Starting in 1699, Empire follows Europe’s descent into war and includes custom scenarios for some of the century's most infamous continent-spanning conflicts. New leaders and portraits have been implemented to represent the appropriate monarchs and imperial leaders of the day, alongside new focus trees for many of the major European powers and reworked ideology charts that are more in-keeping with their monarchical attitudes. Set around events from the turn of the 18th Century, Empire includes a reworked map that reproduces the contemporary national borders and political affiliations of nation-states across Europe – including an expanded Austria, disunified Germany, a joined Poland-Lithuania, and an encroaching Ottoman Empire. Available to download now, the mod transports Paradox Interactive’s World War II grand-strategy wargame back to the 18th Century, overhauling the game’s map and scenarios to come in-line with the events of the bloody aristocratic machinations of the early 1700s. Hearts of Iron 4 alternate history mod Empire, released on February 5, has you don doublets and bodices to wage war in the final decades of the absolute monarchy.