Europa Universalis

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Europa Universalis is a grand strategy computer game released in 2000 by Paradox Entertainment and is distributed in North America by Strategy First. Originally based on a French board game of the same name by Philippe Thibault, the player takes control of one of seven European nations (though others are available in different scenarios) from 1492 to 1792, expanding its power through military might, diplomacy, and colonial wealth. The game takes place on a map divided into approximately 1,500 provinces, and proceeds in a pausable real time format.

The game became a surprise hit for its depth and strategy. Paradox used this sudden success to springboard other successful titles such as Victoria, Crusader Kings, and Hearts of Iron.

Europa Universalis was followed by Europa Universalis II.

There are currently four other games based on the EU engine:

Hearts of Iron: A World War II game, spanning the years 1936 to 1948.
Hearts of Iron 2: The sequel to Hearts of Iron.
Victoria: Spanning the years 1836 to 1920, this game covers much of the Victorian era and World War I.
Crusader Kings: A game where one leads a feudal dynasty through the years 1066 to 1453. One can export a Crusader Kings save to EU2, and then using player-created programs, export to Victoria and again to Hearts of Iron 2; allowing players to cover a time span of nearly 900 years.

1 Europa Universalis II
2 Europa Universalis II: Asian Chapters
3 Europa Universalis: Crown of the North
4 Europa Universalis III
5 External links

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Europa Universalis II

Template:Main Developed and published by the same company as its predecessor and released in 2001, the basic gameplay remains mostly unchanged, but a number of enhancements were added, such as the ability to convert a province's religion, longer timespan (from 1419 to 1820), the addition of events that affect gameplay, the ability to play as any nation in the game, and many others.

This became what is arguably Paradox's greatest game yet. It was released within a year of the original Europa, leading some software critics to become skeptical of it. However, it achieved high ratings through most leading review sites and becoming one of the few strategy games to be successful outside of its niche market. The company supports it even today, the most recent patch 1.09 came out in December 2005, adding new events and tweaking the gameplay. The enhancements and changes mostly come out of requests of fans in the company online forum.

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Europa Universalis II: Asian Chapters

Due to the lack of emphasis on Asian civilisations in EUII, this addon was published to cater to those more interested in Asia in this time period. However the game was poorly received because of compatibility issues, poor research and bad planning.

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Europa Universalis: Crown of the North

Not actually an EU engine game, this is an English-language translation of Paradox's older game Svea Rike 3. This is followed by The Two Thrones, which is virtually the same game, but set instead in the Hundred Years' War.

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