User Guide

range of possibilities somewhat daunting when
you first start to play. You might want to begin
by doing the series of tutorials which will intro-
duce you to the most important aspects of the
game; then pick a date and country that inter-
ests you and practice what you’ve learned.
Beginners often make the mistake of try-
ing to achieve too much, too rapidly. We would
recommend that you set yourself some modest
goals for your first game, and take things slow-
ly. Begin by focussing your attention on staying
relatively peaceful, conducting some research,
and gradually building up your country’s econ-
omy. You may also wish to expand your army
to ensure your country’s defence, and dispatch
diplomats to help maintain friendly relations
with your neighbours. Unless your country is
very wealthy, you will probably want to send
merchants out to supplement your income with
trade revenue. If it’s appropriate for the country
you have chosen, you could also try your hand
at exploration and colonization.
Once you’re comfortable with the basic in-
terfaces and controls, consider getting involved
in a small-scale war or two. For your first war,
try to find an opponent that will be fairly easy
to defeat. You should try to avoid early con-
frontations with nations that are large, or that
have powerful allies, even if this means that
you have to buy your way out of the war or give
up a bit of territory in surrender. By engaging
a major nation, you could easily find yourself
in over your head if you aren’t prepared for the
onslaught.
Once you’re comfortable with controlling
your armies and fleets, try tackling a more dan-
gerous opponent, and don’t worry too much if
the war does not end in your favor. You can
learn as much from a colossal defeat as you
would through any number of smaller victo-
ries. A word of warning: do not try to expand
your realm too rapidly or allow your country’s
reputation to become too tarnished. If you are
too aggressive or underhanded, you could eas-
ily find yourself at war with much of the rest of
the known world.
The Game Manual and the
Paradox Forums
This manual contains a detailed and complete
explanation of each of Europa Universalis III’s
interfaces and features, as well as general tips
that help you to see how each of these fits to-
gether in the overall context of play. Everything
in the game is inter-related. Everything! There
is virtually nothing that you do that won’t have
some sort of impact on something else. Learn-
ing these relationships and using them to your
advantage is what will eventually make you a
master.
When in doubt, pause your game and re-
fer to the manual. For specific issues that you
may encounter, or questions that might not
be answered in enough detail for your needs,
you may want to visit the Europa Universalis
III public forums. It’s a friendly community of
many thousands of players from around the
world who would be happy to help you. It is
also the place to check for any official patches
to the game which will fix any bugs that are
discovered after release, and may also include
new or revised features. The Europa Universa-
lis III forums can be found by going to www.
europauniversalis3.com and clicking on the
“forums” link.
For Veterans of the
Europa Universalis
Series
If you are a veteran of the series, we have pro-
vided a general overview of the major changes
and new features introduced in Europa Univer-
salis III which may be found in Appendix A at
the back of this manual. You should find most
aspects of the game fairly familiar, and we have
made every attempt to ensure that all of the
game’s new interfaces are as easy and intuitive
to understand as possible. Even so, you might
find some valuable information tucked away
within these pages, so we urge you to read on.
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