User Guide

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reduced. It will be difficult and prohibi-
tively expensive to field armies or navies
that are even remotely close to the size of
the ones that you may have used in EU2.
• There are now a large number of differ
-
ent forms of government available in the
game, many of which will only become
available when you have invested enough
research in the newly introduced "govern-
ment technology" field. Each form of gov-
ernment will have certain effects on your
nation that may expand or limit your op-
tions in certain areas. Monarchies usually
allow a broader range of diplomatic op-
tions, but may experience special issues re-
lated to its rulers' succession. Your form of
government also affects how often you are
allowed to make changes to your domes-
tic policy sliders. Changing governments
is fairly disruptive and it only possible in
a country with positive stability. Drastic
changes can only be achieved as a result of
a series of smaller steps, or as an option in
an event.
• You may now hire the services of up to
three different court advisors. Each advisor
has an area of expertise that will assist you
in some way, most often contributing ad-
ditional investments into a particular field
of research.
• Each country can adopt up to ten special
"national ideas". These are fundamental di-
rections that you can set for your county's
development and will have a significant
effect on its future. The number of ideas
you can adopt depends on your current
government technology level, with the
first becoming available very early in the
game; others appear as your research ad-
vances. It will not be until the very end of
the game that you may have an opportu-
nity to choose your final national idea.
• If you are interested in exploration and
colonization, one of the most important
changes is that all countries are now able to
begin exploring, provided they have adopt-
ed the "Quest for the New World" national
idea. Explorers and conquistadors are only
obtained by recruitment, and will never
be available to countries which lack this
national idea. The trading and capture of
maps is not longer possible; however, maps
of newly discovered provinces will gradu-
ally spread throughout the world as word
of their discovery spreads.
• The trade posts of EU2 have been eliminat
-
ed, and it is no longer possible to "blanket"
your discoveries to prevent others from ex-
panding. Unoccupied provinces can only
be settled as colonies, and there is a practi-
cal limit to the number of underdeveloped
colonies that you may have at any one time.
You will expand them by sending addition-
al colonists until they eventually achieve
full-fledged colonial city status. It is only
then that you would begin to consider
starting a new colony. You will also find
it considerably easier to establish colonies
near your existing colonial cities, making
it considerably more likely that countries
will seek to settle a general region rather
than scattering isolated colonies all over
the globe.
• There are now three fundamental things
that have a significant impact on your di-
plomacy: your reputation (badboy), your
relationship value, and your prestige. Pres-
tige is gained and lost in a variety of ways,
and is a major component of diplomacy.
• EU3 has considerably expanded the range
of diplomatic options. You may now buy
and sell provinces, subsidise wars, and ar-
range for a wide variety of different rela-
tionships. Alliances are now also separately
negotiated bilateral agreements between
two nations, rather than large multi-coun-
try alliances. Temporary alliance groups
may form as a result of wars, but will not
endure beyond them. Some diplomatic op-
tions are only available to countries that
have a type of monarchy as their form of
government. These options can be very