Europa Universalis 3

It's a strategy game, not turn based, but if you pause or slow it down to speed 1, it might as well be with combat calculated by the computer so not like Total War in that aspect.
Basically, it's a historical representation of the state of Europe (and the rest of the world) between 1400 and 1800 or so. You select a year to start, a country, and then you go rewriting history.
I am *obsessed* with this game. The funny thing is, I first tried it like a year ago. Read the 100 page or so manual, did the tutorials, and mistakenly assumed I should start with a small country to learn the ropes… I was creamed by France before I knew it. I shelved the game then.
But a few weeks ago I decided to give it another go, but this time I started with a bigger kingdom… Castille.
Now, to say a game of EU3 is long is an understatement. It makes a game of Civilization 4 with a huge map look like a quick game of Solitaire in comparison. I've been playing this game for like a month already. First my Spaniard Castillians went on removing the infidel moors from southern Iberia. Portugal and Aragon helped a bit. Then I decided to cross the Gibraltar waters to head into Africa, like a spanish Patton (if I could rename the general, I would have named him "El Pattonio").
At first it was difficult, but then something happened. They elected me the Pope!? WTF? Whatever, I'll take it! So with that I trampled my way in, called a crusade an everything. First Morocco, the Algerians, Tripoli… but those Mamlucks and their Ottoman friends proved too much, so I made peace.
So there I was, waiting for my provinces to replenish my armies and get some buffer manpower when it struck me… I was playing like Mordor, grabbing everything I could… which gave me the perfect reason to go against the Aragonians (Aragon, Aragorn, get it?), but man, the stability hit would be too much, same religion, no casus belli, ouch. But then I remembered I was freaking Pope Wolfing the 1st! I used a new option I sort of ignored when I first saw it after I was made pope, and I excommunicated the eastern Spaniards, bow down to Mordor! I mean, bow down to Castille!
(just for reference, this happened about 2 weeks ago, and 2 weeks after I started the game).
Surely my Portuguese friends would help me against them… except they didn't! the traitors actually preferred their alliance with Aragon instead of mine, and I had my western provinces undefended. So, after a long series of battles, I finally won the war and took a few provinces from Aragon and Portugal. (You don't just conquer cities like in Civilization. First you occupy them, and when you end the war, depending on your 'war score' you negotiate terms of surrender and grab provinces this way. You can only annex small kingdoms… bigger kingdoms you have to take in chunks)
Making war in Europe is too complicated, everybody is allied with everybody… cowards! So, in the last week I turned my eyes towards Africa. They don't even have forts! with just 10000 soldiers or so I swept south, taking all the western african kingdoms.
So there I am, at 1472 when in the real world Castille had recently unified with Aragon and about to go forth to find the New World, in my Mordorian world there is no Spain, but Castille owns half of Africa.

It is a very complex game for sure, and after a month playing it a few hours a day, I probably still don't know half of it, but man it is good. Totally recommended!

I second that recommendation.

I've been hooked on this game for well over a year now. Great stuff. If you have even the slightest interest in history, I'd say get it.

Might I also recommend the game "Crusader Kings" by the same developer? Its learning curve is steeper than EU3's, but I find it even more engrossing.
Instead of a "state", you play a dynasty, as you work your way up from a meagre count to King of France and Germany, through scheming politics and marriages. It contains some RPG elements, so it's definitely worth checking out.
Once you get past the learning curve, you'll find a diamond in the rough…

As a side-note, they're currently developing the sequel, Crusader Kings II, and boy, am I excited.

Man, this last week has only translated into like 10 years in the game. It's been bad for the Spaniards, first I was all cocky being allied with the Brittish, so I thought I could crush France... not only did the French take care of them, they even took one of my provinces. Turns out they had a 4 star general that turned a 25K vs. 15K battle into a 6K vs. 10K rout. After licking my wounds I decided to go for the Mamlucks, sent like 30K soldiers to northeast Africa, and initially it all looked good... until they brought like 40K soldiers upon my now 18k (after attrition and small battles), so couldn't get anything there. My next try will be Sweden I think...

Excellent game. You might want to get the expansions as they add more depth to the game.

Crusader Kings 2 is scheduled for release in 2011 IIRC.

EU3 is my favourite game and i am fan of the series since EU1 .

All expansions are worthy and greatly improving the gameplay BUT do not buy the last one (Divine Wind) until it is properly patched since new cascading alliances and horde mechanics + some other minor stuff are really bad implemented .

wolfing if you are new France and Japan are the easiest countries to play , France from the get go , Japan only needs a big navy and they can rule the seas.

Africa is poor and wrong culture / religion if i were you i would just grab Ifni (or whatever is the south most province of Morocco) just for the colonial range, when you get QftNW move to Ashanti / Kongo , Zulu , Zanj and from there to Ceylon = Instant east India company decision.

Tragos said:

EU3 is my favourite game and i am fan of the series since EU1 .

All expansions are worthy and greatly improving the gameplay BUT do not buy the last one (Divine Wind) until it is properly patched since new cascading alliances and horde mechanics + some other minor stuff are really bad implemented .

wolfing if you are new France and Japan are the easiest countries to play , France from the get go , Japan only needs a big navy and they can rule the seas.

Africa is poor and wrong culture / religion if i were you i would just grab Ifni (or whatever is the south most province of Morocco) just for the colonial range, when you get QftNW move to Ashanti / Kongo , Zulu , Zanj and from there to Ceylon = Instant east India company decision.

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Too late, I'm playing Castille and they're powerful enough
I did go to Sweden and after a couple of wars, pretty much took half their expansionist country. After that, my Africa grab continued. I kept going south, and then when I got the 'quest for the new world' thing, I recruited an explorer and a conquistador and went around South Africa, so I started to chew on east Africa.
One of the African countries was allied to the Mamlucks, my old enemies, so I got all scared of having to fight them again after the whupass they gave me like 30 years before. But I was lucky, they were already at war with the Ottomans so their armies were occupied in the east. That gave me a chance to take like 5 of their western provinces.
After the dust settled, I sent my explorer to America as I was noticing the English, French and Portuguese were already there, and I couldn't miss the party! So I took care of some indians in the South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia area, netting me 4 or 5 provinces there.
While this was happening, I kept getting messages that, first my English allies' provinces, and then my own, were converting to protestanism or reformism or whatever. Not sure what that means to me. I reconverted a couple of provinces in Spain that had turned to the dark side, but all my Swedish and some of my African provinces are protestant now. I wonder if I should send priests there to reconvert them to Catholicism. The chance is high (about 25%), but it costs like 30 ducats per year per priest so that's expensive, specially considering I'm buying forts for the newly acquired provinces, and having my army big enough to protect my interests everywhere is getting really expensive too.
And for some reason, I was elected Emperor of the HRE or whatever that is. I guess I'm eligible because I own Rome and another province in Italy. So right now I'm both the Pope and Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire
That's the state of my EU3 world in the year of the lord 1525 right now

Tragos said:

All expansions are worthy and greatly improving the gameplay BUT do not buy the last one (Divine Wind) until it is properly patched since new cascading alliances and horde mechanics + some other minor stuff are really bad implemented .

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On the other hand, the combat AI in DW will finally challenge you somewhat, leading to more interesting games. Combat itself seems a tad more balanced also, though that might not have changed since HTTT. The horde mechanic is broken in the sense that playing as one is hard (as you cannot gain territory at all), but other than that works well enough. Cascading alliances are just another challenge.

In any case, I heartily recommend it to everyone, of course. Been a fan a long time. My usual modus operandi is to play a few games in that lull right after New Year when you've nothing better to do.. been doing this for a few years and always have a ton of fun (it helps that every year or so there's a new expansion out).

BTW I saw EU3 Complete (with first 2 expansions) for $4 at Steam, and the next expansion for $2, that was a few days ago, not sure if it's still up, but if it is, it's a no-brainer!!!
EDIT: It is still up

VPeric yes the AI is smarter now , ping pong effect is now replaced by endless chasing . Most people like to play colonial , specially when you play a OPM or something like dirt poor Norway going for the new world is a no brainer but DW made it useless by pissing on colonial good' s prices .

wolfing: from what i see you are not a noob , new Castille players always get pwnd by France , anyway when you feel comfortable with your skill i am expecting an Asian AAR

Tragos said:

VPeric yes the AI is smarter now , ping pong effect is now replaced by endless chasing . Most people like to play colonial , specially when you play a OPM or something like dirt poor Norway going for the new world is a no brainer but DW made it useless by pissing on colonial good' s prices .

wolfing: from what i see you are not a noob , new Castille players always get pwnd by France , anyway when you feel comfortable with your skill i am expecting an Asian AAR

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To tell you the truth, I have no idea why France hasn't gone against me. Maybe it's because of random chance, or because they've always been occupied by trying to push the English out of their northern provinces, or maybe they just decided to expand eastwards (I recently noticed that they now have some of the northern Italy provinces). It'd be a royal pain if they attacked me, as I only keep like a 7k army in Spain (they call it they easiest job in the world, as I don't remember the last time they moved from Madrid. They've been eaten Paella and drinking wine for like 20 years, probably a bunch of fat drunkards in that army by now)

cerishbellion said:

Europa Universalis III Divine Wind is set in the Far East plus will enhance every aspect of the original game to generate an even deeper.. This epic strategy game lets players take control of a nation plus guide it through the ages to become a great global empire.

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I'm not getting DW yet. I've heard mixed reactions to it (ping pong and recursive aliances or something like that).

wolfing said:

I'm not getting DW yet. I've heard mixed reactions to it (ping pong and recursive aliances or something like that).

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There's a beta patch out already, that supposedly fixes the worst issues.
That being said, I don't have DW yet either. Waiting for a price drop...

I installed Heir to the Throne, and started a new game as the Ming. I don't know if it's something introduced in HttT or something particular to the country I chose, but I find myself ping-ponging a lot. Rebel armies that just won't die, they move to a new province, I have an army there and as soon as they get there, they move back. I find myself leaving two armies in the two provinces, and after like 10 pingpongs eventually they die, but that didn't happen when I played Castille (without HTTT), how can I fix that?

Are you fully patched up?

wiretripped said:

Are you fully patched up?

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Well unless the latest patch was released in the last 2 weeks, yes (Heir To the Throne 4.1b

For those interested, "Europa Universalis III - Divine Wind" is now 50% off on GG.
Clickety click.

Those who dont have the vanilla game yet might want to wait for EU3: Chronicles which is a bundle with all four expanisons.

My "EU3 Complete" turned out to be less than complete as they've released two expansions since

Very tempting, but I know I'll buy it at $10, and by the time I get to play it with my backlog (and my renewed interest in old EQ1 with the progression server), it'll probably be $4