EUIII is a lame game

[Gallantide]

My favorite aspect of the TW series is the campaign map, so I figured EUIII, a game which focuses on campaign play, would be right up my alley. How wrong I was...
Most unbalanced campaign ever. It seems paradox tried inserting so much micro-management that the game becomes highly unstable. For example, as Russia, I saw that a war with France and England resulted in France getting Bristol and Britain getting Brittany. So lame and historically inaccurate. The economic system is atrocious, making RTW vanilla seem like the best strategy game ever. Even with the new 'patch', EUIII is such a crappy game. Their attempt to incorporate advisors looks stupid, as they all look the same and offer the same bonuses. Their attempts to go 3D looks so amateurish, even Shogun still looks better. Economic building is tedious and diplomacy is messed up. But after all, it is a Paradox game, so what should I have expected? I mean I'm still waiting for their game Victoria to become stable, and their patches for that were equally useless, and the add-on pack for that was stuff that should have been fixed for free in the original. Why do companies release unstable piles of garbage? Unless you like crappy graphics and a stupid economic system, then pass on EUIII. I'm going to return this game and get a drink after playing this piece of crap.

[invictus]

Well the game is meant for more micro-management style of game play. I dont remember anywhere it being mentioned to resemble total war games. As for unbalanced, isnt that how history is? As for hisorical accuracy, it has every year saved with every country. Meaning from the game years, forgot the dates specifically. But lets say as France, it has France historical standings from 1500-1700. EU seemed pretty stable to me, not one CTD. On a final note, you shouldnt bash Paradox, they after all did makes the HOI which is the best ww2 strat game of all time. -Leon

[John I Tzimisces]

lol, you complain about Britain getting brittany...and France getting bristol...then you go back to M2TW and conquer Spain with the Russians :hmmm:

[Lavastein]

lol, you complain about Britain getting brittany...and France getting bristol...then you go back to M2TW and conquer Spain with the Russians :hmmm:

ha, i second this. In fact i dont have enough micromanagment in eu3. Building stuff in rome is far more superior than in eu3. If ca can finally get of europe and start allowing the player to visit other parts of the world, and start putting in more factions so that i no longer see a "rebel" faction again, they'd have the game of games

[Daimon]

And don't forget better AI and diplomacy!

[Nationalist_Cause]

Heresy. Don't bash Paradox. They are one of the best gaming companies out there, even if they did muck up the graphics in this latest title.

[Fabolous]

Moved to our EUIII forum.

[God-Emperor of Mankind]

Well it wasn't a lame game, it was just very disappointing
I could play EU2 for months but EUIII I deleted after a few days.
I can't put my finger on it but there is something in EUIII that makes the game boring.

[sander454]

Well it wasn't a lame game, it was just very disappointing
I could play EU2 for months but EUIII I deleted after a few days.
I can't put my finger on it but there is something in EUIII that makes the game boring.

Exactly the same happens to me. EU2 was absolutely marvellous game, so when I get third part I was so excited, but few hours later my joy disappear completely. The weak point for me is graphic, as is completely unplayable for me . You know first 2 games got their screen quite clean and easy to play, but regarding this part I just wasn't able to used to this. . Sorry, but this game lasted only 3 days on my comp, and I don't think that I will install this in near future. Shame, but I still can build my empire in EU2

[Spart]

Unstable? I don't quite get you, I've been playing for a few weeks and haven't noticed anything disturbing. AI factions act mostly very well, and historically. At least when compared to TW, where there are 3 factions in the world by turn 100. There are even tiny one province factions in EU, and they can still survive.
I know some diplomatic options don't work as they should, but it's still satisfying. Also i don't understand the "atrocius economic system". You get money from taxes, production, trading and gold, and it's been working really well for me.

Well, maybe it's just your opinion, so no need to arque about it. For me, Paradox games are the top quality, with more empahis on content than graphics. Kind of games I play when I get pissed with Total War diplomacy. Gotta admit it though, I don't play single player that much nowadays.

[Panzerfaust]

EUIII must be the best game ever, so far. Everything is so much better than M2TW, except the wars maybe, but they get very boring in M2TW after a while.

[John I Tzimisces]

I personally do like EUII better. Possibly because no major mods for EUIII have been released yet. *colonizes siberia and america with armenians*

[Gallantide]

My main grievance with Paradox games is that I always feel like I'm buying an unfinished project. They always try to incorporate too many aspects which they have little regard for balancing (HOI/II, Victoria, now the highly anticipated EUIII, which I returned btw). Technology trees and population structures are very basic, I'm willing to argue with anyone on those points. Don't get me wrong, I love micromanagement, but when it results in impossible balances of power and border configurations, I consider it a well-concieved, yet poorly executed product. And I think of myself as a mature gamer, who holds content over flashy 3D battles. I only got MTW2 for the online battles. John mentioned its instability in regards to historical likelihood, which I 100% percent agree with. Usually when I find out that France is at war with Spain even though they lost Paris to a super Milan, thats when I quit the campaign. I've reinstalled RTW to play EB, which I think has the most balanced, though imperfect, historical flow. (although when I see a nation take the entire world in 50 turns, I usually abort the scenario). But then again, historical accuracy is something I personally look for.

And whats up with the economic system in EUIII? Its just a matter of building as many generic factories as possible. No imagination behind it whatsoever.

Thanks for reading my rant

[Lavastein]

i feel you man. My problem is it feels fake. same units, same buildings. Not only that but everyone keeps going to war with each other. The Hre doesnt protect its own people from foreign powers, doesnt stop states from going to war with each other, and africans can become an emperor.

[Premaximum]

I really wanted to give this game a chance, and I tried my best, but something is just severely...weird about it. Maybe I just have absolutely no grasp of how to play it, but it seems as though it's either very difficult or I'm a complete retard. I gauge myself as a decent enough RTS player, but this is my first foray into something this in-depth, with all the micromanaging and whatnot. I did try Hearts of Iron, but I immediately uninstalled it. That game looked even more complex than this one is.

I started off as some North African faction, I can't recall which one it was, and just kind of sat there for the first year or two. The problem is that I have absolutely no idea what to do, so I sit there. So, eventually, Castilla declares war, and starts coming over to take my settlements. I start making troops, and get a fair amount of them, and go against a Castilla army in my land. 5000 dead troops later, I'm retreating, wondering how 2000 Castilla troops without a leader beat 5000 of mine that had one.

After that, and after Portugal and Castilla started taking all of my territories, I decided to stop. Is there something I'm doing wrong here? I couldn't understand half the finance crap. It claims I should be making like 10 gold a month, but instead I'm making around 1. I tried to fiddle with the slides, but that didn't accomplish much. My army seemed to be horribly underpowered, as obvious by the crushing defeat I suffered.

I really do want to enjoy this game. I've tried really hard to do so, but I'm at the verge where I already want to uninstall it, and I've only played it for like an hour.

[Chuffy]

Premaxium...how about playing an easier faction then? The North African ones are extremely difficult with several tech penalties, low income and angry Iberians breathing down their necks. Try something like England, very beginner friendly.

Also, read the manual vry carefully and play through the tutorials at least once. Jumping straight into a campaign and wondering why you're making so little money when it supposedly says you should be making lots shows you have no idea what you are doing. Not trying to be mean, but EU3 is actually very beginner friendly compared to Paradoxes other titles.

You cant play it like TW, you have to focus VERY carefully on the tech advancement menu and pay attention to things like stability and inflation AND what kind of troops make up your armies. Chances are the reason the Castillians destroyed your army so quickly is that they were probably using better troops (remember, you can change your preferred military units) and may have had a huge amount of cavalry and were fighting on plains, places where cavalry excel. Not to mention better Land Tech and maybe a few lucky dice rolls...

Its not a game you can just jump into and start playing a campaign without reading the manual or playing a tutorial, it isn't Rome Total War.

[John I Tzimisces]

All EU games are meant to be played as a European Faction. The game is simply tilted towards them. Europeans or the Ottomans, your pick. Any other faction will basically get steamrollered if they try and come up against a Euro...

[scottishranger]

All EU games are meant to be played as a European Faction. The game is simply tilted towards them. Europeans or the Ottomans, your pick. Any other faction will basically get steamrollered if they try and come up against a Euro...

Well yes it is Europa Universalis isn't it.

I like this game, it is challenging and immersive. Heck, it makes me scared to attack someone with all the alliances in my game.

[Spart]

Yeah, European nations are more powerful, as you would expect. Just to ensure that things go pretty much like in reality. So let's just wait for the mods, then it will actually be possible to colonize America and Siberia with African tribes =)

[el_dude]

How DARE you call EU3 lame (j/k)? OK, EU2 was better in my opinion, but the EU series (EU3 included) is in my opinion the BEST historical grand strategy series of games EVER.

My main gripe with EU3 was the lack of historical events, but apparently there are far more modding options for EU3 than there were for EU2, so I still have high hopes for the game, although I found vanilla disappointing (the addition of national ideas was great, though)