Europa Universalis 3 will be a real-time historical strategy game. As in the previous titles, you choose a country and lead it through history. Raising armies, building structures in your provinces, spreading your religion, building dynastical ties, exploring the New World, colonizing it and so on and so forth. Even more options will appear in EU3, with its brand-new 3D engine and graphics.

First things first: the army has been revamped. Before, one had infantry, cavalry, and guns as the only three units available. This time, you'll be able to recruit many different sub-types within those three categories. New sub-types will be made available as you research new technologies and conquer other lands with their different cultures giving you new units. If you choose to focus on a new unit type, even your old units will, slowly and automatically, upgrade to the new one. Even better, unlike in previous games, you raise units by regiments of 1000 men. After taking casualties, these regiments will steadily replenish themselves. The promise of not having to micro-manage troop reinforcements as in previous games is a welcome one. Even more interestingly, recruitment is many times faster in your capital than some outlying province, giving more developed areas greater strategic importance.

The process of combat itself is new: when your units meet enemy ones in a province, a graphical representation of the battle-line appears. Units pound each other until one is forced to retreat from the line; if other units are available, they will plug the gap and keep the fight going. Eventually, one side is crushed and retreats. You have no input during this combat and have to hope that your units' technology, morale, and the skill of your general is enough. Interestingly enough, you can also recruit "yoursef" to be the general: a country's monarch can be converted to a military leader if you have no generals, but he could die in battle. That's a good reason to recruit generals, which you can now do whenever you have the money. The skill of your wartime leaders depends on your land and navy "tradition," which is basically a numerical representation of how often you've fought your neighbors and the world in open combat. As you recruit more leaders, it is depleted; as you fight other nations, it is gained.

The navy will also be an integral part of the game. It will have a grand role to play in colonization and supporting the general war effort. Players will be able to blockade other nations, taking away income from coastal provinces of the enemy and stuffing a part of that into their own state's coffers.

What does one do after a grand old war? Why, one builds! Many new types of buildings are available to be built in your provinces, helping to improve your country's stability, income, and technological progress. Does your newly gained land hold infidels? Convert them to the one true faith with your trusty clerics. You've done that, but do the residents of that province continue to cling to their old cultures? Not to worry, your state will eventually adapt and treat those cultures as part of your grand society.

That is a major theme of EU3: the game responds to the player's actions. In previous titles, static historical events tried to guide the game down narrow channels in the name of being "historical." Now, what you do and your enemies do determines when and to whom events happen. If Spain doesn't colonize the gold-rich lands in the Americas, it will not receive crippling inflation as historically had happened: instead, the country that got its hands on those gold mines will get the economical implosion. If the rulers of the various German states accept the Reformation, the cripping wars that happened historically might not happen at all or happen elsewheres.

Various other new ideas come into play: you can now select "national ideas" that will guide the development of your country. These ideas will influence the semi-random events that occur and give different bonuses, allowing your country to develop in new ways. A new techonology branch for governments will let you change the structure of the state; you will also be able to hire historical personas that will provide you with different bonuses. Leonardo da Vinci will probably help out in every technological sphere, while some person will only help a little in one area.

Diplomacy will play perhaps the greatest role of all. This time, alliances do not become great blocs of nations: instead, each alliance is signed between two nations and a nation can have a great number of alliances. This will allow the grand wars of succession to rip Europe apart time and time again, giving plenty of possibilities for the wily political skirmisher. If you king dies and you have no heir, other nations have a chance of inhereting your kingdom. If multiple nations have claims on your lands, they can start those wars of succession between themselves. There is also a new prestige system that determines your standing in the world and comes into play in inherting lands, influencing other nations, forming alliances and other diplomatic actions. Many new options here, showing promise.

This is just the top of the great pyramid of gaming that Europa Universalis 3 could turn out to be. Will it achieve its great potential? We have no idea, but we hope so. This title's on the old watchlist of a possible great gaming experience.