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Note: I know there is a thread, but it is from ~6 months ago and was just mentioning a sale of the game. I wanted to create a proper thread
Europa Univeralis 3 - Chronicles is currently on Steam for $20 USD. If you're going to get the game, get Chronicles -- NOT COMPLETE. If you get Complete, you miss out on two expansions that improve the game significantly.
http://store.steampowered.com/sub/7654/
Now, what is Europa Univeralis 3?
Well, let me give you what the developers have to say about it:
Europa Universalis III delves deeply into the areas of exploration, trade, warfare and diplomacy. This epic strategy game lets players take control of a nation and guide it through the ages to become a great global empire. Unparalleled in its depth and historical accuracy, Europa Universalis III gives the player unprecedented freedom in how they choose to rule their nation from an impressive choice of over 250 historically accurate countries.
With that in mind, here are the details:
Unless you are doing a scenario or changing it manually, you start out at Circa 1399 as any country at that time with historically accurate borders. Anything from the French vassal of Orleans to Castille to the Ming Empire. You play from Circa 1399 - 1824. That's damn straight skippy, well over 300 years of gameplay. Even at x5 speed (which you should never play) where it's roughly one day every half second, you can see the amount of time a single game can yield.
Hint: Roughly 3 minutes a year at x5 over 300 years is ~15 hours.
![[image loading]](http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-A7CS1aNFX9E/TY2H8YlbixI/AAAAAAAAFdg/bAqEKAmdiVc/s1600/Europa%2BUniversalis%2BIII%2BChronicles%2B%2528Real%2BTime%2BStrategy%2529%2B%255BFINAL%255D2.jpg) Starting Borders for Central Europe
The best part about this game is a lack of a story and clear objective. It has historical beginnings, that's really it. It gets fucking wacky as hell, and players can do anything they want. They can even load a save from a game as a completely different country to try and take down their old country in that save. You can try to survive as a small Central European State, unite and form Germany, form Spain as Castille and colonize America (which in itself is complicated as hell -- you don't just move units to discover land. You need to get a lot of shit in terms of technology, and even then it's risky as hell), form the Holy Roman Empire, or conquer Africa as Portugal. You can do whatever the hell you want. "Winning" this game is subjective, you do what you want.
The game is not easy. Going to put that here now. It was fucking not fun at all for me for a while because I had no idea what was going on. And it does take a while to know what the hell to do. That's the double edged sword of not having a clear objective system. It leaves you in the open to figure shit out for yourself. There's a tutorial, but it leaves more questions than answers. There are "missions" to do every once in a while -- but they are mainly just reasons to go to war. Which leads me to Casus Belli, the shining glory of this game and what truly separates it from Civilization to me.
In Civilization, you go to war with someone. You take their cities and subsequently their resources. It's territorial. In EU3, there are more reasons to go to war than land. In fact, it's generally bad to go to war for land. You gain infamy, which in turn makes people hate your fucking guts if you expand too much at once. You can get reasons to annex countries or certain territories, but it takes time. You go to war for trading disputes, to reduce their sphere of influence, to gain control over their Monarch in a War of Succession, to weaken their presence, etc.
The game is fucking intense and I recommend checking it out after dumping ~100 hours in the past month into it.
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Yeah, EU 3 it'sa great game! I love playing with a little country and slowly expanding 
In my last game, i started with Tuscany and formed Italy. Next game i want to play as a shitty African country orNew Wolrd country, ut will be very difficult to survive though...
EDIT: I remember when i received the game i thoght it was a bad copy of the total war series, with awful graphic. I was SOOOOO wrong. I love how many selectable country are present in he game.
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On July 03 2011 18:27 IGotPlayguuu wrote:Yeah, EU 3 it'sa great game! I love playing with a little country and slowly expanding In my last game, i started with Tuscany and formed Italy. Next game i want to play as a shitty African country orNew Wolrd country, ut will be very difficult to survive though... EDIT: I remember when i received the game i thoght it was a bad copy of the total war series, with awful graphic. I was SOOOOO wrong. I love how many selectable country are present in he game.
New World is fucking impossible man. Like you have to be unrealistically good at the game to succeed with them because you start at every tech at level 1 while European powers start at like 4 and a half. So when they arrive, you are super far behind and they wreck your shit.
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mmm i've got EU 3 vanilla, where i think all civs start at level 1, but i'm not sure 100%
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Yeah, played it to death for ages. Great game. 
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On July 03 2011 21:15 IGotPlayguuu wrote:
mmm i've got EU 3 vanilla, where i think all civs start at level 1, but i'm not sure 100%
Yeah, definitely get Heir to the Throne and Divine Wind, makes the game so much better.
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I am such a huge fan of EU3. Paradox is the king of grand strategy games. EU3, Vicky II, HOI3, all awesome games, but EU3 is by far the best.
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This is one of the best games I have ever played. And one that poses a real challange, too, which is great.
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I fiddled around with it for 1,5 hour and I'm still clueless how I should be annexing Orleans playing as France!
Could someone help me out here?
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Wish i could play this looks good 
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On July 04 2011 05:15 Fryght wrote:
I fiddled around with it for 1,5 hour and I'm still clueless how I should be annexing Orleans playing as France!
Could someone help me out here?
In order to annex a country you need to take over all of its provinces and then open negotitations, propose  to annex the entire country. Prepare to take a huge infamy / stability hit if you don't have a proper cause for doing so. Note this will only work on smaller countries.
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For new players I'd recommend playing somewhat easy nations like Castille, who has plenty of gold, manpower etc. and the ability to pursue whatever they want, be it the New World, uniting Spain, or going on a North African conquest. After some time with Castille (you should start at 1399 and try to play to at least the mid 1500s, preferably till 1600, so you get some ideas of what events happen throughout the game) you should be able to do some of the more difficult countries. Don't try doing a new-world nation though, all the natives get wiped out as soon as the Europeans arrive, there's just not much you can do.
EU3 is one of the best games out there for grand strategy. The game is just so huge, and there are so many options its just exhausting.
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This game is fucking sick! Most fun thing to do is to start out as some random asian/african country and gradually conquer Europe over several centuries.
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On July 04 2011 05:22 JonsaBoy wrote:
For new players I'd recommend playing somewhat easy nations like Castille, who has plenty of gold, manpower etc. and the ability to pursue whatever they want, be it the New World, uniting Spain, or going on a North African conquest. After some time with Castille (you should start at 1399 and try to play to at least the mid 1500s, preferably till 1600, so you get some ideas of what events happen throughout the game) you should be able to do some of the more difficult countries. Don't try doing a new-world nation though, all the natives get wiped out as soon as the Europeans arrive, there's just not much you can do.
EU3 is one of the best games out there for grand strategy. The game is just so huge, and there are so many options its just exhausting.
New world is doable on lower difficulties, but there is much luck involved.
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On July 04 2011 05:20 True_Spike wrote:Show nested quote +On July 04 2011 05:15 Fryght wrote:
I fiddled around with it for 1,5 hour and I'm still clueless how I should be annexing Orleans playing as France!
Could someone help me out here? In order to annex a country you need to take over all of its provinces and then open negotitations, propose to annex the entire country. Prepare to take a huge infamy / stability hit if you don't have a proper cause for doing so. Note this will only work on smaller countries.
...Or you can peacefully annex them which is what France is supposed to do for like half of it's territories around it since every one of them starts out as their Vassal
The way to play France is to peacefully annex as many of your vassals as you can while you invade and conquer Brittany and holding off England from fucking your shit up. France is the best in the game because they have the best end game. They take until like 1450-1470 until they get all their territories if everything goes right, and at that point nothing can stop them. It's just boring as balls until that point, that's why I say Castille is the best starter since it's action from the go.
EDIT: My current game
+ Show Spoiler +
Just ballin' all day with Denmark. In 17 years I'm Integrating Norway and then going to backstab Sweden for a quick annexation, during that 17 years going to build up my navy hardcore.
Once that is all done, my Conquest of Asia begins.
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Btw guys, playing with Poland is lots of fun once you install all the expansions. It's never boring, since you start off already in a war with the Golden Horde, without sea access and teutons to the north. It's not very hard to do if you know what you are doing, but is great for beginners (who played for a bit and understand the game flow and mechanics).
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On July 04 2011 05:30 True_Spike wrote:
Btw guys, playing with Poland is lots of fun once you install all the expansions. It's never boring, since you start off already in a war with the Golden Horde, without sea access and teutons to the north. It's not very hard to do if you know what you are doing, but is great for beginners (who played for a bit and understand the game flow and mechanics).
I hate Poland, it's basically asking to get fucked every which way. If it's not the Golden Horde, it's Austria, if it's not those two -- The Order wrecks your Northern Front hard.
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I started playing this game as the smaller countries, and I would actually recommend it to other beginners. It gives you a special appreciation for the intricacies of the game and how all of a sudden you can be reduced to a pile of rubble with some bad luck or bad decisions. On the other hand, it teaches you to use every little trick in order to expand or merely survive.
There are also some quite challenging achievements with the newest expansion, which set the stage for some of the best game experiences I've had with this game. I've been playing EU3 for something like 3 or 4 years now, and I still find it to be one of the most enjoyable games I play.
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On July 04 2011 05:24 Fruscainte wrote:EDIT: My current game + Show Spoiler +Just ballin' all day with Denmark. In 17 years I'm Integrating Norway and then going to backstab Sweden for a quick annexation, during that 17 years going to build up my navy hardcore. Once that is all done, my Conquest of Asia begins.
Man annexing Norway is just impossible. Something random ALWAYS comes up and i miss the chance. If you do end getting Norway though, I think you have a pretty good shot at being first to the new world because of Iceland. It just doesn't happen to me though, my king always dies and the union gets dissolved, or something like that. I just CANT get Norway.
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On July 04 2011 05:30 True_Spike wrote:
Btw guys, playing with Poland is lots of fun once you install all the expansions. It's never boring, since you start off already in a war with the Golden Horde, without sea access and teutons to the north. It's not very hard to do if you know what you are doing, but is great for beginners (who played for a bit and understand the game flow and mechanics).
I think everyone play as their own country, and if their country isn't in it, such as Germany as I understand it, they go for their area.
I'ma buy this game and pwn the shit with Sweden XD
Thanks guys! Got me pumped up!
Any advice for a first time player?
Edit: I'm pretty fucking retarded as well. Took me a week to understand what civilization was about I think.
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EPT![[image loading]](http://img830.imageshack.us/img830/701/mygame.png)
