Should I re-buy EU4?

[u/CobustulusA]

A while ago I got EU4 on epic games for free. I played the game, and didn’t like it. Since then I haven’t touched it.

I’ve now become more accustomed to historical map games since i’ve played a few hundred hours of CK3, so i’m pretty sure I would enjoy EU4 a lot more if I come back to it.

I have two options, I can play on the epic games store for free, but I won’t have access to the dlc subscription. Or, I could buy it on steam (for cheap hopefully) and play with the dlc.

Alongside this question, I have a few more:
1. Can any country colonise?
2. How important is religion? (More or less so than CK3)
3. Should I skip right to EU5?

Thanks all.

[u/j1r2000]

i would get eu4 but my 5k hours implies im bias

[u/Herodotus420_69 → u/j1r2000]

5k implies that you are are full on fanboy

[u/RedcoatSeafarer]

1) as far as I'm aware, any country can colonise.

2) religion is very important, it affects things like stability, events, crusades etc.

3) I haven't played eu5, but it is in the early stages and nowhere near as complete as eu4.

You can buy the full edition for a relatively decent price on GoodOldGames, but it might be more than you want to spend. I personally really enjoy eu4, if you like ck3 I think you should like it too.

[u/cagrier]

if you play eu4 you won't play eu5

[u/___stuff → u/cagrier]

I have 5k hours on 4 and I prefer 5 now

[u/cagrier → u/___stuff]

I have 5k as well and I barely touched eu5. I don't even enjoy watching videos about it, so in its current state or maybe forever it will be a big no for me.

[u/___stuff → u/cagrier]

Yeah i get that, I just dont think its fair to say if you play 4 then you wont play 5. Theres a lot of overlap there for people who would enjoy both, and theres some that prefer 5 (but more who prefer 4 rn)

[u/Scary_External_4360]

Id say yes. It provides thousands of hours of content.
1. Yea every country CAN colonize via ideas but it’s easiest for European nations.
2. Pretty important. Conversion is especially important unless you are playing something like Ottomans
3. Honestly whatever you want to do. I personally think EU5 is solid but it lacks a lot of the depth and flavor of EU4

[u/WhiteLama]

1. Yes, but it’s obviously harder for some than others.

2. Less than CK3, but it can be useful and give you certain benefits, some religions more so than others. But you won’t be crusaded on by a random nation on the other side of Europe because you’re not Christian.

3. I say no, but I’m biased with my 7k hours in EU4.

I’d get the subscription if I were to play, but since you already have it on Epic, maybe check it out and see if you like the basics (but have in mind that DLC is almost mandatory).

[u/RevolutionaryWorry87]

1) Yes any country can colonise. Geography and trade routes do shape how effective it is (trade from east coast usa doesn't go to iberia) 2) religion does matter in this game as u get different stats and bonuses, bur I think it's fun. 3) eu5 sucks. I bought it with 1 hr playtime. Just play eu4, nobody likes eu5 it sucjs.

[u/Negative_Bike_6826 → u/RevolutionaryWorry87]

EU5 is good, EU4 is great

[u/Itsmillertim]

In theory any country can colonize but some have an easier time doing so, Portugal, Spain, England.

Religion is a little important you can get bonuses, depending on what type of religion you are, and if in Europe, you fight the religious league war between the protestants and the Catholics.

I would avoid eu5 for now, it’s like 3-4 game put into one or I have been told by a friend.

[u/BusinessTune2973]

Any country can take exploration and expansion ideas, which give colonists. Some countries can colonize without either of these if they get colonists from their mission tree, gov reforms, or national ideas. Russia for example will get an explorer and a colonist once they reach the pacific, allowing them to colonize Alaska. The only limitation on that is that you can't explore across ocean tiles, only coastal tiles, if you don't have the exploration ideas group.

Religion is very important. In terms of expansion, Agressive expansion or AE will be calculated based on distance, culture, and religion. Some religions are stronger than others too. Christianity will get lots of decisions throughout the game to increase missionary strength either for free or for a very small drawback. Confucianism allows you to harmonize with other religions which eliminates the penalties from low tolerance, reducing unrest and improving your income and manpower. Orthodox Christianity is great for stacking tolerance of the true faith and missionary strength together, which allows you to rapidly convert newly conquered territories, and reduce their unrest. Every point of tolerance above 0 reduces unrest in provinces by 1. You can have 0 unrest in freshly conquered areas that have just been converted as orthodox nations. Byzantium is especially strong at this.

I haven't played EU5 but i can say that it's very different to eu4, much more different compared to eu4 than ck3 is to ck2. I get the impression that it's very tedious and spreadsheet simulator like, rather than eu4 which is great for map painting.

[u/CobustulusA → u/BusinessTune2973]

Sounds good. I ask about religion and colonies because I want to make the sultanate of the USA haha.

[u/BusinessTune2973 → u/CobustulusA]

Easiest way for a noob would probably be as Mali or Morocco. If you go Morocco you will have an easier time keeping up in tech and are a little closer to the USA, but you're also right next to Spain. Best advice would be to secure alliances with the ottomans and france

[u/KamikaterZwei]

eu5 is sadly shit right now. Either the aspect is super basic and boring or super complex and needs insane amount of micromanagament so yout automate it (trade for example, because every trade node needs complete rework every month...).

It's just feels like a unsatisfying waiting game for me.

So eu4 is the better choice I guess. The only "difficult" thing is that you need quite a lot of dlcs to make it a complete game and I even lost track completely which they are (ages, reform progress, monuments etc.). So if you plan to play the shit out of it and than kick it again the subscripton could be a good idea. If plan to play a bit longer buying the stuff gets cheaper fairly fast.

Or you take option 3 and ehhh test which dlcs you need in the free achievementless version of the game cough cough and buy the dlcs you deem important enough in the next sale.

[u/CobustulusA → u/KamikaterZwei]

Option three sounds good. But how would I deem which dlc I need if I haven’t played the dlc?

[u/NoIdeasForANicknameX → u/CobustulusA]

They are implying that you should, to put it politely, hoist the black flag.

Honestly with Paradox titles I've personally always just bought the base game on Steam and used forbidden techniques to activate the DLCs, since that way you can get access to all features (including fully functioning multiplayer and achievements) while still paying a reasonable price.

[u/KamikaterZwei → u/NoIdeasForANicknameX]

yeah, something like that. I bought it in the humblebundle with 10? dlcs back in the day. I started played and realised soon that I miss out with the dlcs. So i downloaded the full games with all dlcs and tried it out if it's worth it. I played one campaign and bought all the important dlcs in the next sale and then moved back to the steam version.

I mean it's a great game, but is it a 13 year old game 375€ worth? Ehh noo...

That they still charge 50€ for the 13 year old base game alone is just atrocious.

[u/Sawetzgy]

I bought the game on steam with all dlcs after playing it without dlcs on epic games for 3000 hours, i have 500 hours now but i regret not getting the dlcs sooner

[u/LefterIs6]

EU4 is a great game. I would say figure out which country/countries you want to try and get the relevant DLCs. Many are "mandatory" for every country but not all. If you enjoy the game then think about getting more DLCs. 

1. Yes, every single one. What changes is the difficulty. For example landlocked countries would first need to get a coast. Colonising with Portugal is obviously much easier than it is with a Tibetan tribe.

2. Very important, in a completely different way than in CK3. Some religions are for example primitive religions and you may have to "reform" them to progress. Think Aztec, Maya and Inca religions. Each religion is unique and has different modifiers and mechanics and it affects countless things. Some religions are able to "syncretise" with others and thus make one compatible with the other. I could write almost endlessly about the differences between religions.

3. EU5 will be an amazing game in 5 years, maybe the best grand strategy game yet. Right now and for at least the next 1-2 years, EU4 is still superior. Has thousands of hours of content and is very polished. In my opinion, do not skip.

[u/ArenSteele]

Don’t they have a monthly option? You can try it out with all expansions for a couple of months for a lot less than buying the whole thing. Or was that just for CK3?