The funny thing is the video game is in turn the adaptation of the original boardgame by Philippe Thibault. And that was the heaviest monster boardgame of the '90s :D

There are games in my collection, like this one, that I just love to look at and contemplate 😀

FWIW, Europa Universalis the video game series was itself based on an older Europa Universalis board game, published by Azure Wish Enterprise in 1993. It’s on BGG. Lost a good bit of my life to EU3 back in the day, but it was worth it.

I backed this all in. It is a beast for sure, but this for me will take the place of TI4 as an event game that you can play once a year or so.

Hi Cody! Thanks so much for this review. I've played the computer game of Europa universalis 4 for about 6,000 hours. All of the concepts you discussed are ones from the game. However, the idea of removing armies when you run out of money is a little bit different. In the video game. You can actually go into debt, which is actually a viable strategy, and even going bankrupt for certain civilizations isn't necessarily a bad thing. Bad thing. It sounds like the game is exactly what somebody who plays the PC game would want to see. But for anybody who's not familiar with these grand strategic games from paradox interactive, it's probably way too much at once to learn. Learn. I'm not even sure I understand the game that well after the first 1000 hours in. If you feel like selling the game, I'd be happy to purchase it.

Cody! So happy to see that you got a chance to play this! My thoughts mirrors your final thoughts. I would love to devote DAYS to this game but I'm not sure I can find another person willing to put in the same amount of time.

I believe that this was a board game that became a video/electronic game series, and is now returning as a board game in this enhanced and expanded (from the original board game) form.

Wow, I am so greatful that he said all the words that he said. This review/ impressions is spot on. It's deep and has rules out the wazhoo, the rule book leaves a lot to be desired. Every action, every move, shoot... Every thought we had we scrutinized in the rule book and sometimes it didn't help us. I went to bgg for help but by golly there was over 1,100 forum posts asking questions. Like Cody said, if you have the time or people to dig deep into this game, I'd imagine you'll be so knowledgeable at it that you can just play the game like a game of checkers. It was in fact a quite enjoyable as we took the first scenario through all four ages and it only took us like 15 hours.

It is one that I have been eyeing up and the only thing that has held me back is the size of the board as I simply don't have room to play a game that big. So my search for something similar continues.

For our group, this game was the best game we ever played. We are a group of some pretty serious gamers that love history and grand strategy. We reserved an entire weekend day to play this and had an absolute blast. No other game compares to this. We all read the rules beforehand, so that defintitely helped. Like the PC game, this game requires a learning investment. When all the stars align, this is the best game ever for a history fan that likes grand strategy.

It was fun t look at, and easy to sell on. If I could have timewarped it back to my 12yr old self, I would have. That bastard had all the time in the world.

Great review. If you like reading through credit card contracts, you will love the rules book. Having bought many GMT games, I understand complexity. Your video review is spot on. Beautiful game with much complexity. I bought the game and love becoming immersed in games like this. Cheers!

🤣 I lost myself after you called yourself "a casual gamer".

I had a similar attitude to Europa Universalis the video game. Its got much more going on than Hearts of Iron and Crusader Kings which I both love. If you're wanted a quick game session, I recommend testing out the Unmatched series. Been a recent gaming obsession for my friends and I.

The video game has a steep learning curve and takes dedication to really get into. The boardgame looks like it'll appeal to players of the game, like Civilization: A New Dawn maybe aimed at Civ VI players. Thanks for the jokes.

Great vid 👍 I like this video game but still don't quite understand all of my options in it. I'd love to try this game even if it would probably take an entire weekend.

So great

I played an earlier version of the game a few years ago on tabletop simulator and the rules were more simpler and less convoluted. I came back to it closer to it getting published and completely concur with you that the game became way too rules bloated from the developers trying to cram every aspect of the video game into the board game vs. keeping it more simplified. I blame all the people on discord who play tested it and drove the development towards what it became by publication.

Grognards only.

Azure Wish's original game rules on how it wasn't a monster game due to it being about 400 years of European history, is enough a joke I do not need one. The PC game was based on that version.

Truly great game

you are so elegant.

Interesting that this game was a bridge too far for you Cody considering some of the (very) heavy games you've reviewed over the years. I haven't had a chance to play my copy yet, did you play with bots? They look like they would add a lot of rules load.

Well now I want to hear the song you made up....

Ducat is pronounced "Duck-et"