Like the previous titles in the franchise you can choose from a number of nations across the known world, well the known world back in the day of Caesar anyway. After you’ve decided which empire or peoples shall be graced by your charismatic leadership you can then choose a time period which spans well over 200 years.
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| Soon my pretty, soon... |
A truly cut throat market adds even better strategy |
Of course you could try your hand at one of the many historical bookmarks that Paradox has included, these note some of the most well known and world changing points in human civilization like the Roman civil war between General Mark Antony and Consul Octavian Caesar. The years that followed led to the fall of the Roman Republic and the birth of the Roman Empire. Decide if a similar fate should befall Rome or help keep the spirit of the Republic going. Then again perhaps you prefer to see Carthage get a better spotlight on the world stage and lead their armies to decimate and claim the Adriatic waters. The choice is always with the player but not all is so easy with dynasties reintroduced, barbarian hordes roaming the lands and the treacherous political ambition of friend and foe abroad.
The legions are critical, they’re upkeep and expansion should never be treated lightly. Whether you’ve station them to keep an eye on border provinces or to keep the locals’ in-check you should never let manpower go to waste. A very useful side panel in the top right corner helps you to keep track of legions, what’s getting recruiting and how sieges are progressing. The siege part is particularly helpful as you get a percentage to read, when its high it means the settlement is almost ready to surrender their allegiance. It shows which units you’ve got on the move too with a little arrow symbol next to them, and those being trained are given an ETA on the panel. When a battle kicks off the handy overview will show the number of units each side has to give you a quick idea of which way the battle will go, clicking the legions will zoom you over to them – an excellent addition and one that’ll hopefully have improvements made to it overtime. It should go without saying that the heavy infantry blended with a variety of accompanying units will stand a better chance than just on their own – archers and cavalry for instance.
The UI in general is designed with simplicity to help keep things easily accessed, with the array of options open to players it could have been a nightmare but Paradox, with years of experience on these games, have put together a friendly and concise layout. Visually the game is a step forward from EU3, as the scope of the world has been made smaller the terrain has been given a better stroke of the brush and the music that accompanies Rome is fantastic and spot on for atmosphere.
As I mentioned also in my preview of EU: Rome, trade is an essential part of any empire and the lack of it can lead to the downfall of a nation, or at least reduce your regional influence. Part of my deviously cunning plan to absorb Carthage into my own Roma was to cut off their ability to produce a navy. In EU3 this could only be accomplished once you’d taken their core coastal provinces but not so in Rome. All I have to do is take hold of one key territory and the Carthaginian navy can quickly become extinct, there would be no way they could effectively reinforce their off-shore lands. However there was one small flaw to my thinking, the province in question was on main land Africa. While it may have been on the coast and so easily open to a naval invasion, it was still nestled both by their own land and that of their Numidian allies. But this just goes to prove that trade adds a huge new tactical element to warfare, it makes you think what places to strike surgically if you want to cripple a foe. Commodities can be traded internally between your own provinces as well as foreign empires, either way you’ll get additional income and then both territories will benefit from the type of items being exchanged. Stone is for extra defence, salt for lower recruitment times, grain for better population growth, wine for lower revolt chance, and iron for heavy infantry and so on.
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| Ikosim’s fall will bring the Carthage navy into extinction |
Make no mistake it’s a barbarians world |
Death and taxes - both mutually assured throughout. You can’t manipulate funding any more to boost your treasury as research relies not on gold but research points that each city produces. You can still fiddle around with military spending but it isn’t such a good idea to starve your much needed war-machine. There is an interesting alternative in the form of tribute, you can demand that other nations pay up for your kind and generous friendship. You can’t extort huge volumes of money but a fixed monthly rate of tribute doesn’t go a miss. Diplomacy has evolved too, you don’t send out diplomats but a single individual is responsible for representing a nation, and yes their stats do count. No more colonists, missionaries, merchants – it’s all in the dynasty.
The mightiest thorn in all sides are the great unwashed, barbarians will plague settled lands and especially those of Rome. While you may get a small band of say 5,000 come knocking don’t think that’s all the ‘primitives’ have to offer, a much larger more experienced and diverse force of 21,000 can just as easily sneak up. You can attempt to negotiate with the savages if they’ve parked their rears in your backyard, you can attempt to seduce them with your countries way of life. If successful they’ll immediately disband and boost that provinces population. After a time events can be triggered that knocks down the level of barbarism to absolute zero if you have managed to keep hold of the land. Events are still a heavy influence to gameplay as they have always been and Europe Universalis should be recognised for its breadth of friendliness to player customisation and mods, particularly to stat based data like modifiers and triggers.
Colonisation is slow; you need to ensure that both the barbarian level in the unclaimed territory is near non-existent, and that it has a neighbouring settlement carrying a 50% civilisation rating with a total population count of 10. That means you’ll have to let your cities grow and make sure they’re well protected to stop raids ravaging the population. The populace is split into three types and each contributes something different and vital. Slaves work the economy, freedmen make up the pool of manpower and citizens are your brainiacs who help research mighty technologies like the aqueduct or the road. Disbanding units will add those alive back into available manpower but at the cost of redundancy pay.
To help your civilization along just a bit more is religion, or perhaps more accurately the religious sacrifices you can make. You don’t have to try and ‘appease’ the gods your society has chosen to follow but they will give favourable bonuses. Should chances fall ill in your favour then you can be ‘cursed’ for a year and having a negative effect on your population growth is no picnic. Fortunately you can choose what individuals are in charge of certain aspects of your government; some characters carry traits as well that can boost their stats but they’re not all positive. Don’t forget the national ideas either which are split into four types, military, economic, civic and religious. They give very lucrative bonuses to a nation; civic duty increases the defence of cities for example.
Rebellions can occur if a general has low loyalty to the empire but has gained a notable amount of popularity – all that fame and glory can go to their head. Attempting to sack them from their post especially if units within a legion have sworn personal loyalty can tip them over the edge and they’ll be convinced you’re unfit to rule. When this happens the characters personal wealth is tapped into to help fund their little revolution and matters like this can only be resolved with one definitive outcome – death. Who said the demise had to be secured in the field? EU: Rome comes complete with one of the most fashionable tools of Roman diplomacy, assassination.
Technology is another key element as with previous EU games but in Rome the discoveries don’t suddenly flood in once you’ve managed to reach a new level. Instead the newly acquired advancements trigger randomly once you’ve reached their prerequisite. I learnt from my preview with this game last time and so I made sure to set out to conquer some of the barbaric nations to the North to secure myself a trade in horses. Much like archers and navies need wood, a cavalry regiment isn’t going to magically make horses appear in your lands. There are five categories of research and each can have a person set in charge, higher finesse works well with these and governor posts too.
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| The new side tool really helps keep track of the military, and its conflicts |
Expect to see nations rack up a lot of bad-boy points |
Europa Universalis: Rome likes to give you plenty to think about aside from just what province is next on your shopping list. From strategic trading, the recruiting of legions, where to garrison them, who’s right for the job from governor to general – Rome is possibly one of the only games out there that can really give gamers a glimpse into just how pressured emerging super powers were. After all Rome wasn’t built in a day, let Paradox show you why.
EUROPA UNIVERSALIS: ROME VERDICT
Europa Universalis: Rome likes to give you plenty to think about aside from just what province is next on your shopping list. From strategic trading, the recruiting of legions, where to garrison them, who’s right for the job from governor to general – Rome is possibly one of the only games out there that can really give gamers a glimpse into just how pressured emerging super powers were. After all Rome wasn’t built in a day, let Paradox show you why.
TOP GAME MOMENT
Plotting an empires downfall is a continuous part of the game, but seeing it actually unfold before you – after ‘years’ of planning – is just friggin’ sweet.
