I think I'll try a far east country next time, I haven't yet.

I haven't so far, but I will someday. Playing a European country is more fun, though - there's always action there.

Yeah, maybe I'll fire that game up again one day. It just requires so much time to play through even once.

Ever try starting from the beginning with the Congo?

I have actually managed to build the Ottomans into a large empire, ruling half of Europe, northern Africa and everything to India once. Then again, I also beat the Ottomans with the Byzantines who are hopelessly surrounded at the start of the game I generally prefer playing small nations, because the larger ones require too much fussy bureaucracy in the end and diplomacy gets more important for small ones.

Edited by Mr Creosote at 13:36 on September, 24th 2004

Yes, I tried Poland a couple of times, the only reason I was staying alive after a while was because I balanced my allies out well. The other parts of my country were shot to crap though. I went bankrupt a few times, and it's really hard to recover from that, especially when it's Poland. My mistakes that caused it too.
Then I tried Spain, and the gold there started to increase my inflation there. Plus anytime I made a change in the decentrilization, aristrocrat... etc screen, a few years later, it would force it back! Bleh.

Maybe because you aren't playing THEM ?

No, this wouldn't surprise me; the game looks as accurate as possible and in truth the Ottomans did reduce.

The worst influence on inflation is actually gold mines. While they do provide quick money, they are in the end a double-edged sword. For example, playing as the Aztecs, I could easily crush all neighbouring Indian tribes in no time, because four of the six starting sectors contain gold mines. The gold covered such a high percentage of my overall income that inflation went above the 100% mark in no time - you can imagine how that affected technology research...

I tried playing EU2 quite a few times, everytime my inflation would start to rocket and I would fall behind in tech.

On a side note, the ottomans are strong early, but get beaten back when every I play.

Too bad I could never got into EU2, the fact that it's a tactical game but NOT a turn based one frustrates me but I must learn, it's the only strategy game that is favored towards Ottomans.

Apart from hearts of iron there a few other games that use the EU engine; Crusader Kings and Victoria.

http://www.gamershell.com/hellzone_Strategy_Crusader_Kings.shtml?q=crusader+kings

http://www.gamershell.com/hellzone_Strategy_Victoria.shtml?q=victoria

Edited by Burseg at 22:08 on September, 23rd 2004

Funny thing is, I bought EU2 at the same time, and I got badly beaten by the computer there, too. There must be a few more changes than I thought...

Same here

Heh - that reminds me. I actually did buy the game some time ago. Only tried it once, though, and I immediately got overrun by the enemies. I guess I tried playing it too much like EU

You can trash the Manual, as in all these Games from Paradox Entertainment many things changes with patches, optioans are added possibilities and so on.
But once youre in the Game, you´ll love them ;-)

Hmm, I don't think the $10 extra is worth for the manual Well if I don't see anything soon I'll just pick up the DVD case and read the manual on the computer.

Tuss: Try here. So far I've had only positive experiences with them, even though the shipping charges are a little steep (they ship only via FedEx).

I never had a manual for EU, and I still got into it. Then again, I'm a genius, and you're just 'common folk'

By the way, does anyone know where I can get a Orig. in box version of EU2? I found a bunch of indie retailers but they only sell it in DVD case. I have a feeling I'll need the manual for this one, so I'd rather get the original.

By the way, I was surprised that Amazon wasn't selling them, how old is this game?

The classic German gaming magazine is back: PC Joker. Years ago, I was a regular customer of Amiga Joker, which was the first magazine about games I read. Amiga Joker ceased to exist with the decline of the Amiga, PC Joker survived some more years before it was stopped. Good old memories...

Check http://www.pc-joker.net

That is because it is Europa Universalis (the newest game I own) got a 'review' of half a page in the magazine I read then, EU2 wasn't reviewed at all and Hearts of Iron got at least 3 lines (and a rating of something in the 40s).

This is a new game? Completely untypical. It looks a lot like a more complicated version of Risk if you ask me...