Crusader Kings III vs Europa Universalis
Crusader Kings III
Crusader Kings III is Paradox Interactive’s latest entry in the popular medieval strategy saga. You’ll step into the shoes of a medieval ruler of your choice and run your domains as you see fit. Spanning across three continents and two eras, you’ll have a massive roster of historical rulers to choose from, including William of Normandy, Bjorn Ironside, Basil I, and Almos Arpad.As a count, duke, king, or emperor, you’ll try to navigate around the intrigue on your court, placating or subduing unruly vassals and external enemies jeopardizing your authority. Your realm needs attention, which is why it’s a must to secure funds to strengthen your holdings’ walls, build farms, and construct wonders. Plus, you can cement alliances with your neighbors by organizing political marriages while engineering your dynasty’s traits. After all, you’d want your descendants to be superhuman geniuses. If diplomacy fails, you can always wage wars, but first, you need to raise levies and men-at-arms that can change the tide of battle in your favor.
Crusader Kings III is a deep medieval dynasty simulator. It’s an open-ended strategy game where you can decide the fate of your dynasty. Will you bring your family prestige and lead it to the thrones of Europe and the entire world, or to its downfall? Your actions will decide your fate, but remember, real strategy requires cunning.
Europa Universalis
Europa Universalis is a historical real-time grand strategy game that includes all aspects of world history in the Early Modern Europe era, a period of time between the end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. Due to the game's meticulous need to be accurate in its historical accounts (period monarchs, known military leaders, and technological advancements), the game can, in some way, be doubled as an educational game since you can learn quite a lot simply by playing it.That said, the gameplay in Europa Universalis is just incredible for its time. The game is played on a huge world map that is divided into around 1,500 provinces where you can literally govern your nation the way you like. You can get involved in your nation's colonization efforts, explore new lands, trade with neighboring countries, wage war when they renegade on that very trade deal, spread the religion you've adopted far and wide, and of course, navigate the tricky political waters of diplomacy.
Not to mention, instead of using a turn-based format, the game has opted for a pauseable real-time format, so you can pause the game, issues orders and plan out strategies, before unpausing the game and let the world events play out. There are even tons of historically-based missions and events which may affect the world based on your actions and decisions.
When it comes to grand strategy games, there are only a handful that truly embodies the genre, and obviously, Europa Universalis is one of them. However, being the original game in the franchise, the graphics might be a bit worn for wear, but if you don't really mind, you can definitely pick this game up from GoG.com.