From: Erich Schneider Subject: Re: Europa Universalis (AWE) JWS@novo.dk (JWS) writes: > It seems that the EU review on the Web-Grognard is kaput! Could > someone please tell me a little bit about the game. Things that > will > lead to a decision making process - whether to EU or not :-) First, let me say that I think I'd rate EU as being more complex than Advanced Third Reich but less so than Advanced Squad Leader or Star Fleet Battles. EU covers world history from 1492 to 1792 from a Eurocentric perspective. It's playable in two modes. The first is by playing the "battle" scenarios (about 20), which cover various European wars of the period. These use only the rules for moving and fighting with military units, and enough of the economic rules to allow you to raise and maintain armies. They are played on the "Europe" map, which divides Europe into areas given broad terrain classes. Units are variously-rated leaders, armies, fleets, and land and naval detachments. Battle scenarios require between 2 and 5 players, each representing a state or coalition involved in the war. The second mode of play is through the campaign scenarios, which add in the "Rest-of-the-world" map. There are 6 campaigns, each covering 50 years of time, plus a grand campaign covering all 300 years (actually, it could be a bit less, as the game ends if two "French Revolution" events are rolled). The campaigns pretty much require 6 players, each playing one of the major states of the period. The campaign rules add in: - rules for exploring, which allows you to move and perform actions in previously unknown areas, and colonizing, which allows you to put those areas to work for you - a full economic system, where you get money from your territorial possessions and things like industries and loans from your state's bankers, and use it to pay for things like your military and colonization efforts (but don't drag too much gold back from the New World or inflation will gallop). You too can try to get a monopoly on the spices and products of the Orient! - an elaborate diplomatic system which allows the players to make the zillions of minor neutrals (Germany is filled with 1- or 2-area countries) adopt various diplomatic stances ranging from simple right-of-passage agreements to full annexation (in certain cases) - rules for the succession of monarchs and their effect on the game (as the English translation of the rules states: "a baby monarch may not lead troops into battle") - rules for the advance of military technology on both land and sea, allowing you to keep up with your neighbors and give you a huge advantage over the Moghul Empire and Imperial China... - random events tables with bunches and bunches of random events ranging from the major (the Reformation, the 30 Years War, the American Revolution) to the minor (the War of Bavarian Succession, or "Potato War"). ... and probably more stuff I've forgotten. If you're interested in this period of European history (as I am) you'll probably want to buy it just to look at it, even if you don't play it. While the map is so-so the counters are gorgeous - the control markers and armies feature the military standard symbols of the owning countries, so Germany is very colorful. However, it is, as I said, *very* complex and requires an immense amount of bookkeeping. Also, the English translation of the rules is quite fractured, with phrases like "homogeneous rubric" and "implantation of colonies" popping up all over the place. -- Erich Schneider erich@csdl.tamu.edu http://www.csdl.tamu.edu/~erich From: Grant Goodman Subject: Re: Europa Universalis (AWE) At 10:38 AM 6/10/98 -0500, Erich S. wrote a good summary of EU, to which I'll add: The game bears a family resemblance to Empires in Arms. And it's a beautiful mess. Erich may have been charitable in blaming the rules problems on the translation from French into unidiomatic English. From what I've heard from Francophones, the French rules aren't much clearer. And the English rules do benefit from the inclusion of the errata. The main problem arises from the large number of subsystems that interact in the game. The game uses large numbers of random events to nudge the game along the track of European history, without actually forcing things too much. But many of the random events act as special rules exceptions. It's really hard to anticipate all the ways the systems can bang into each other. But it was shocking to me, back when I subscribed to the EU mailing list, how little agreement there was about some very basic rules points (like, how do you determine who wins a war). So if you play it, be sure to budget time for the Rules Debate and Recriminations Phases. This is a very attractive game. There's nothing else that comes close to the terrific scope and level of detail -- you've got diplomacy, economics, technological development, exploration, colonization, religious strife, not to mention your basic land and naval wars -- the whole ball of wax. Maybe another 10 years of intensive play and development could turn it into a coherent game. But looking at the World in Flames example, maybe not. . . . Grant Goodman * grantg@atg.com "In the beginning there was nothing. And God said 'Let there be light!' And there was still nothing, but now you could see it."