History VideoGame / EuropaUniversalis

* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: Most 4X games just have around 10 to 12 factions on the board at one time at most. These games have [[CastHerd 200+]].
** The ''EU III'' advisors might count as well.

** Armenians follow the "Coptic" Christian religion rather than "Orthodox", on the basis that they're much closer to the former than the latter. While Armenian and Copts are part of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oriental_Orthodox_Churches the same church]], Copts are an ethnic group limited to Egypt, thus making it a mistake to use "Coptic" to indicate the Armenian Church as well.

* ''Europa Universalis: Rome'' (2008), a [[AndNowForSomethingCompletelyDifferent Roman Antiquity-themed]] SpinOff,

*** Silesian is a "West Slavic" culture. Silesians ''were'' originally a Slavic people, but by the era the game begins, Silesia was almost entirely Germanized and Slavic people were a majority only in Upper Silesia (the southern part).

*** Vietnamese is a "Chinese" culture. Vietnam knew long periods of political Chinese egemony during its history, but such label still makes no sense ethnically and linguistically.

* IncestIsRelative: Marrying off your teenaged daughter to your cousin twice removed who rules a neighboring country is an excellent way to improve the relations with said country. (As well as an excellent way of creating REALLY weird family trees.) You can in fact arrange Royal Marriages with every nation ruled by a noble house that shares your religious group.
** Weird family trees indeed - [[TruthInTelevision like the Windsors, for example]].
** [=EU3=] doesn't bother with family tree mechanics, so there's a surprising amount of Regency Councils since heirs die like flies. On the other hand, sometimes you have a king crowned at 16 and a 10-year-old heir, and since it's not explicitly stated what relation the heir is to the king (and people assume it's his kid), you get people thinking that rulers often have children when they're 5 or 6.

*** "Karelian" is an "East Slavic" culture because Karelians are an Orthodox people who lived under Russian states, even if linguistically they're Finnic[[note]]before you ask, there's not "Finnic" culture because the game puts "Finnish" and "Sami" within the "Nordic" group, and "Estonian" within the "Baltic" group[[/note]].
*** "Silesian" is a "West Slavic" culture. Silesians ''were'' originally a Slavic people, but by the era the game begins, Silesia was almost entirely Germanized and Slavic people were a majority only in Upper Silesia (the southern part).

*** "Vietnamese" is a "Chinese" culture. Vietnam knew long periods of political Chinese egemony during its history, but such label still makes no sense ethnically and linguistically.

*** The game correctly uses "Ruthenian" instead of "Ukrainian"[[note]]the term Ukrainian appeared in the 18th century, and Ukrainian people didn't fully adopt the name for themselves until early 20th century[[/note]], but it incorrectly distinguishes "Byelorussian" from "Ruthenian". Back then, "Ruthenian" actually indicated both people that today are Belarusians and Ukrainians.
*** "Azerbaijani" indicates both people in [[UsefulNotes/{{Iran}} Iranian Azerbaijan]] and [[UsefulNotes/{{Azerbaijan}} Caucasian Azerbaijan]]. Back then, "Azerbaijan" only indicated the territory in Iran. Even if there ''was'', in Northwestern Iran and the Caucasus, a contiguous ethnicity of Turkicized Iranics who followed Shia Islam, there just wasn't a collective term for them (except the generic "Turk"). "Azerbaijan" applied to the current Caucasian territory and its people is a recent developing of the early 20th century.

*** "Karelian" is an "East Slavic" culture because Karelians are an Orthodox people who lived under Russian states, even if linguistically they're Finnic.

*** The "Altaic"[[note]]while the existence of an Altaic linguistic ''family'' is generally discredited, the term is still accepted for cultural reasons and to denote a linguistic ''area'' (that is, unrelated languages that end up influencing each other because of proximity[[/note]] group includes Mongolic and Turkic languages spoken in Central Asia, but excludes Turkic languages spoken in the former Golden Horde (they're "Tatar" instead), Turkish and Azerbaijani.

*** The "Altaic" group includes Mongolic and Turkic languages spoken in Central Asia, but excludes Turkic languages spoken in the former Golden Horde (they're "Tatar" instead), Turkish and Azerbaijani.
** Armenians belong to the "Coptic" church rather than "Orthodox", on the basis that they're much closer to the former than the latter.

** After ''II'' had it easy and simple, naval combat had three overhauls through the support life of ''III'' and then being switched around few times in ''IV''. As a result, it is pre-requested to check the version and/or expansion/DLC you are using and find appropriate guide online, or suffer the consequences of building "wrong" navy.

*** Good luck figuring out how buildings affect prices and how or why it matters for the global economy and income of your country from both taxes and trade. In fact, this one is part of the general "read wiki first, play game maybe" help given to new players.

** Ever since ''III'' introduced "pips" for military units, they never have been explained in any way throughout the game other than being very roughly covered as "more pips = better unit"[[note]]Digging through game files or reading a fan-made military guide will inform you that they are an even more complex system replacing the older CRT rating, and being big part of the calculation of casualties and morale drop in battle[[/note]].

*** When building Manufactories, the interface only informs the player of the direct boost to income. The indirect boost through increase in the province's trade value (as more goods are produced) is not mentioned - ''despite being the main reason to build then''.

*** Just about anything related to pirates and their impact on trade value along with taxation or how to even prevent their generation in the Caribbeans (or why they even spawn there and ''in the American Great Lakes'' out of all places), not to mention why their ships can be either floating rafts or top-of-the-line vessels that will sink fleets few times their size[[note]]To keep a lot of mechanics short - pirates are a special "nation" that operates in Latin tech group and their ships automatically spawn in "unpatrolled" sea tiles, with relation with local trade value - the richer the land provinces bordering that sea tile or having ports in it, the bigger "draw" for pirates to spawn, ''unless'' there is either some nation's ship already there or one sailed through it recently, and the richer it is, the smaller the window between next patrol before pirates will spawn. Since you can't exactly order your fleets in ''I'' and ''II'' to patrol an area, the safest bet is to simply build a single, cheap galley and have it permanently parked in the sea-shore tile you don't want pirates to spawn in[[/note]].
** Ever since ''III'' introduced "pips" for military units, they never have been explained in any way throughout the game other than being very roughly covered as "more pips = better unit"[[note]]Digging through game files or reading a fan-made military guide will inform you that they are an even more complex system replacing the older CRT rating, and being calculated into casualties and morale drop[[/note]].

** In ''I'' and ''II'' is pretty obtuse when it comes to some of its mechanics

*** Inflation and minting are very poorly explained within the game. Not only you aren't anywhere told how to handle them[[note]]And for first 100-150 years being with no reliable source of direct income, being reduced to once-per-year census tax[[/note]], the game does an awful job explaining how exactly the Governor works to decrease the resulting inflation in the long run. The tooltip does tell you about the immediate benefit (-1% of your current inflation on building finish), but not how it works in the long run[[note]]The game employs a modifier equal to number of your provinces divided by number of governors and then multiplied by 0.25 as a yearly decrease of inflation. For example, if you have a single province and build a Governor in it, you will get -0.25% inflation per year, but if you have 1 Governor and 10 provinces, you will only get -0.025% instead. This also means you can directly put your income into your coffers without rising inflation, as long as it's percentage of your monthly income equal or smaller than anti-inflation modifier of Governors (so up to 25% of your total income if all provinces have Governor)[[/note]]. All of that despite the three elements being crucial for having a successful playthrough.

** ''IV'' isn't much better, despite being designed 15 years later

*** It is in general absolutely full of these, as tooltips often don't properly inform you of things or even give the wrong information. One of the most common is the total inaccuracy of the trade ship income estimates (which often scares off new players from building them, even though they're the best investment one can make in the entire game).

*** Inflation and minting are very poorly explained within the game. Not only you aren't anywhere told how to handle them[[note]]And for first 100-150 years being with no reliable source of direct income, being reduced to once-per-year census tax[[/note]], the game does an awful job explaining how exactly the Governor works to decrease the resulting inflation in the long run. The tooltip does tell you about the immediate benefit (-1% of your current inflation on building finish)

** For ''IV'', when building Manufactories, the interface only informs the player of the direct boost to income. The indirect boost through increase in the province's trade value (as more goods are produced) is not mentioned - ''despite being the main reason to build then''.
** ''IV'' in general is absolutely full of these, as tooltips often don't properly inform you of things or even give the wrong information. One of the most common is the total inaccuracy of the trade ship income estimates (which often scares off new players from building them, even though they're the best investment one can make in the entire game).

* BarbarousBarbaryBuccaneers: North African Maghrebi nations have the Raid Coasts ability and idea to allow them to reflect the history and raid European coasts.

* GreenAesop: An unusual example with migatory tribes after their rework. Contrary to their usual depictions as guardians of nature, migatory tribes in ''IV'' now cause devastation at their capital province (attributed to "tribal grazing"). This, combined with the tribal development mechanic, [[UnfortunateImplications depicts migatory tribes as pillagers of the land]].

* GunsAreWorthless: [[MagikarpPower Well, they START OUT that way]]. As your tech level improves "Fire Damage" becomes far more lethal than "Shock Damage" though.

* SaltTheEarth: In each part, invading armies will loot the provinces they are in by the start of the next month. Looted province has seriously economic problems until recovering. If the war is prolonged, enemy provinces can be literally farmed for large profit, while crippling the owner for decades. In ''II'' and ''III'', looted provinces also get a huge penalty to population growth, easily throwing it into negative values. And it can be further extended with presence of even the smallest army in the province, perpetuating the looted tag. In ''II'', looted provinces also have a chance to lose manufacture, if they had one. Certain tactics against large countries and empires revolve around keeping them looted for as long as possible. Against a human enemy, this can cause a disaster impossible to recover from, even after winning the war.
** This is especially potent against Ming. Blockading their provinces, sacking their cities, and occupying+looting their lands massively increases their provinces devastation, which provides a serious mandate penalty. It's often possible to end up technically signing a white peace but have crippled the Ming as their devastated provinces lead to mass unrest, revolts, and forced loans while their army is made much weaker by their dropping levels of mandate.
** The ruler in ''IV'' can enact a scorched-earth policy to hinder the supplies of enemy armies and increase their attrition. The action puts a dent in the involved province(s) economy. [[SubvertedTrope For twelve months.]]

** Also extremely useful in ''IV''. 25 year old ruler 6/6/6 ruler died? A quick alt-f4 will close the game without saving and you can pick up at your autosave six months back. Since events like that happen semi-randomly, it's very unlikely he'll die again at the same time. This can be very tempting to abuse

** In ''II'' and ''III'' Veneto, Liguria and to lesser extent Lubeck Centre of Trade are this. They are rich, large and pretty much everyone that knows where Europe lies can access them. Which is the very reason why it's a dog-pile of competing merchants and God forbid if you're going against the trade league from ''III''. Your merchants, no matter how big your technological and political edges are, will be simply kicked by the sheer numbers of merchants send from every corner of the Old World. Unless you play as Venice, you have better chances gaining monopoly ''in rest of the Europe'' than simply staying afloat in Veneto.

** Mughals and Ming control respectively most of the Indian subcontinent and historical China. In ''II'' and ''III'', this was more a problem than useful, since tech development was tied with the size of the country - the more provinces one has, the more expensive the tech. Since both countries had very bad tech group attatched to them, they were quickly falling behind and turning into {{Paper Tiger}}s.

* AlwaysSecondBest: In ''IV'', the Mamluk sultanate is this to the Ottomans, due to the Ottomans having several mechanical advantages. [[note]]The Ottomans can gain Empire rank simply by conquering Constantinople, while the Mamluks have to either form another nation with Empire rank (usually Arabia) or gain enough land to reach 1000 development ''and'' accumulate enough prestige. By forming Arabia, Mamluks also lose their unique Mamluk government type, while the Ottomans' government type gives them substantial bonuses, including an additional maximum of 3 states, the best bonus in this category after the Russians' unique Tsardom government. In addition, the Ottomans only have to worry about the Mediterranean when it comes to ruling the seas, while Mamluks have to split their fleets between the Med and the Red and Arabian Seas.[[/note]] Ironically, they start 1444 as the world's second-ranked Great Power, while the Ottomans are third. While quite rare for the AI, it's surprisingly easy for a human-controlled mamluk player to decisively defeat the Ottomans within the first 20 years and become the strongest country in the entire world outside of the Ming dynasty.

** The AI can't deal with naval attrition, and no one's been able to solve the problem. The workaround? They don't get any! This has led to a tendency for the Baltic to become a kind of WeirdnessMagnet, with the Ottomans, Castille, various Italian and Low Countries minors, and whoever else feels like it grabbing bits and pieces of the Baltic coast and Scandinavia.

** Muslim countries in ''IV'' face a choice that may seem strange: gain negative piety (representing Sufi mysticism) and gain military bonuses and missionary conversion strength... or gain positive piety (representing strict adherence to Islamic religious texts) and gain research, tax, and technology bonuses. Declaring war on neighbors of the same branch of Islam as you increase your mysticism, and declaring on others increases your legalism. It's often beneficial for countries to start off with mysticism to strengthen their early conquests and assist in conversions, and then move towards legalism once most conquests are completed and the bonuses suited towards running/centralizing a state are more useful. There are a variety of events that shift your piety in either direction along with other bonuses/penalties, and anyone reading them will quickly realize that the 'best' choice from the players moral perspective can easily lie on the mystic or legalist side.

*** In more recent patches (1.30) of ''IV'' the above dichotomy continues but Production income has been shaken up quite a bit. New monopoly estate privileges can be granted on specific trade goods. You receive 80% of the income those goods would have generated over the next 10 years up front and gain 1% mercantilism. These deals can be renewed every 10 years as well for more ducats and mercantilism. Since mercantilism is an extremely good modifier as it helps increase trade income, it's common to issue monopolies on up to 6 trade goods early game and keep them going until your mercantilism is maxed or nearly maxed. This makes production income less important but still worth upgrading if it's right before a new monopoly, as you'll get all the benefits from the upgrade right up front.
*** This was an even bigger issue in ''II'' and ''III'', where tax was collected ''annually'', rather than monthly - you had to manage your budget for a whole year, with income generated only on 1st of January of the new year. All while cores and local culture (which were event-spawned or result of costly, decades-long investments) played big role in the percentage of collected tax, often reducing it to nothing. Trade, on the other hand, was accounted monthly, while unaffected by cores, ownership or cultures, all while being the only meaningful way to fund research. However, in early game most of the map remains unexplored, so you are stuck with a small handful of centers of trade (or even just one) and have to compete with your neighbors over them, making profits often below expenses of sending and then maintaining merchants, all while lucrative monopolies are both tech-locked ''and'' quickly destroyed by fierce competition. This means focusing on taxing at least provides you a solid source of income that can't be removed from your coffers short from being conquered. But the more of the map gets explored and the more trade you could access, the less important land taxes become.

** As of the release of ''EU IV'', the Big Blue Blob is back with a vengeance. Due to the variable nature of the game, they can still get beaten up on occasionally, but they're one of the games most consistently powerful nations. Their very early 20% morale bonus and compact country means the AI can't help but win most of its battles and wars and gradually keep growing. European players will always need to contend with the ever present threat of France, and it's often worth trying to keep them as an ally if you can't balkanize them very early.

** Korea is a lesser example, with two mountain provinces separating its peninsula from the Ming to the west and Manchu tribes northeast. Since a unified Korea is only a tertiary power at best (without extensive development or colonization) these provinces are often used offensively, baiting the nearby tribes to take penalties for attacking onto mountain terrain and losing their shock bonus from flatland. This allows Korea to more easily expand to the north through its more militarily powerful northern neighbors

* CorruptChurch: All religions provide events where you can increase your piety at a cost to your wallet, your dynasty or your subjects. Catholic and to a lesser extent, Orthodox Christianity provide events which imply outright corrupt acts. "Reformation Desire" is a sort of {{Karma Meter}} based on how corrupt the Catholic Church is - and the higher the score, the more dissidents start to form Protestant and Reformed Christianity. Every catholic country gets events that increase or decrease it, but smart players are best served by taking whatever option gives the best outcome and ignoring the reform desire impacts - the reformation is an inevitability no matter what and your piety will make no difference when most of the AI choose options increasing reform desire. If you're hoping to become protestant you may want to be as corrupt as possible so the reformation can start faster.
* CosmeticallyDifferentSides: All countries play by (basically) the same basic mechanics; the difference is mainly in the starting position, religion, tech group (which affects the speed of your research) and starting domestic sliders. Some of these can be changed (at least to some degree) while some are locked in place. In ''EU III'' all of these can be changed through normal gameplay. Not easily, mind.

*** Instead of legitimacy they have horde unity, which is almost impossible to passively keep at 100...but increases by winning battles and razing provinces.

* DamageIsFire: The siege screen displays a small picture of the city under siege. As the siege progresses one can see smoke and fire from within the city walls, reflecting its deteriorating condition.

** In ''II'', diplomacy skill of your ruler is virtually meaningless, especially if below 7 (on 1-9 scale). The only thing it truly affects is the amount of badboy decrease per month, at -0.05 per point. In ''III'' and especially ''IV'' the stat is far more important.
** In ''IV'' monarch points are very important, but diplomatic is definitely the least important stat. Administrative and military points are both very important to expanding and is used for useful technologies, while diplomatic is neither (except integrating vassals, who are typically situational).
* DystopiaIsHard: Surprisingly averted in ''II''. Going full narrow-minded, with harshest serfdom possible and actively using religion to back-up your goals, be them on domestic matters or against your enemies, is the easiest and most efficient way to go for global conquest and heavy colonisation. Add to that going fully decentralised state, where the ruler is a figurehead and every province does what it feels like doing... and it's even ''easier'' to conquer and maintain global domination. Your own population at large is too stupid, too beaten-down and too indoctrinated to know better, while nobody can oppose a country that can churm-up dirty cheap infantry in droves. Stability and war exhaustion are both non-issues, despite normally killing dead any conquering force, while the sheer number of troops possible to command means anyone stupid enough to declare war to oppose your evil empire is just making it easier for your own conquest, as technically, it was them attacking you, so everyone is content with defending their horrible homeland against would-be invaders.

** Even as large and (relatively) prosperous country, you start out with only a fraction of the world revealed, limited access to trade and your main income being taxing poorly developed provinces. Infrastructure is almost non-existing, you have close to no monetary reserves and chances are, your ruler is just a guy - not terrible, but also nothing special. The first 100 or so years of gameplay are both the most crucial ones and the toughest, because things can't be cheesed up with colonial ventures, global trade or SummonBiggerFish - those things aren't there yet and you need to wait for them to develop. Even if you cheat your situation, the world itself is still an early 15th century backwater, so you can't exactly reap any benefits, as there are virtually none build up yet. And if you happen to be an OPM[[note]]One-Province Minor[[/note]], things only add up further, since you have no manpower, no space to grow and obviously losing a single war means being booted out.

*** Enforced with colonisation in ''II''. Early on, it is done under ''double'' penalty: "[[NaiveNewcomer rookie mistakes]]" for first 20 attempts (starting at -20% and only going down with each attempt made, regardless if successful) and date-based for first 200 years (starting at -25% in 1419 and going down by 1% per 8 years). And that without mentioning the regular penalties that come from tropical climate, aggressive natives or incompetent ruler. This turns early colonisation into LuckBasedMission, especially considering how limited colonists are and how prohibitively expensive it is to gamble with your pre-governors budget.
** You can try to revive the glory of the Byzantine Empire - starting just a few decades before it was invaded in real life. You have only a few provinces (with ocean and enemy territory between your capital and them), an all but nonexistent army and navy, are surrounded completely by a much stronger enemy who wants your capital province and will work to claim it, and your only ace is that your capital province is a trade center, which really doesn't do you much good all things considered. There are nearby powers you can form alliances with, but they tend not to do much if any good unless the Ottomans find themselves in a bad position early on, which rarely happens. Recommended strategies tend to be "gamey", like exploiting the peace treaty and vassalage systems to gobble up territory in eastern Europe before the Ottomans can. Luckily the game does give the player considerable bonuses just for being able to expand into the Byzantine Empire's old territory, but most games played as Byzantium won't even make it to that point. The Muslim equivalent to the Byzantine Empire is Granada, with Castile (most likely Spain later), usually in conjunction with Portugal and Aragon, filling the role of the Ottoman Empire. ''IV'' even offers players who manage to pull off conquering all of Spain and Portugal as Granada the ''Re-Reconquista'' achievement.

** ''IV'' tried to address this with the introduction of States[=/=]Territories. Every nation has a set number of States it can have (largely based on Admin tech and government type). States can have low autonomy (down to 0%), which meant that provinces which are part of States are the major contributors to the nation. On the other hand, Territories have a minimum of 75% autonomy, which largely limit their usefulness to the nation. [[note]]It's still played straight with Russia, as it can easily gain a whooping bonus of ''twenty'' additional states once Age of Revolutions starts, as early as 1710 (usually around 1715). To put that into some perspective - that's more than enough to cover all historical territory of Russian Empire ''and then some''.[[/note]]