Paradox Interactive’s flagship historical grand strategy game, Europa Universalis IV, recently received a new expansion titled Origins—and boy, is it a thrilling new batch of content.
Accompanying this newest EU4 “Immersion Pack,” is a free patch alongside it called the 1.32 “Songhai,” update. And guess what? It contains over 450 changes according to the patch notes, so it’s probably unsurprising that one of the strategy game’s associate producers has called in an “important” one. This is also a great way to separate what’s coming as part of the premium expansion and what’s coming as part of the free patch.
As many fans of Paradox will point out, sometimes content in the free patch has outshined content in the premium update. However, in this case things seem to be a bit more even if you discount all the fixes and quality-of-life improvements.
Patch 1.32 introduces nine new government reforms for African nations, as well as eight additional estate privileges. There are also eight new formable nations, and the infamous Zulu nation can spawn during the course of the game as well. Add to this 52 new monuments, and some reworks of existing nations.
In addition to that, there are also plenty of other free fixes and quality of life changes to highlight as well. You’ll now be able to see what resources are available in tribal lands, instead of it being a surprise every time.
Origin’s Trailer:
Paradox has also scaled back things like aggressive expansions, warscore, and overextension to take into account that there are now far more provinces in the game than there were when these mechanics were last balanced, which should let players take larger chunks of land at a time before running afoul of these systems.
While this may already like a decent amount of free content, the Origins expansion also adds 12 new missions trees, as well as new generic missions for other minor African nations across the whole continent, split into four regions. Not only that, but new mechanics for Judaism, new unit models, and some premium estates have all been added—on top of the free ones.
It still may be fair to say some of the free content is a bit more profound, but Origins is still giving as good as it’s getting, which is great for those who are interested in buying this new and content packed DLC pack.
Here’s just some of the content on offer:
- Missions for Mali: Halt the decline of West Africa’s greatest medieval empire and reassert control of former vassals.
- Missions for Kongo: Unite the peoples of the Congo River and confront the growing European threat.
- Missions for Songhai: Develop your provinces and claim the mantles of Mali and Timbuktu as the new rising power.
- Missions for Ethiopia: Ensure religious unity and prestige in the Kingdom of Solomon while unifying the nations of the African Horn. Also adds the noble Ç̌äwa regiments.
- Missions for Mutapa: Build on the legacy of the founders of Great Zimbabwe and exploit the riches of South Africa to dominate trade.
- Missions for Kilwa: Conquer your neighbors and expand your trade empire through colonization.
- Missions for Ajuuraan: Control Indian Ocean trade and bring water to your desert provinces.
- New Regional Mission Trees: New Missions for minor powers in Central, East and West Africa, as well as the African Horn.
- New Army Sprites: 4 new army sprites each for Congo, Great Lakes, Southern Africa and Bantu nations.
- Two New Missionary models: African Coptic and African Fetishist missionary animations added.
- New Music: 12 minutes of new West African themed music, and 12 minutes of new East African themed music.