A while ago I promised Hive to make a post about my experiences with his mod, Age of Imperialism 2.0 mod (Download - Discussion thread)
His mod is about playing the age of imperialism (yes, really!) time period in Europa Universalis 2. I was quite interested in it when I heard about it, since the 19th century is my favourite time period (and it should be obvious why Victoria isn’t what I wanted).
The goal of the mod is to play from 1337 till 1913. Obviously a very long time period and not really suitable for a multiplayer campaign if you ask me.
However, you can start later to make it more viable for multiplayer and that is what happened with the game
New Order III. We played from 1568 till 1908.
And it was a blast. First of all, the real slow build up of the very early years wasn’t there. The start in 1568 assured certain techs already and some countries (like Spain) having a decent colonial empire. This allowed for instant action from the get go, though certain countries still need to spend a lot of exploration time, like England.
Another benefit was that we immediately could start with the Netherlands, which allowed for decent competition in the colonial scene.
When we passed the magical year 1820, it started to feel as a whole new multiplayer experience, with the same old basic feel and look. New events popped up and new countries emerged. In the end we had for example countries like Germany and Italy plus Southern American nations like Peru and Argentinia etc. If you want, you could find new players to play these countries.
This was really refreshing. It was just so cool to wage a war with Germany instead of Prussia! To fight Von Moltke or Ludendorf or say, the American civil war generals!
The new events added a great flavour to this mix. I played with the United Kingdom (with custom tag!) and got events about India, the Crimean war and so on. I had Victoria as a great monarch for almost a century and fought my battles with cool new leaders like Robert Napier and H.H. Kitchener.
We also had a USA in the game, which worked quite well, though they weren’t as powerful as the real USA by far, but they were quite viable and a decent multiplayer nation.
There is of course also some criticism. The biggest one: Everyone needs to have the mod installed (and it’s a very big file) so getting subs is harder than with vanilla Eu2.
Also, the mod is made by one person, so obviously there will be changes in the game you don’t like. That is something you need to accept. (I for example did not like the fact that Hive still has the ‘old’ 5% deflation events).
Futhermore, playing till 1913 assures you play a very long time with the real high tech levels. If you are not very fond of the mass cannon battles in the post-land tech 51 area, this game is perhaps not suited for you.
And, of course, it is still a work in progress. Some events can be added, some province setups tweaked etcetera. But playing the mod allows you to help developing it and I am sure it will only improve.
Since it’s very well possible we will even see a specific map for this mod in the future, the playing experience can only be improved.
All in all, I would like to conclude that playing with the AoI mod in multiplayer allowed me to play a tradional Europa Universalis campaign (with the the same historical feeling, the same gameplay) but with an all new environment.
I recommend everyone to try the mod out in single player and use it for your own campaigns if you want to try something different, but based on history.
His mod is about playing the age of imperialism (yes, really!) time period in Europa Universalis 2. I was quite interested in it when I heard about it, since the 19th century is my favourite time period (and it should be obvious why Victoria isn’t what I wanted).
The goal of the mod is to play from 1337 till 1913. Obviously a very long time period and not really suitable for a multiplayer campaign if you ask me.
However, you can start later to make it more viable for multiplayer and that is what happened with the game
New Order III. We played from 1568 till 1908.
And it was a blast. First of all, the real slow build up of the very early years wasn’t there. The start in 1568 assured certain techs already and some countries (like Spain) having a decent colonial empire. This allowed for instant action from the get go, though certain countries still need to spend a lot of exploration time, like England.
Another benefit was that we immediately could start with the Netherlands, which allowed for decent competition in the colonial scene.
When we passed the magical year 1820, it started to feel as a whole new multiplayer experience, with the same old basic feel and look. New events popped up and new countries emerged. In the end we had for example countries like Germany and Italy plus Southern American nations like Peru and Argentinia etc. If you want, you could find new players to play these countries.
This was really refreshing. It was just so cool to wage a war with Germany instead of Prussia! To fight Von Moltke or Ludendorf or say, the American civil war generals!
The new events added a great flavour to this mix. I played with the United Kingdom (with custom tag!) and got events about India, the Crimean war and so on. I had Victoria as a great monarch for almost a century and fought my battles with cool new leaders like Robert Napier and H.H. Kitchener.
We also had a USA in the game, which worked quite well, though they weren’t as powerful as the real USA by far, but they were quite viable and a decent multiplayer nation.
There is of course also some criticism. The biggest one: Everyone needs to have the mod installed (and it’s a very big file) so getting subs is harder than with vanilla Eu2.
Also, the mod is made by one person, so obviously there will be changes in the game you don’t like. That is something you need to accept. (I for example did not like the fact that Hive still has the ‘old’ 5% deflation events).
Futhermore, playing till 1913 assures you play a very long time with the real high tech levels. If you are not very fond of the mass cannon battles in the post-land tech 51 area, this game is perhaps not suited for you.
And, of course, it is still a work in progress. Some events can be added, some province setups tweaked etcetera. But playing the mod allows you to help developing it and I am sure it will only improve.
Since it’s very well possible we will even see a specific map for this mod in the future, the playing experience can only be improved.
All in all, I would like to conclude that playing with the AoI mod in multiplayer allowed me to play a tradional Europa Universalis campaign (with the the same historical feeling, the same gameplay) but with an all new environment.
I recommend everyone to try the mod out in single player and use it for your own campaigns if you want to try something different, but based on history.
o 
