I really love EU4, it's one of my favorite games of all time, I even listen to its soundtrack while lifting weights. But the monetization model, followed by the lack of necessary changes to unfun game mechanics forces me to not recommend it. If you want to play a Paradox game, I recommend Hearts of Iron IV or Stellaris.

EU4's DLC policy is just a joke. This is a $40 interactive map made almost 11 years ago. Why is this still $40? Not only this, but the vanilla, no DLC experience of EU4 is laughable and shallow. Extremely important features, such as focusing monarch points, and transferring occupation to / from a vassal are completely locked behind updates with $5-$15 price walls. I understand the market for these kinds of games is small, but this honestly should be illegal, or not allowed on Steam. The purpose of a DLC is to expand the base experience, adding more to an already fun and completed product.

You simply cannot experience whether or not the game is for you or not if you have the DLC. Everything from flavor, mechanics, scripts, events, and playstyles depends entirely on owning the appropriate DLC. Which DLC do you need for X feature? Who knows! So, Paradox adds a seemingly good "deal" by allowing you to spend $5 a month via subscription to unlock all "DLC." This is a good deal in theory, but the fact that I am spending $5 on a game I spent $40 for is absurd, and should be illegal in an ideal World and market.

Let's talk changes. EU4 has changed so much, it's basically EU5. EU4 is nothing like it was 10-11 years ago, and a lot of that is definitely for the best. However, a lot of very annoying, tedious, unfun, and blatantly unfair mechanics have gone virtually untouched.

In terms of battles, mechanically, EU4 is pretty simple. Click your soldiers, move them to tile. So, of course there have to be mechanics to add difficulty, to avoid a braindead map color changer. This is not done so in any fair metric, however, as countries such as the Ottomans and Korea are so senselessly and unfairly broken just be hidden stat modifers, that you're essentially losing battle after battle to a braindead computer robot army, that has absolutely zero strategy or intelligence to it. The AI in EU4 is terrible, and instead of working on a good AI, Paradox just adds unfair modifiers and country-specific scripts to make the game artificially harder. This is not fun to play against.

Warscore makes zero sense. If you're an Asian country and you're having a war with European colonies, except a long, boring war of nothingness. Have full naval dominance, and your wargoal locked down? +3 warscore. Have the entirety of France occupied, and Paris burnt to the grown? +44 warscore. Have literally the entire Siberian frontier occupied? +12 warscore. Battles do not win nearly enough warscore. There ARE mods that fix this, but they are not Ironman compatible.

There is no real aspect of "campaigning" against the AI during war. For instance, if you and your neighbor go to war, the AI is much more likely to attempt and "snake" its armies around yours, just "backdooring" your provinces, wasting your time and playing a very annoying game of cat and mouse, instead of two colossal armies battling for glory. This is extremely obnoxious if you play as China, Russia, or any country with a lot of provinces.

Colonization is extremely dull and boring. The AI has absolutely no idea how to guard its colonies, and the process is way too slow. Spain from 1492 to the mid 1500s had virtually all of Mesoamerica under its crown. Spain in game will maybe have the Caribbean and maybe half of Mexico.

Missions are annoying and overly scripted and just become overpowered. Playing a country with not missions is so sluggish and rugged compared to ones with them, creating a very clear game of favorite with Paradox.

The game punishes you for doing well via Coalitions, which are completely untouched from their original conception 11 years ago. The Napoleonic Wars were literally coalition wars, where Napoleon divided and conquered each coalition member specifically. This is mechanically impossible in EU4, as you are unable to make separate peaces with coalition members. Coalitions force the player to sit idly, wasting finite time the game has to offer as the end date is 1821, with a braindead "coalition" that has virtually zero options to negotiate with or appease via diplomacy, other than just "improving relations." Boring boring boring.

RNG. Decisive, era-defining battles are often just decided by a literal die-roll. Yes, really. There's even a little picture of a game dice to symbolize this. RNG RNG RNG, RNG Emperor dies, RNG lose stability, RNG go into debt, RNG, lose umpteen thousand manpower, RNG regency council, forcing years of boring idleness. This does not simulate the turbulent, difficult nature of ruling a nation, but an annoying computer mechanic that feels more like a headache than a challenge.

All in all, EU4 is a great strategy game, but after about a thousand hours in it, I can't really recommend it. It's a terrible timesink that has extremely unfair and random-generated mechanics, followed by a seriously criminal DLC policy.

I really love EU4, it's one of my favorite games of all time, I even listen to its soundtrack while lifting weights. But the monetization model, followed by the lack of necessary changes to unfun game mechanics forces me to not recommend it. If you want to play a Paradox game, I recommend Hearts of Iron IV or Stellaris. EU4's DLC policy is just a joke. This is a $40 interactive map made almost 11 years ago. Why is this still $40? Not only this, but the vanilla, no DLC experience of EU4 is laughable and shallow. Extremely important features, such as focusing monarch points, and transferring occupation to / from a vassal are completely locked behind updates with $5-$15 price walls. I understand the market for these kinds of games is small, but this honestly should be illegal, or not allowed on Steam. The purpose of a DLC is to expand the base experience, adding more to an already fun and completed product. You simply cannot experience whether or not the game is for you or not if you have the DLC. Everything from flavor, mechanics, scripts, events, and playstyles depends entirely on owning the appropriate DLC. Which DLC do you need for X feature? Who knows! So, Paradox adds a seemingly good "deal" by allowing you to spend $5 a month via subscription to unlock all "DLC." This is a good deal in theory, but the fact that I am spending $5 on a game I spent $40 for is absurd, and should be illegal in an ideal World and market. Let's talk changes. EU4 has changed so much, it's basically EU5. EU4 is nothing like it was 10-11 years ago, and a lot of that is definitely for the best. However, a lot of very annoying, tedious, unfun, and blatantly unfair mechanics have gone virtually untouched. In terms of battles, mechanically, EU4 is pretty simple. Click your soldiers, move them to tile. So, of course there have to be mechanics to add difficulty, to avoid a braindead map color changer. This is not done so in any fair metric, however, as countries such as the Ottomans and Korea are so senselessly and unfairly broken just be hidden stat modifers, that you're essentially losing battle after battle to a braindead computer robot army, that has absolutely zero strategy or intelligence to it. The AI in EU4 is terrible, and instead of working on a good AI, Paradox just adds unfair modifiers and country-specific scripts to make the game artificially harder. This is not fun to play against. Warscore makes zero sense. If you're an Asian country and you're having a war with European colonies, except a long, boring war of nothingness. Have full naval dominance, and your wargoal locked down? +3 warscore. Have the entirety of France occupied, and Paris burnt to the grown? +44 warscore. Have literally the entire Siberian frontier occupied? +12 warscore. [b]Battles do not win nearly enough warscore.[/b] There ARE mods that fix this, but they are not Ironman compatible. There is no real aspect of "campaigning" against the AI during war. For instance, if you and your neighbor go to war, the AI is much more likely to attempt and "snake" its armies around yours, just "backdooring" your provinces, wasting your time and playing a very annoying game of cat and mouse, instead of two colossal armies battling for glory. This is extremely obnoxious if you play as China, Russia, or any country with a lot of provinces. Colonization is extremely dull and boring. The AI has absolutely no idea how to guard its colonies, and the process is way too slow. Spain from 1492 to the mid 1500s had virtually all of Mesoamerica under its crown. Spain in game will maybe have the Caribbean and maybe half of Mexico. Missions are annoying and overly scripted and just become overpowered. Playing a country with not missions is so sluggish and rugged compared to ones with them, creating a very clear game of favorite with Paradox. The game punishes you for doing well via Coalitions, which are completely untouched from their original conception 11 years ago. The Napoleonic Wars were literally coalition wars, where Napoleon divided and conquered each coalition member specifically. This is mechanically impossible in EU4, as you are unable to make separate peaces with coalition members. Coalitions force the player to sit idly, wasting finite time the game has to offer as the end date is 1821, with a braindead "coalition" that has virtually zero options to negotiate with or appease via diplomacy, other than just "improving relations." Boring boring boring. RNG. Decisive, era-defining battles are often just decided by a literal die-roll. Yes, really. There's even a little picture of a game dice to symbolize this. RNG RNG RNG, RNG Emperor dies, RNG lose stability, RNG go into debt, RNG, lose umpteen thousand manpower, RNG regency council, forcing years of boring idleness. This does not simulate the turbulent, difficult nature of ruling a nation, but an annoying computer mechanic that feels more like a headache than a challenge. All in all, EU4 is a great strategy game, but after about a thousand hours in it, I can't really recommend it. It's a terrible timesink that has extremely unfair and random-generated mechanics, followed by a seriously criminal DLC policy.