Divine wind is a good addition to the Europa Universalis III series. It claims to make the Asian continent more playable, which it does in fact do. It also adds a significant number of new features that are well worth purchasing the update.

As far as accessibility, it does not make the game any easier to play; in fact it has the opposite affect. The game becomes more complicated, thus increasing the learning curve and setting potential audiences farther from actually being able to play the game. Still, for those who have been following this series since 2008 or earlier, this is a worthy update which makes the game more complex in some desirous ways.

At first I was skeptical about purchasing Divine Wind as it seemed to focus on Japan/ China and I usually do not play those nations. However, I assure you it has loads of features in addition to the new Damiyo and mandate of Heaven System. The unique diplomatic system the Damiyos have create an interesting and unique playthrough, however I have not tried the China's new system. Added to all nations is a new building system with 6 structures for the trees trade, production, government, Navy, and Army in addition to manufacturies and Unique buildings. The improved graphics look amazing, though some users may experience lag due to lack of multicore support. Achievements have also came to the game, and some scenarios they create are interesting challenges while other are tedious in the case of the US revolution achievement, you won't win without occupying the British Isles... I don't believe that was how the war was won XD. Anyway, this expansion is a great addition to the already amazing game

i honestly love this game so much.

i loved EUIII a lot before but this expansion really just blew my mind.

the graphics leap between EUIII and divine wind is incredible.

they added a tun of new features and improvements and just recently released a patch that added 10 new map view modes to divine wind as well as a great feature "hunt rebels" so your armies will auto attack rebels so u dont have to worry about it.

paradox's dedication to customer satisfaction keeps me coming back for more games great job.

Some of the features are a bit hit-and-miss, like the cascading alliances. That said, it's received a fair bit of polish over the past few months in the way of patches, so it's definitely worth the cash.

I have really enjoyed the EU3 series, and once Divine Wind came out and I saw that Japan and China have been added, I was ecstatic! Going all the way back to the classic board game Shogun and having spent many hours playing Nobunaga's Ambition on the PS2, I had believed this was the game I was looking for. To an extent, it was. The maps are fantastic, the building and developing provinces has been streamlined from HTTT, and the overall flow of the game is improved. I was kinda hoping that playing as a Daimyo in Japan would be as immersive as the old Shogun Nobunaga days but it was lacking, just a little. However, with the mods at the Paradox forums, along with the support Paradox puts in to its products, I gave it 5 stars. Four and half without the great modablitly, but definately worth the investment!

EU3 has really come into its own in the Divine Wind expansion. The changes to the East Asia countries of Ming and Japan along with the totally redesigned map would make it worth buying for any fan of the series so far.

Taken in total, EU3 and its expansions are totally engrossing and after untold hours of play I am still enthralled. The only reason the game gets only 4 vs. 5 stars is Paradox's insistence on charging extra for additional sprite pack that, in my opinion, should be a free part of the game or patches. This said, the game is beautiful with our without the sprites and I highly recommend it to any strategy game fan.

Europa Universalis 3 is one of the most expansive grand strategy titles I have ever encountered. Divine Wind is more than just new content, it's a sign that the developers continue to care about their creation, combining their own innovations with community input. Divine Wind updated and improved the interface, trade system, and balanced the magistrate system from Heir to the Throne. It has also created more interesting interactions in East Asia, with more complex and intriguing situations for China and Japan. Divine Wind therefore offers a wide variety of opportunities and play styles depending on the nation and region you choose.

I think every expansion is worth it for the best game I have ever played. This expansion is no different adding depth to the Asian cultures and a achievment system that I have thourghly enjoyed ranked 72 at the time of this post.

A great expansion to the EU3. New map from Victoria II is beautiful. Hordes make uniting Russia much more challenging and new building system enables even a small, but well-developed country to be rich.

Awesome additions to the series. The new (Victoria 2 style) map is probably the best part of it, finally the game actually looks good. Also the new Japan and the factions in China are great.

The new mapmodes are cool aswell. Always wanted too have an overview of the tech costs and stability.

In conclusion: If you have HTTT and haven't bought DW yet, do it. Do it now.

The horde mechanics are overrated, but on whole Divine Wind is my favorite expansion to EU3. The massive array of changes helps the game feel finally complete, and the recent updates to the map from the developers help cement this. The best part of this expansion? It's not quite so Eurocentric, providing interesting gameplay across the map.

Ah Divine Wind the 4th expansion to Paradox's flagship EUIII franchise. I dont know of any other game which has evolved as much as EUIII with each expansion bringing new innovations and features to further refine this obsorbing grand stategy game.

The new map is lovely to see and and the improved buildings system adds welcome depth and decisions to handling provences. Although and new Faction system for China and an enhanced Japan with Diamyos competing for the Shogunate are a large focus for the game europe has not been forgotten with new decisions and improvments to the Holy Roman Empire among others.

Overall Divine Wind is a excellent addition ro perhaps Paradox's finest creation.

Divine Wind is a really strong addition to an already really strong series. While some of the improvements made could have been handled better such as the Ming factions and the use of Hordes this expansion pack really adds to the dynamic of the game. I would not advise getting it though until after the first patch comes out. There are quite a few bugs

A major disappointment.

First, the good. Divine Wind offers a beautiful map with more provinces and enhanced graphics. There are numerous achievements of varying difficulty one can try for. There are enhanced rules for Ming (China) and the Japanese Sengoku period. Options for peace treaties have improved, and rather than provincial decisions, enhancements come in the form of buildings.

All of these offer major promise, but the AI is a critical failure. Given there was some emphasis placed on this, I'm disappointed.

The DW AI fights a war of maneuver: Rather than commit to major battles, it would rather siege your provinces. This makes some sense but is easily exploitable. For example, if the enemy creates a single large army (a 'deathstack') and sieges one of your provinces, you can run around behind it with three or four armies and therefore take its territory four times as fast.

Further, if you do have a single large army you can force the AI to abandon its siege. It does not want to fight a battle at a disadvantage. Again, this makes sense - until you march your army towards the AI, it breaks siege, you stop moving, then the AI stops and restarts the siege losing whatever time it spent up to this point.

Between these two points it's exceptionally easy to gain war score and therefore win a decisive victory.

There is also a problem with cascading alliances. Once more, a fine idea that didn't execute so well, this allows the defender or attacker to bring in allies after the war began. For example: France attacks England. Later on France allies with Scotland and invites them as well.

Here the problem is that local conflicts can easily turn into continent wide melees. In the example above, France and England could both make new alliances and toss them into the fray. Furthermore, if one of the 'allies' is much stronger than they might take the leader's role for their side. This allows THEM to bring in THEIR allies.

In one game I played, one of the early campaigns to unify France turned into a war that stretched from Sweden to Naples (southern Italy)

EU3: Divine Wind has amazing potential - but it will take some time to develop. As of right now, DW offers nice visual candy but worse gameplay than its predecessor, Heir to the Throne.

Great addition to EU III - New graphics (which give the game a new life), new options (like decide when you wish to call your allies, changes to magistrates, buildings...), new mechanics for Japan, China and the hordes, cleaner interface and a major polish for many things the game.

If you are a EU3 fan, I would seriously recommend this expansion!

The new map design i beautiful and the new types of government in Ming and on the Japanese islands is very challenging.

Also, there is a lot of new events and a new achivement system, that makes more goals to play EU3 for.

I found this expansion to be unimpressive. I'll start with the refinements to Japan and China. Japan's new campaign can be interesting for a bit, as it adds a new dimension to Japan; however, the mechanics with shogun prestige can be annoying--I couldn't declare war on the last remaining rival daimyo because my shogun prestige was too high--and, worse, upon unifying Japan, one finds that one now has the same weak nation one would have had one simply started as Japan in previous versions of EU3. Japan is small, poor, and cannot hope to stand up to China. So what's the use?

As far as the innovations to China go, they've introduced more frustration than anything. Playing as China becomes a game of hoping that new government-related events will pop up, so as to give more power to one of the factions or another. These events are random and are not of sufficient magnitude, and so the player often must simply wait and wait until something can be done. It becomes ridiculous very quickly. For example, China starts unable to make war OR colonize, and this can endure for a long time if one doesn't receive fortuitous events.

The new innovations to buildings and politics are cool, but they aren't worth $20. I feel that this expansion was worth half of the list price, at best.

When "Heir to the Throne" was released, it seemed that Europa Universalis III could not get any better. Well it did... in the form of "Divine Wind", the latest EU3 expansion pack as of this writing.

The first thing one would notice with this expansion pack is the graphics overhaul. Units look better, the map has been enhanced, etc. New buildings have been added, such as Royal Palaces and Glorious Monuments. With all these new buildings, the apparently useless city screen was removed to make more room. Players can now finally sell buildings as well. The interface was also polished up a bit, though if you ask me it ain't yet very newcomer friendly.

What sold me in this latest expansion pack was the reworking of two East Asian nations - Japan and China. After its absence in previous EU3 versions, the Sengoku Jidai finally makes an actual appearance in the form of Japan being divided into four warring clans. Only one of these clans can claim the title of Shogun. Until "Total War: Shogun 2" comes out in March 2011, "Divine Wind" where I'll be directing the course of the Sengoku Jidai. Meanwhile China was revamped to better show the country's internal politics, and how influential certain groups of people were in the Chinese court (a good example was when the Mandarins closed China from the outside world).

Besides the above, there are a couple more improvements in this expansion pack - from Nomads being permanently at war with everyone to making wars without breaking an alliance. In all, if you love EU3, "Divine Wind" is a must buy.

Another diamond for the treasure that is Europa Universalis III.

This is, by far, one of the heaviest expansions released for the series to date. The primary focus is Asia; for the Ming Celestial Empire, a "Factions" feature has been added. Various modifiers determine the influence a specific faction has over the Empire. For example; one faction will want to go to war to acquire additional Buddhists(the Temple Faction), but the other two refuse.

Only if the Temple Faction is in charge, will you be able to go to war with anyone. This does, however, fortunately not prevent anyone from attacking you.

In addition to this, Japan has been split into different factions. The Shogun, the Daimyos, and the Emperor of Japan. The Daimyos must fight between each other for prestige and influence; a fight that may very well escalate into a full blown civil war.

For the rest of the world, events have been added, as well as a new trade system. Trade is no longer just superficial. For example, France may have a trader in Antwerp. This trader will provide, given the right resources, bonuses to the entire Kingdom. Such as increased spy defence, or +3.0 prestige. The effect varies depending on the nation, as does the cost. Exotic wares will, from my experience, yield greater costs if they're in high demand. However, if too many nations begin trading in a single Centre of Trade, the wares will drop in demand and become less valuable.

Overall, the expansion is another must-have to avid Europa Universalis players. Some issues exist, specifically some crashes for players, but I have never experienced any of them myself. Performance appears to be a minor issue to some, or a major issue to others. It's a gamble, but isn't that what it always is before a patch is released?

If you like EU3 you should buy Divine Wind to get some improvements for your main-program.

graphics are better

you get more options of building

new scenarios for anybody who played all scenarios (?!?)

new diplomatic option for wildern nations

Other reviewers already mentioned the "polish" in game play, and the nice specific Horde, Japan and China features, but all that's salad dressing to me.

You see, as a big BIG EU2 fan, I always wanted to love EU3. I really did. Bought the game on release, poured my heart into it... but I couldn't. Not even after forking up the cash for 3 expansions.

The thing was... the Map. It was ugly. Yeah yeah "graphics don't matter" but they do. Ugly games turn me off.

Then Vick2 came, and Paradox finally had a good 3d map. Slap it on EU3 and I am finally discovering a hell of a game.

Maps - gamesavers!

I am a big fan of EU3. The Divine Wind expansion has been rushed out without proper testing. Saving a game in 1461 on a six month old Dell XPS computer running Windows 7 takes over 80 seconds. The farther into the game I get, the longer the saves are taking. By comparison, Heir to the Throne saves never took longer than 15 seconds on the same computer. The Divine Wind expansion changes but does not improve the graphics of this game. In Divine Wind you need to expend a magistrate in order to build city improvements (like forts). I don't know if this is more realistic, but it sure is irritating. In my opinion, they have changed the way the game works - they have not improved it with this version.

The fourth expansion to Europa Universalis III is absolutely brilliant, and despite the new map it isn't noticeably slower than Heir to the Throne. The new process of leaving the empire isn't too nice, as it means all Imperial provinces will either be released as Imperial states or handed over directly to the emperor. The new map looks better than the old one, although I personally think it's a bit too similar to Victoria II.

A great edition to this series, the new zoomed out view and graphical updates make the game a must have for all fans of the series. The new editions, layouts and factions make this game addicting to play. Recommended to all fans of the series.

I was not planning on buying this on release day, but I ended up buying it only knowing it was coming out in a few days. What really made the deal was the way they improved the map. They integrated the map border naming system from Victoria 2. I was sold after reading that.

Imaging playing a small country, take Belgium for example. Building up the country well enough to colonize. Colonize in Africa, on the map it will show Belgian Africa. Conquer Morocco, on the map it will show Belgian Morocco. Eventually expanding through North America or South America all the way through Ocean and Asia.

Named for the Asian updates, Divine Wind pays much needed attention to other parts of the world. Japan and China are given some special treatment and gives the player more choices for which country to play, that offers unique government styles, missions, organizations akin to those of Europe.

Lastly another notable change to gameplay are the trade monopoly bonuses. Making being a merchant country easier, though at the same time they crippled the merchant players by restricting trade range. Would be harder to be a small island nation trading far overseas. A new challenge but well balanced.

So with that said, new aesthetics, gameplay, and choices. Finish up that game of HTTP and upgrade to DW.

The new enhanced diplomacy puts even more fun into conquering the whole world. Also the new focus onto the Asian countries gives even players, who played EU3 since the first release, a whole new reason to start EU3 and sink into this world. Overall this latest Add-on is a MUST for every EU3 Gamer.

EU3 is now as close to complete as it never was. This expansion is simply awesome. It added some very needed and expected changes and created a whole new depth to the far east. As for now it needs a little bit of polishing, but we can be sure that with a patch or two the game will be balanced and even more great stuff will be added. So if you always wanted to get the shogunate era Japanese feel or make playing Ming a real test for your skill, than you cannot pass on this one. And you can even unlock some brand new Achievements in the process.

EU III Divine Wind: The expansion that was never intended to be; yet suprisingly I find it to be the most welcome of them all... why? It isn't as groundbreaking as In Nomine was... nor as game changing as Httt proved to be: no, this expansion is a massive polisher... it takes all the rough edges the game had and vanishes them utterly, making it almost needless to have mods such as SRI or Magna Mundi installed to have an enjoyable experience (though I still would love to play SRI because of the tons of events Helius put in it, but whatever...).

Major changes:

-A Call to arms! Finally ingegrated: now you can start a war without fear of losing your allies, for you can summon them to your side later.

-A divided Japan: Play as one of four Daimyos as you battle it out for the title of Shogun in your quest to unify Japan.

- Fractured China: The various political factions that plague the Chinese state finally make an appearance: coupled with Japan's division this makes it easier to survive as Korea or even Ryukyu!

- Better HRE: There are severe penalties now for holding Imperial provinces, this results in a much more historical incarnation of the Empire, instead of the fractured state it was previously (also, there are plenty of new HRE minors! Worth checking out...).

- Achievements: not really a ground breaking thing, but they are cool...

- Hordes have been tweaked... no longer can they make massive land grabs or anything... this brought about the end of a Baltic Golden Horde Empire... and that's great in my book!

- You can now demand after 50 years have passed to inherit a PU junior partner...

And much, much more things! Tons of interface improvementes, the possibility to check at a glance how many soldiers your armies have got, rebels now fight each other and have different icons... what are you waiting for? Grab this!

It is rare that a game released many years ago keep being updated. Now, we have two new expansions after the "complete" edition. The game has changed so much since the last incarnation that it is almost like playing EU4. A worthwhile expansion if you wish to continue playing the same game but better and prettier.

Two words: BUY IT!

This is my first comment here but I thought this game was worth it. Honnestly, THE best expansion for EU III.

A whole new dimension to the game: Conquest, not the best way to do politics anymore. I declared war on a single province country with now allies and ended up at war with half of Europe! (You can now form alliances DURING war and call upon your new friends to join your cause.)

China and Japan have whole new dynamics with a new "interior politics" system. The Hordes are now true nomads and are CONSTANTLY at war with all neighbors!

Buildings were completly redone, rethought. You can't just pile up those province improvements as you used to.

New challenges, new provinces, new nations.... tons of improvements and almost a whole new EU III experience!

OK, lets see what DW has to offer to the EU fan...

First of all, it s a true expansion. With substantial size (almost half of EU3 Complete), DW is not the tweaking operation that HttT was. It adds important, innovative features to the game, generating new challenges. Granted, nobody had time to play the game to 1821 yet, but my first century as China is a unique experience. Faction politics, whole new sets of buildings and those hordes that will never give up.

Moreover, Paradox Connect is actually present now :). After you login (using your forum id and pass), 5 screens of possible achievements await you. By the descriptions alone, i can see the gaming possibilities expand immeasurably.

So don't think about it, DW is certainly worth its penny :). Just remember: You need EU3 and HttT (any unmodded version will do) installed first and tou should end up with an OJDM checksum.

What are you waiting for, then? Go play !

The fourth expansion to Europa Universalis III is a masterpiece. We saw the beginnings of a graphical overhaul in HTTT, but who would have guessed that Paradox would turn up with something this good-looking? The unit models are detailed and the political map is slightly transparent, allowing an improved terrain map to shine through. The interface has been enhanced with a number of clever details, such as the list of modifiers that can be triggered and the boxes describing what technology group or unit group your nation belongs to. Also, DW adds complexity to Asian nations, which seems appropriate considering the complexity surrounding the European nations in the game (papacy, HRE, colonization and reformation for example).

I recommend this game to anyone who has ever been fascinated by a Paradox game. It is, after all, their best game...so far.

Excellent addition to the Europa Universalis 3 games. This game is full to the brim with Paradox's newest ideas for their strategy games. Although it focuses on the far east, other areas got a lot of new improvements too.

The previous Europa Universalis still felt a little bit empty with Asia being left behind. With this expansion this is over as Asian is much more equal it terms of historical accuracy. Along with the new map and improved trade and diplomacy system this is again a must have for your EU3 collection.

I bought it for the graphical improvement & the updates in Asia as the previous games mainly focused on Europe.

IMO it adds less content than with previous add ons, but it's innovative enough to be an expansion.