In order to discourage isolationism, the game also forces you to pick rival countries. These alliances can be called to arms if you get attacked or if you want to attack, however they may refuse if they find the cause unjustified or is pre-occupied. Unless youвЂ™re already the biggest blob in the block, you will need to form alliances in order to secure safety in numbers. What really engaged me with EU4 though, is the amount of diplomacy you need to do in order to grow your own nation. Demands have a corresponding war score value and if you do not exceed these values, your demands will not be met. It is also the basis of what you can get in peace deals. War score gives a snapshot on how a war is going. Every victorious battle, every successful occupation of enemy provinces, as well as every successful siege of enemy forts will increase your war score and vice versa. Warfare in EU4 revolves aroundВ a вЂњWar ScoreвЂќ system. Each causus belli has its own effects and limitations as to what you can demand from a peace deal too.ДЄnd yes there are peace deals. These are fabricated through spy networksВ youвЂ™ve put up in their countries. There are multiple reasons to declare war, including answering an insult thrown your way to making good on fabricated claims on provinces. As with in real life, you need a valid causus belli in order to declare war. If you do want to play as a warmongering expansionist,В you canвЂ™t simply attack your neighbors without incurring heavy penalties. This means that a weaker force but defending in the mountains with a very good general can come out ahead against a stronger army with penalties to their rolls.

However, modifiers such as having a general commanding your troops, to terrain, will have an effect on the rolls as well. Battles are determined through dice rolls inВ various phases of combat so there is a little bit of RNG involved. Once an armyвЂ™s morale drops to zero, it will rout and retreat by itselfВ in order to reinforce. Armies often need to be well-rounded as there are penalties of only using a single type of regiment however it is up to you to decide what composition you will go for.Д®ngagements are determined by a lot of things, however they are not represented visually aside from morale which serves as the unitвЂ™s HP. The primary unit in EU4 is the army consisted of a thousand-man regiment of either infantry, cavalry, and later artillery. Even when you donвЂ™t plan on playing aggressive, you cannot simply growВ to aВ world-power without encountering enemies along the way.

Like any good strategy game, warfare is still central in EU4. You set your goals and you try your best to reach them and the game will provide you enough challenges to keep you engaged while you trudge your chosen path. Or do you want to play as France and establish a continental French nation by annexing the entire Europe? You can do that too. Do you want to play as Portugal and race to the new world to control and dominate the American trade routes? Sure, you can do that. ItвЂ™s a sandbox and you can lead your nation to whatever path you choose. Unlike Civ, the game has no victory condition. As with Civ, you play as an invisible, immortal, guiding hand as you build your nation as you see fit. It is set during a time where national identities have started to form, the Byzantium empire laid in ruins and the rise of the Ottoman empire seemed inevitable. In a nutshell, I would describe EU4 as a political simulator. I didnвЂ™t even know the difference between ParadoxвЂ™s different games and thought that itвЂ™s the same sort ofВ game just set in different time periods. I only bought it thinking that it would prepare me for HoI4. I really didnвЂ™t know what I was getting into I had zero idea about what EU4 is all about. Unfortunately, Civ is less about politics and more about exploration and expansion.В Despite having fun and getting my moneyвЂ™s worth with Civ V, it wasnвЂ™t really what I was looking for.ДЄs I was getting my hype on for Hearts of Iron 4, I decided to play another grand-strategy game in the meantime and bought Paradox GameвЂ™s latest release: Europa Universalis 4.

I bought Civ V on a whim, looking for a game where I can delve into geo-politics as I lead my nation to prosperity. And by dabble a bit, I meant that I played a couple of playthroughs of Civilization V on difficulty settings not going above Prince. As a fan of strategy games in general, I also dabble a bit into other strategy games that are not real-time.

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