Europa Universalis

by Strategy First

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00008K2XI
• Item Weight: 4 ounces
• Media: CD-ROM
• Release Date: February 25, 2003
• Average Customer Review: 2.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #48,277 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Edition: Jewel Case

From the Manufacturer

Europa Universalis is a real time strategy game recreating world history from the Age of Discovery (1492) to the advent of the Napoleonic era (1792). The combination of real-time, multiplayer game play and historical accuracy makes Europa Universalis unique in the genre.

Each player controls one of the major powers of the era, such as Spain, England, Prussia, France or Portugal, exactly which ones are available depends on which of the eight different scenarios the players choose. In total, there are over 75 countries in the game that are controlled either by a human player or the artificial intelligence.

The players control most functions of their respective countries concerning warfare, economy and diplomacy. They build and command fleets and armies, explore the world using explorers and conquistadors, discover new lands and natural resources for exploitation and trade, and form alliances to enable or avoid warfare, troop movement and financial support.

However, the player's powers are not unlimited, and their monarch's historical abilities, or lack thereof, will influence their chances of success.

Product Description

A strategy game simulating all aspects of world history from 1492 to 1792, where you are the leader of a great nation, changing the world and rewriting history. Take on the role of one of the major nations of the era, controlling diplomacy, economy, warfare, exploration and colonization.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Don't they play a game before releasing it?, July 15, 2003

By 

Paul Emmons (West Chester, PA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Europa Universalis (Jewel Case) (CD-ROM)

This is, down underneath, a deep and fascinating game, as many reviewers say. But before we can appreciate these depths, we have to put up with several serious annoyances that compromise practical playability, and hence fun, in a major way.

The worst feature can be summarized in one word: pirates.

When the game is well along, one is continually distracted by the appearance of these vermin all over the globe. If you don't deal with them, you lose income from every maritime province next to which they hang out. Furthermore, if one of your fleets runs into a pirate on the way to a destination, it may stop to fight the pirate, win, and just sit there forever, forgetting where it was supposed to go. You can lose a large fleet this way if you don't discover the amnesia soon and remind it.

At first your warships may be simply too weak to take them on. Fair enough. Eventually, however, you can safely beat any number of pirate ships with one of yours. But this does not stop the little bastards from multiplying like flies.

You may discover that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure: post just one ship in every sea sector next to your provinces, and they seldom give you trouble (in fact, this is useful even before you can beat them in a fight). However, your ships die of attrition when kept at sea. So you need to go around periodically, return each of them to the nearest port, and post it again. You must do this every few months at first. When you have done all your naval research, you can safely leave them out for a year and a half. Nevertheless, it's a major nuisance. You might need almost a hundred ships all over the world on pirate patrol, and if you miss returning any of them to port-- DISASTER! This micromanagement is, aside from tedious, totally unrealistic. I doubt that the King of Spain needed to give orders to each little ship in the Caribbean exactly when to stop at the nearest port for supplies.

What really rankles is that one of the research advances is said to be unlimited time at sea: in other words, you shouldn't have to worry about attrition. However, THIS IS A LIE. You can never overcome the problem.

Two other occasional inanities: you might have to engage natives in battle as much as thirty times (that's two or three mouse clicks each) to eradicate them from a province. You win each battle easily, but they're still there. Sometimes you can't see that you have made any progress at all. The click fest gets quite mindless and stultifying. There are, of course, hundreds of provinces in the world. Sixty clicks per province to clear out natives, times 400 provinces, equals repetitive stress syndrome.

Finally, events occur at more-or-less random times. You may be watching important action at one location, and suddenly a message pops up needing your attention somewhere else. You might forget to return to your first location after you have dealt with the interruption; and even if you remember, it's sometimes a chore finding it again.

We should be able to deal with these interrupts the same way a computer does: in either a stack or a queue, including being able to save where we were before one occurred.

With these improvements, I'd give the game a much higher rating. As it is, life is too short and patience limited.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Meglomania?, August 10, 2003

By 

Michael John Mifsud "solomani" (Tokyo, Japan) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Europa Universalis (Jewel Case) (CD-ROM)

Based on the famous (infamous?) French wargame by the same name, Europa Universalis turns the unplayable boardgame into something manageable. It is a very ambitious grand strategic game which generally works. If you are a grognard you don't me to recommend this game - you would of already bought it.

If you are not a wargamer but have an interest in the period covered or want to see if you can beat historical Russia to the Pacific (historically 1659) this is the game for you. Be warned that the game has a steep learning curve and will take a few tries to truly master.

Be aware that you are very limited in terms of what you can do (limited by history). You are not totally forced into a historical mould but you are limited. It is almost impossible for Russia to compete in the new world, but you can get Siberia earlier then historical. Essentially, if the nation you are playing did something historically, you can usually do it earlier. If you try and do something a-historcal for that nation, it will be almost impossible.

1.0 out of 5 stars Simply boring!, June 15, 2005

By 

Fabrizio Pestilli (Locarno (Switzerland)) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

= Fun:1.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Europa Universalis (Jewel Case) (CD-ROM)

I'm a fan of turn-based strategy games, I love civilization (1,2,3), I also like rts games like rise of nations, but this one is simply boring... and complicated. It plays as slow as a turn-based, and doesn't even have half the depth! I couldn't play more than half an hour without wanting to run away screaming!

Horrible!

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