User Guide

4
INTRODUCTION
Overview
Europa Universalis III is a grand strategy game
set during the Renaissance and Reforma-
tion periods of history. You will select one of
more than 200 countries that existed in the
world during this time, and attempt to guide
it through more than 300 years of diplomacy,
warfare, trade, religious turmoil, scientific de-
velopment, exploration, and colonization.
The game begins just after the fall of Con-
stantinople in May 1453, and is played in con-
tinuous time until its conclusion in December
1789. As the days pass, you will devote most of
your efforts to looking after the domestic needs
of your country, negotiating with your neigh-
bours, and conducting wars of self-defence or
conquest.
Each country begins the game owning one
or more “provinces”. A province is the essential
building block of a nation; contributing vital
tax and trade income to drive its economy, and
supplying much-needed manpower for use in
its military. The more provinces your country
owns, the more powerful you will be. If you
lose your last province, your country will be
eliminated and you will lose the game.
There are areas of the globe where you may
find provinces that are unoccupied and avail-
able for colonisation; however, the majority of
the world’s provinces will already belong to
other countries, and to increase your power,
you must find ways to obtain them. Although
it is possible to achieve this through diplomatic
means, you are far more likely to extend your
power by waging war. Expansion and conquest
are the goals of most nations, thus creating a
very volatile and potentially dangerous geo-po-
litical environment in the game. It is your goal
to see to the needs of your country, to prevent
your enemies from taking what is rightfully
yours, and to expand your nation through di-
plomacy or war.
At its heart, Europa Universalis III is a game
that allows you to explore an infinite range of
possible “what if” scenarios within a complex,
flexible, context-sensitive historical environ-
ment. Do not expect the history you learned at
school to repeat itself on your computer screen.
Instead, you will begin with an accurate his-
torical set-up and then have complete freedom
to chart your own course through time. As the
game world begins to deviate from history, Eu-
ropa Universalis III’s underlying engine will
evaluate these changing conditions and then
direct countries to react to them as their his-
torical counterparts might have done. Nations
may rise or fall, unexpectedly, based entirely
on the interactions they have with one another
and on the outcome of events as they unfold.
The game ends in the late 19
th
century
when some of the most powerful nations of the
world had already begun their transition into
the next major period of history: the Industrial
Revolution. Traditional ideas of “country” and
“realm” would be replaced with a new vision of
the “Nation-State”, and society would undergo
radical revolutions spurred on by rapid advanc-
es in science, technology, and the art of war. If
you have been attentive to the needs of your
country and successful in your ventures, you
may find yourself at a similar crossroads when
the game comes to its conclusion.
Europa Universalis III maintains a ranking
for each country in the world, and the “win-
ner” is nominally the country with the highest
ranking at the end of the game. You may prefer
to set your own arbitrary goals, using a meas-
ure of victory that is based on the country you
are controlling and the style of play you enjoy.
For small countries, merely surviving until the
end can be considered a victory. When playing
a large and wealthy nation, you might set more
lofty goals of continental hegemony or even try
setting your sights on world domination.
For New Players
Your First Game
If you are new to the Europa Universalis series,
you may find the complexity, scale, and sheer