In my review of Europa Universalis V, the latest grand strategy game from the masters of the genre over at Paradox, published back in October of last year, I mentioned that I believed that this title would eventually become one for the ages. Six months on, although additional content has been somewhat steady, fans have already been pointing out Europa Universalis V’s lower player count when compared to its predecessor.
Now, whether or not you think it is fair for the two games to be pitted against each other, considering that Europa Universalis IV has seen a tremendous amount of work put into it since it released in 2013, the million-dollar question here is: what will it take for Europa Universalis V to come out on top?
Developer Paradox Tinto’s answer to this pressing question comes through the form of a roadmap they’re calling “Grand Voyage”, which consists of four free updates and three paid DLCs scheduled to release periodically from now into the beginning of 2027. The first of these paid DLCs is an “Immersion Pack” — the name Paradox uses to denote expansions of a smaller scale which add flavour to specific regions of the world — all about the Eastern Roman Empire of the late medieval world, entitled Fate of the Phoenix.
As might be expected, given the subject matter, the main challenge for players taking charge of Byzantium in this scenario will be choosing between reconnecting with the West and doubling down on Greek culture and the Eastern Orthodox Church, while at the same time working to restore an empire in collapse — hence the phoenix motif.
For six hours last week, I took on the challenge behind Europa Universalis V: Fate of the Phoenix myself as I kicked off a fresh standard save of Europa Universalis V as the Byzantine Empire. I am not going to pretend I had a plan from the outset, but what I eventually attempted has been to restore stability, establish a strong defence around the capital, Kōnstantinoúpolis, modern-day Istanbul, and invite every nation, big and small, to join the highest order of the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Ecumenical Patriarchate.
Things went really well at the beginning as I navigated the first disaster, the succession crisis, with flying colours, but soon after, the Kingdom of Serbia took control of the regions of Upper Macedonia and Thessaly. Fast forward a few decades, and despite my valiant attempts at reemerging as an influential power, the Ottomans took over the empire around five years after first declaring war, and my illustrious reign was over.
Ironically, in the end, I suffered the same fate as the final Byzantine emperor, Constantine XI Palaiologos, whose famous last words during the Fall of Constantinople on May 29, 1453, have reportedly been, ”The city is fallen, and I am still alive.” In retrospect, I perhaps should have built a more effective military to keep the rising Turks at bay. Luckily for me, unlike for poor Constantine, I get to try again and again in future runs.
Regardless of my overall failure in changing the fate of the Byzantine Empire, the one thing that stood out to me the most when playing Europa Universalis V: Fate of the Phoenix is how much flavour this immersion pack added to the experience: everything oozes detail, love and care. This being said, I wish I knew the history of the time period better so I could write on the historical accuracy behind Fate of the Phoenix, but I will leave that to the history buffs — having been raised up Orthodox in Romania did not help me out here as much as I thought it would.
“…the one thing that stood out to me the most when playing Europa Universalis V: Fate of the Phoenix is how much flavour this immersion pack added to the experience…”
On the other hand, what disappointed me about Fate of the Phoenix is that the vanilla Europa Universalis V disasters and events played out in very much the same way. For example, I had to navigate the Black Plague using fundamentally the identical methods as I did when taking over Scotland in my campaigns during the review period: the systems never felt flexible enough in this sense. Not to mention that for those with no interest in ever playing as the Byzantine Empire, the immersion pack adds nothing but minor cosmetic changes to the base game.
This inflexibility aside, I had a great time playing Europa Universalis V: Fate of the Phoenix, and, for the price of $9.99 USD, it’s an easy recommendation for anyone who already owns the main game and has an interest in the history of the region and of the Eastern Roman Empire in particular.
Everyone else should perhaps instead look forward to the other upcoming major DLCs, Across the Pillars, which will be focused on the Iberia-North Africa Region and/or The Auld Alliance, which will add new content to the two nations bound together by a mutual distrust of the English crown: France and Scotland.
As for the fate of Europa Universalis V as a whole, it is far too soon to call, but Fate of the Phoenix does move the needle, if ever so slightly, so I am personally choosing to keep fate. Rome Kōnstantinoúpolis was not built in a day, after all.
