Recent reviews by Avalon

A huge but satisfying time sink after you get past the inital learning curve. When I began playing I had the EU IV Wiki page open at the ready in my steam overlay to keep referring to whenever I came across a word or game mechanism I didn't understand the meaning of and how it affected things in the game world. After the first evening, I began to feel like I had a handle on enough things to pursue what I thought would be a good or interesting direction for my nation.

What helped me to grasp how the game works was the Conquest of Paradise DLC as it let me start a new game with only 1 province to think about, instead of jumping into what first appears as a cluttered or overwhelming map with a lot of borders and trade routes to defend, etc. As a single provinced nation, I would in time learn how to migrate and acquire more provinces whilst climbing the trade tables and keeping my borders safe with allied neighbours and armies.

Anyone starting out in EU IV will probably find themselves restarting or starting a new game as they learn more. I've yet to play to any real depths, and I have a lot of the DLC already, but each time I play it's a new experience and it's currently my go to game for grand strategy :)