The way that the game can bait you to stop paying attention to the domestic when dealing with one’s foreign campaigns, whether these be diplomatic or military ones, is testament to the depth of thought that has clearly gone into its design. Probably best to not make any remarks about the conquest of Ulster… Knowledge, as in life, comes with experience and the ability to leverage one’s knowledge to one’s advantage scales with time invested in the game. Even without a complete understanding of the minutiae of all of the mechanics of the game, it’s more than possible to manipulate things to one’s advantage. The game is hideously deep, and does a wonderful job in hiding its true complexity behind a gorgeous interface: the multitude of options that one can set for their state is hidden behind one tabbed menu, whichever aspect of the game one is focussing on at any one time can be displayed exclusively through the selection of map modes available, each presenting a unique perspective on what is happening within one’s surrounds. The game is finished once you’ve achieved your own objectives the game serves as a sandbox for the fulfillment of one’s own armchair general dreams. The lack of macro-level direction provided by the game may be somewhat of a shock to those new to the ethos of Paradox’s grand strategy games: though there are (generally) short-term missions, such as establishing a royal marriage between your state and another, available to direct play in exchange for rewards of diplomatic, administrative and military capital, there is no set victory condition. From diplomatic to administrative to mercantile to military means, and with a number of substrategies within each of these general means and any combination of them, there are an innumerable amount of things to aim for within the game and ways to go about doing them. The world map is yours to do with as you see fit, with whichever means you see fit.
This sort of self-direction is the bread and butter of Europa Universalis IV‘s experience: pick a time frame, pick a nation, select your difficulty and the way that historical contingencies will unfold and you’re away.
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