User Guide

34
DOMESTIC
MANAGEMENT
Overview
Now that we have looked closely at your indi-
vidual provinces, it’s time to put them together
and talk about your country. There are approx-
imately 200 countries at the beginning of most
games of Europa Universalis III. The exact
number depends on the precise starting point
in history you have chosen. Each country will
own at least one province, and some very large
ones could begin with twenty or more. It would
be annoying to have to control many aspects of
your country by making changes in each and
every province, so there is a special interface
dedicated to managing the broader features
that affect your entire country. This is called
the “Domestic Interface” which is accessed by
clicking on your nation’s shield, located in the
upper-left corner of the screen.
The Domestic Interface is separated into
seven sub-screens, each of which is accessed by
clicking on the appropriate icon at the top of
the interface. These act
like “tabs” to take you to
the relevant set of con-
trols. From left to right,
the tabs are:
• Overview:
An over-
view of your domestic
and diplomatic situa-
tion.
• Court:
Details about
your ruler and an in-
terface that lets you
hire special court ad-
visors.
• Economy:
A summa-
ry of your econom-
ic situation, and a
budget interface that
allows you to allocate
part of your income
to technological advances and increased
national stability.
• Military:
Controls that affect the types of
military units you will recruit, and how ef-
fective they will be in combat.
• Religion:
An interface that allows you to
set your country’s tolerance towards differ-
ent religions, or even change your official
state religion.
• Government:
An interface that allows you
to review and change your form of govern-
ment, set specific domestic policies, and
determine which national ideas your realm
will adopt.
• Leaders:
Information about your nation’s
military tradition, and an interface that al-
lows you to hire new military leaders.
This chapter will explain each of these areas in
detail. While you will probably use the Domes-
tic Interface only sporadically, any changes you
make will often have far-reaching implications
on the future direction and development of
your country. In most cases, there is no “right”
or “wrong” way to approach them. Domestic
management is usually a matter of balancing
trade-offs, or of pursuing
a particular type of pref-
erence in game play.
Domestic
Overview
The “Overview” tab is
the default view when
you first open the Do-
mestic Interface. As you
play, the game will re-
member the last tab you
were using and return to
it when you next open the
interface. There is only
one interface feature that
is managed directly from
the Overview screen;
however, there are quite
a few important pieces of