Apart from MindArk there are other game developers in Sweden and one of them even has an EU. Paradox released Europa Universalis IV earlier this week. If don't know the series yet but you like games like Risk (or even Axis & Allies anyone?) you might want to check it out. Otherwise... maybe better don't look at it ;) And Paradox even listens to their players: In 2010 they've asked for which of their games they shall create an expansion, the community voted for Europa Universalis III which happened to be the oldest of their games to vote for. And Paradox delivered. And even better, they manage to stick to schedules: "On August 10, 2012, Europa Universalis IV was reported to be in development, with a scheduled release of Q3 2013" (Wikipedia). Sweden rules: > I'm tempted to buy...
Was checking out this game last night says something about 300 years if it had a future type thing like civ5 I would give it ago I'm not really one for full history if it had a future year in it. Note: This game is not like EU or mindark its more like the game civilisation 5
Paradox Interactive does the best grand strategy games. Their "Heart of Iron" games (War World II) is their best games. If you like strategy games, you will not find any better games in my opinion. I have not bought EU IV yet, but I have previous versions and will probably buy this soon.
Lol, it's developed in Sweden and it's abbreviated "EU" too, but that are indeed all similarities. Although, actually there are similarities to what you do in EU before and before and after hunting sessions: researching, processing data, refining the setup, purchasing stuff, managing inventory, trading, ... there's just simply no hunt inbetween And Civilization is kind of "casual" compared to Europa Universalis. ;) So if you think you could like anything in that direction the recommendation is Europa Universalis IV. It's a great series and Paradox seems to be a cool company. Here's a video intro: >
Paradox have it's roots in the RPG world, in the 80s/early 90s it was a company called "Target Games" that gave out the Swedish versions of the paper versions of the Dungeons & Dragons and a game called Mutant. It later split in to companies "Pardox Entertainment" and "Paradox Interactive" that does the computer games. It's a bit funny, the games I play the most are all made of Swedish developers. Entropia Universe by Mindark, Hearts of Iron and other games by Paradox and the Battlefield games made by Digital Illusions (even if they are owned by EA).
hmmm I liked games like Civilisation or any RolePlaying or Adventures, so could be one for me but have to admit that I rarely played any other games since I started EU
I love this game, I got hooked ever since I started playing it. The only major setback I can think of is that the gameplay abruptly ends at about 1821 or so but there are mods you can do to eliminate that problem. My ambition was to form Romania out of Wallachia, Moldavia and Transylvania and it was very hard to do but eventually I succeeded :D Now I have to eliminate kebab haha. Anyone else is a fan of this game around here? I think it's the best strategy game made in the past few years ...
For whoever wants to purchase this game, it is black friday on amazon, 50% reduced http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00D6K41V0/ref=cm_sw_su_dp?tag=childsplaycha-20
just to show off my pride and joy :D been working hard on this one lol (mine is the newly formed Romania, obviously :))
Just bought this yesterday as well and so far it is hard ! I learned so far not to go to war with a small country with big friends :)
What proved most helpful to me (as I started from the very beginning with a very small country without any power so the difficulty was really high) was that you shouldn't ally with small countries that have a lot of claims on other territories as they will drag you into wars with big empires that will eat you alive. Best is to try to ally with big empires that are not immediate neighbours to you so there is no border friction. That way your enemies will be more reluctant to invade you and the wars your allies get into wont affect you very much as their enemies wont be able to reach you. Oh and start a war you can handle as soon as you can but make sure the target isn't allied with anyone who can reach you and do it before you get warned by some big empire not to go to war... That was my strategy anyway....
I bought it ~1 month ago but so far only had the time for a playing a couple of hours. It's for sure not the most "accessible" game. But when it comes to gaming I really like to learn by doing and so I've started without any prior reading or considerations - that brought me into trouble but I really like these challenges, I want to play and not to achieve. I chose the Palatinate because it's closest to where I live. A small 3 provinces country within the HRE and in heart of Europe. I started looking for things to conquer immediately - outside the HRE to avoid penalties- and found Wallachia without any allies. There was only one conclusion: Attack. Took a while to get and supply armies over the distance but after a couple of fierce battles Mutenia and Oltenia were mine. Also I started building a network of allies, consisting of a couple of small ones but also Austria and Bavaria. After a couple of smaller I was dragged into an almost Europe-wide conflict with Burgundy which turned out to be a major challenge. However, after a long and exhausting war our alliance was victorious and I had two provinces more: Barrois just one more province away from borders and Provence. The latter I thought was a really great idea - not within the HRE and at the Mediterranean. Because even though playing a tiny country I wanted to get a share of overseas colonies which is impossible without access to the sea. However, what I thought were great achievements turned out to be major trouble due to some misconceptions. While it was possible in EU III to turn any province into a core province after a time long enough this seems not to be possible in EU IV anymore, only provinces bordering core provinces can be made cores themselves. So the original 3 province Palatinate had no less than 4 additional conquered provinces but no chance to turn them into cores - which also meant no chance to build a fleet in Provence. So in the following decades I've focused provinces close-by. In another alliance war with Burgundy I managed to get Metz, which was the connecting province between the earlier taken Barrois, that way I was able to make both Metz and Barrois cores. But I'm afraid it won't be possible to keep Barrois on the long run - too many claims on it from too powerful players. After Provence turned out to be a deadlock in regards to access to the sea and building a fleet I had to find another way to achieve this. So I engaged in many smaller conflicts and fought myself down along the river Rhine until finally in 1499 my armies reached to North Sea and one year later the last conquered province on the way to the sea was turned into a core. In 1500 the situation looks as follows: The country has access to the sea but that's almost the only positive. It's cluttered up and stretched, several provinces face claims from powerful enemies, there are severe over-extension penalties for owning the non-core Provence and Wallachia. Also from a diplomatic POV the situation is quite a stalemate: all interesting provinces belong to countries entangled in a network of alliances, a few big blocks are opposing each other in severe hostility, and the Palatinate in-between, left with a small number of rather weak allies, among them the Papal State, and unfortunately strong enemies, among them Austria, the current emperor. It's for sure an uncertain future...
You little bugger! How dare you?! lol, that's the country I started with :P Joke aside, I think the trading system is worth figuring out, it does look quite complicated but I think it is a major source of income. Out of curiosity, what ideas did you choose to unlock? The fist three I mean.
Progress was made. I managed to get control over a coupe of neighboring provinces. And then got dragged into a defensive war by my ally Sweden, against -guess who- Russia... This conflict between seemingly equal enemies is lasting for years already and will probably dominate the years to come. It could lead to a great disaster or to owning some Russian provinces. And now for the blatant advertising: You can support our friends of Ludophiles by buying Crusader Kings II and add-ons from their gamesrepublic affiliate shop, it's currently on sale for -75%: https://ludophilia.gamesrepublic.com/catalog/strategy.html
