EU4 Chess
What is EU4 Chess? As the name suggests, EU4 Chess combines the classic game of chess with your normal game of Europa Universalis IV. This mod allows players to engage in actual chess matches, either against another player or the AI, enhanced by a unique chess engine developed specifically for the mod using purely in-game modding resources. This idea was created and directed by the mastermind Sol_InvictusXLII, who has initiated and brought this concept to life.
Start by loading up EU4 and select any country of your choice. Once you’re in the game, you will notice a new decision called "Play Chess." Click on this option, and you’ll receive an event prompting you to choose which side you want to play on. You can also decide whether you want to play a multiplayer game or face off against the AI.
Click on a piece to access the UI to select or move that piece.
The mod is not achievement compatible. This mod is expected to be incompatible with most other mods – no compatibility is supported.
In EU4 Chess, the visuals are highly customizable for both players. There are several themes available beyond the default 3D white and black pieces. Each player can choose from two sets of 2D themes, making it easy for those accustomed to online chess to adapt to EU4 Chess. Additionally, there are three sets of country-inspired themes available for each player: Byzantium, Great Britain, and Austria for White, and Persia, Russia, and France for Black. These themes change the appearance of the pieces to reflect designs based on each country’s flag, allowing you to recreate your favorite matchups from EU4 within this minigame. All 3D models were created by V-Guy-fighter / Scrublord666.
Well, EU4 does not allow modders to run external files or communicate over the network, so using Stockfish or another pre-made chess engine was not an option. As a result, the entire chess engine code had to be fully implemented within EU4 itself, working around the challenges that this limitation presents, since the developers never intended for someone to do this. Any attempt to make the AI better either results in excessively long loading times, or makes AI execution freeze the game for several minutes while calculating
Sometimes, 2d themes run into a visual bug in EU4 code. If you notice this, just pass a month tick and everything will return to normal.
You can expect the game to take 3-10 minutes to load – stalling on "events" or "checksum" is expected, as there is a lot of code to load.
- Sol_InvictusXLII – Mod Idea, Game Code, Chessboard & Piece Display, Custom UI.
- V-Guy-fighter / Scrublord666 – 3D Piece Art, 3D Piece Theming.
- Xorme – Chessboard Art, 2D Piece Art, UI Art, Art Direction.
- Lemon Cake – The Chessboard, Playtesting.
This mod was originally made in 3 weeks as a part of the EU4 Modathon competition, Season 4 (Mar 2025).
Check out the other mods from the 4th Season of the Eu4 Modathon
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3453277406
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Revisions:
Old revisions of this mod are available below. Click the link to download.
