Place all 7 cosmopolitan.zip files and.mod files into your documents/paradox interactive/Europa Universalis IV/Mod folder, then enable them via the game launcher. Credit to doan77 for providing 99% of the graphics used in the mod. Since you already know what the best Crusader Kings 2 mods are, I thought you should probably get the skinny on the best additions to Paradox’s other grand strategy romp: Europa Universalis 4.It’s got more than a few, too. Tweaks, fantastical overhauls, graphics.

1. Europa Universalis 4 Review
2. Europa Universalis 4 Top 10 Countries
3. Europa Universalis 4 Strategy Guide

IGN's Europa Universalis IV cheats and secrets guide gives you the inside scoop into every cheat, hidden code, helpful glitch, exploit, and secret in Europa Universalis IV.

Bring up the console command box by pressing ~ (TILDE, the key above TAB) and then enter and confirm one of the codes below to produce the corresponding effect.

• add_cb [<casus belli tag>] [<target country tag>] - Add casus belli against target country
• add_core [<Province ID>] - Add core
• add_natives [<ProvinceID>] [<Amount>] - Add natives to given province
• add_opinion [<Country tag>] - Add opinion to/from tag
• add_pi [<Country tag>] - Add papal influence to tag
• add_pa [<Country tag>] - Add patriach authority to tag
• add_reformlevel [<Amount>] - Add reform level to the empire
• add_interest [<Country tag>] - Add specified country tag to your interest
• stability - Adds stability
• add_colonist [<Country tag>] - Adds a colonist to the specified country
• add_heir [<Target Country Tag>] - Adds an heir of a tag (eg: add_heir 43)
• add_missionary [<Country tag>] - Adds a missionary to a country
• add_diplo - Adds diplomatic entroute
• morehumans [number] - Adds more humans
• piety - Adds piety
• population [<ProvinceID>] [<Amount>] - Adds population to a province.
• prestige - Adds Prestige
• add_idea_group [<Idea group key>] - Adds the identified idea group
• power [<stability/tech_table_key/idea_key>] - Adds the identified idea group
• annex [<Target Country Tag>] - Begin annex/annexes the identified country
• integrate [<Target Country Tag>] - Begin integrate/integrates the identified country
• controll [<Province ID>] - Change controller
• mapmode [Mapmode type (int)] - Change mapmode.
• own [<Province ID>] - Change ownership
• nextsong - Changes the song currently playing
• clear - Clears the console
• savegame - Creates a save file
• discover [<Target Country Tag>] - Discover capital of target tag
• helphelp - Double Rainbow (help from a unicorn)
• selflearningai - Enables/Disables Self-Learning AI
• event [event id] [<Target Country Tag>] - Executes an event (eg: event 3041 51)
• manpower (Insert Number) - Extra manpower
• Cash (Insert Number) - Extra money
• fow off - Fog of War turned off
• fow on - Fog of War turned on
• poll - Force polls
• adm [<AMOUNT> OPTIONAL] - Obtain administrative power
• dip [<AMOUNT> OPTIONAL] - Obtain diplomatic power
• mil [<AMOUNT> OPTIONAL] - Obtain military power
• powerpoints [<AMOUNT> OPTIONAL] - Obtain power in all categories
• winwars - Awards max war score in all wars for the country
• nudge - Go to the nudge tool
• combatsound - Determines how often combat view produces a random sound? (range is 0-50)
• imperial_authority [VALUE] - Increases your Imperial Authority
• kill_cardinal - Kills the next cardinal on the list
• kill_heir [<Target Country Tag>] - Kills the heir of a country (eg: kill_heir 43)
• die(kill) [<Target Country Tag>] - Kills the monarch of a country (eg: kill 43)
• oos - Make the client go oos
• prices - Pricing info (records in DocumentsParadox InteractiveEuropa Universalis IVlogs)
• help [command name] - Print out command specified, or all console commands
• memory - Prints out the used memory
• balance - Region Balance output
• reloadinterface - Reloads the entire interface to diminish lag
• reload [VAR] - Reloads the gui (reload gui) or lua file (reload lua) type
• remove_cb [<casus belli tag>] [<target country tag>] - Remove casus belli from identified country
• remove_core [<Province ID>] - Remove core
• remove_interest [<Country tag>] - Removes identified country tag from your interest
• remove_defender_faith - Removes the defender of the Faith for the player's religion
• requestgamestate - Requests the gamestate from host
• score - Score output
• legitimacy [<AMOUNT>] - Sets the legitimacy of the ruler
• spritelevel [<Sprite level>] - Sets a forced sprite level (reset by specifying no digit)
• setmissionaryprogress [<ProvinceID>] [<Amount>] - Sets the missionary progress for a province
• papvotes - Shows all votes for a cardinal in the tooltip associated with his name
• IP - Shows your IP
• pirate [<Province ID>] - Starts a Pirate in a province
• revolt [<Province ID>] - Starts a Revolt in a province
• tag [<Country tag>] - Switch tag to country indicated
• observe(spectator) - Switch to play no country at all, and no longer view messages
• testmission [<Mission Name>] - Tests a mission without triggering it
• testevent [<Event ID>] [<Character ID>] - Tests an event without triggering it
• aiview - Toggles additional AI info
• yesman - Toggles AI positive responses for everything
• msg - Toggles all messages popup
• collision(debug_collision) - Toggless debug display of normals/bounding boxes/collision
• fullscreen - Toggles fullscreen
• ti(debug_ti) - Toggles Terra Incognita on/off
• nopausetext - Toggles the pause banner
• fow(debug_fow) [<Province ID> OPTIONAL] - Turns off fog of war in a province or in general (if no province is indicated)
• validateevents - Validates all events without triggering
• vassalize [<Target Country Tag>] - Vassalize the identified tag
• time - Indicates the current time
• siege [<Province ID>] - Wins an ongoing siege in the identified province

The developers of Europa Universalis IV set out with an ambitious goal: to make their Renaissance-era strategy flagship accessible and intuitive to newcomers without sacrificing the depth and breadth that existing fans of the series love. The end result of this expedition is not only spectacular, but unlike the similarly ambitious explorers and colonists it portrays, it's not going to give anyone smallpox.

Starting in 1444, EU IV gives the player the opportunity to select any significant nation on Earth, shepherding it through to 1821 amid war, dynastic politics, scientific advances, and the discovery of the New World. Par for the course with a Paradox Development Studio game, there is a lot going on. Values like Naval Tradition and Trade Steering will continue to cause head-scratching among the uninitiated. But just as your nation's ruler can employ advisers to make up for deficiencies, EU IV has provided a peerless ally to aid your transition to world conqueror.

Your command center for the Enlightenment

This confidant is the game's interface, which is representative of how far the studio has come from even newer titles like Crusader Kings II. All of the information you need is presented cleanly, elegantly, and with (mostly) idiot-proof tooltips. The star of the show is a new, context-sensitive hint system which can explain to you in plain, 'I don't play these games very often' English why your army upkeep is currently costing 10 bajillion gold more than it should, and why something called “Bogomilist Heretics” are a few battles away from taking over your government.

All of the menus you need to get to are easy to find—and easy to decode. Every action you need to take has a big, clearly-labeled button. Important information is shown in large, color-coded boxes and pop-ups that can easily be interpreted at a glance: Green is fine, yellow means you might want to take a look at it, and red means you failed your people, and should feel bad.

The interface isn't the only thing that's cleaner, more aesthetically-pleasing, and easier to read. Europa IV's world map is rendered with vibrant detail, complete with changing seasons, animated trade routes, and detailed military unit models. It's the studio's first game that looks and feels truly modern, and the visuals are impressive enough that I found myself mostly playing in the raw terrain view, rather than with one of the game's informational overlays permanently toggled on.

Europa IV offers a number of different paths to glory, though as with previous games, your success is measured by a score given at the end instead of a Civilization-style, campaign-ending victory condition. Military conquest, diplomatic scheming, and colonization are all viable paths, but the proverbial da Vinci in residence is the new Trade system.

Europa Universalis 4 Review

Trade is based around the idea of nodes—specified regions in which nations compete for a share of a fluctuating pot of trade income—and routes by which trade flows from one node to the next. As a trading nation, you will use special characters called Merchants to either collect money from a trade node in your territory, or steer trade from a further one into your home node. Here's how I described it to another player in multiplayer: You can either take money out of the money bucket, or tip money from the other buckets into your money bucket.

Once the New World is colonized, this system allows you to chain-dump money back to your European base of operations for huge profits, intuitively modeling how trade would have actually worked in this era. It all comes together into an elegant dynamic that offers a play style all its own. Like much of EU IV, it is easy to dabble in, but complicated to master.

Things work similarly if your base of operations isn't in Europe, but not identically. While you can play as civilizations such as the Aztec Empire, the game is clearly designed to focus on the European powers (which is probably why they didn't call it Every Country is Equally Viable Universalis). Nothing is stopping the Aztecs from taking over the world, but before the Spanish show up with guns, their progress through the tech tree is extremely sluggish. And after the Spanish show up with guns, they often find themselves shot to death. Truly a dilemma worthy of an experienced player's time, but not a campaign with the same richness as playing, say, those gun-toting Spaniards.

The colored blobs on Europa IV's world map are divided into tiers, with some (France, Russia, The Ottomans) getting a lot of developer attention, in the form of unique abilities, and hand-tailored historical events and missions. The rest fall into a continuum, with the lowest-tier countries having unique cultural unit graphics, but generic stand-ins for almost everything else. The variety of playable nations is still huge—even if you only select from the ones that got the most design love—but don't expect every start location on the map to offer the same level of flavor and polish.

War—What is it good for?

Warfare, while still not a strong point of Paradox's grand strategy formula, has also seen some much-needed improvements. AI armies are far smarter, in general, than in previous titles. They will now form “hunter-killer” forces to seek and destroy your weaker detachments, and have been trained to avoid some common traps that players had come to rely on. Changes to the way morale works have also prevented wars from being decided in one battle of the mega-stacks, followed by the victorious army chasing the defeated one for a year and a half until the latter is completely overrun.

Europa Universalis 4 Top 10 Countries

The political ramifications of war have also been adjusted, and present interesting dilemmas for militaristic nations. Conquering your lessers generates Aggressive Expansion, a value that can eventually entice your neighbors into forming a coalition against you. But at the same time, staying at peace to reduce your negative reputation will cause your Army Tradition to decay, as your soldiers go back to their farms and start to get fat and lazy. Balancing these considerations adds an ebb and flow to the transition between peace and war, and there will almost never be a 100% best answer to the question, “Should I attack now, or wait?”

Europa Universalis 4 Strategy Guide

EU IV also offers the most headache-free multiplayer experience of any title Paradox Development Studio has ever released. Online play now uses Steam as a backbone, as opposed to the iffy metaserver from previous games. This allows players to “hotjoin” in the middle of a session without having to save and re-host the game. It's still not perfect, and I ran into a few bizarre issues with things like troop numbers becoming out of sync. But overall, dropped players and crashes, commonplace in Crusader Kings and Victoria II, are refreshingly rare.

Europa Universalis IV is a masterwork of a strategy game. It still has its rough edges, and convoluted underlying systems that will only be comprehensible to the most in-depth and experienced players. But never before has the core gameplay been so accessible to a total grand strategy newbie. At any given time, you can get as much or as little help as you need from the interface regarding what you should be focusing on. PDS has demonstrated a precise understanding of what turned some potential world conquerors off of its previous forays, and proven its ability to improve on the formula in the right directions with the finesse of a true veteran studio.

The result of these efforts is a textured and engrossing simulation that conquers the common ground between your average Civilization V player and the long-time devotees of grand strategy. Never before have I felt that 'World at your fingertips' feeling as strongly, and you owe it to your sense of discovery to give EU IV an hour of your life or two (hundred). Order in tonight. You have a world to dominate.