Europa Universalis IV: Rule Britannia announced

The sprawling grand strategy title will be getting new content soon in the form of a new immersion pack. The British Isles will be getting the lion’s share of attention this time around.

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Europa Universalis 4 [Official Site] continues to grow and be refined nearly five years on from its original launch. While the previous DLC, Cradle of Civilization, was a somewhat signficant expansion, this next release will be smaller and more focused. Paradox Development Studios are calling it an immersion pack, in the vein of Third Rome, but it seems that the focus will be a bit broader, with features that will apply to more than just the nations of the British Isles.

Official Features:

• Trade Steering: Force your defeated enemies to have their merchants fill your coffers.
• New Unit Pack: New army designs for British nations, including regional Irish units and revolting nations like Northumberland or Cornwall, as well as new music.
•  New British Missions: New exclusive Mission Trees for England, Scotland and Ireland, embedded in our new Europa Universalis IV mission system.
• Industrial Revolution: Highly developed provinces may produce coal in the late game, fueling higher productivity and greater wealth.
• Innovativeness: Earn rewards for being the first nation to unlock new knowledge, including lower power costs.
• Naval Doctrine: Adopt a general strategy for your fleets, giving you bonuses to ship maintenance, trade power or battle performance.
• Anglicanism: A new Protestant faith can appear in England with new bonuses and religious choices.
• Knowledge Sharing: Help your lagging allies or subjects by promoting the spread of institutions in their realms.
• New Music: Our composers have been hard at work writing new songs to quiet the stormy seas of commerce. 

I suggest looking at the developer diaries to look at how some of these new features will work in detail. From my own reading, I’m most interested in the addition of coal and furnaces. I’m not sure it’ll be enough to change the late-game tedium common to strategy games but attempts to shake things up even just by a little are still appreciated.

That said, the changes in the free patch that’ll be released alongside the DLC do sound rather nice. Aside from more map changes and reworked provinces in some places, the mission system is being completely overhauled. You’ll be able to see what you require to trigger them and have a clear idea of the unique things that your nation have in store for it at a glance. Several minor nations, patricularly in Ireland, will also be getting new national ideas which are always a nice touch to make playing them feel a little different.

There’s no release date yet for Rule Britannia, but you can preorder all the same if you've got a burning desire to do so at the Paradox Store.