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Europa Universalis IV: The Cossacks Now Available

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The latest expansion for the popular grand strategy game, Europa Universalis IV, is now available. Hordes get a lot of shiny new features but there's a lot of new internal and diplomatic options introduced as well. It's been released alongside a massive patch that improves things for all players.

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I'm a longtime EUIV player and what I'm most excited about this expansion is the appearance of more internal empire management features. The introduction of various estates and managing them should mix things up and give players something different to do between wars and colonization. Hopefully it's well balanced and fun since this is the kind of feature players have been asking after for years.

Here are the key features of the expansion:

  • The Estates: Allocate lands to clergy, nobles and merchants as you try to balance the powers in your Renaissance state.
  • Advanced diplomatic options: Threaten war, trade favors, and tell the world which provinces are of strategic importance in your plans
  • Tengri: Tengri is now a Syncretic faith, allowing it to tolerate a secondary religion as if it were a national faith.
  • Horde Unity and Razing: Nomadic nations now must pay attention the horde unity of their tribes – a unity that can only be maintained by the occasional pillaging
  • Improved Culture Change: You can now restore a previous culture to a converted province, or convert a province you hold to a culture that is not your own.
  • Native Policies: Set your policy for colonial encounters with natives. Are you focused on quick subjugation, peaceful growth or trading advantages?
  • Improved Espionage: New spy actions allow you to study the technology of more advanced countries and prod your rivals’ subjects towards independence.

In addition to all the expansion features, Paradox have also put out a massive patch for all players of the game. There's 18 pages worth of patch notes and it's safe to say that nearly every aspect of the game has been touched upon. Besides bugfixes and balances as expected, there's also a host of free features. Below are a few that I'm really pleased with and will definitely make the game more enjoyable for me:

  • Macro Builder got a face lift, with more information and sortable columns.
  • Nation forming decisions now use permanent claims that do not expire unless revoked through war.
  • Army & Navy maintenance will now automatically be raised, and forts will be activated, when you enter into a war. This feature can be turned off in the military view.

You can grab EUIV: The Cossacks through Games Republic, Paradox's Webshop or through Steam. All give you Steam keys and buying through the Games Republic link helps GOL out.

Lastly, I thought that I should mention that Paradox have collaborated with Swedish power metal band Sabaton to create a music pack for the game. I'm not too sure how well metal meshes with strategy but given that this is the third rock-based optional music pack they've put out, there must be a demand for it. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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About the author -
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History, sci-fi, technology, cooking, writing and playing games are things I enjoy very much. I'm always keen to try different genres of games and discover all the gems out there.

Oh and the name doesn't mean anything but coincidentally could be pronounced as "Buttery" which suits me just fine.
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9 comments

Stupendous Man Dec 1, 2015
28€ with the content pack included? Thanks but no thanks. And I thought the earlier DLCs were expensive (I never bought Common Sense).
Don't get me wrong, I like both EU4 and CK2 and don't mind buying DLCs with lots of content. However, in my opinion Paradox's DLCs have too little content and get released a little too often, at too high a price. All just IMHO, of course.
Teodosio Dec 1, 2015
28€ with the content pack included? Thanks but no thanks. And I thought the earlier DLCs were expensive (I never bought Common Sense).
Don't get me wrong, I like both EU4 and CK2 and don't mind buying DLCs with lots of content. However, in my opinion Paradox's DLCs have too little content and get released a little too often, at too high a price. All just IMHO, of course.
Come on, we all know it will be 50% off in two or three months at max! :D
Segata Sanshiro Dec 1, 2015
28€ with the content pack included? Thanks but no thanks. And I thought the earlier DLCs were expensive (I never bought Common Sense).
Don't get me wrong, I like both EU4 and CK2 and don't mind buying DLCs with lots of content. However, in my opinion Paradox's DLCs have too little content and get released a little too often, at too high a price. All just IMHO, of course.

Who cares about the content pack though? I never pay any attention to what the units look like, honestly if you're playing this game a lot then you're never zooming in that far to even care about that stuff.

Either way though, I am going to wait for a sale on this one (for the first time). Mostly because I feel that this doesn't add as much as some of the others have, but also that i've bought everything EU4 related (except said content packs) day-1 and don't care to think how much money that's been :P

Lastly, I thought that I should mention that Paradox have collaborated with Swedish power metal band Sabaton to create a music pack for the game. I'm not too sure how well metal meshes with strategy but given that this is the third rock-based optional music pack they've put out, there must be a demand for it.

LOL. Scandinavians, eh.
Mountain Man Dec 1, 2015
Maybe one of these days, I'll actually manage to finish a game of EU4 before the next major patch or expansion is released. :p

Lastly, I thought that I should mention that Paradox have collaborated with Swedish power metal band Sabaton to create a music pack for the game. I'm not too sure how well metal meshes with strategy but given that this is the third rock-based optional music pack they've put out, there must be a demand for it.
"Guns, Drums, and Steel" is actually pretty awesome. Here's the metal version of the main theme:

View video on youtube.com
I'll definitely go for more metal music as I pursue world domination!


Last edited by Mountain Man on 1 December 2015 at 8:19 pm UTC
Mountain Man Dec 1, 2015
28€ with the content pack included? Thanks but no thanks. And I thought the earlier DLCs were expensive (I never bought Common Sense).
Don't get me wrong, I like both EU4 and CK2 and don't mind buying DLCs with lots of content. However, in my opinion Paradox's DLCs have too little content and get released a little too often, at too high a price. All just IMHO, of course.
Hooray! Another expansion pack for one of Paradox's awesome games! \o/

Oh, look, it's someone complaining that the expansion packs are too expensive and too plentiful. How predictable. Oh well... I guess you can't make everybody happy.

Just wait for the inevitable Christmas sale and buy it for 80%.
Apopas Dec 1, 2015
I wonder why EU4 is not in GOG unlike every previous version.
Segata Sanshiro Dec 2, 2015
"Guns, Drums, and Steel" is actually pretty awesome. Here's the metal version of the main theme:

Not really a fan of metal music, but I can see why this would be pretty appealing, especially during wartime. They managed to still give it a bit of a renaissance vibe, where as I thought it would be just pure metal music. Pretty nice job actually, I hope they do similar things in the future with genres I enjoy.
mao_dze_dun Dec 2, 2015
I've noticed my playthroughs are in sync with big updates. I loose a weekend playing the game, then wait 4 months for the next update :). Time for a hoard play.
StianTheDark Dec 3, 2015
LOL. Scandinavians, eh.

I'm offended.
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