors, allowing you to expand in 10 years without even spending a single troop. I picked up Saxony and Mecklenburg early in my Prussia game, and it set me up to dominate Northern Germany (especially the income from the CoT in Lubeck from Mecklenburg).
Thoughts?
Nova Magna Germania
11-02-2007, 00:44
What a wonderful game. I loved both original games and played EUII for years. The historical dynamic is my favorite part.
So what do you guys think about it? Fav countries or strategies, thoughts on the 3D engine, attempts to unify historical countries, the new unit system, the time span. . .
Right now I'm preoccupied with uniting Germany with Prussia-Brandenburg from 1702. Its around 1750, only a few German states remain, and France insists on eating up small principalities. My early strategy is to ally and vassalize two or more of your neighbors, allowing you to expand in 10 years without even spending a single troop. I picked up Saxony and Mecklenburg early in my Prussia game, and it set me up to dominate Northern Germany (especially the income from the CoT in Lubeck from Mecklenburg).
Thoughts?
I used to play EU II. I liked Victoria better tho. I havent bought EU III yet but may get it in summer. As for your strategy, I think it's great. I also liked the vassalize and then annex strategy. You dont get your troops killed and you dont get penalties for city incomes/fortification level after siege. And I guess the pop gets less militancy? As for France, cant you ally with England or Holland or Halvetia?
And what are the changes in this game? From what you've said, I guess they added an unify feature like in Victoria, sounds interesting...Can you also unify Scandinavia?
Fleckenstein
11-02-2007, 02:09
I used to play EU II. I liked Victoria better tho. I havent bought EU III yet but may get it in summer. As for your strategy, I think it's great. I also liked the vassalize and then annex strategy. You dont get your troops killed and you dont get penalties for city incomes/fortification level after siege. And I guess the pop gets less militancy? As for France, cant you ally with England or Holland or Halvetia?
And what are the changes in this game? From what you've said, I guess they added an unify feature like in Victoria, sounds interesting...Can you also unify Scandinavia?
Forming alliances is nigh impossible after the first five seconds. People refuse to join you when they are already in another alliance.
The unify stuff is in events, I forget who gets them. I think Scandinavia does, but I'm not sure.
Changes are pretty interesting. You can inherit other countries (royal marriages), have a personal union with a country, spawn succession wars (coolest feature IMHO), choose different unit types with different strengths/weaknesses, choose what kind of government you have, have national "ideas" (they give bonuses and allow you to search the New World), use accumluated tradition to create generals (I hated not having anyone in II, and it allows protracted war to give ubergenerals), ability to start from any day in any year in the game, and loads of other stuff.
The sound of it interests me. I've been searching for a strategy game with more depth. I've ordered Hearts of Iron II of Amazon, it will be my first Paradox title and if I'm impressed, I'll probably buy some Europa Universalis games too.
Nova Magna Germania
11-02-2007, 03:22
Forming alliances is nigh impossible after the first five seconds. People refuse to join you when they are already in another alliance.
The unify stuff is in events, I forget who gets them. I think Scandinavia does, but I'm not sure.
Changes are pretty interesting. You can inherit other countries (royal marriages), have a personal union with a country, spawn succession wars (coolest feature IMHO), choose different unit types with different strengths/weaknesses, choose what kind of government you have, have national "ideas" (they give bonuses and allow you to search the New World), use accumluated tradition to create generals (I hated not having anyone in II, and it allows protracted war to give ubergenerals), ability to start from any day in any year in the game, and loads of other stuff.
Do you still need to wait for explorers to explore the new world? Imagine me playing as Denmark and waiting for an explorer to colonize Americas in EU II. I eventually got one but best places were colonized :mp5:
About alliances, you gotta wait for them to disolve. Try to have a high relationship, royal marriage, etc...b4 you send the request. A strong military also helps, I guess...
Fleckenstein
11-02-2007, 19:23
Do you still need to wait for explorers to explore the new world? Imagine me playing as Denmark and waiting for an explorer to colonize Americas in EU II. I eventually got one but best places were colonized :mp5:
About alliances, you gotta wait for them to disolve. Try to have a high relationship, royal marriage, etc...b4 you send the request. A strong military also helps, I guess...
Once you choose the Quest for the New World idea, you can create explorers and conquistadors with gold. It makes for some interesting colonies, like an Austrian South Africa, Papal Alaska (yes, the Pope colonized Alaska), Ragusan California, Scottish and Dutch Northern Canada, and Norwegian New Jersey.
Austria for some reason is always aggressively colonizing.
Anyone else play?
Granthor
11-02-2007, 19:31
Can someone let me know what the system requirements are? My PC's fairly old (3 years, but pretty top of the range at the time) but it sounds like the sort of game I could really get into!
Can someone let me know what the system requirements are? My PC's fairly old (3 years, but pretty top of the range at the time) but it sounds like the sort of game I could really get into!
If it's anything like most Paradox titles, you should have no problems whatsoever. These games aren't exactly designed for top-of-the-line computers like games produced by larger companies.
Vittos the City Sacker
11-02-2007, 20:05
I am interested in purchasing, but I am running Vista, and I wonder about any compatibility problems.
Compulsive Depression
11-02-2007, 20:16
Can someone let me know what the system requirements are? My PC's fairly old (3 years, but pretty top of the range at the time) but it sounds like the sort of game I could really get into!
Play lists the minimum specs if you scroll down a bit (http://www.play.com/Games/PC/4-/3273112/-/Product.html?searchstring=europa+universalis&searchsource=0). Nothing that should pose many problems, so long as your graphics card supports SM2.0 (any Geforce 6+ or Radeon X-series should do it, but check if you've got a lower-end card like a 6200 or X300/X600. Not sure about Geforce 5-series or Radeon 9-series.)
I played the demo for an hour... It was nice, didn't really have time to get in to it before bed. When I went back to it I discovered my PC was dead, so haven't played it since. This machine would easily cope, but I got distracted by Birth of the Federation...
Granthor
11-02-2007, 20:19
Nothing that should pose many problems, so long as your graphics card supports SM2.0 (any Geforce 6+ or Radeon X-series should do it, but check if you've got a lower-end card like a 6200 or X300/X600.)
*sigh*
Just checked, and I have an Inno3D GeForce 6200. And I've only got a 1.84GHz processor and the bare minimum RAM. I suppose I should ask for a computer upgrade for my birthday. XD
Compulsive Depression
11-02-2007, 20:33
You could always try the demo first (http://www.europauniversalis3.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogsection&id=5&Itemid=27)...
The 6200 supports SM3.0, so SM2.0 should be no problem. Just checked :)
And if it's an AMD CPU you need something with a model number of 1900+; the core speed of these (and newer intel Core2 CPUs) is lower than P4s, but the performance is higher. If it's a P4 or Celeron it might struggle.
Granthor
11-02-2007, 20:50
Ooh, demo linkage! I've been looking for that!
And it's an AMD Athalon XP 2500+ processor, so maybe it'll be alright after all. *starts downloading demo*
Fleckenstein
11-02-2007, 23:43
I am interested in purchasing, but I am running Vista, and I wonder about any compatibility problems.
I dunno, I think that's why I'm waiting to switch.
That and I cant find how I get my free Vista upgrade with my new computer. :D
Chronosia
12-02-2007, 00:51
I'm sort of stuck. Can't get it to work right...Need more patience, I guess :P
Ace! I didn't realise that they would bring out an EU3.
Such a big fun of Paradox games.
It seems like it's melding some ideas from Crusader Kings (the personalities) into the EU concept. That would be really cool.
But having had a look at the screenies, I can't help but feel that it loses some of the quirkiness and old-skoolness of the EU1 and EU2 maps...
How does the game compare to those two?
Maxus Paynus
12-02-2007, 01:27
As much as I liked EU2, I must say, Victoria and HOI keep all my time consumed; especially HOI.:headbang: Not that that's a bad thing. :D Afterall, conquering China, Korea, Germany...the Soviets even, as Canada is quite entertaining.