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Paradox has released the El Dorado expansion for Europa Universalis IV, adding a bunch of new features and most importantly a nation designer which allows you to create your own country to dominate the world with.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjK5520IP9Y

As some regular readers of GamingOnLinux may know, I’m a huge fan of Paradox Interactive’s grand strategy games. As a big fan and long-time player of these games, I can safely say no expansion has ever got me as excited as this one. The new features for the expansion include:

Quote- Nation Designer
- Nahuatl religion for Aztecs
- Mayan religion for Yucatan natives
- Inti religion for Inca
- New exploration system
- Seven Cities of Gold quest for conquistadors
- Treasure fleets, and pirate missions to intercept them
- New limitations on and effects of vassal/subject nation loyalty
- Dozens of new events


I feel pretty strongly about DLC, it can either be done very well, improving games and adding more enjoyment for its fans or simply be an exploitative tactic of squeezing out more money from gamers with features which should have been included from day 1. Paradox's expansions are thankfully DLC used well, and the fact that they continue adding features to the base game long after release for free is also great to see. The main free features added to the base game include:

Quote- Added lots of new DHEs (dynamic historical events) for South and Central American countries.
- Added Inti, Nahuatl and Mayan religions.
- Major rework of terrain map to better reflect reality (Iberia no longer all desert, etc). How a province appears on the map should now be much closer matched to its actual terrain.
- Added four new terrain types: Drylands, Steppe, Highlands and Farmlands.
- Added ten new achievements!


Adding more detail to other regions, in particular South America, has been long overdue. If I have one bone to pick with Paradox’s games is that they have traditionally been far too Eurocentric, where perhaps Sweden is full of historical details while playing as the Aztec is mostly a waiting game for the Spanish to arrive. Thankfully both the free update and the expansion amend this.

El Dorado brings out one of the best features of these games: the creation of your own alternate history and roleplaying aspects which have traditionally been more reserved to Crusader Kings II. As the title suggests, you can do such things as search for the mythical City of Gold or resist European colonisation as a Native American nation.

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Of course, the biggest of these features by far is the nation designer included in the El Dorado expansion. This takes the roleplaying and alternative history aspects of this strategy game to a whole new level, letting you completely re-invent history rather than slowly changing it within its confines.

If you want to play a game where the early Norse settlers at Vinland had succeeded in establishing a presence in North America, you can. If you want to burn the history books completely and establish The Merchant Republic of Linux, playing as Doge Tux, waging war upon Emperor Bill Gates of Microsoft, you can also do that.

Needless to say, this can provide for some pretty interesting gameplay experiences, ranging from the plausible to the completely ridiculous (albeit fun). This can also give you a HUGE advantage even on Ironman mode if you spend your nation designer points wisely.

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For example, having a Westernised country in South America will cost 250 out of the 200 points, however after making a completely terrible leader and heir, this is just about doable. Given that Portugal and Spain don’t get a serious presence in South America until around 150 years after the game starts, this basically means you can feasibly make the world’s most powerful nation in under 150 years, owning entire continents while having the latest military technology.

If you want to pick up the base game, now is the time to do so since it’s currently 75% off (along with most of the expansions) - the cheapest its ever been. If you do wish to get either Europa Universalis IV or the El Dorado expansion, consider getting them from Games Republic since buying them from there will help support GOL financially and they also have the same sale as Steam.

Official About:

Fulfill Your Quest For Global Domination Paradox Development Studio is back with the fourth installment of the award-winning Europa Universalis series. The empire building game Europa Universalis IV gives you control of a nation to guide through the years in order to create a dominant global empire. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Tags: Sandbox, Strategy
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About the author -
After many years of floating through space on the back of a missile, following a successful career in beating people up for not playing Sega Saturn, the missile returned to earth. Upon returning, I discovered to my dismay that the once great console had been discontinued and Sega had abandoned the fight to dominate the world through 32-bit graphical capabilities.

After spending some years breaking breeze blocks with my head for money and being mocked by strangers, I have found a new purpose: to beat up people for not playing on Linux.
See more from me
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4 comments

BTRE Feb 26, 2015
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  • Contributing Editor
I've been looking forward to this expansion. Anything that makes the rest of the world more interesting is always a big plus. I've sunk in hundreds of hours into EU4 and added content and free features helps keep the game fresh. Though I'm not sure how fun the doom mechanics for the central americans are, might be a bit tedious to have all those vassals break away each time.

I'll be getting the DLC sometime in the next few days, after I have a little more spare money.
Segata Sanshiro Feb 26, 2015
Quoting: BTREI'll be getting the DLC sometime in the next few days, after I have a little more spare money.

Try and get it from Games Republic so some of the money goes to GOL ;).
mao_dze_dun Feb 27, 2015
It only shows how addicted I am to Paradox. I don't care for colonization, yet I bough the thing day one :).
jsa1983 Feb 27, 2015
Quoting: Segata SanshiroThe Merchant Republic of Linux
This, plus the M$ vs Linux map screenshot made my day :D La serenissima repubblica di Linux LOL
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