Designer: Eivind Vetlesen (Kampen om Norge)

Artists: Tomasz Jedruszek (Battles of Westeros, Britannia, Citadels, Condottiere, Dominion, Dominion 2nd Edition, Dominion: Intrigue, Fields of Green, A Game of Thrones: The Board Game 2nd Edition, A Game of Thrones: The Card Game, Imperial Settlers, Magic: The Gathering, Middle-Earth Quest, Neuroshima Hex! 3.0, Shadows of Brimstone: City of the Ancients, Shadows of Brimstone: Swamps of Death, Stronghold, Stronghold 2nd Edition, Tides of Time, Warrior Knights), Olly Lawson (Pandemic: Fall of Rome), Joeri Lefevre (Donning the Purple)

Publisher: Aegir Games (Kampen om Norge)

Genre/Mechanisms: 4x, civilization, area majority/influence, area movement, campaign driven, dice rolling, economic, exploration, hand management, negotiation, war game

Funding Status: At the time of this posting, Europa Universalis: The Price of Power is already fully-funded.  In fact, pledges currently total more than 9x the initial funding goal with 6 days left to go on the campaign.

Player Count: 1-6

Solo Mode: yes

Complexity: heavy

Risk: high

What It’s About:  “Govern one of Europe’s great nations through the Ages of Discovery, Reformation, Absolutism and Revolutions — spanning more than three hundred years of history” in this 4x, historically-set game. Also includes a solo mode designed by David Turczi.

How It Works: “There are many potential paths to victory and you will score Victory Points (VP) in different ways, depending on what aspects you decide to focus on. Some players will build vast empires with great territories, other will make powerful alliances and intricate diplomatic relations. and yet others will make a high-grossing trade empire or a small but highly developed and technologically advanced nation.”

The game is divided into Ages, each made up of 4 Rounds, and each Round made up of 4 Phases. A Round includes the Draw Cards Phase, Action Phase, Peace & Rebels Phase, and Income and Upkeep Phase. During the Draw Cards Phase, the number of Event Cards equal to the player count are drawn with the top 3 revealed. Each player then draws 3 Actions Cards from some combination of the Administrative, Diplomatic, and Military Decks, paying 2 Ducats for each card they decide to keep in their hand. Players may then draw new Missions if they have less than 2 in their hand, and all players may replace any currently held Missions.

During the Action Phase, players take turns in clockwise order, starting with the first player, taking 1 action per turn, until all players have passed. There are a lot of actions in the game, so I won’t explain all of them, but hope that the names of the actions give you some idea of gameplay. Special Actions include: Event (which is mandatory, and is either played as a normal turn during gameplay or as a final turn at the end of the Action Phase), Player to Player Diplomacy, Research Ideas (paying the cost on the Idea Card), Change State Religion, Change National Focus, and Explore (requiring a specific Idea Card). Free Actions do not requiring using a turn action and include: Take/Repay Loan, Hire Advisor/Leader, and Replenish Manpower (paying 1MP per 2 units). Additionally, there are Actions associated with each of the three decks, Administrative, Diplomatic, and Military. Administrative Actions include: Increase Stability (6AP +/- Stability), Convert Area (3AP + 3 Ducats), and Colonize (1AP per token). Diplomatic Actions include: Influence (1DP or 3 Ducats per token), Forge Alliance (1-3DP), Fabricate Claim (2DP per Claim), and Trade (1DP). Military Actions include: Declare War (1MP), Activate Army/Fleet (1MP), Recruit (1MP + Ducats), and Suppress Unrest (1MP per Province).

After all players have passed, the Peace & Rebels Phase begins. During the Peace & Rebels Phase, all Truce, Crusade, and Excommunication tokens are removed from the board; Invasions trigger; Rebel Units Siege Towns and Vassals with Unrest; Peace Negotiations occur if there are ongoing Wars; Unrest is adjusted based on Stability; and finally players that have Vassals or Towns with Unrest roll the Rebel Dice and face the consequences. During the Income and Upkeep Phase, Advisors are fired, Military Units are disbanded, and Ships at sea are recalled. Tax Income minus costs are collected. Monarch Points are collected. Manpower, Merchants, and Colonists are updated and refreshed. Lastly, players discard down to a hand size of 5 cards.

Players score VP during the game for completing Missions, Milestones, researching Ideas, winning Wars and being the first to Explore new territories on the board. End game scoring occurs after the final round has been completed (no more Event cards), or when certain scenario-specific conditions have beet met, like a player reaching 120 VP or a player having placed all of their Towns and Vassal tokens on the main board. Players then reveal any additional Missions in hand for which they’ve completed the requirements. Then all players score for Towns and Vassals (1 VP per Ducat of Tax Income), Diplomatic Relations (1 VP for each Royal Marriage, 2 for each Alliance), 3 VP for controlling the Papal Curia, and VP equal to Imperial Authority for the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. The current Stability value is added or subtracted from each player’s VP.

Comparisons:  Think civilization games like Through the Ages and Ages of Empire III: The Age of Discovery combined with some of the dudes-on-a-map style gameplay of Merchants & Marauders or Clash of Cultures. Aeolis was recently profiled, and that game took much of its gameplay variability from the extreme differences in the way its various Heroes played, and the variable actions available to each of them. Europa Universalis, on the other hand, derives its variability from the sheer number of actions that can be taken combined with the different win conditions of its various scenarios. To that end, perhaps think of Europa Universalis as a new twist on several recent formulas. The multiple, varied scenarios aren’t a legacy game with unlockable components and an evolving ruleset; nor do they comprise a longer campaign in some cooperative dungeon crawler where players progress through dozens of hours of gameplay making up a longer, overall narrative. Instead, Europa Universalis is a 4x game at heart with a sandbox-full of Euro- and war game mechanics, and a booklet of scenarios with which the different parameters and win conditions provide constantly shifting gameplay from game to game.

What Should I Pledge?:
$99 Base Game: includes 4 player sets of miniatures & tokens, 2 large map boards, Age I and II Events, and all base game stretch goals.
$153 Deluxe Edition: includes 6 player sets of miniatures & tokens, 3 large map boards (including Eastern Europe), wooden town disks and military units, Age I and II Events, Age III and IV Events, and all unlocked stretch goals.

Add-Ons:
$39 Giant Play Mat
$15 Extra Dice Set

KS Exclusives:
None.

All-In Total: In the continental U.S. you’re looking at $153 for the Deluxe Edition, $39 for the Giant Play Mat, and $20 in shipping for a total of $212.

Europa Universalis: The Price of Power completes its Kickstarter on Thursday, November 7th and tentatively ships in September 2020.