I absolutely love this game EU5 is ambitious, interconnected, and alive. It takes the best of EU4, MEIOU, Victoria 2, CK2, and CK3, layering those elements atop the Imperator: Rome framework to create the deepest and most flexible Paradox experience yet. Every choice, whether political, economic, cultural, or military, ripples through your nation’s fabric. It abandons abstract mana and static modifiers in favor of living systems: people, infrastructure, politics, and trade. It’s undoubtedly more complex, but rewards mastery. Your empire is alive and ever-growing (or shrinking if you're screwing up). As your population develops and internal political blocs spend their money to build industries, it needs regular care lest it grow misshapen. YOU ARE THE GARDENER. Water it when supply is lacking, prune it back into shape when in excess, and if any of those political blocs turn into parasites then rip them out, root and stem. Pros: [*]No launcher required, fast loading screens, integrated mod manager. Savescumming is easier than ever before. ;) [*]Automation: I can't deny that this is a MASSIVE boon for the player base. Pretty much any mechanic of the game is automatable, allowing the AI to manage almost any aspect of your country. For those who might struggle with certain mechanics early on or hate micromanagement, just give it to the AI while you focus on other things. Although competent, its not as good as a player, and it obviously can't know your long-term objectives or roleplaying desires, so you're still incentivized to learn the mechanics yourself if you want to maximize their utility. [*]Politics: Adds depth and complexity to the genre, every system is interconnected with it. Balancing the various political estates in your country has an impact on your economy, diplomacy, military, and population. You walk a tightrope, balancing the satisfaction and influence of your nation's internal stakeholders. Play them off each other well and their support can bolster your rule, incur their dissatisfaction or allow them too much power however; and they'll make you their bitch. [*]Values: In Vic 3 politics were nebulous. It felt like you were reacting rather than influencing, forced to implement whatever policies the movements in your country demanded. The system in EU5 is flexible enough to allow you mix and match values that would perhaps seem conflicting to a modern person, its possible to play as an innovative yet spiritualist empire with a capital economy running off of serfdom. Does it sound strange? Sure, but its your job to make it work with all the positives and negatives that each value gives you. [*]Economy: Each country is unique in the types and number of RGOs they have, the goods and market neighbors a country's market has, and what economic value system they start with. It incentivizes you to not just build up your industry, but to also trade with other nations (or conquer them). Starts are more unique even for obscure nations that lack flavor and events. Economic warfare is incredible, embargoes aren't just a modifier anymore, they'll actually stop the target country receiving goods and depriving them of vital resources to manage their nation. Market Attraction and Trade Advantage mean that you cripple your enemies without ever drawing your sword. Investing in your economic power and its foreign projection can be just as profitable as conquering, and it'll cost less pops to do so. [*]Population: Mana is gone and replaced with multiple interwoven systems. Managing your population and industries is an engaging past-time in between wars. I find myself much more willing to just sit back and manage my nation during peace time. Every single action you take, and every mechanic you interact with influences your population and demographics and vice-versa. That soldier you're marching into battle over a river crossing? He's the laborer who works in your lumbermill. If he dies, that's one less guy to cut your trees for you (and the cost of goods and construction will rise), if he doesn't come home then that's also one less person to have children. Diseases, starvation, and wars actually feel painful as a result and you have to dedicate soldiers and ships to maintaining your supply lines. [*]Control: Infrastructure is now VITAL. It really feels like building an empire, trying to exert control with roads and shipping lanes, the system is an incredible solution to the "bigger is better" playstyle eu4 nudged you towards, Now you actually have to be able to reap the benefits from conquered lands if you want to extract wealth and resources, incentivizing you to trade before conquering. You now need to wait till you can develop my naval infrastructure to begin expanding overseas. You may want to subsidize industries and overproduce the construction materials to lower the cost of building roads and ports across your empire. [*]Integration: Its no longer just a button click with a mana cost! You actually need to ensure they're at least a tolerated culture before. Even then, tolerated cultures can only be integrated, but not cored. You need them to be an accepted culture to do that. Either accept or convert them. [*]War: Frontage and Initiative, combined with the ability to choose where units are placed in your army's formation (L/C/R) adds a surprising amount of tactical depth. Understanding which units are slower/faster to the frontline but better/worse at holding it, which are better flankers, and where they should be all be positioned for optimal performance is engaging. And with ever-modernizing warfare, enemies develop unique armies with their own strengths and weaknesses that you've got to adapt your own armies formations for. Army composition is impacted by politics and population. Playing as France, I actually want to keep the nobles powerful a bit longer because I love having a lot of those Mailed Knights in my levies. Dilute their power and population? Less knights. [*]Parliament: Putting province-claim Casus Bellis behind the Parliament system really helps to slow down your expansion while adding a political element. What's more is that the system handles it with nuance. The internal political blocs in EU5 use incentives rather than coercion. You won't be forced to pass a law like in Vic3, instead if you want to temporarily raise taxes or levies, change a law, or get approval to claim that lucrative province your neighbor owns; Then you need to give the political blocs a concession. This means you actually have to weigh internal vs external politics. You agonize over passing a law that the nobles want but you know will dilute your centralization or crown power, in the mean time your ally is encroaching upon that province you want. If you choose to wait for the next parliament and hope for better demands, will the province still be free to grab? [*]Start Date: I like 1337. I get to enjoy the climax of the Medieval Period and play a feudal subsistence society, then change my values and focus as the renaissance then exploration eras come along or choose to try and stick with the old ways. In Eu4 it wasn't often that I needed to make big changes to the estate privileges once I got past the early game. However Eu5's mechanics give you the sense that the world significantly changes over time, and sometimes you have completely rethink your approach in order to stay competitive; the earlier start date adds a greater contrast between early and mid-late game playstyles. I don't think this start date would have worked well in EU4, but EU5's depth makes it valid. I originally had a much longer review with more detail and an entire Cons section, however Steam's character limit prevents me from fitting it here. EU5 is superb though, with the launch issues being AI/UI based, such as vague tooltips, lack of options in some Situations, passivity in war or lack of expansion. Updates will hopefully fix that quickly.
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