Europa Universalis III
 

Bought the game ages agobut played just a little. Rebought it on Steam last week including all expansion packs because it was dirt cheap. So now I've been having a stab at it for a while and I'm sorry to say: I DON'T UNDERSTAND THE GAME AT ALL!!!

Anybody here who played the game and can explain to a noob what to do. Cause I;m getting my ass kicked here.

+1

It requires major effort like reading guides and fora and it poorly suitable for casual gaming. May be it is even less suitable than Civ4. I have the Rome game and tried to read the strategy guide. Got stuck at page 40 or 50 (out of total 120 or so) about a year ago. Tried to play to ease the pain of reading the guide but could not figure out how to do anything in the game. So, I quit and am not getting back anytime soon. IIRC, I also tried tutorial mode and it was even worse. There is a rather painful learning curve or so it seems.

I played EU2 a bit, but that's a long time ago. Apparently the game is worth it, but it's complicated. I can't really help you unfortunately. BTW, I saw that x-com was on discount on Steam as well.

Extremely recognisable.....

I've seen some of you bought it as well, would like to hear how you're going about.

I started new game as Castille last weekend. First few years went really well, Got the reconquista mission and conquered some North-African territories and annexed Granada. After the king died and I got the regency council. Could be me but with the inability to declare war you end up with a fast forward period in my experience. I got sort a lucky when the heir died at 8 and a new king was apppointed a year later. That's a few years less of regency council.

I now have the Italian mission but I hate that one, Italy is too far to effectively run a campaign. I do have a massive army so maybe I'll try and annex liguria, a second centre of trade is always nice.

I bought it, haven't had the time to sit down and try it yet. Seeing the comments I realise I'll need to do a bit more than just play about casually with it and expect to achieve anything.

Well just make sure you pick a big nation the first few times you play. France/Burgundy/Castille/England are good choices I think.

I played my first few rounds as the Lubeck/Hansa and got smacked in a terrible way.

EU III Chronicles (with all 4 expansion packs) is on sale for 7,50 on Steam. It includes Divine Wind, which has a world map. That's pretty epic. I'm tempted to buy it, but I still have civ5 and shogun2 to play... and like Propain said earlier: the game is complex. But if anyone here likes a challenge, now is the time.

I still play EUIII on and off and for that price you can't really go wrong.

I don't have divine wind, so can't say anything about it from experience but reviews weren't raving iirc. EU III comes standard with a world map, I think Divine Wind added start support for civs in Japan/China including some scenarios for that.

EDIT: Just saw that they also released 2 sprite packs for Divine Wind at € 1.99 each. Paradox is getting on the DLC cash bandwagon as well it seems. :)

Still a pity Divine Wind is 7.50€ seperate as well, not paying that kind of money for it when I already own the rest of the game.

Divine wind and the 2 sprite packs (and the rest of the game) are 75% off on Steam at the moment for the midweek sale (12 hours to go). That makes Divine win £1.74, the sprite packs £0.39 or Chronicles £4.99. Don't know what the Euro price is.