Games PC EUROPA UNIVERSALIS III User Manual
Paradox Interactive
President and CEO: Theodore Bergqvist. Producer: Johan Andersson. Game Design : Johan Andersson.
Lead Programmer: Adam Skoglund. Programming : Thomas Johansson, Pontus Åberg, Anna Drevendal, Johan
Andersson. Lead Ar tist : Marcus Edström. 3D A rtis t: Dick Sjöström. Nikitova Tutorial: Marcus Edström.
Original Music & Sound Effects: Andreas Waldetoft. Lead Tester: Chris King.
Sales & Acquisitions: Fredrik Wester. CFO: Lena Eriksson. Marketing and PR Director: Susana Meza.
Marketing Assistant: Keisha Salmon. Pr oduct M anager : Jeanette Bauer. Art Director: Stefan Thulin.
Business Developer: Erik Helmfridsson. Localiz ation Responsible: Florian Santer. Localization: S&H
Enter tainment Localization. Manual: Chris Stone. Strategy Guide: Ed Hanks. Editing: Robbie Graham, Digital
Wordsmithing. Web: Brian King, Simon Aistleitner, Jean-Philippe Duflot. Intro movie: Stuart Diamond, Russ Allen.
Beta Testers: Frank van Aanholt, Tom Adriaenssen, Jose Maria Aguirre, Simon Aistleitner, Markus Alahuhta,
Guillaume Alvarez, Mike Amberry, Gustav Björklund, Loic Brient, Thomas Broman, Joe Chandler, Thomas Corriol,
Luis Miguel Nunes Corujo, Tony Cristanelli, Inge Davidsen, Maarten Demeyer, David DiCicco, Jan Peter Dijkstra,
Jean-Philippe Duflot, Peter Ebbesen, Aric Ferrell, Wesley Ferris, Alexander John Fowler, Michael Girard, Stephen
Gregson, Jean-Alain Grunchec, Ed Hanks, Markus Herrmann, Jeremy Holley, Kalle Isotalo, Robert Jackson,
Simon Jäger, Nils Karlsson, Tamas Kiss, Mark Kvistgaard Thomsen, Paul Lancashire, Tony Lozina, Jacob Michael
Lundgren, Rajeev D. Majumdar, Nicholas Malouin, Carsten Mannetje, Thomas Mittelbach, Fokke van der Molen,
Robert O’Regan, Anu Pakanati, Maxime Penen, Kevin Peter, Thomas Pettersen, Pent Ploompuu, Derek Pullem,
Ludovic Russo, Kevin Simmons, Jason Snyder, Jarkko Suvinen, Kevyn Taylor, Sascha Tesch, Lars Thomsen,
Douglas Troiani, Jens Van Heuverswijn, Patrick Wegerle, Gene Whitmore, Mark Williams, Emre Yigit
Partners
USA : Ezra Chen. Germany, Aus tria and Switzerland : Mario Gerhold, Susanna Mittermaier. UK: Jo Kemp,
Simon Callaghan. Italy: Daniele Falcone, Tania Rossia. S candinavia: Niklas Molin, Daniel Torbjörnsson, Klas
Palmqvist. France : Eric Boccara, Geraldine Morisse, Iris Cathala, Caroline Ferrier. Benelux: Johan Dewindt,
Wouter Van Vugt, Simone Goudsmit. Spain: Juan Diaz Bustamante. Poland: Rafal Korytkowski, Joanna
Zebrowska-Kepka, Mariusz Szlanta. Australia: Ashwin Segkar, Graham Edelsten, Paul Olsen. Russia : Sergei
Klimov, Pavel Nechaev. Japan: Shinya Itoh. Hong Kong: Michelle Ho.
Thanks to our partners THQ/Valusoft ( USA), Snowball (Russia), Friendware
(Spain), Cenega (Poland) , Koch Media (UK, Germany, Italy, France), Pan Vision (Scandinavia), Cyberfront (Japan),
Typhonngames ( Hong Kong), Auran (Australia) and Atari (Benelux)
Special thanks to all our forum members, partners and supporters,
who are integral for our success.
FORZA DJURGÅR’N!
2
INT RODU CTI ON 6
Overview 6
For New Players
6
Your First Game
6
The Game Manual and the
Paradox Forums
7
For Veterans of the
Europa Universalis Series
7
GET TING STARTED
8
Installation 8
System Requirement s
8
Installing EU3
8
Launching the Game
8
Main Game Menu
9
Game Options
9
Game Options
9
Video Options 1
0
Audio Options 1
0
Controls 10
Settings.txt 11
Tutorials 11
Star ting a Game 1
2
New Single Player Games 1
2
Selecting a Star ting Date
and Country 1
3
Using Bookmarks 1
3
The Date Selector 1
3
Loading a Saved Single
Player Game 1
4
Star ting a New or
Saved Multi-Player Game 1
4
THE M AIN I NTE RFAC E 1
5
The Main Map 1
5
Navigating the Main Map 1
7
The Mini Map 1
7
The Top Bar 1
7
Special Menus Toolbar 2
0
Holy See Button 2
0
Holy Roman Empire Button 2
0
Menu But ton 2
0
Ledger Button 2
1
Map Mode B uttons 2
1
Map Zoom Buttons: 2
2
Domestic Interface 2
2
Province-Related Interfaces 2
2
Province Interface 2
2
Diplomatic Interface 2
3
Colonization Interface 2
3
Map Units 2
3
Messages and the History Log 2
3
Histor y Log 2
4
Message W indows 2
4
Floating Messages 2
4
Message S ettings 2
4
Events 25
Alert s 25
Diplomatic Messages 2
6
The Outliner 2
6
Tool Tips 2
7
PROVINCE MAN AGEMENT 2
8
Overview 28
Province O wnership and Control 2
8
Province Interface 2
9
Provincial Summary 2
9
Province Details 2
9
Province Religion and C onversions 3
1
Province Income 3
1
Province Trade 3
2
Core Provinces and
Provincial Claims 3
2
Province Improvements 3
3
City View 3
3
Building New Improvements 3
4
Militar y Recruitment 3
4
Other Countries’ Provinces 3
5
Unoccupied Provinces 3
5
DOME STIC MAN AGEMENT 3
6
Overview 36
Domestic Overview 3
6
National Culture 3
7
National Prestige 3
7
National Ranking 3
7
Special Political B odies 3
8
National Religion 3
8
Reputation 38
Diplomatic Summary 3
9
Relations 39
Create Vassal 4
0
Domestic Court 4
1
Rulers 41
Ruler Attributes 4
1
Ruler Succession 4
1
Advisors 43
Hiring and Firing Advisors 4
4
Domestic Economy 4
4
Income Summary 4
4
Budget Allocation Sliders 4
5
Technology Investment 4
5
Stability Investment 4
7
Treasury Investment 4
8
Fixed Expenses 4
8
Monthly B udget Balance 4
8
Inflation 4 8
Loans 49
Bankruptcy 50
War Taxes 5
0
Domestic Militar y 5
1
Unit Categories and Types 5
1
Preferred Unit Type 5
1
Changing Your Preferred Regiment
Type 52
Army/Naval Maintenance 5
3
Domestic Religion 5
4
World Religions 5
4
Realm Religion 5
4
Religious Tolerance 5
5
Religious Tolerance’s Effect on
Province Revolt Risk 5
6
Religious Tolerance’s Effect on
Population Growth 5
6
Religious Tolerance’s Effect on
Countr y Relationships 5
6
Conver ting Religion 5
6
Defender of the Faith 5
7
Domestic Government 5
8
Form of Government 5
8
Changing Your Form of
Government 59
National Ideas 5
9
Domestic Policies 6
0
Domestic Leaders 6
2
Militar y Tradition 6
2
Militar y Leaders 6
3
Recruiting new Leaders 6
3
Conver ting a Ruler to a Leader 6
4
Leader Listing 6
5
TRADE 66
Overview 66
Trade Goods 6
6
Supply and Demand 6
6
Centers of Trade 6
7
Merchant Interface 6
7
Competition 68
Monopolies 69
Trade Disruption 6
9
DIPLOMACY, WAR,
AND ESPIO NAGE 7
0
Overview 70
The Diplomatic Interface 7
0
General Information 7
0
Initiating Diplomacy 7
1
Diplomatic Actions 7
2
Offer Royal Marriage/
Break Royal Ties 7
2
Offer A lliance /Dissolve A lliance 7
3
Issue Embargo/Revoke Embargo 7
4
Offer Trade A greement /
Cancel Trade Agreement 7
4
Offer Vassalisation/ Cancel
Vassalisation 75
Demand Annexation 7
6
Proclaim Guarantee 7
6
Send Warning 7
6
Send Insult 7
6
Claim Throne 7
6
3
Send Gif t 76
Sell Province 7
7
Send War Subsidies /
Revoke Subsidies 7
7
Offer Loan 7
7
Request Military Access /Give Militar y
Access /Revoke Military Access 7
7
Declaring War 7
8
Restrictions Prohibiting a
Declaration of War 7
8
National Stability Effects 7
9
War Exhaustion Effects 7
9
Reputation Effects 8
0
Alliance C onsiderations 8
0
Declaring War 8
0
Allies and A lliance Leaders 8
0
Peace Negotiations 8
1
Negotiating Peace with Alliances 8
1
War Score 8
2
Peace Of fers 8
2
Annex 83
Demand Tribute 8
3
Offer W hite Peace 8
3
Offer Tribute 8
3
Preparing the Terms of a
Peace Of fer 8
4
Province Terms 8
5
Core Terms 8
5
Vassal Terms 8
6
New Nations Terms 8
6
Special Terms 8
6
Sending the Peace Of fer 8
7
Receiving a Peace Of fer 8
7
Peace 87
Espionage 87
Espionage Modifiers 8
8
Spy Actions 8
8
Incite Troop Desertions 8
9
Assassinate Advisor 8
9
Sabotage Reputation 8
9
Incite Against the Merchants 8
9
Spy Ring Infiltration 9
0
Suppor t Revolt 9
0
Commission Privateer. 9
0
THE MILITARY 9
1
Overview 91
Structure of the Military 9
1
Regiment Types 9
1
Infantr y Regiments 9
1
Cavalry Regiments 9
2
Artillery Regiments 9
2
Ship Types 9
2
Transport s 92
Galleys 93
Light Ships 9
3
Big Ships 9
3
Unit Types 9
3
Recruiting Land Forces 9
3
Mercenaries 95
Army Information 9
5
Army Organisation 9
6
Assigning Army Leaders 9
8
Recruiting a New Leader 9
8
Army Basics 9
8
Maintenance and Maximum
Suppor table Troops 9
8
Attrition 99
Army Reinforcement 10
0
Army Morale 10
0
Moving an A rmy 10
0
Paths 101
Movement Restrictions 10
1
Movement Speed 10
1
Land Combat 10
2
Overview 102
Taking the Field 10
2
Combat Resolution 10
4
Fire and Shock Phases 10
4
Regiment Combat
Characteristics 104
Die Rolls 10
5
Leader Combat Attributes 10
5
Terrain Modifiers 10
5
River-Crossing Modifier 10
6
Making an Attack 10
6
Calculating Casualty Damage 10
6
Calculating Morale Damage 10
6
Leadership Casualties 10
6
End of Day “H ousekeeping” 10
7
End of Combat 10
7
Retreat 107
Sieges 108
Capturing Provinces 10
9
Naval Forces 11
0
Recruitment of Naval F orces 11
0
Fleet Information and
Organisation 111
Admirals 112
Using Naval Forces 11
2
Naval Attrition 11
3
Naval Repair 11
3
Naval Combat 11
3
Positioning 113
Targeting 113
Damage 114
End of Bat tle 11
4
Naval Retreat 11
4
Naval Blockades 11
4
Naval Transport of Armies 11
4
EXPLOR ATION AND COLONIZATION 11
7
Overview 117
Exploring 117
Explorers and Conquistadors 11
7
Exploring Provinces 11
8
Land and Naval Tradition from
Exploring 119
Natives 119
Attacking Natives 11
9
Colonies 120
Establishing a Colony 12
0
Expanding a Colony 12
0
Colonial Limitations 12
1
Colonial Conquest 12
1
Gaining Maps from Other Nations 12
1
SPEC IAL P OLI TICAL BODIES 12
2
Overview 122
The Holy See 12
2
The Holy Roman Emperor 12
4
The Emperor 12
4
Member States 12
5
Elector s 125
Becoming the Holy
Roman Emperor 12
5
War With the Empire 12
6
LEDG ER 127
MULTI PL AYER 129
Star ting a Multi-Player Game 12
9
Preliminar y Requirements 12
9
Connection Types 12
9
Host 130
Join LAN Game 13
0
Join Internet Game 13
0
Metaserver 130
The Multiplayer Lobby 13
1
The Metaserver 13
1
Multiplayer Gameplay 13
2
Ending a Multiplayer Game 13
3
Where to Find Other Players 13
3
APPENDI CES 134
Appendix A New and Changed Feature List 13
4
Appendix B Province Improvements 13
6
Appendix C - Cultures 13
9
Appendix D Technology Modifiers 14
0
Appendix E - Religions 14
0
Appendix F Forms of Government 14
2
Appendix G - National Ideas 14
4
Appendix H - Domestic Policies 14
6
Appendix I - Trade Goods 14
7
4
INTRODUCTION
Overview
Europa Universalis III is a grand strategy game
set during the Renaissance and Reformation periods of history. You will select one of
more than 200 countries that existed in the
world during this time, and attempt to guide
it through more than 300 years of diplomacy,
warfare, trade, religious turmoil, scientific development, exploration, and colonization.
The game begins just after the fall of Constantinople in May 1453, and is played in continuous time until its conclusion in December
1789. As the days pass, you will devote most of
your efforts to looking after the domestic needs
of your country, negotiating with your neigh-
bours, and conducting wars of self-defence or
conquest.
Each country begins the game owning one
or more “provinces”. A province is the essential
building block of a nation; contributing vital
tax and trade income to drive its economy, and
supplying much-needed manpower for use in
its military. The more provinces your country
owns, the more powerful you will be. If you
lose your last province, your country will be
eliminated and you will lose the game.
There are areas of the globe where you may
find provinces that are unoccupied and available for colonisation; however, the majority of
the world’s provinces will already belong to
other countries, and to increase your power,
you must find ways to obtain them. Although
it is possible to achieve this through diplomatic
means, you are far more likely to extend your
power by waging war. Expansion and conquest
are the goals of most nations, thus creating a
very volatile and potentially dangerous geo-political environment in the game. It is your goal
to see to the needs of your country, to prevent
your enemies from taking what is rightfully
yours, and to expand your nation through diplomacy or war.
At its heart, Europa Universalis III is a game
that allows you to explore an infinite range of
possible “what if” scenarios within a complex,
flexible, context-sensitive historical environment. Do not expect the history you learned at
school to repeat itself on your computer screen.
Instead, you will begin with an accurate historical set-up and then have complete freedom
to chart your own course through time. As the
game world begins to deviate from history, Eu-
ropa Universalis III ’s underlying engine will
evaluate these changing conditions and then
direct countries to react to them as their historical counterparts might have done. Nations
may rise or fall, unexpectedly, based entirely
on the interactions they have with one another
and on the outcome of events as they unfold.
The game ends in the late 19th century
when some of the most powerful nations of the
world had already begun their transition into
the next major period of history: the Industrial
Revolution. Traditional ideas of “country” and
“realm” would be replaced with a new vision of
the “Nation-State”, and society would undergo
radical revolutions spurred on by rapid advances in science, technology, and the art of war. If
you have been attentive to the needs of your
country and successful in your ventures, you
may find yourself at a similar crossroads when
the game comes to its conclusion.
Europa Universalis III maintains a ranking
for each country in the world, and the “winner” is nominally the country with the highest
ranking at the end of the game. You may prefer
to set your own arbitrary goals, using a measure of victory that is based on the country you
are controlling and the style of play you enjoy.
For small countries, merely surviving until the
end can be considered a victory. When playing
a large and wealthy nation, you might set more
lofty goals of continental hegemony or even try
setting your sights on world domination.
For New Players
Your First Game
If you are new to the Europa Universalis series,
you may find the complexity, scale, and sheer
range of possibilities somewhat daunting when
you first start to play. You might want to begin
by doing the series of tutorials which will introduce you to the most important aspects of the
game; then pick a date and country that interests you and practice what you’ve learned.
Beginners often make the mistake of trying to achieve too much, too rapidly. We would
recommend that you set yourself some modest
goals for your first game, and take things slowly. Begin by focussing your attention on staying
relatively peaceful, conducting some research,
and gradually building up your country’s economy. You may also wish to expand your army
to ensure your country’s defence, and dispatch
diplomats to help maintain friendly relations
with your neighbours. Unless your country is
very wealthy, you will probably want to send
merchants out to supplement your income with
trade revenue. If it’s appropriate for the country
you have chosen, you could also try your hand
at exploration and colonization.
Once you’re comfortable with the basic interfaces and controls, consider getting involved
in a small-scale war or two. For your first war,
try to find an opponent that will be fairly easy
to defeat. You should try to avoid early confrontations with nations that are large, or that
have powerful allies, even if this means that
you have to buy your way out of the war or give
up a bit of territory in surrender. By engaging
a major nation, you could easily find yourself
in over your head if you aren’t prepared for the
onslaught.
Once you’re comfortable with controlling
your armies and fleets, try tackling a more dangerous opponent, and don’t worry too much if
the war does not end in your favor. You can
learn as much from a colossal defeat as you
would through any number of smaller victories. A word of warning: do not try to expand
your realm too rapidly or allow your country’s
reputation to become too tarnished. If you are
too aggressive or underhanded, you could easily find yourself at war with much of the rest of
the known world.
The Game Manual and the
Paradox Forums
This manual contains a detailed and complete
explanation of each of Europa Universalis III’s
interfaces and features, as well as general tips
that help you to see how each of these fits together in the overall context of play. Everything
in the game is inter-related. Everything! There
is virtually nothing that you do that won’t have
some sort of impact on something else. Learning these relationships and using them to your
advantage is what will eventually make you a
master.
When in doubt, pause your game and refer to the manual. For specific issues that you
may encounter, or questions that might not
be answered in enough detail for your needs,
you may want to visit the Europa Universalis
III public forums. It’s a friendly community of
many thousands of players from around the
world who would be happy to help you. It is
also the place to check for any official patches
to the game which will fix any bugs that are
discovered after release, and may also include
new or revised features. The Europa Universa-
lis III forums can be found by going to www.
europauniversalis3.com and clicking on the
“forums” link.
For Veterans of the
Europa Universalis
Series
If you are a veteran of the series, we have provided a general overview of the major changes
and new features introduced in Europa Univer-
salis III which may be found in Appendix A at
the back of this manual. You should find most
aspects of the game fairly familiar, and we have
made every attempt to ensure that all of the
game’s new interfaces are as easy and intuitive
to understand as possible. Even so, you might
find some valuable information tucked away
within these pages, so we urge you to read on.
5
6
GETTING STARTED
Installation
System Requirements
To play Europa Universalis III, your computer
should meet or exceed all of the following system requirements:
• 1.9GHz Intel Pentium 4 or AMD Athlon
processor or equivalent with 512MB RAM
(1.0GB RAM is highly recommended).
• 128MB Video Card with Hardware T&L
and support for Pixelshader 2.0 or better.
• DirectX7 compatible sound card
• CD-ROM drive
• Windows-compatible mouse. Mouse with
scroll wheel highly recommended.
• At least 1GB of free hard drive space to ac
commodate game files and saved games.
This does not include any space used by
the Windows® swap file.
• DirectX9.0c
• High-speed Modem connection is required
for multiplayer games.
• Windows® 2000 (with Service pack 1 or
higher) or Windows® XP (Home/Professional/Media Edition) with Service Pack
2.
Installing EU3
Place the Europa Universalis III CD into your CD-
ROM drive. If auto-play
is enabled on this drive,
the installation will begin automatically. If autoplay is disabled, use Windows Explorer to navigate
to your CD-ROM drive
and double-click the set-
up.exe file in the CD’s
root directory. Simply follow the on-screen directions to install the game
to your computer. By default, EU3 is placed in a
new directory on your C drive and a shortcut
will be added to both your desktop and your
start menu. You may change these options if
you prefer to install it to a different location.
Launching the Game
After installing Europa Universalis III, launch
the game by clicking on the shortcut on your
desktop or start menu. If you choose not to install shortcuts, use Windows Explorer to navigate to the directory you specified during the
installation process and click on the eu3.exe
file. You can also place the CD in your drive
to launch the game automatically, although it
is not necessary for the CD to be in the drive
in order to play.
You will see an initial menu that offers several options. You can choose to launch the game,
visit our community forums, check to see if
there is a new update for your game, or register
the game if you have not yet done so. We periodically release patches for all of our games to
correct any minor bugs that might have been
discovered since release. These often offer additional performance or feature enhancements
that will make the game even more interesting
and challenging to play. Click on the link in
the loader to see if there’s a new update avail-
able for download.
Once you have chosen
the option to play Europa
Universalis III, the game
will require a short while
to complete its initial
loading procedure. You
will see a progress bar on
the screen as the game
loads, after which the
Main Game Menu will
be displayed.
7
Main Game Menu
The Main Game Menu offers a series of options, allowing you to choose a single or multiplayer game, to launch the game’s tutorials, or
to alter any of the game’s main options. You
can also view the game credits to see all of the
people involved in the production of Europa
Universalis III.
• Single Player:
Allows you to start a new
single-player game or load an existing saved
game.
• Multi Player:
Used to host or join a multi-
player game.
• Tutorial:
Launches a series of instructional
tutorials that familiarise you with the basics
of play.
• Options:
Allows you to change the game’s
default graphics, sound, and game play settings.
• Credits:
Displays a list of the people who
helped to design, produce, and test Europa
Universalis III.
• Exit:
Click this button to exit the game and
return to your Windows desktop.
Game
Options
Click the “Options” button
of the Main Game menu to
change any of the game’s
default settings. Each tab
at the top of the interface
allows you to adjust a type
of option: game play, video, audio, or controls. After making your changes,
click the “apply” button
at the bottom of the menu
to save these and return to
the main menu; click the
“back” button at any time
to abort. Many of these settings can also be changed
during play by accessing the “Options” menu
from within the game. Please note that most
changes to the graphical options will not take
effect until you exit and reload the game.
Game Options
• Difficulty: You can change the overall difficulty of the game to make it somewhat
more (or less) challenging than normal.
Lower difficulty settings will reduce some
of the game’s variables to give you an extra
advantage over computer-controlled countries. Higher settings will make it more difficult to manage your realm and will make
the AI harder to defeat. “Normal” places
the player and AI at an equal advantage,
and is the setting we use when establishing
overall game balance.
• Auto-Save Frequency:
You may allow Europa Universalis III to automatically save
your game every month, six months, year,
or five years of elapsed game time; or you
can select “never” to disable this feature.
When enabled, the game will automatically
be saved with the frequency you have set.
You will see a saved game
named “autosave” and a
second one named “old au-
tosave” in your saved game
folder. This allows you to
resume a game from either of the two most recent
auto-save points. Enabling
auto-save can be handy for
trying different strategies,
or to recover a game that
has been accidentally interrupted. Of course, you can
also manually save a game
at any time you wish; there
is no limit to the number
of saves that you may have
stored for later use.
8
Video Options
Important: Graphical options are loaded into
memory during the initial launch process, so
any changes you make to these settings will not
take effect until you have exited and restarted
the game.
• Resolution:
Use this control to change
the game’s video resolution to one of many
supported resolutions, including 1024x768
and higher. The default value is determined
by your current desktop resolution. If your
monitor’s resolution is not listed for any reason, you can manually edit the settings.txt
file in the EU3 root directory to provide any
resolution that is 1024 x 768 or higher. We
do not recommend extremely high resolutions on smaller monitors as this may make
some of the in-game text and controls too
small to use effectively. You must exit and
restart the game before any changes will be
applied.
• Screen Refresh Rate:
Use this control to
adjust the screen refresh rate from the default value determined by your desktop settings. Warning: an incorrect setting can
cause damage to your monitor. Please refer
to the user manual for your monitor before
changing the default screen refresh setting.
• Gamma:
This slider adjusts the overall contrast level of the game’s graphics. For most
systems, the middle position should provide excellent crispness and contrast. Shifting the slider to the left will reduce contrast,
and shifting it to the right will increase contrast.
• Multisampling:
Use this control to set
the level of multisampling (also commonly
called anti-aliasing) used to display graphics in the game. Higher levels will produce
a more pleasing visual image, but will also
cause a slight reduction in game performance.
• Shadows:
Enabling shadows for objects
that are displayed on the main game map
will reduce the overall performance of the
game very slightly, and is not necessary for
play. Enabling shadows will provide a more
appealing overall image.
• Trees:
If your system is very close to the
minimum game specifications, you may be
able to improve your game’s speed and performance by turning off trees. You should
only disable this feature if you have a very
low-performance graphics card since terrain plays a very important role in movement and combat. You should first try reducing the anti-aliasing level and disable
both the decorative map info and shadows
before you resort to turning off the trees.
• Decorative Map Info:
There are a number
of small, decorative objects that are added
to the main game map to enhance the overall visual appeal. These do not have any effect on play and can be turned off to gain a
slight boost in game performance.
Audio Options
• Master Volume: This slider adjusts the
overall volume of all game music and audio
effects. This setting only affects the game
volume and will not change your audio
card’s master volume used for other system
sounds.
• Effects Volume:
Use this slider to adjust
the volume of any special sound effects that
are played in the game. This includes interface sounds, and ambient sounds such as
combat effects, naval environment effects,
and other sound cues.
• Music Volume:
The original score of Europa Universalis III is designed to complement game play and will change depending on the events that are occurring in the
game. You may use this slider to adjust the
music volume, but you may lose some special audio cues if it is completely disabled.
Controls
• Scroll Speed: This slider adjusts the speed
that the game’s main map will move when
scrolling. If you find that the map is scrolling too quickly and is difficult to control, or
9
if you find the movement somewhat jerky,
try lowering this setting.
• Zoom Speed:
This slider affects the rate
that the map will zoom in and out as you
roll your mouse’s scroll wheel (if your
mouse has one). If you find it difficult to
obtain the zoom level you desire, try using
a slightly lower setting.
• Mouse Speed:
This slider adjusts the speed
that the in-game pointer moves as you move
your mouse. If you find it hard to accurately
click on items, try a slower setting to improve your pointer control.
Settings.txt
All of the main game settings are stored in the
settings.txt file located in the root folder of
your EU3 installation. You can open this file
with any basic text editor (e.g. “Notepad” that
is included with all Windows™ installations)
and manually adjust any of the above settings.
You can also use this to set a screen resolution
that your monitor supports which may not be
included as a standard resolution in the game.
We do not recommend any resolution below
1024 x 768 as this will cause some menus and
interfaces to merge or conflict with one another. You can also force the game to play in Windowed mode by changing the line “windowed
= no” to “windowed = yes”; although windowed
mode is not officially supported and may cause
performance loss, visual issues, or crashes with
some systems.
Tutorials
Click the “Tutorials” button in the Main Game
menu to access Europa Universalis III’s series of
tutorials. These are designed to quickly introduce you to the basics of play and to give you
essential knowledge that you are likely to need
when you begin your first campaign. Each tutorial will teach you critical things about your
country’s domestic needs or military power
that will affect your ability to survive in the
game. Complete mastery of Europa Universalis
III may take many, many hours of play, so do
not be disheartened if your first attempts are
less successful than you might have envisioned.
10
Starting a Game
New Single Player Games
Click the “Single Player” button on the Main
Game menu to start a new single-player game,
or to load an existing saved game. After a moment, you will see the main country selection
menu that you will use to choose a starting
date and nation to play during your game.
The central area of your screen is dominated by a large, scrollable map of the world.
Moving your mouse pointer to the edge of your
screen will pan the map in that direction, allowing you to move to almost any position on
the globe. For convenience, EU3 uses a rectangular Mercator projection of the world and restricts you from panning too close to the north
or south poles. You may use the arrow keys on
your keyboard to scroll the map if you prefer.
Above the map is a red banner that shows
the game’s start date. The default starting date
is May 30th, 1453, which is shortly after the
fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman army.
You may choose to start at a later date by ad-
justing the “date selector”, located to the left
of the map at the bottom of a list of historical
“bookmarks”.
On the map itself, you will a multi-coloured patchwork of countries, with thick red
lines marking the borders between each nation. Thinner black lines distinguish the separate provinces within each country, and are
the primary object of conquest. If you hover
your mouse pointer over a province, you will
see a small tool tip that shows the province’s
name and the country that owns it. Clicking
on a province will select that country as being
the one that you wish to play. Before doing so,
you should first decide on a starting date for
the game because the availability of countries
and ownership of provinces is determined by
the start date.
11
Selecting a Starting Date and
Country
Europa Universalis III covers a period of great
international upheaval. Countries evolved into
new nations; others disappeared or were destroyed; several new states declared independence and broke away from a former state; and,
throughout the era, the borders of nations were
constantly shifting through war or inheritance.
For any date you select, the game will consult
an extensive set of history files that determine
which countries are available for play, who
rules them, which provinces they own, where
their borders are drawn, and much, much more.
You will be able to play almost any country you
desire, provided that it existed at that date you
have selected. There are two ways to choose
your starting date: you may use one of the convenient historical “bookmarks”, or you may
manually select a specific date.
Using Bookmarks
To the left of the map, you will see a set of
“bookmarks” that identify specific points in
history that we think might be interesting to
play. Clicking on a bookmark will automatically change the date selector to the bookmark’s
date; after a moment or two, the map will be
updated to ref lect the political situation at that
time. Near the bottom of the map, you may
see the heraldic shields of several countries that
might be interesting to control if you begin at
this date. Simply click on a shield to select that
country. You are not limited to our recommendations, though. You can select any realm anywhere in the world by clicking on a province
that belongs to it.
The area to the right of the map will display the name of the country you have selected,
as well as some basic information about the
nation’s ruler and the country’s starting diplomatic situation. There is also an indication
of how difficult this country might be to play
when beginning on this date: our graphic art-
ist’s sense of humour made him use a skull and
crossbones to show a difficult country, and a
baby’s soother for an easy one. If you change
your mind about playing a country that you
have selected, simply click on a different one
to select it instead.
Once you’re satisfied with your choice, click
the “start” button in the lower right corner of
the screen. There will be a short delay as all
of the specific historical data for that starting
date is loaded into the game; you will then see
the main game map and interface appear on
the screen.
The Date Selector
If you prefer, you can use the “date selector” to
choose any starting date you wish. The arrow
buttons above and below the selector’s year display will advance the date forwards or backwards in increments of one, ten, or one hundred years at a time. The smaller arrows to the
left and right of the month and day allow you
to set a precise date in that year. You may also
click a bookmark to get close to the date you
desire, and then use the selector to adjust backwards or forwards from that point.
As you adjust the date selector, the game
refers to its history files and updates the map
to reflect any changes in national borders or
the countries that are available. Once you have
settled on a date, click on the country of your
choice to select it and display some basic information about its ruler and political situation.
When you’re ready to begin playing, click the
“start” button.
12
Loading a Saved Single Player
Game
To resume playing a saved game, click on the
“saved game” tab that is located just above the
bookmarks, near the upper left corner of the
screen. The bookmarks will be replaced by a
listing of all of your saved games (including
any auto-saved games if you have that feature
enabled). Click on a file name to select it, click
the “load” button to load this game’s current
date into the selection screen, then select your
country and click the “start” button to resume
your game. If you wish, you can choose a different country to play when you resume your
game by simply selecting it on the map.
Starting a New or Saved Multi-
Player Game
The same general method is used for starting
multiplayer games; however, only the “host”
may change the date, and each player must select a country before the “start” button will be
enabled. Detailed instructions for multiplayer
games can be found in the separate Multiplayer
chapter near the end of this manual.
13
THE MAIN
INTERFACE
Once the game has finished loading, you will
see the main interface. It consists of a large map
that displays the provinces in a small portion of
the world, and a variety of buttons and other
interface elements that you will use frequently
while playing. In this section, we will give you
an overview of this interface and provide references to the chapters where you will find more
detailed information about each of the game’s
elements and features.
The Main Map
The largest portion of the screen is filled with
a main map. The world is divided into approximately 1700 individual provinces, shown
on the map with a thin, dotted grey border.
About 450 of these are water provinces which
your fleets will use to navigate and explore the
world. The remaining 1250 are land provinces
which have various types of terrain. You may
see forests, swamps, rivers, hills and mountains,
all of which will have an impact on the movement and combat capabilities of your armies.
We will discuss this in detail in the chapter on
the Military.
Land provinces are the main building
blocks of nations. Each province generates important tax and trade revenues to support your
country’s economy, and contributes manpower
that is used to build and maintain your military forces. National borders are drawn on the
map using a thick, continuous red line. Only
land provinces may be owned by a country.
Water provinces are never owned, and do not
contribute to a nation’s economy in any way.
Historically, provinces usually contained
14
many small villages, hamlets, and towns; however, in Europa Universalis III, we pay attention
only to the largest and most important city in
each of the provinces. You will see the provincial capital displayed on the map, and its size
will give you an indication of the overall population of the region. There will be a flag flying from each provincial capital to show which
country currently owns it. If you don’t recognise the flag, you can hover your mouse pointer
over the province and a small tool tip will appear to provide you with those details.
If you have the “decorative map info”
graphics option enabled, you may also see some
small towns and villages on the map. These are
there purely to enhance the overall visual ap-
peal of the game and have no effect on actual
game play. They do help to provide a visual
clue about the total population of a province
-- as does the size of the provincial capital city’s
graphic -- which has a fairly large effect on
the amount of tax income generated for your
country and the amount of manpower that it
will contribute to your armed forces. We will
explain the majority of this when we take an
in-depth look at your provinces.
Each country has a national capital that is
of vital importance to the realm. You can easily see each country’s capital by looking for a
golden crown circling a province’s flag on the
map. Losing control of your national capital
will cause fairly significant damage to your
economic situation, and will result in a loss of
prestige that will impact your ability to conduct diplomacy with other realms. Prestige and
the art of diplomacy are covered in the chapters
on domestic affairs and diplomacy.
You may see a variety of other small graphics displayed on the map. Most are used to
show that one of a variety of special “province
improvements” has been constructed in the
province. There will also be a number of loca-
tions that contain a special “bag of gold” symbol to indicate that the province is a regional
center of trade. Provinces that are on a sea or
ocean’s border will often contain a special port
symbol positioned somewhere on the coastline.
This is a quick way to see that it has a port suitable for a f leet to make harbour and conduct
repairs. You’ll find each of these described in
their appropriate sections of the manual.
While Europa Universalis III does not model individual storms or weather patterns, some
provinces are subject to periodic seasonal effects of winter. This is shown graphically on
the map and has three different levels of effect:
mild, average, and severe. Winter conditions
will greatly increase the attrition rates suffered
by any army that is on campaign outside of its
nation’s borders and should be avoided if at all
possible. Details of this can be found in the
section on the Military.
You will notice that most of the map is
somewhat darkened, except for the provinces
that belong to your country and any immediately adjacent provinces. This is called the “fog
of war” and it prevents you from seeing anything that isn’t immediately within your general area of control. Certain diplomatic actions
will lift the fog of war from a friendly country’s
provinces, but in most cases you will only be
aware of your own lands and of the provinces
located in the vicinity or your armies and fleets.
We’ll discuss this further in the sections on Di-
plomacy and the Military.
Many distant provinces will be completely
obscured by a white, impenetrable fog. These
areas are called “terra incognita” (Latin for “unknown land”) and will remain hidden from
view until you have explored them or learned
about them from other countries. There are
also some parts of the world that are so remote
and inhospitable that you will never be able to
explore or colonize them. These areas are called
15
“permanent terra incognita” and are unavailable
during play. Parts of South America, the far
north, and regions in Asia fall under this category. We’ll talk about this again in the section
on exploration and colonization.
Navigating the Main Map
The world is far too large
to fit on your screen all at
once, so you will frequently need to examine distant areas by
simply moving your mouse to the
edge of the screen, causing it to pan
in that direction. You may also pan
the map using your keyboard’s left, right, up,
and down arrow keys, if you prefer. If you
mouse is equipped with a scroll wheel, it can be
used to zoom the map out to display large areas
of the world, or zoom in to see more precise
details of a small handful of provinces. If your
mouse doesn’t have a scroll wheel, you can
zoom the map in and out by clicking on the “+”
and “-” magnifying glass buttons located on
the Special Menus toolbar at the extreme bottom-right corner of your screen. If you wish to
quickly return to the location of your country’s
national capital, click the house-shaped “home”
button that is positioned just above the Special
Menus toolbar, or press the “home” key on
your keyboard. If you wish to locate a specific
province, you can click the arrow-shaped
“province locator” button, type the first few let-
ters of the province’s name into the pop-up box,
and then select it from the list of provinces that
match your search.[
The Mini Map
Towards the lower-right
corner of the screen is a
small map of the world.
This “Mini Map” is a
handy navigation tool that
allows you to quickly jump great distances on
the Main Map by simply clicking on the part
of the world that you’d like to move to on the
Mini Map. The portion of the world that is
currently displayed on the Main Map is shown
as a small white square on the Mini Map, making it easy to orient yourself if the Main Map is
displaying a part of the world with which you
are unfamiliar.
The Top Bar
The Top Bar is the narrow bar that extends
across the top of the screen and is visible at all
times. The left and central portions of the Top
Bar provide a quick overview of a number of
very important values that you will refer to very
frequently. Each symbol has a drop-down tool
tip that will appear if you hover your mouse
over it. The tool tips provide detailed information about each item and the rate that it is currently changing each month. The current game
date is displayed on the right side of the bar;
and beside this is the button that activates the
very useful “Outliner” tool. Let’s look at each
of these, one by one, from left to right:
Manpower Pool: Your manpower pool represents the number of
your citizens that are currently
available to be recruited for your country’s armies and navies. Manpower is drawn from
each of your provinces on a monthly basis and
is used to replenish any losses that your forces
may have suffered in the field. Any excess manpower is placed into your country’s manpower
pool and may be used to recruit new armies of
navies. There is a limit to the
size of your pool which is determined by a wide variety of
factors including your country’s overall population, your
domestic policies, you na-
16
tion’s “ideas”, and the presence of certain province improvements that you may build. We’ll
look at this in detail in the Military section, although some of the factors that affect its replenishment rate and maximum size are discussed in the chapters on Province Management and Domestic Management.
Stability: This critical value represents the overall social stability
of your country and can range
between values of -3 and +3. At very low levels
of stability, you will be under increased risk of
rebellion or may even be on the brink of civil
war. At high levels of stability, your population
will be very content and is unlikely to rebel or
actively oppose you. Stability also affects your
monthly tax income, since a disgruntled population will be far less productive than a happy
one. Many of the game’s historic and random
events will have an effect on your stability, as
will any diplomatic actions you take that are
likely to upset your population. We’ll mention
stability many times in this manual, but the
rule of thumb is to try to maintain a positive
value whenever possible.
Treasury: The treasury is your
country’s current reserve of money, which is used for a wide vari-
ety of activities in the game. We
use the term “ducats” to refer to units of money,
rather than anachronistic or regional terms
such as “dollar” or “pound”. Every month, you
will receive an income based on the tax revenue
of your provinces, as well as any merchant trading you are conducting. You will probably allocate most of this income to technological research, maintenance of your land and naval
forces, and a few other things that incur a
monthly cost. Any ducats left over from your
monthly expenses will be added to your treasury. You will need plenty of money to construct
special buildings that will improve your provinces, to purchase new regiments and ships to
expand your military, or perhaps to be used as
an incentive for a country to listen to your diplomatic overtures. We will look at your economy in detail in the chapter on Domestic Management.
Merchant Pool: Merchants are
used to increase your country’s
monthly income, and this value
shows how many are currently available for use.
You can generate significant amounts of trade
revenue by sending them out to the world’s
centers of trade where they will try to compete
against other countries’ merchants for a share
of the profits. Competition will usually be
fierce, so you will need a steady supply of merchants to replace any that have been driven out
of business. New merchants will be added to
your pool fairly gradually; with the rate of replenishment being determined by a variety of
factors. You are allowed a maximum of five
merchants in your pool at any one time. Merchants and trade are discussed in detail in the
chapter on Trade.
Colonist Pool: You will need a
steady supply of colonists if you
intend to explore new lands and
establish colonies in any of the unoccupied
provinces you discover. Colonists are needed in
order to hire the intrepid explorers and conquistadors who will chart the unknown water
and land provinces that are terra incognita. You
will also use them to establish and expand new
colonies that will increase your country’s territories and wealth. The top bar shows how many
colonists are currently interested in joining an
expedition. As you use them, the pool will
slowly replenish itself up to a maximum of five
colonists at any one time. This is discussed in
detail in the chapter on Exploration and Colonization.
Diplomat Pool: No matter what
style of game you want to play, a
regular supply of diplomats will
be crucial to your success. Diplomats are sent
17
to negotiate all sorts of agreements with other
rulers; and to hire new generals or admirals to
lead your military forces. Keep a close eye on
this value, particularly if you are at war. As is
the case with all of the pools, the rate of replenishment is determined by a wide variety of factors that are discussed throughout the rest of
the manual. You may have a maximum of five
diplomats in your country’s pool at any one
time.
Missionary Pool: Missionaries
are used to convert wayward
provinces to your country’s official religion. While you are unlikely to need
very many missionaries early in the game, they
will be invaluable to you if you conquer provinces that practice a different religion or if you
are playing a country anywhere in Europe
when the Reformation begins to take place. We
will talk about religion in the chapter on Domestic Management and we cover the specifics
for using a missionary in the Province Management chapter.
Spy Pool: Not all affairs of state
are honourable. Your spies will be
able to conduct a variety of clandestine missions that can hamper or disrupt an
enemy. Success can reap some very interesting
rewards, but failure has its consequences too.
We discuss the use of spies in the chapter on
Diplomacy. You may have a maximum of five
spies in your pool, which will slowly replenish
itself.
Date/Pause: The current date in the game is
always displayed towards the right side of the
Top Bar. Unless you pause, the date will continually advance one day at a time from whatever
starting point you have chosen until you reach
the end of the game. Most of the things you
do during play will require a certain number
of days to achieve and will usually provide you
with an estimated date of completion which
you can check against the current game date.
The display also acts as an on-screen pause button. Click anywhere on the current date display
to pause the game; click it again when you are
ready to resume. You may also pause (and unpause) the game using either the “pause|break”
button or space bar on your keyboard.
Game Speed: Beside the date,
you will see a graphic indication
of the current game speed setting.
If the game is paused, you will see two red bars.
Otherwise, you will see a number of small gold
arrows. The more arrows you see, the more rapidly each day will advance to the next. The
maximum game speed you can achieve will depend on the power of your processor, and will
vary from computer to computer. To adjust the
game speed, click the “+” or “-” buttons immediately to the right of the date, or use the “+”
and “-” keys on your keyboard.
The Outliner: At the extreme right
end of the Top Bar is a button that
toggles the Outliner display on or
off. We’ll talk about this amazingly powerful
tool a little later in this chapter.
18
Special Menus Toolbar
The Special Menus toolbar is located in the bottom-right corner of
your screen and provides access to
a variety of interfaces and “map
modes” that you are likely to use
on a very regular basis during play.
Let’s look at them one by one, starting at the top of the toolbar.
Holy See Button
Clicking on the Holy
See button at the top of
the Special Menus
toolbar opens an inter-
face where you may try
to influence the seven important
cardinals that make up the Catholic Church’s curia. If you are successful, you may gain control of
the Holy See which will provide a
number of special benefits to your
realm. This interface can only be
accessed if your country has Catholicism as its official state reli-
gion, and will be greyed out if this is not the
case. We will look more closely at this feature
in the Special Political Bodies chapter of the
manual.
Holy Roman
Empire Button
The Holy Roman Empire
(HRE) is the
other special
political body
in Europa Universalis III.
Click on the HRE button
to open an interface where
you may review the current member states, electors, and emperor of the
Empire. Countries that
are members of the HRE
enjoy several special ad-
vantages over countries that aren’t, and the emperor receives even greater advantages that are
based on the total number of current members.
The emperor is elected by seven speciallychosen members of the HRE, each of whom
will vote for the country that is liked the most
when the current emperor dies. You will find
this interface extremely useful when you try
to plan a diplomatic strategy to become the
next ruler of the empire. Further details can be
found in the Special Political Bodies chapter.
Menu Button
The “Menu” button is used to display a submenu where you may save
your game; adjust many of the game
options; change the in-game message settings;
resign your current game and return to the
Main Menu; or quit playing and return to the
desktop.
• Save Game: Click the “save game” button
to save your game at the current date. The
default save name will identify the country
and date, although you may change this to
give the file any name you prefer.
• Game Options:
Click this button to access
the same game options that are available
from the Main Game Menu. Remember
that any changes you make to the graphi-
cal options will not occur until you have quit
and re-started the game.
See the “Getting Started”
chapter for more details.
• Resign:
Selecting this
option will stop play of
your current game and
return you to the Main
Game Menu. You can
then start a new game,
or resume a previously
saved one. Make sure
that you have saved
your current game if
wish to return to it.
19
• Message Settings: There are a variety of
different “messages” that you will receive
during play that may require varying degrees of your attention. These can be displayed in several different ways, and are
set to their default settings when you first
install Europa Universalis III. Choose
the “message settings” option to access the
game’s message settings interface, where
you may change the display method to suit
your preference. We’ll talk about the various message types in a moment.
• Quit:
The quit button will stop play and
exit directly to your desktop. Be sure to save
your game first if you intend to return to it.
Ledger Button
The Ledger Button opens the game’s
extensive ledger interface which pro-
vides a wealth of information about
your country, military, diplomatic situation,
and a great deal more. Details of the ledger are
provided in a separate chapter near the end of
the manual.
Map Mode Buttons
The next six buttons are referred to as the “Map
Mode” buttons. Clicking a map mode button
will change the appearance of the Main Map to
allow you to review various types of important
information at a glance. This can save you a
lot of time that would otherwise be required
to review and compare that same information
for each individual province. We’ll explain the
meaning of each of the Map Modes in their
respective sections in the manual, and simply
provide an overview of them here.
Geographic Map Mode: This is the
default view of the Main Map. You
can clearly see the mountains, hills, forests,
swamps, and other geographic features on the
map. This mode is particularly important
when considering military manoeuvres where
terrain will have a significant effect on your armies’ movement speeds and combat results.
Some provinces are also subject to special winter climate effects that can only be seen when
using the geographic map mode.
Political Map Mode: This map
mode is the one that you see when
you select a country at the beginning of the
game, where each province is given a colour
that is unique to the country that owns it. It is
not uncommon for a province to fall under the
temporary control of another country during a
war; when that happens, this map mode will
show both countries’ colours in alternating
stripes. This makes it easy to tell at a glance
when a territory has fallen to an enemy, to keep
track of the progress of your wars, and to
quickly review the size and extent of other
countries.
Religious Map Mode: Each of the
game’s many different religions has a
unique colour that is shown for each province
on the Main Map when you active the religious
map mode. A province does not necessarily
practice the same faith as its ruling country’s
official religion, and so some provinces may be
displayed in alternating stripes to make it easy
to see if there might be religious tensions in the
area. This map mode is particularly useful
when determining whether there are any provinces in your realm that should be converted by
one of your missionaries, and may also be of
some importance when considering potential
wars or conquests.
Imperial Map Mode: As we men-
tioned above, the Holy Roman Empire is a special political body composed of a
number of member states. You can use this
map mode to quickly review the current mem-
bers of the HRE. The provinces belonging to
the current emperor are shaded in a bright
green colour on the Main Map, while the seven
electors’ provinces will be shaded in a medium
green, and the remaining member states will be
shaded in dark green. The Imperial map mode
20
is particularly handy for seeing which countries should be the target of your diplomatic efforts when you are trying to arrange for your
election as the next emperor. It is also useful
when preparing to go to war in that region,
since members of the HR E usually present a
more difficult challenge than you might otherwise expect. The emperor enjoys a number of
significant military advantages that should
make you very wary of engaging him unless
you are extremely well prepared.
Trade Map Mode: All international
trade in Europa Universalis III passes
through a limited number of provinces that
contain a special “Center of Trade”. A center of
trade is a location where the trade goods from
nearby provinces are bartered and sold by various merchants, generating additional monthly
income for the countries that sent them there.
When you use the trade map mode, the Main
Map will be colour-coded to make it easy to
distinguish between the provinces that contribute to each center’s value; what’s more, the
tool tip that appears when you hover the mouse
pointer over a province will give you detailed
information about the business being conducted in the local center of trade. This is an extremely useful map mode to use when you are
deciding where to send one of the merchants
available in your country’s pool.
Diplomacy Map Mode: The Diplo-
macy Map Mode provides an easy
way to view to review your relationship with
other countries. Provinces that are part of your
country will be shown using a bright green colour. Your allies will be displayed in bright blue,
and any country with which you have a royal
marriage will be shown in darker blue. If you
have any vassals or are part of a personal union,
these provinces will be dark green. Bright green
stripes are used to indicate a “core province”,
and red is used to show provinces that belong
to an enemy. We will discuss the meanings of
all of these terms later in the manual.
Map Zoom Buttons:
As we mentioned earlier, the two
small magnifying glasses at the bottom of the toolbar are used to zoom the Main
Map in and out. It is unlikely that you will use
these buttons if your mouse has a scroll wheel.
Domestic Interface
Near the top-left corner of the screen is a large,
ornate shield that displays your country’s coat
of arms. This is the same coat of arms that flies
on the f lag of each of your provincial capitals,
and on the banner of each of your armies and
fleets. It serves as the method to access to one
of the most important interfaces in the game:
the “Domestic Interface”. Simply click on your
shield to open it; when you are finished, click
again to close it. We will spend quite a lot of
time detailing the many features and controls
to be found here when we discuss Domestic
Management.
Province-Related
Interfaces
If you click on any land province on the Main
Map, one of three different interfaces will open
in the lower-left portion of the screen. The interface that is displayed will depend on whether
the province you selected is part of your country, part of another nation’s country, or is currently an independent province that is available
for settlement by one of your colonists.
Province Interface
The Province Interface will be displayed whenever you click on a province that is owned by
your country. This will allow you to review
important information about the province,
and to initiate a variety of different province-
21
based activities. You will use this interface to
construct new “improvements” that will help
to increase the economic or military contribution that the province makes to your country.
You will also use it to recruit new regiments to
serve in your armies and to build new ships to
be added to your navy. If the province does not
currently share your official state religion, you
will also access the province interface to send a
missionary to convert the population. You will
find all of the details in the Province Management chapter.
Diplomatic Interface
If you click on a province that is owned by another country, the Diplomatic Interface will
open. You will see some general information
about the province as well as a series of important diplomatic options that you may wish to
pursue with the province’s owner. You will use
this interface to suggest an alliance, declare
war, settle peace, and a wide variety of other
possible negotiations. Details about all of the
diplomatic actions can be found in the Diplomacy chapter.
Colonization Interface
If a province is currently un-owned, clicking
on it will display some basic information about
the province as well as the Colonization Interface. You will use this to establish and later expand a colonial settlement which, in time, may
grow into a full-f ledged colonial city. We will
look at this interface in the chapter on Exploration and Colonization.
Map Units
Beyond pursuing the finer points of diplomacy
and managing your realm, most of your day-today actions will probably involve moving your
armies and f leets around the map to explore
new provinces or prosecute your wars. Armies
and f leets appear on the map as over-scale animated models that are large enough to select
and move without being forced to zoom in too
close on the map. Once you zoom the map out
to a certain distance, these will disappear and
be replaced by a marker that carries your country’s coat of arms. We will discuss armies and
navies in detail in the Military section of the
manual, but the basic approach to controlling
a unit is to select it on the Main Map by clicking on it, and then right-click on the province
to which you would like it.
You will only be able to see your own units
on the map, or units that are located in provinces that are not currently covered by the fog
of war. To move into a province that belongs
to another country, you must have some sort
of diplomatic agreement that allows you to do
so, or you must be at war with that country.
Water provinces do not belong to anyone, so
your fleets may freely enter any water province
you wish.
Provinces that are currently shown as terra
incognita on your map cannot be entered unless your unit is controlled by a special type of
leader: a “conquistador” for armies, or an “explorer” for fleets. We’ll talk about these in the
Exploration and Colonization chapter. Any
part of the map that is “permanent terra incognita” is too remote or hostile for your units
and can never be entered at any time during
the game.
Messages and the
History Log
You will periodically receive on-screen messages to inform you of things that may be particularly important to you during play. This
includes reports from your military about battles or sieges, messages from your diplomats
about the success or failure of their missions,
information from merchants about their activities in centers of trade, reports from your spies
about the outcome of their missions, and many
other things of importance. There will also be
details of some of the commonly-known events
and happenings from throughout the known
world.
22
History Log
The history log is a scrollable record of all messages that you have received in the game. When
you first load a game, the history log will be
hidden from view, but you can display it by
clicking the small, circular “+” button near
the bottom of your screen. The button’s exact
location will depend on your current screen
resolution setting. If you are playing at 1024 x
768 pixel resolution, the button will be just to
the left of the Mini Map. If you are playing at
higher resolutions, the button will be located
further to the left, towards the center, near the
bottom of the screen. If you find that it is obstructing your view, you can hide it again by
clicking the small “-” button in its upper-right
corner.
Message Windows
Messages that are particularly important to
your realm will be displayed in a special message box that opens on the screen. The message
box will close once you click the “okay” button to confirm that you have read it. Many
message boxes will also have a “goto” button
that is sensitive to the context of the message.
Clicking the “goto” button will either move the
Main Map to a location that is relevant to the
message, or it will open the interface that will
allow you to react to the message’s content.
Floating Messages
Some messages that relate to your realm are
of general interest and only medium importance. These are usually displayed directly on
your screen as “f loating messages”. They typically provide only general information and will
rarely require a specific response or action to be
taken. Floating messages cause a slight increase
in the processing demands on your system, so
you may wish to consider changing them to
display in a different way (or perhaps turn them
off altogether) if your computer is very close to
the game’s minimum system specifications.
Message Settings
As we mentioned a little earlier, each type
of message has a default setting that can be
changed by clicking the “menu” button on
the Special Menus toolbar and selecting the
“message settings” option from the menu. This
opens an interface that contains a complete list
of each different message type and allows you
to change the way it will be displayed in the
game.
Most message types are set by default to be
written to the history log. The more important
ones will also open a message box, while the
general interest ones will be displayed as f loating text (some of these will not be written to
the history log). By using the “message settings”
interface, you can toggle each of these display
types on or off. Once you have saved your preferences and resumed play, the new settings will
take effect. There may be some message types
that cannot be displayed in all three different
ways, so if you click on a toggle button and it
doesn’t change, this is most likely the reason.
Europa Universalis III remembers your
message setting preferences and will continue
to apply them to all future games. If you toggle
the setting of a message to be off for all three
display types, the message will no longer be
displayed anywhere on your screen and might
cause you to miss something of importance.
Don’t forget this when starting a new game,
since you may have turned off a particular
message type in a previous game that might be
more critical to you in a new one.
There is also a quick way to change a single
type of message’s display setting if it is currently displayed on your screen. Simply right-click
on the message to open a small dialogue box
23
that will allow you to toggle the settings on and off
directly in the game. You
can do this by right-clicking on a line in the history
log, or by right-clicking
anywhere in a message
box. This allows you to
alter the setting for that
message type without going through the longer
process of opening the message settings interface and locating the message type in the list.
Events
Europa Universalis III has a large number of
special “events” that may occur within your
country during the course of play. Events will
appear on your screen in a message box and
will usually require some sort of decision as to
how you would like to respond to them. There
are two different types of events: random and
historical.
Historical events are based on the recorded
past as we know it, and will occur when the situation in the game world closely approximates
the situation that caused it to happen in history.
Because the game situation can diverge from
recorded history fairly easily, we have based
these events on the root causes that are generally accepted as having contributed to the event
taking place in “real life”. This means that a
historic event can happen to any nation that
satisfies the criteria we have established for the
event.
You will be given at least two choices of
how to respond to a historical event, and your
decision will often have a large, long-term impact on the development of your nation. Some
events are beneficial; others may be quite
the opposite. Many are “neutral” and simply
present you with a choice to make along your
road into the future. You will often be equally
as likely to succeed no matter which path you
take, but the methods you will use to achieve
victory will probably be different.
Random events are
somewhat more generic
in nature. They provide
a little added spice and
unpredictability to the
game, but their effects
are usually not as great
(in either extreme) as
those you will receive
from historical events.
You may receive a gift
of gold to your treasury or perhaps your peasants may cower in superstitious fear for a short
while after sighting a meteor. You should be
ready to take advantage of the good events, and
to overcome any problems that arise from the
less beneficial ones.
The type and frequency of events will vary
considerably depending on what is happening
in your particular game’s version of history. It
is not practical to list all of them here (there are
hundreds) but each will include a descriptive
text that explains the historical context of the
event, and will usually have at least two possi-
ble options that you may choose when deciding
how to respond to them. Hovering your mouse
over each option’s text will display a tool tip
with the precise details of what will happen if
you choose that action. Very few events have a
“right” or a “wrong” choice. Most simply present
two or more alternative paths, either of which
may have negative implications or benefits. Just
select the option that you feel is most suitable
for your country in your current situation.
Alerts
You will receive a number of
special “alerts” or reminders
that should help you to manage your realm. These are usually displayed
when the game feels that there is something
important that you might have overlooked and
could require your immediate attention. Alerts
appear as small red flags near the top of the
Main Map. You can hover your mouse over the
alert to see view the message, or click on it to
24
have the game take you to the appropriate location or automatically
open the relevant interface for you.
Alerts will include reminders that
you can change your domestic policy, that a loan will soon be due, that
your country is at war, or that your
economy is currently running a
deficit. You do not need to respond
immediately to an alert if you are
busy doing something else. It will
remain there until you have time to
review it, or will disappear if it is no
longer relevant.
Diplomatic Messages
Countries will occasionally send
you diplomatic proposals that do
not require your immediate attention and might be annoying or disruptive to the game if they auto-
matically opened a message window. Instead, you will see a diplomatic message
appear as a small scroll icon near the bottom
left of the Main Map. The scroll will show the
flag of the country that has sent you the message and the symbol on the
scroll will tell you the type of offer the message contains. You
can hover your mouse over the
message to find out roughly
what it contains, or click on it to
open the message and respond.
Most diplomatic messages
will be automatically rejected
if you do not respond to them
within 30 days. The scroll will
blink for several days prior to
its expiry, and will disappear
once you have responded to it or
when its time limit expires.
The Outliner
Earlier in this chapter, we mentioned that there is a button at
the right end of the Top Bar that
opens an extremely powerful tool
called the “Outliner.” This acts as
a customisable toolbar that you can
use to quickly access many of the
game’s features or interfaces that
you use on a frequent basis.
Clicking the button opens the
outliner display in the upper-right
corner of the screen. When the
outliner is visible, you can click on
any item on the list to immediately
jump to its location on the Main
Map or to open the relevant inter-
face that is normally used to control it. There
are more than a dozen different categories of
items that can be displayed in the list. In the
example shown here, we have chosen to list
each province in our country, our active centers of trade, our armies, and our navies.
Right-clicking the button allows you to customise the categories that are included in the
outliner’s list when it is open. The options are:
• Provinces: Enabling this item will include
a list of each of your country’s provinces
in the outliner list. If an enemy is besieging one of your provinces, a small siege icon
will appear beside its name. If
you hover the pointer over a
province’s name, a tool tip will
display the province’s culture,
religion, income, revolt risk,
and manpower. Clicking on a
province’s name will move the
Main Map to center it on the
province.
• Sieges:
This option will
list any sieges that your armies
are currently conducting. The
approximate progress of the
siege will be shown beside the
location’s name and a tool tip
provides an estimate of how
much longer the city might be
able to resist you. Clicking on
the province name will center
the Main Map on the location
25
of the siege and open the Siege interface.
• Combats:
The outliner’s list can include
any battles that that your armies are currently fighting. The current size of the opposing armies is shown on the list and a
tool tip provides a detailed breakdown of
the composition of the forces and the commanders that lead them. Clicking on the
conflict will center the Main Map on its
location and open the Combat details interface.
• Recruiting Regiments:
Enabling this item
will list any of your provinces that are currently recruiting new regiments for your
armies as well as the number of days remaining until the regiment will be ready for
action. Clicking on the province name will
center the Main Map on that location.
• Building Ships:
This option is the same as
the “recruiting regiments” option, except it
will list provinces that are currently building ships.
• Colonists:
If you are in the process of establishing or enlarging a colony, this option
causes the outliner to include a list of provinces that currently have a colonist en route
to them. You will see the name of the province and the estimated time until the colonist arrives. A tool tip will show the estimated chance the colonist will succeed, the
current size of the colony, and the number
of natives (if any) that also live there. Clicking on the province name will center the
Main Map on that location.
• Buildings:
Enabling “buildings” will add a
list of any buildings that are currently being
constructed in your provinces and the estimated time until the project will be complete. The tool tip will identify the location
and completion date, while clicking on the
building name will move to that location
on the Main Map.
• Missionaries:
If you have sent missionaries
to a province to convert the population to
your national religion, you can have a list of
the provinces included in the outliner. The
list will indicate when you should expect
the missionary to finish his task, and clicking on a province’s name will move to that
location on the Main Map.
• Centers of Trade:
Enabling this option will
list every center of trade where you have at
least one currently active merchant. A tool
tip will display the total value of trade
passing through the center, as well as the
monthly revenue generated by your merchants. Clicking in the province’s name
will center it in the Main Map and open
the Center of Trade interface to allow you
to send additional merchants to that location.
• Naval Combat:
This is the naval version of
the “combats” option.
• Armies:
The outliner can include a list of
each of your country’s armies. A tool tip
will show the army’s current commander
and location; and if is moving you will also
see the intended destination. Clicking on
an army’s name will center its location on
the Main Map and automatically select the
army.
• Navies:
This is the naval version of the “ar-
mies” option.
Tool Tips
Before we move on to look at the components
of the various interfaces in detail, we should
point out that virtually everything in Europa
Universalis III has a tool tip associated with it.
If you are not sure what something is, or what
it means, hover your mouse above it for a moment and a tool tip is almost certain to appear.
Many of the tool tips are two-stage tips, displaying additional details if you continue to
hover a little longer. The extended tool tips for
many numerical items (such as most of the values displayed in the Top Bar) include details of
exactly how the value is calculated. If in doubt,
look for a tool tip.
26
PROVINCE
MANAGEMENT
Overview
As we said in the previous chapter, the map of
the world is divided into approximately 1700
provinces. Approximately 450 of these are water provinces, while the balance of them will
contain at least some amount of land. Land
provinces are the building blocks of countries.
Every country must own at least one province
in order to survive, and only land provinces
can be owned. When the game begins, there
are usually more than 200 countries that exist somewhere in the world, although the exact
number will depend on the starting date you
have chosen. Each individual province contributes a number of things to the country that
owns it, so before we can look at things on a
national scale we must first take a close look at
this critical component of your realm.
Province Ownership
and Control
Land provinces will always either be owned by
a country, or be “vacant” and available for colonization. There is a very important distinction
we must stress between ownership and control.
• Province Ownership:
Unless it has not yet
been colonized, every land province (including islands) will be owned by a country. Provinces that are owned by your realm
will contribute income to your country in
the form of monthly tax revenues. They are
also the source of the manpower you will
need to recruit regiments, build ships, and
replace any combat or attrition losses you
suffer. The residents of the province are
effectively the population of your country.
Other nations’ armies are prohibited from
entering provinces that you own unless they
are at war with you or have diplomatically
obtained your permission to allow them
“military access.”
• Province Control:
Under normal circumstances, the country that owns a province
will also control it. However, during times
of war or rebellion, an enemy army may
move into a province and overcome its
defences. When this happens, the control
of the province will change, but the ownership does not. Ownership can only be
transferred as a result of a peace agreement,
a diplomatic purchase of land, or outright
rebellion of a province’s population. Unless
a province is owned and controlled by the
same country, it will not contribute in any
way to either country’s economy or military.
• Un-owned Provinces:
Depending on the
starting date you have chosen, some provinces may not be owned by any country at
the beginning of the game. Any country
is free to move its army into that province,
and any country may send a colonist to the
province in an attempt to establish a basic
settlement. Ownership is not established
until a settlement attempt has been successful, at which point it becomes part of that
country.
Province control may seesaw back and forth between antagonists during a war, but ownership
of a province can only change when it is ceded
to another country as part of a peace negotiation. If a country is forced to cede its very last
province to an enemy, it will cease to exist and
is eliminated from play. Control of a province
is immediately and automatically returned to
the country that owns it at the end of a war.
We’ll talk about the details of this in the Di-
plomacy chapter.
The one exception to this rule involves a colony
that has not yet grown large enough to become
a full-fledged colonial city. During war, ownership can be transferred immediately if an enemy gains control of the province, although this
does not happen automatically. We provide details of this in the chapter on Colonisation.
Province ownership can only change in
three other ways:
27
• Various circumstances can lead to a province's population revolting against its owner. An army of rebels will form and attempt
to gain control of the provincial capital. If
they are successful and can maintain control for a period of time, the province may
subsequently declare itself free from its oppressor and form a new, independent country. Ownership of the province will be automatically transferred and will become
the new national capital of the fledgling
realm.
• There are occasions when you will be able
to voluntarily grant a province its freedom.
When you do so, the new nation will become your vassal and be given ownership
of the province. We'll talk about this in the
Domestic Management chapter.
• One of the many diplomatic actions that
are available in the game is for a country to
purchase a province from another country.
If the proposal is accepted, the ownership
of the province will be transferred in exchange for gold.
Province Interface
When you click on a land province that you
own, the Province Management interface will
appear in the lower-left portion of the screen.
The display is divided into approximately two
halves: the left half shows a picture of the provincial capital, and the right half contains a
“Provincial Summary” as well as a few impor-
tant interface buttons. The Provincial Sum-
mary portion of the interface will be almost
identical when you click on another country’s
province or an un-owned province, but most of
the extra interface buttons will be removed.
Provincial Summary
The Provincial Summary is divided into several distinct areas that provide information
about the province’s details, religion, income,
and trade. We’ll look at each of these in turn.
Province Details
The banner that runs across the top of the Provincial Summary shows the name of the province and has a small “X” button at the right-
hand end which you can click to close the Province Interface. You may also close it by clicking
a second time on the province on the Main
Map. You don’t need to close the interface to
change to a different province. Just click on another location on the map and the display will
change to the newly selected province.
Below the banner you will see some detailed
information about the province. Each item has
an associated tool tip that provides additional
details about the values displayed:
• Population:
A province’s population has
a significant impact on the wealth of the
province. The larger the population, the
more tax income it will generate for its
owner. When a country has positive national stability, a province’s population will
usually grow. There are various factors that
may also cause a province’s population to
28
decline, including very low stability or the
province being under siege by an enemy.
The tool tip will display a detailed list of
any factors that are affecting the population
growth in the province.
• Supply Limit:
Each province is able to feed
and support a limited number of active
armed forces. Each factor of the displayed
supply limit allows the province to feed and
supply 1,000 men in an active army located
in that province. The supply limit depends
on the base supply value of the province, its
production, the terrain, and the level of fortification (if any). Forces from other countries cannot avail themselves of the full supply capabilities of a province. An ally’s army
can be supported up to about 80% of this
value, and an enemy army is able to forage
for only a minimal amount of supply from
the countryside.
• Max. Attrition:
This reflects how rapidly
an army will lose men if it exceeds the province’s supply limit, and depends primarily
on the terrain and its level of military technology. The value shown is the maximum
percentage of the total force that can be
lost due to monthly attrition while it still
exceeds the supply limit.
• Revolt Risk:
This is the provincial equivalent of stability and is very closely tied to
your country’s stability. Any positive revolt
risk value indicates that there is a risk that
this province may rebel against your country. As revolt risk rises, the province will generate less tax income than it would if there
was no risk of rebellion. If the population of
the province revolts, an army of rebels will
appear and attempt to capture the province.
If you fail to stop them from gaining control of the province, the province will then
either defect and declare allegiance to an
adjacent country, or they may declare independence and attempt to survive as a new
independent country. The revolt risk is determined by your country’s current stability,
as well as other factors such as whether your
realm is tolerant of the province’s religion,
and whether it is culturally aligned to your
rule. There are province improvements that
will alter this value, as well as several random and historical events that may increase
or reduce the revolt risk for a period of time.
Revolt risk is also heavily inf luenced by
war. The longer your country remains at
war, the higher the revolt risk will rise. If
the province is captured by an enemy, it will
rise considerably further. Once the war is
concluded, the revolt risk will slowly recede
back to its base peacetime level.
• Culture:
This is one of the factors that influence a province’s revolt risk. As we’ll see
when we look at your domestic affairs, each
country has a primary state culture and may
have one or more cultures that it considers
to be acceptable. If the province’s culture
is accepted, there will be no penalty. If the
culture is different, the risk of rebellion will
be greater and the province will contribute
somewhat less to your income.
• Manpower:
This is the amount of manpower that the province contributes to your
country’s manpower pool. Manpower isn’t
used directly from the province, but rather
on a national level. The manpower of the
province is based primarily on its population, although there are other things that
may increase its value, including your domestic policies and national ideas.
• Capital:
This is strictly for historical interest and has no effect on game play. The
names chosen for many of the game’s provinces are often not the same as the name of
the most important city in that area, so we
include that city’s name here for in case you
are curious.
• Garrison:
If the province has a fortification
of any size, the number of troops currently
garrisoning it will determine how long an
enemy must besiege the province before it
is captured. If the enemy attempts to storm
the walls, the garrison will rally to defend
the city. Larger fortifications can house
29
larger garrisons and withstand longer sieges; as the siege progresses, the defenders will
eventually begin to die and the attacker may
eventually breach the walls and capture the
province. Once a siege is lifted, or a province is captured, the garrison will slowly regain strength until it reaches its maximum
level once more. We’ll talk about this again
in the warfare section.
Province Religion and
Conversions
To the right of the first column of
figures, you will see a symbol
that shows the province’s religion.
While historically there were
many instances where several
faiths were practiced in the same
region, we have chosen a simplified approach by restricting each
province to having only one dominant religion; however, this will
not necessarily be the same as the
official state religion of the country that owns
it. If the provincial religion is different from
the realm’s religion, there is a reduction in the
income value of the province and there is also a
potential for a much higher revolt risk. The
level of revolt risk is determined by your country’s tolerance towards that religion. Religious
tolerance is a component of domestic management which we will look at in the next chapter.
You can send a missionary from your country’s missionary pool to attempt to convert the
population of a province that you own. To do
this, click the “send” button that is immediately below the small missionary picture in the interface. It will often take a considerable period
of time and a large investment in gold to convert a province, and success is far from guaranteed. Larger populations tend to be more
expensive to convert and
the attempt will usually
be less likely to succeed.
Your ruler’s personal capabilities (which we will
look at in the next chapter) will also inf luence
the likelihood of success.
You can see details of the cost, time, and
likelihood of success displayed immediately
below the missionary picture. The send button
will be greyed out if the province already follows your state religion, if you lack the necessary funds in your treasury, or if you have no
available missionaries in your national pool.
You can only convert a province you own, so
the “send missionary” portion of this interface
will not be displayed when you are viewing another country’s province, or one that has not
yet been colonized.
If you decide to go ahead with the conversion attempt, a missionary will be removed
from your pool and the appropriate number of
ducats will be immediately deducted from your
treasury. You will see a small animated graphic
on the Main Map in that province to indicate
that a missionary is at work. Once the required
time period has elapsed, you may be fortunate
enough to have your missionary succeed and
the province will change its religion to match
your state religion. Should your missionary fail,
there is a strong likelihood that your province’s
population will object to his actions and revolt.
Province Income
Each province generates a monthly amount of
income that it contributes to your country’s
economy. This is shown in a box in the upper
right corner of the Provincial Summary. There
are two components of this income: the taxation amount and the production amount.
• The taxation amount is determined by
the base tax value of the province and the
size of its population. This will be modified by your country's stability, any differences between the province culture or
religion and nation's culture or religion,
and any special buildings
that you construct in the
province that alter tax income. Some percentage of
tax revenue is inherently
30
lost from provinces that are overseas, and
may be further disrupted by pirate activities and enemy blockades.
• Production income is based on the value
of the province's primary trade resource
(we'll look at this in a moment) and is
modified by the size of its population and
the country's production technology level.
You can also build "province improvements" that will increase the amount
of production income generated by the
province.
Province Trade
Each province has a primary resource that it
produces in sufficient volumes to have a surplus available for trade. The value of the resource is determined by the global demand
for that item, which fluctuates over time. The
number of units produced is based on the level
of your country’s production technology, and
on any infrastructure improvements that may
have been built in the province. As we saw a
moment ago, this results in a certain amount
of production income being added to the province’s income. It also increases the value of the
center of trade through which the goods are
marketed.
We will talk about centers of trade in detail
in the chapter on Trade. For the moment, it
will be sufficient to say that this part of the
interface identifies the province’s primary resource, its value, and the volume of that item it
produces. The name of the local center of trade
is shown on a button below this, and clicking
it will automatically open a special Trade subinterface which allows you to send merchants
there to capture a greater
share of the market. Doing so will generate additional revenues for your
country, over and above
the production income
you receive directly from
owning the province.
Core Provinces and
Provincial Claims
At the beginning of the game, each country
will be assigned a number of “core” provinces
based on the historical claims that existed at
that time. Claims were usually based on dynastic inheritance rights, or on traditional national boundaries, so we use the concept of “core”
provinces to indicate that a country considers a
province to be a rightful, integral, core part of
its realm. Countries will not necessarily own all
of their core provinces when play begins, since
territories frequently changed hands in those
volatile times. You will often find that one (or
more) of a country’s core provinces is currently
part of another realm. As you might imagine,
this is likely to lead to many conflicts in the
game, just as territorial disputes have sparked
many wars throughout history.
As the game progresses, a province may be
added to the list of a country’s core provinces as
a result of random or historical events. A province can also become considered a core if your
country has owned it, uncontested, for a significant period of time. This process is slow and
usually requires that it be part of your realm for
at least fifty years. Claims will also disappear
when a country that considers a province to be
a core has not owned it or attempted to capture
it for a period of twenty-five years.
If a country considers a province to be a
core province, its shield will be displayed just
below the Trade summary box in the Provincial Summary. It is not uncommon for there to
be more than one shield, nor is it unlikely that
some provinces will have no existing claims. If
you see a shield you don’t
recognise, you can hover
your mouse above it to
display a tool tip indicating the nation’s identity.
As we will see in later
chapters when we talk
about the domestic and
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