The game includes different bookmarked starting dates called "scenarios", with the world state, borders and events reflecting their historical equivalents for each.
The player does so through their choices as sovereign of their nation, and the spending of resources available to them: prestige, power projection, stability, gold (ducats), manpower, legitimacy for monarchies, republican tradition for republics, devotion for theocracies, horde unity for steppe nomads, meritocracy for celestial empires, and monarch power (administrative, diplomatic, and military).
Diplomacy is a large aspect of the game, as creating alliances (or vassal states and tributaries), improving opinions, and preventing defensive coalitions are vital to a player's survival.
Combat can be waged on both land and sea, during which the game attempts to simulate real-world factors such as morale, discipline, varying unit types with associated strengths and weaknesses, competency of leaders, terrain, and supply lines.
Single-player also has the option of "Ironman" mode, which locks several settings such as difficulty, and removes the control of saving the game from the player.
[8] These included information about design philosophy, game mechanisms that were being implemented, and features from Europa Universalis III that were being removed.
[9] Another of Paradox's major goals was to retain the depth and complexity of their earlier grand strategy games while making them easier for a player to interact with.
[12] as of May 2024, twenty-two items of DLC have been released for the game alongside many minor DLCs offering additional graphical or musical options.
Expansions bring broader and considerable changes to the game as they introduce new and improved gameplay mechanics along with many kinds of flavor and various balance tweaks.
While immersion packs are expansions of a smaller scale as they focus on specific regions to bring them better to life by granting more flavor.
In March 2021, Paradox unveiled an optional subscription service to play the game's vast library of DLCs without buying each expansion.
"Prussia" "Ming" "Russia" "Persia" "England" "Mughals" "Spain" "Austria" "Majapahit" "Songhai" "Sweden" "Ottomans" "Byzantium" "Inca" Aside from the official expansion packs, third-party mods are available on sites such as the Steam Workshop.
[45][41] T. J. Hafer of PC Gamer described the game as an "engrossing simulation that conquers the common ground between your average Civilization V player and the long-time devotees of grand strategy".
The Anthology of Alternate History, a collection of short stories inspired by the game and its period, including one by Harry Turtledove.
[55] In May 2018, at their PDXCon convention, Paradox announced that board games were being developed based upon four of their franchises, stating that they were on a "mission to expand the IP".
Jonathan Bolding of PC Gamer described a preview version as "something between a high player count Twilight Imperium and A Game of Thrones with a dash of Napoleon in Europe".