Given their name, it’s no shock that the defining memories from the best grand strategy games tend to be ones where you build out vast, sprawling empires – often stretching far beyond the boundaries of historical realism. Certainly, Paradox’s masterful Europa Universalis 4 is no different in that regard. Yet, as we all know, even the greatest empires are destined to fall under the weight of their own success, and that’s exactly what this comprehensive EU4 mod aims to capture.
For as good as it is, Europa Universalis 4 can often descend into ridiculously large empires, both on the player’s part and that of rival AI-controlled factions. The Rise and Fall of Empires, then, is a worthwhile addition to the pantheon of the best Europa Universalis 4 mods. In the words of its creator ‘Dante,’ it transforms the focus of the mighty grand strategy game “from mindlessly blobbing to strategic empire management and stabilization.”
If you’re an EU4 veteran, you’ve probably begun to take the management of your ever-expanding territories for granted. With the Rise and Fall mod, however, your governing capacity becomes vastly more impactful, forcing you to make tougher decisions and deal with the potential for more dangerous rebellions than ever before.
This transformation starts some fundamental changes to the effects you face when either under or over your governing capacity, with administrative buffs if you’re in the green but some heavy penalties for spreading yourself too thin. This is combined with a basic overhaul to a lot of core modifiers, effects, and terrain types, although Rise and Fall does not edit the map or add new events. You’ll find increases to your governing cap harder to come by, too, forcing you to really pay attention as your influence grows.
Once you spread beyond your home territory, you’ll have to invest more into the foreign populace and their culture to keep them happy, and the likes of rebellions and civil wars are increasingly difficult to avoid as you progress. Rebels will also be able to retreat, regroup, and reinforce, so you won’t simply be able to crush a single uprising and secure an area in doing so.
Elsewhere, regional bonuses will affect how you approach certain parts of the map. Tackling coastal forts effectively will require an active naval presence to blockade incoming supplies, while natural mountain ranges are more effective defensive tools, making them a much more powerful part of strategic positioning. This also means that nations built on highlands and mountains will be more resistant to your influence. Weather has also been updated – winter, in particular, has been made truly devastating in certain areas, and will drastically increase hostile attrition while further limiting your own supplies.
Another key factor of Rise and Fall is the way institutions and technology spread. The embracing of new institutions is now gated by the previous ones in the tree, and spread is slower. This means that large centers of development focused on specific purposes are more powerful and important, but that you’ll see a much slower, more realistic spread of technology across regions, leading to a higher tech disparity between densely packed areas and those that are more isolated.
The newest update, The Rise and Fall of Empires version 1.1, has just been released. It includes quite a few balance changes, along with the introduction of a new disaster that can occur in the mid-to-late game. National Decay is designed “to illustrate the collapse of extremely overextended nations,” Dante explains. “The goal was to create a situation similar to the Ming collapse but amped up the severity.”
While National Decay has been carefully balanced to avoid it happening constantly, it should provide a notable impediment to particularly vast imperial sprawls. When it happens, you’ll have a short opportunity to respond, but otherwise becomes effectively unavoidable – “your civilization has gone past the point of no return,” Dante remarks. Fail to handle the situation in time, and the results can be devastating – just look at the example below, showing a collapsed Ottoman empire.
If you’ve found yourself languishing in the lap of relative managerial ease, then, The Rise and Fall of Empires could be the Europa Universalis 4 mod that’s just right to spice up your next game. It’s even received the approval of the team at Paradox, who has given it a place in the team’s community mod spotlight. The mod is available to download right now via the Steam workshop, so try it out and see what you think.
Alternatively, you might want to consult our guide to the best Europa Universalis 4 DLC if you’ve yet to pick it all up, or you can turn to the best management games for plenty of other ways to test your prowess as a leader.
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