When comparing Warsow vs Europa Universalis IV, the Slant community recommends Europa Universalis IV for most people. In the question“What are the best games on Linux?” Europa Universalis IV is ranked 63rd while Warsow is ranked 107th. The most important reason people chose Europa Universalis IV is:
While there are a lot of achievements for doing certain things in Iron Man mode, which runs can be tailored towards, and there is a points system allowing you to focus on becoming the "best" in the world, there is no definitive win condition and therefore a lot of players decide their own target for the campaign and focus on that, whether direct conquest or a trade empire or "playing tall" - highly developing a small nation without expanding geographically.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Ultra-fast gameplay
Here some numbers: Warsow is based on Quake game engine, just like Counter-Strike so numbers are comparable. In CS you are moving usually at speed 320 ups. In Warsow average duel match goes with speeds 600-900. In CA mode most of players moving at speeds around 1000ups. And in insta CA mode on some maps you can expect opponent flying at 1500-2000ups.
Pro For both competitive and casual players
If you want to go hard then go to the online servers and pick duel mode. This is the hardest mode in the game. You will need to have many different skills to beat even an average player. If you want to just have fun you can pick bomb or ica modes. Bomb mode is much like de_* maps in Counter-Strike.
Pro One of the best gateway arena shooters for your friends
Well optimized, small file size, good bots, cute graphics, free, standard arena weapon set, good tutorial... If you are trying to get your friends to try playing hardcore arena shooters with you, like your Quake, UT, Reflex or what have you, this is a quick and free download that won't take too much convincing that will also give you a great experience.
Pro Good old Quake-like game mechanics
Pro Has match-making feature
Game optionally can collect your statistics to find game that matches your skills.
Pro One of the best gateway arena shooters for your friends
Well optimized, small file size, good bots, cute graphics, free, standard arena weapon set, good tutorial... If you are trying to get your friends to try playing hardcore arena shooters with you, like your Quake, UT, Reflex or what have you, this is a quick and free download that won't take too much convincing that will also give you a great experience.
Pro You can set your own goals
While there are a lot of achievements for doing certain things in Iron Man mode, which runs can be tailored towards, and there is a points system allowing you to focus on becoming the "best" in the world, there is no definitive win condition and therefore a lot of players decide their own target for the campaign and focus on that, whether direct conquest or a trade empire or "playing tall" - highly developing a small nation without expanding geographically.
Pro Game features pausing and adjustable speeds
Europa Universalis IV allows you to play straight through in real-time, or pause the game for as much micro-management as needed. With this system in place, everyone can play at their own pace without need for rapid play styles or quick rushing attacks to achieve victory, thus giving players freedom to tackle missions at their own, preferred speed.
Pro Lots of depth
EUIV is a simulation of global politics and war. There is a relatively limited set of choices you can make under normal circumstances: hiring advisors to improve your capabilities, hiring troops, about two dozen diplomatic actions in peace, and a number of different peace deal options when terminating a war. However, these interact to produce a large number of interesting decisions that affect your outcomes.
If you want to annex a neighbor, do you declare a holy war on them, or do you fabricate claims on their territory and demand that they "return" this land to you? Do you ally a much larger nation that might try to force you to be their vassal? Conversely, do you try to improve relations with a much smaller neighbor in order to become their suzerain overlord, or do you attempt to conquer them directly and risk pulling their larger allies into a war?
On top of that, there are hundreds of events that can occur once certain preconditions are met. Some of them are specific to which country you're playing as. Some require you to hire the right set of advisors.
And if you don't keep your country's internal affairs in order, you may find yourself on the wrong end of a peasant's war or facing other national disasters.
Pro You get to chose how to play
You can either expand with colonies, martial might or be peaceful and attempt to ally neighbouring nations.
Cons
Con Hard for beginners
Quake is hardcore game. Sharp shooting is far from enough to be good at it. You need to control position of your opponents, plan your strategy really fast, control powerups, etc. Warsow is much like Quake, but movement is more complex and plays an important role.
Con Too few people online
Usually 80-150 players are online, and all the people are spread out over many modes of the game. So if you want to play duel or arena, you must wait or pickup opponents on an IRC.
Con Small difference in skill results in a huge difference in score
For example you can lose with a score such as 20:1, and this is okay.
Con Games can take a very long time
Due to the in depth, meticulous gameplay mechanics, the games can take weeks to finish which some people may not have the patience for.
Con Steep learning curve
When you start out, it can be overwhelming. You have a country and three thousand infantrymen -- what can you do? You decide to attack your neighbor -- and they cut you down like reeds. You start over as a bigger country and attack a smaller neighbor -- and suddenly you're in a war against several large countries at once. You start again and this time you find a weak neighbor with no allies. You crush them and bring them under your control -- and suddenly you find revolutions popping up everywhere.
Even after you've learned the basics, you'll still find yourself wondering: if I declare a holy war, will it cost me diplomatic power to annex territory or not? And it's often hard -- certainly in ironman mode -- to undo decisions, so small mistakes and misclicks can end up costing you a lot.
The game does give you guidance in the form of alert bubbles in the upper left of the screen, informing you of the things it thinks are most relevant, and paying attention to those can at least show you what you might want to think about. In the later patches, the user interface has been improving to help reduce surprises -- and the game mechanics as well. For instance, rebel uprising progress can be tracked easily -- you won't be surprised by a sudden uprising of Najdi nationalists, and when you're in for a long-term peasant revolt, the game will tell you why it's happening, how to prevent it, and how to get out of it once it happens.
But simply finding all these parts of the user interface takes time playing. Determining what's important takes experience. You can pause the game at any time and find all the data you can handle, but if you're not just extracting the important parts, the deluge won't help.
Your best bet is to find videos of people playing the game with a bit more skill than you. Streaming is best -- you can ask questions, and most streamers will answer.
Con Math
This game is pure math, like every game. But in this game, you can actually calculate the outcome of an action, which makes the computer (AI) feel dumb.
For example, when you grow, you easily form an alliance with the second largest army on the map, which will accept and let you grow, grow, grow without the slightest clue that he will be next. This is weird.