Europa Universalis: Rome – 5. Action Report
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It’s 534 AVC and our first swipe at the earliest scenario playing as Rome has come to an end. We’ve resigned it and have started again, to try it from another angle. The long and the short of it is the game, Europa Universalis: Rome
For the first game we chose the earliest scenario, as is our habit, and chose to play the Big Dog of the time period, Rome, as many would. Your challenges are myriad. In the Pyrrhic War scenario, as Rome, you start at war withe Epirus and Magna Graecia, one-province and a two-province countries, respectively. You also have Carthage acting up out in the Mediterranean, Macedonia in the wings causing trouble, barbarians everywhere, and your own provinces ready to rebel at the slightest opportunity.
The major mistake we made here was trying to hold the overseas province of Epirus at all costs. This cost turned out to be allowing the barbarians to hit us from the north, to decivilize one of our recently acquired provinces, thereby reducing our chance of colonizing other adjacent unattached provinces. This reflects our play-style tendency/fault of not giving up hard-earned conquered territory. This amounts to classic short-term gain that proves unprofitable in the long run. Next time we’ll go about it differently.
We made short work of Epirus, across the Mare Hadriaticum on the Greek mainland, and of two other remaining fragments of Greek former glory, Ager Bruttius and Tarentum, in the toe and heel of the boot, respectively. Then we sat back and thought to bide our time and let the two provinces north of Bononia be drawn in as colonies. To do this your adjoining provinces must have 10 points in population and at least a 50 percent civilization rating. Just as we were about to score on this count the Macedonians begin to assassinate my aristocrats. This should have been taken for a sure sign of an attack, but we hoped for the best. And we were disappointed. Still, if we didn’t feel like we had to defend a cross channel province, and build the strong navy because it it we might have gotten away with it. As it was, the need to strip Bononia of strong defenders allowed the barbarians to trash it, and our allies in Massillia began to colonize in the north. A peace with the Macedonians didn’t last, and soon we were at war with them, other Greek leagues and with Rhodes and Crete. And our manpower was completely drained. Time to resign.
A tip: pay attention to the supply limits. Having a big legion in a province that drains it ten percent a month will also plunder your manpower. And lengthy wars with lots of attrition will do the same. If you look up and suddenly see your manpower numbers almost to zero, these factors would be the reason. Hover over your Manpower number and you’ll see your replacement and usage rates. If the latter is bigger than the former, you’re in for steady manpower drain.
A positive: even in full screen (non-windowed) mode, the game ALT-TABs pretty quickly, so during those slow times, if you have the message settings set just the way you like them, you can flip over to do other more useful tasks, like write blog posts, and then check in to the game to see if there are any developments.
A word on the art: We had mentioned that the in-game graphics were strictly serviceable, and this is true, but the art in the loading screens and the opening start-up menu are quite good. it’s a shame that’s the only time you see them and a little more variety would have been nice.
Multiplayer was not tested, a visit to the Paradox-provided MetaServer saw no traffic in the visits we made, but that’s sure to pick up. The manual is a bit short on information about getting onto the server. What you need to do is log on as a member of the Paradox Plaza Forums web site. Then look for the “My Games/Registrations” link at the upper left. Click there and you’ll see where to input the registration code from the game package. That code is in an obscure spot, on the card that advertises the strategy guide book for the game. So be sure not to throw that away as packaging spam.
This will be the last formal post of this review series, but we’ll post more as the play continues, and, of course, when we achieve some milestone of success. But for now I would think that fans of the Rome genre in strictly strategy game mode would consider this getting a copy.
It is an easy-to-learn, hard-to-master in the Paradox Interactive style. it’s not action-packed so first-person shooter or even RTS fans may not go for it, but it’s full of historical nuance and though none of us were ever a Roman Consul or Emperor, you sense that some faint echo of the same decision-making may be getting as simulated as it will ever get. Who shall I appoint? Who are my friends? Where do I march my legions? Or after a defeat, like Augustus after Teutoborg….
“Give me back my legions!”
Europa Universalis Rome, games, strategy | bshears May 3, 2008
