War is something Europe has had extensive experience with for thousands of years. Hell, it's only for the past decade that Europe has been virtually war-free.
Europa Universalis 4, the long awaited return for the esteemed empire-building franchise from Paradox, does not aim to glorify the costly sacrifices made during wartime. In fact, Paradox want to go even deeper with the fourth instalment in the series.
Of course, war is an expensive endeavour. It'll cost you financially, even more so than in Europa Universalis 3. But there's new levels of costs added in that requires your consideration as well. While you, in games like the Total War series, can more or less just recruit as many new men as you can afford after a failed campaign, EU4 will be more strict with how many you can recruit. This is of course based on the amount of people that live in your nation. A small merchant nation will be at a disadvantage here, for example. Thus, if you fight reckless battles that cost you entire armies, you might end up with an entire lost generation, which can put you out of the fight for global dominance for decades. Not to mention that an army that just suffered a devastating defeat, might become disorganized or even completely shattered, throwing them out of play for many years.
It's not all grim, however. Some tweaks and new features are meant to balance it out. Because you'll be spending so much money all the time, taking up loans from foreign powers and wealthy families will not be as unrealistically costly to you. And because armies can break apart and shatter, you won't have to keep running after armies to fully destroy them. Once decisive victory might set them out of play long enough for you to crush the enemy kingdom completely before they recover.
But enough talk. Watch the video above, for the full scoop. The game is set to release on August 13. The question is, now that Crusader Kings 2 has taken up the throne for the complex empire-building grand strategy genre, will Europa Universalis be able to find its place on the market once more?
