Europa Universalis: Rome - My First EU Game and the Character System

For this article, Europa Universalis:Rome will be abbreviated as EU:R and Europa Universalis 3 or 4 (we will assume they are the same today), will be referred to as EU.

Last week I tried to encapsulate the main components of an Europa Universalis game (Developer: Paradox). I have to admit though that I lied. Just a bit. As I said last week, in EU the nation is built out of numbers; manpower, economy, and diplomacy. Though the systems that I spoke of are in Europa Universalis: Rome, there is a component that is more crucial, more integral to it, and this component is not in EU.

Rome is a personal game. I don't mean it's friendly. In EU the player is the country, not a person. The country has a ruler (King, Queen, President) who is assigned an age, and three skills (administrative, diplomatic, military) with a number for each skill. The number assigned for each skill impacts different aspects of the game. The ruler has numbers but has no personality, no desires: no character. They have no impact except those three numbers. When the ruler dies their heir assumes command, or if they are too young, a regency council takes control until they come of age.

EU:R is totally different.

EU:R has all the numbers of EU, but it is built on the ambitions, relationships, and desires of the nobles, elected officials, and priests, that populate the upper echelon of society.

At the start of the game, a small nation will contain ten to twenty nobles. A large nation will easily include more than sixty men, woman, and children.

Each of these characters have three skills (military, finesse, charisma) on a scale of 0-9. They also have popularity, loyalty, corruptness, prominence, wealth, a culture, and a birthplace. Characters have anywhere from zero to ten traits such as submissive, infertile, epileptic, and vengeful. They gain and loss traits as events happen to them. The game keeps track of characters parents, spouses, mistresses, children, siblings, and half-siblings. It also tracks rivals and friends. To round it off, every character has an objective.

There characters are both predictable and unpredictable. Most want to complete their objective, which can be as simple as acquiring a small title, or a devious as killing a rival. Some may even want to become King (which is ok if they are the heir to a kingdom, but terrible if they are anyone else). On the other hand many will take helpful or harmful action in a way this unpredictable. There are so many factors to each character it's hard to determine what ultimately causes them to act as they do. They aren't real people, but even though they are composed of numbers, they are as unpredictable as people.

The main forum for the actions of the characters is the government of a country. In EU:R there are two distinct types of government where characters to act out their schemes as the player tries to cobble together monetary and diplomatic policies.

The simpler government is a Monarchy. One character rules, with his or her attributes effecting the basics of the empire. But, in addition, there are the countries nine advisers (characters chosen by the player), such as the Grand Vizier, Chancellor, and Chief Torturer, who improve the country according to their own skills. The best adviser may not be he whose skills best match the position. The character could be overly ambitious and a threat to stability, seeking to turn their increased prominence and wealth into a revolution. They could be a rival of the King or they could be in the pay of a foreign power. The player is forced to play politics with their advisers, determining the pros and cons of elevating or demoting nobles.

Assigning a noble to an army or navy has a similar effect, where they can earn the loyalty of the soldiers under their command. In EU the leader of an army is just a number. In EU:R leadership can really go to a commander's head, and before the player knows what is happening a successful general is marching on the capital with an experienced army behind him.

When the ruler of a monarchical country dies, normally their heir is immediately installed, but if there are disgruntled nobles or counselors they might stage a coup. In the event of a rebellion the player is always aligned with the official ruler, and can never choose to side with rebels.

A Republic, the other form of government, has a more complex system than a monarchy. A monarchy is governed by one family, with nine counselors. A republic has no ruling family, but five political parties (religious, military, mercantile, civic, and populist), each with their own agenda and modifiers. Each male member is assigned to a party as soon as they reach adulthood. Every few years an election among the members pushes one to the top. The current ruler, like in a monarchy, is the avatar of the player, and one must work for the good of the country and ruler. Yet once that ruler is removed by the turning of the republican process, if they have become too powerful they may try to install themselves as dictator. Unlike a monarchy, where the player knows their leader well, a republic is a revolving door of faces and desires. In a republic, characters can frustrate the player in another way. All diplomatic actions, from alliances to trade deals, must be approved by the senate, which is composed of the characters of the five factions. Often they will prohibit the very deals the player hopes to make.

If it seems like this is a complaint against the character system, then the reader misunderstands entirely. EU:R has character (!), politics (personal and international), and challenge. It successfully sets itself apart in the EU series. EU:R was a transitional game, more personal than the main games of the EU series, and yet more like them than it is to Crusader Kings (one of Paradox's other major series). Aside from the characters, it is similar to EU, but with the flaw of being unrefined. EU3 and EU4 are superior in graphics, historical events, breadth of game world, and depth of game-play (while still maintaining a streamlined system).

If you're a fan of EU 3 or 4 and want the politicking, character element, and you don't mind the dated graphics or less polished game-play EU:R is an excellent choice.  If those might put you off, but you still want the personal elements Crusader Kings 2 would be the way to go, and yet (with EU:R as my first Paradox game), I can't shake a strong devotion to the character mechanics, and the court intrigues that they encouraged.

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