This is a copy of the Kickstarter Update #32. Source: https://bit.ly/EUpdate32
Scenarios I Booklet (Standard Edition)
Included in the Deluxe Edition as well of course! This Scenario Booklet is centered on Western Europe and the Distant Continents, with a player count from 1 to 4 (Standard Edition player count) spanning Age I to Age III. If you click on any image it will take you to the PDF.
Contains an Introductory Scenario + 6 Scenarios for 1–4 players, with some featuring 1 or 2 Bots (also included in the game). The scenarios have different Victory Conditions, challenges, Player Realm combinations, or Variants that turn a familiar scenario into a new one, for endless fun.
The booklet comes with Guidelines for how to make your own Scenarios and how to combine Realms, Events, and Missions, into new and unique setups. A True Sandbox Experience!
An Introductory Scenario (3 players) that cuts the game down to its very skeleton, ideal for beginners who need to familiarize themselves with the basic mechanics. It gives you a glimpse of what the game can offer to the table in a very short amount of time.
The classic Discovery and Reformation (4 players), where you can feel the potential of the Western Major Powers, embark on voyages of exploration and pick sides in the tumultuous rise of Protestantism. It comes with a 3 player variant, and a 5 player variant if you have the Deluxe Edition. I consider this to be the next step from the Introductory Scenario. Here you will find textbook examples of almost all aspects of the game. Any of the Player Realms can be converted into Bots for a 1–4 player experience.
In Imperial Waltz, you’ll be dancing around AustriaBot on your toes, as players take on the smaller Realms of Brandenburg, Netherlands, and the Papal States. This scenario taking place in and around the Holy Roman Empire is the first scenario to feature a Bot as a central plot element. It represents a real challenge as the Bot initially wields a lot more power than any of its human opponents. But everyone is on the same page in the same boat. Who will sneak past the iron fist of the Emperor and come back alive?
It also comes with a Variant that adds FranceBot, in which the players will be balancing a knife’s edge between two European 1444 superpowers.
Sea Route to India (4 players), focuses on the Race to the Distant Continents and the wealth of the Spice Trade. This is the first one to feature Portugal as a Player Realm with their own Missions and Events. With special Victory Conditions in which you can win the game by reaching a certain number of Distant Provinces. It comes with a 3 player Variant, and as usual Player Realms can be converted to Bots for a 1-4 player experience. The Spice must flow, the hands from where it flows do not matter.
Start out just as the Reformation is about to turn Europe upside down, in The Wars of Religion. This one features larger and more developed western powers about to be hit by a wave of religious dissent. Players have more resources, but the challenges they face are also greater, and the friction between them more pressing. This is one has 4 Player Realms, where the recommended setup is to run 1 or 2 of those as Bots.
Habsburg Europe is breaking apart, and from the ashes, new contenders arise. The Bourbonic Plague features the 1618 setup on the reverse side of the boards. Take on the huge, decaying Spanish Empire, handle the Holy Roman Empire at the outbreak of the Thirty Years’ War as Austria, wield the power of a resurgent France as they try to meddle in both Iberian and Imperial affairs, or the tackle the small but potent Netherlands. The latter may seem to be in deep waters, but if you overlook them they might just win the game (as proven in several playtests). This scenario revolves around high-stakes diplomacy and military conflicts, making it one of the most advanced scenarios in this booklet.
Solo the game, with the challenging Ambitious Margrave scenario, in which you play Brandenburg between the claws of DenmarkBot and AustriaBot. You slowly grow, avoiding the Emperor, and pray for Denmark to look elsewhere while you do it. If the amount of stress is not enough you could throw in PolandBot on your eastern border (with the Deluxe Edition and the Extra Bot Decks Add-on).
I hope you like them and that they give you enough spark to create your own scenarios once you get the game in your hands.
So please, look at it, play it, read it, have fun, and let us know all about it. Each image will lead you to the PDF or just click here.
Sometimes there are so many people active in the PDF that the link gets frozen, one solution is to use the link in incognito mode when opening any of the links, another one is logging out (if you already logged in). If you have Adobe Acrobat Reader installed, you can open the rulebook directly there once you clicked the link one time.
Scenarios II Booklet (Deluxe Edition)
You thought “Scenarios I” was fun, now buckle up! This one opens your game to the mighty Empires of the East and adds up to 6 players to the gumbo. Another 7 scenarios await, but it also includes some wilder Variants.
Try your hand at Team Play, joined in a permanent Alliance with another Player Realm, winning or losing as a team (with special rules). A monster with two heads, fun, I tell you.
You’ll see a lot more Realms featured in the second booklet, and some quite unique game experiences, a new game, again!
The Grand Campaign (6 players, Ages I, II, III, and IV) is here to rock your table, with Ottomans and Poland as the new stars. For a new twist, add Muscovy instead. If you have less time on your hands, cut it short after two or three Ages instead. Of course, any of the Realms can be converted into Bots, and with the Extra Bot Decks Add-on, you can have a virtual Bot fest, surrounded by 5 hungry AIs.
It even has a spicy Variant for one of the Scenarios from the Scenarios I booklet (S1-05):
Focus on the East, with The Enemy at the Gates, in which the stage is set for a conflict between the Holy Roman Empire and the Ottoman Empire, Muscovy and Poland. Build up, grab all the open pastures, and go gate-crashing your neighbor’s party.
Includes the possibility of adding Sweden or Mamluks as well (or both!), and again all these are Bot-ifiable if you want a couple of no-nonsense punch throwers in the mix, for that sweet 1-4/5/6 player count.
Make it crowded with Mediterranean Dominance, a 5-player scenario where you compete to dominate key Objectives around the Mediterranean. Whoever gets there first, wins, but the other players also want the same ones. This one comes with a 6 players, 3 Teams Variant where you start in 1618.
Want to jump straight to the juicy finish of the Napoleonic Age? Napoleon Rising is an Age IV scenario, for 6 players. 3 Rounds might sound deceptively short because it has a lot of stuff going on. France, Great Britain, Russia, Prussia, Austria, and Spain – the playing field has changed, gone is the patchwork of tiny Realms, now is the time for modern Empires to rise … and fall. On the horizon are Events that will bring about an Age of Revolutions. Ignite the sparks or put down the fires. Forge Coalitions to take down your Opponents, if only you can tackle the threats from within and harness the chaos.
Here I Stand, Once More (6 players), a tribute to one of our favorite games, created by Patrick Johnston-Hart, features Realms and mechanics echoing the original game, but translated into EU:PoP form.
Each Realm has its own path to winning the game, and its own special set of rules, even regarding religion (who would have thought? duh!).
And last but not least, the Ulm and Byzantium Solo Scenarios.
The Rise of the Purple Phoenix was created with hardcore Europa Universalis fans in mind, to bring the Roman Empire back to life, at least on the board. Glory for Ulm was created in collaboration with the legendary Svip, based on his comic strips about his Ulm exploits in EU3 and EU4. Both scenarios come with their own sets of Missions. (They are separate, you don’t play both at the same time … or do whatever you wish, it’s your copy of the game).
Reminding you again: Sometimes there are so many people active in the PDF link that gets frozen, one solution is to use the link in incognito mode when opening any of the links, another one is logging out (if you already logged in). If you have Adobe Acrobat Reader installed, you can open the rulebook directly there once you clicked the link one time.
The Bot Targeting Charts
We are working on them and this is the piece in the jigsaw puzzle of this development process. They’re more than halfway done, with all arrows, colors, and names in place. We just have to fine-tune and balance the numbers a bit more and run some probabilistic simulations.
This very Update is in the making on the right
What’s left?
You guys and gals checking these booklets, and us finishing up the Targeting Charts and laying out the specific Event rulings for the Bots. Then we will be checking the cards for any remaining incoherencies. We have most of them written down from when we were revising the Main Rules, so it should take a very short time. Then implement the last edits from the editor, check on your comments on the PDFs and fix those, and do a final round of proofreading. And send to print. The moment we have a timeline from Panda Game Manufacturer we will share it with you.
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Armies and Armadas
Víctor & Eivind @AegirGames