It was only a matter of time. It was only two weeks after its release. universal europe 5players managed to complete a run of “world domination” in Paradox Tinto’s epic strategy game. In case the name didn’t make it clear, its impressive feats include occupying the entire planet and removing all tags other than your country and subjects that aren’t vassals. There are a few minor caveats due to technical issues and crashes, but EU5 world domination has been confirmed for the first time, and it looks like an absolute nightmare to pull off.
The run in question comes from “ThePlaymaker” on YouTube, who has been hard at work on Europa Universalis 5 since its release. This was not the first attempt at achieving this, which has long been one of the ultimate challenges for EU4 players. For the final successful playthrough, they started out as Barlas, then the Timurid Dynasty, and then the Holy Roman Empire. From here, they claimed the Mandate of Heaven and switched to Muscovite culture. This resulted in cumulative proximity cost savings of over 100%.
However, there are some caveats. EU4’s “World Conqueror” achievement required a playthrough of Iron Man, but ThePlaymaker says he didn’t do one here because he “started running it when he needed to use the console for faster ticks.” I also ended up using the console to add a small number of tags that were previously tributaries at the end of the campaign. The reason: “My game used to crash every month, but I was able to finish it easily, so I guess that’s OK.”
The entire run can be viewed on YouTube, but ThePlaymaker also promises an edited video talking about the experience will be released soon. While this is certainly an accomplishment to be proud of, my main conclusion is that it doesn’t seem like a particularly fun way to play, especially considering the technical issues, and many commenters agree with this. “What a piece of shit,” one Reddit user wrote, “I watched like 80% of the run and it was hell.”
Another said: “Doing WC in EU5 seems like an even bigger hassle and hassle than in EU4.” But now that we know it’s possible, we’re sure players will find a way to get there faster, just like they did with the previous game. In Paradox’s defense, world domination has always been more of a self-imposed challenge than the way Europa Universalis was “intended” to play. Hopefully that means the developers don’t go out of their way to try to counter this in a way that affects us everyday people who are nudging Empire with something between vague intentions and mild confusion.
