Europa Universalis IV

Lore & Background

The game includes different bookmarked starting dates called 'scenarios', with the world state, borders, and events reflecting their historical equivalents for each. The earliest scenarios begin on 11 November 1444, one day after the Christian defeat at Varna, while the latest scenario begins on 21 September 1792, the end of the French monarchy. The player can also choose any day within the game's time span as a starting date. A player's game ends when the player's nation is annexed or when the in-game date reaches 3 January 1821.

Reader's Guide

The game is an interactive map of Earth divided into provinces that compose nations. Each province contributes to its country either positively or negatively. At the beginning of the game, many provinces are 'uncolonized'. Gameplay requires the player to lead a nation by balancing military, diplomacy, and economy, spending resources such as prestige, power projection, stability, gold (ducats), manpower, legitimacy for monarchies, republican tradition for republics, devotion for theocracies, horde unity for steppe nomads, meritocracy for Celestial Empires, and monarch power (administrative, diplomatic, and military).

Players can conquer the world, become a colonial superpower, or establish trade dominance as one of over 500 nations. There is no strict win condition. Diplomacy includes alliances, vassals, tributaries, improving opinions, and preventing coalitions. Espionage can claim territory or incite rebellion.

Combat simulates morale, discipline, unit types, leaders, terrain, and supply lines. Trade flows through trade nodes and can be collected by merchants. Major religions (Catholicism, Orthodox Christianity, Protestantism, Sunni Islam, Shia Islam) provide bonuses; missionaries can convert provinces. Institutions from feudalism to industrialization appear around certain years and spread; embracing them requires ducats and a certain number of institutions present.

Technology (administrative, diplomatic, military) is invested in over time using monarch points. Random events arise periodically. Players can play single-player versus AI or multiplayer over LAN or Internet. Ironman mode locks settings and removes manual saving, and is the only way to earn achievements.

Did You Know?

• The game was first announced in August 2012 under the codename 'Project Truman'.
• Development began in earnest around September 2011 using the Clausewitz Engine.
• A playable demo was released on Steam on 9 August 2013.
• As of May 2024, twenty-two items of DLC have been released.
• In September 2020, Paradox Tinto took over development of the game.