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The game is a sandbox environment, and while there is no strict rule on winning the game, the game of the player is over when the player's nation is removed, or annexed, from the map. These nations range alphabetically from Aachen to Zuni. Players can choose to conquer the world by military might, become a colonial superpower, establish trade dominance, etc. The player does so through their choices as sovereign of their nation, and through the spending of resources available to them: prestige, power projection, stability, gold (ducats), manpower, legitimacy for monarchies, republican tradition for republics, devotion for theocracies, horde unity for steppe nomads, meritocracy for celestial empires, and monarch power (administrative, diplomatic, and military). The gameplay requires the player to lead a nation by finding a balance of military, diplomacy, and economy. Each of these provinces contribute to their country either positively or negatively, as provinces can both provide resources to a nation and serve as a point of unrest and rebellion. The game itself is an interactive map of Earth divided into the provinces that compose nations. Of course, even if you pick one of the slower-progressing tech groups, you’re going to have guns and cannons much faster than Assyria or Babylon could have…but it’s still a pretty cool option.The game has been formed to begin historically, with events occurring when they did in history. The implications for this in multiplayer are that you could sort of play a game mirroring the rise of the earliest civilizations in disparate areas of the globe. Your third option is to play with custom nations only on a map that is otherwise blank and open to colonization. You may awaken in Anatolia to find yourself bordered by the Mongolian Islamic Theocracy of Lithuania. It’s also possible to plot out your created nation and have the rest of the world filled in by randomized nations.
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Players using the Nation Designer can paste their nation atop the historical map, overwriting existing nations and provinces, but that’s only the most tame of the options available. The possibilities are limited only by a points budget, which can be adjusted from 50 (one province minor) all the way up to 800 (global superpower). If you like ursines and trade profits, you can plop down the Merchant Republic of Secret Bears in Scandinavia. Want to stick it to those warmongering French? Create the Kingdom of Better France right next door to the original. El Dorado lets you choose a number of provinces, design a leader, flag, and national ideas, and select a government type to put your own, ahistorical mark on history. And that brings us to the Ark of the Covenant of this expansion: the Nation Designer. I didn’t personally come across any of the Seven Cities, but the devs promise that locating one will grant you a campaign-long bonus, not just a lump sum of cash. They will uncover fogged provinces on the map one by one, occasionally triggering events ranging from interactions with natives to members of the expedition going insane to stumbling onto a fake Fountain of Youth. An army headed by a conquistador dropped off anywhere in the Americas can be set to automatically hunt for the Seven Cities of Gold. For the nations on the colonizing side, a slew of new exploration mechanics are being introduced. By enacting religious reforms that take years to achieve and temporarily throw your realm into chaos, you can preserve your ancient beliefs in a more modern fashion (leaving behind some of the more ripping-out-human-hearts-related elements for PR reasons) and attempt to exist alongside your new neighbors from across the sea. However, they are being given an alternate, albeit very difficult, option. As in vanilla EU4, the indigenous American empires will have the option to convert to Christianity to appease the European colonizers. Failing to do so will trigger a “Doomsday” event, destabilizing your empire, as your people believe that the thirsty gods have been rendered too weak to protect them by your sanguine stinginess. The Aztecs, for instance, will have to continually wage war to collect new captives for their blood sacrifices. El Dorado looks to finally correct this, adding unique mechanics for the Aztec, Mayan, and Incan religions. After the Conquest of Paradise expansion touched up gameplay for the North American tribes, South America and Mesoamerica have remained some of the least fleshed-out portions of EU4’s world map.