Europa Universalis III Complete.
Paradox Interactive. $27.99 (GamersGate).

Passed Inspection: Great historic strategy. Unlimited replay value.

Failed Inspection: Ping-pong battles.

The game tracks how each nation feels about every other nation in the game—and they all have memories.

If you love deep historical strategy gaming, and you do not already have Europa Universalis III, then EUIII Complete has to be your next PC game purchase. This is the final version of Paradox’s flagship product, and includes the two expansions, Napoleon’s Ambition and In Nomine. The two expansions add so many tweaks and game-play options that the total of EUIII Complete is much greater than the sum of its parts.

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For those not familiar with the game, EUIII Complete puts the player in full control of any nation-state, during any period from 1399 to 1820. The game comes with ten scenarios setting up major conflicts like the Thirty Years War and the French Revolution. For this reviewer, however, the most fun comes from making ad hoc games.

Using a dynamic map interface, the player first picks a year. As he scrolls the year selector, the political map of the entire globe changes as nations expand and fall. For example, choosing the year 1635 gives the player a global map with all of the then-existing nation-states and their colonial possessions from that period. Major nations like England and France are selectable, but so are the hundreds of minor ones like Burgundy and Munster.

A very nice touch is that the player can also select any nation when loading from a saved file. So you can begin as England, start a war with France, then return to play as France to teach those pesky English a lesson. In short, the replay possibilities are endless.

The game plays real time, day-by-day, year-by year. Playing even a few years of the 400-year Grand Campaign can take a few hours. However, the player can control how fast the game plays, and it’s a good idea to speed things up when the world is at relative peace. Once a player gets the hang of it, it’s pretty easy to play forty or fifty years in a sitting.

The game map is region-based and covers the entire globe, except for the uncharted regions of inner Africa and South America. For players who start the game before the Age of Discovery, the initial map has plenty of unknown territory covering the New World, Asia and Africa. As the game progresses, the player can hire explorers and discovery fleets to make those areas accessible.

The player controls his nation through an elegant interface that has been well tuned in the expansions. With a few clicks, the player can control his nation’s finances, research, military and even local governments. While the game is very deep and complex, the interface is intuitive enough that most experienced gamers will be able to dive right in after a trip through the tutorials.

One of the game’s real strengths is in the area of diplomacy and the relationship between nations. EUIII’s sophisticated modeling of nation-state interactions creates plausible alternate histories. Each nation has many options to stroke their friends and slap their enemies. The game tracks how each nation feels about every other nation in the game—and they all have memories.

Unlike many strategy games on the market, in EUIII there is a historic tether on what a kingdom can do. Uniting France, let alone Europe, is not easily done. Diplomacy is a slow method, but more effective than military might in the long run. Marching your armies around, taking every piece of land, is not as easy as in other strategic games.

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