There are games that are made to last. Europa Universalis 4 is a title that always reveals itself in splendid shape, even after more than four years from its release, so much so that we cannot find good reasons for a chapter five. The depth reached by the game is immense and this is also thanks to the numerous expansions, loved by some and hated by others. For the uninitiated, Paradox Interactive has long offered a free patch system for various titles, such as Stellaris. Basically, at the release of an expansion like the new Europa Universalis 4: Cradle of Civilization, some of the new content is released for free for everyone, while some specific features remain available only to those who purchase the expansion, which typically focuses on a well-defined cultural or geographical area. This time it's up to the Middle East to receive major changes to various game mechanics including: religion, trade, combat and much more.
One thousand and one nights
Before diving into the exclusive news of Europa Universalis 4: Cradle of Civilization, we want to immediately describe the free additions of this content. The entire geographical map of the Middle East has been reworked: some old acquaintances, such as the Timurid empire, have been downsized to make room for various political realities of the time making the area even more accurate. For example, we see Hisn Kayfa being born, a tiny state that keeps alive the last remains of the Salah-ad-din dynasty, in the hope of reconstructing the ancient rule over al-Jazira. New nations like Samthske or Imereti, meanwhile, can compete for Georgia's formation. For the complete list of changes to the game map, we refer you to the official devlogs; As for the goods, however, five new families have been added: cattle, incense, glass, paper and gems and, moreover, now the advisers and rulers show their religion and culture to the player.
It is important to specify that, in order to fully enjoy the paid content, it is necessary to start a game with one of the nations included in the aforementioned area of interest. The Islamic religion, now divided into schools, is one of the most changed aspects. Each nation follows a particular precept which can be a reason for better or worse relations with other powers. We can invite distinguished schoolchildren to our court to enjoy exclusive bonuses as well as instituting a particular tax system named IQTA every twenty years. This system allows you to incentivize earnings or s with other peoples. The trading system has also been perfected: within trading nodes we can change our policy in order to increase revenue or completely change strategy, making merchants act as spies or diplomats.
Prepare for battle
The content that has the biggest impact is definitely the new Army Drill and Army Professionalism system. In times of peace, an army led by a leader can train to increase his Drill bonus and thus be more efficient when a conflict breaks out. The general himself has the ability to increase his stats. Training the Army is one of the ways to advance the value of Professionalism. General recruitment actions or the construction of military buildings perform the same task. In Europa Universalis 4: Cradle of Civilization, this military prestige index allows you to unlock various actions. Once we reach the necessary value we can build depots, fill garrisons, get discounts on the recruitment of generals as well as suffer a lower reduction in morale and the number of men in the national reserve.
These changes have a huge impact on the classic army management method e lead the player to follow military evolution with greater attention; also from the qualitative point of view of the single modifiers. We tried not to use these new possibilities, resulting in defeat in the decisive battles and this led us to deduce that artificial intelligence makes good use of them right away. Europa Universalis 4: Cradle of Civilization still contains many small additions, among which we mention the possibility of exploiting a province, reducing its development values to obtain an immediate benefit.
The new expansion of the award-winning Grand Strategy Game from Paradox, the eleventh if we count only the main ones, is not classified as either the most sparse in content or as the one with the greatest changes. As always, the work of the development team has been done with quality and the changes to the military mechanics are the ones that will involve the players the most, regardless of the chosen nation. Almost everything else is instead tied to the Middle Eastern powers and therefore we recommend the purchase only if you are interested in learning more about the game in this area of the world.
