About:

Europa Universalis IV (EU4 for short) is a grand strategy, empire building game by paradox interactive, released in 2013. The game involves managing a nations military, economy, diplomacy and government from 1444 to 1821. It is one of the more well known grand strategy games, having sold over 1 Million copies as of early 2016.

Origin:

EU4 was developed in 2013 as a sequel to Paradox's long running Europa Universalis series.

Spread:

Europa Universalis is considered one of the staple games of the Strategy and Grand Strategy genres. The game has gained a sizable player base and references to the game can be found in comments on forum threads, websites and Reddit posts dealing with politics, international relations and history.

Related Memes:

We Have Casus Belli

In all Paradox Games you traditionally must have a reason to got to war (which is the literal translation of the term). In the EU4 and Paradox community it is common to state that someone or some group gets a "CB" on another when they do something offensive or disproving. The above song is one produced by the game devs themselves in reference to the game mechanic. It has gained notoriety in the community, there even being a mod that replaces the CB gained sound effect with a line from the song.

The format is as follows: X has gained a Y CB on Z.

EU4 – When you X/Every X game Ever/X in a nutshell

This meme consists of YouTube videos that take a scene from a movie or TV show and put flags of the games various nations on the characters, and contain various sound effects and icons from the game. The meme can also take form of a music video with game footage in the background. This is to represent what a specific in game action or phenomena can feel like when experienced by the player.

The Big Blue Blob (BBB)

In the Europa Universalis series, the position and development level of France puts it in a position to "blob" or continuously expand in various directions. This has caused the fan base to commonly refer to France as the "Big Blue Blob" due to its color in the games political map mode and tendency to blob in the hands of both the player and AI. Korea is some times referred to as the "Other Big Blue Blob" due to its tendency to do the same thing with hordes in Central Asia.

This meme has been recognized by the developers themselves, having added the achievement "Big Blue Blob" to the game for owning 100 core provinces in Europe before 1500. It is one of the hardest achievements in the game due to the time constraints.

The Three Mountains – Ryukyu

The nation of Ryuku is a small minor nation south of Japan in EU4. This nation gained notoriety after DDRJake, now a QA tester for Paradox, did a world conquest with this nation in both EU4 and its prequel EUIII using various exploits. It is regarded as one of the most difficult nations to play as given its location, hence the "The Three Mountains" achievement for owning/ subjecting every province in the game as this nation.

Ulm Gone Wild

Ulm is a One province minor (OPM) in the middle of the Holy Roman Empire. After a well known comic style After Action Report by Paradox Forum user Svip for EUIII, the small nation gained notoriety in the Paradox gaming community. It is often a joke to state that Ulm is a powerful nation, despite its status as a minor prince in the HRE.

Ottomans are Kebab

A derivative of the Serbia Strong/Remove Kebab meme. Many players like to call the Ottomans "Kebab" as a result of that meme and it has come to be another name for them. This is controversial however, as on the Official Paradox Forums using the term has been banned for the forum admins view it as a racist terminology.

France in similar vein is sometimes called Baguette

Paper/Bird/Sword Mana

In EU4, the ruler generates a certain set of monarch points in three categories (Admin, Diplo and Military). This is also increased by hiring advisers who also generate these points. The points are spent on doing most actions in the game, such as developing provinces or hiring generals. The term X mana refers to the icon displayed for each category of monarch points. The term originates from veterans of the series being outraged at the inclusion of these "magical" points into the game.

Von Habsburgs

The Habsburgs are the ruling dynasty in Austria in EU4's time frame. In EU4 they are well known for being an annoyance, whether it be continually gaining the status of Emperor of the HRE or spreading their dynasty to every major nation in Europe via royal marriages.

The Holy Roman Clusterfuck

The Holy Roman Empire is a special organization of German princedoms in Europe during EU4's time frame. In the games it receives special mechanics including a elector and Emperor system. The HRE is made up of so many small minors that it looks like a giant mess on the game map. This is a simplification of real life, in which the HRE had hundreds of princedoms. In game it is possible to unify the HRE into a single entity via becoming the Emperor and passing several "reforms". This also exists in Crusader Kings 2, another paradox game centered around Medieval Europe.

It is also common practice to post images of a non HRE nation becoming emperor, such as Spain (for which there is an achievement) France, England or even the Ottomans given the rare occurrence.

Comet Sighted

Starting In the earlier iterations of Europa Universalis there is an event in which your people spot a comet in the sky, this event is well known for it causes one to loose stability. The event is a common Paradox trope, being referenced in every Paradox game. Traditionally, every new expansion the devs add a new option to take that decreases stability by 1.

Prussian Space Marines

In EU4, the formable nation of Prussia and its predecessor, Brandenburg, receive a set of ideas that grant it huge bonuses to the military. This combined with real life Prussia's known military prowess has lead to Prussian troops in game to be called "Prussian Space Marines" after the soldiers from Warhammer 40K .

Mingsplosion

In EU4, at game start, the #1 nation in the world is Ming Dynasty China. In the game if Ming meets certain conditions, they will "implode" into a bunch of states (hense "Mingsplosion" from Ming + Explosion) starting another warlord era, which the player can take advantage of to conquer Chinese lands.

With the 1.20 Update Ming and the rest of East Asia received an overhaul, with Ming now becoming severely OP, able to gain tributaries that pay a tribute of manpower or monarch points and no penalty to offset its massive starting position, this consequently has made the Mingsplosion extremely rare without player intervention

Culture Converting is Genocide & Genocide the Natives

In EU4 it is possible to convert a provinces culture to that of your nation, or another culture if you so choose. Many players like to interpret this forced culture change as genocide or removing the original population and replacing them.

There also exists a policy and a button for an army to actively attack natives in a colonizable province, reducing there population size and ability to rise up should you colonize that province. This has caused that button and policy to basically become both "Genocide the Natives" buttons.

Hunting Accident

In EU4 all monarchs have "stats" that are a number between 1 and 6 in each monarch point category. The maximum you can get is a monarch with 6-6-6 stats. The game has a habit of killing of such strong monarchs and heirs due to this. One such way is a random chance event titled "Hunting Accident" which kills the heir with no alternatives. It is notable for the fact that unlike other events, there is no chance of your heir surviving.

Deus Vult

In similarity to CK2 one can play as Christians and conquer heathens.

Sudden Game Crash

"Sudden Game Crash" is a phrase that states for some reason the game crashed. It is used as a joke to mean "I purposefully crashed the game because of something." This is used as opposed to the traditional "Save and Reload" due to the games optional Ironman feature which saves the game every-time you quit to avoid "savescumming"

Paradox Math

Ocassionaly there is a difference in what number a given tool-tip will display the actual UI, and what the game calculates due to rounding. (ie the game rounding .001 up to 1 in the UI and the tool tip displaying .00) This has lead to various jokes of incorrect math, being refered to as Paradox Math.