This mod is becoming the fantasy grand strategy game you can't get elsewhere

An image from EU 4 fantasy conversion mod Anbennar. It is of a fantasy continent with fictional nations.

(Image credit: Anbennar)

Anbennar is a sprawling fantasy mod for Europa Universalis 4 that has been in the works for years. It's a passion project that started as translating one guy's homebrewed D&D fantasy setting into a playable mod, but has grown far beyond those origins into a multi-author shared world—and one of the most impressive EU4 mods out there. It's a total conversion, utterly remaking the game as a fantasy world complete with fictional continents, nations, governments, species, and religions.

An image from EU 4 fantasy conversion mod Anbennar. It is of a glowing stone with cloaked worshippers standing around. — (Image credit: Anbennar / @biegeltoren)

The latest update, called Of Gods and Gears, adds systems for crafting works of magical Artificiery, and a religion based around that. It also adds Vampires, and a set of missions for vampiric rulers. It uses new mechanics for EU4 to rework how Orcs hold territory, and how adventurous humans try to conquer it and forge their own nations. The update also adds new mission trees for several nations, emphasizing missions for Goblins, Gnomes, Kobolds, and a human guild whose mechanics are impacted by the addition of magical artificiery.

If Anbennar sounds cool to you, great news: There's a Crusader Kings 3 version in the works. In the meantime, you can find Anbennar for Europa Universalis IV on the Steam Workshop. For updates on the mods, there's also Anbennar on Twitter.

Jon Bolding is a games writer and critic with an extensive background in strategy games. When he's not on his PC, he can be found playing every tabletop game under the sun.