The Grandest LAN party is an enormous Europa Universalis game currently taking place throughout a real-life Polish castle. Around 40 players will be playing the game for 14 hours a day over four days in Zamek Czocha, a 13th century fortress in the south-west of Poland, which now spends its days as a hotel and conference centre.
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But while players will be playing at their PCs, they’re also playing the game in real-life. The Grandest LAN has a strong role-playing element. The LAN is played in teams, with a handful of players representing each civilisation . The twist, however, is that only one member of each team needs to be seated at any one time. The rest of the team is free to wander the castle at will, forming alliances or passing information with their neighbours. They can even ask a monk (one of the event’s organisers) to pass notes for them.
The game is taking place across 400 years of European history, from 1400 to 1800. Major empires from that period, including Britain, France, and Spain feature alongside various German states. Further afield, three teams play as part of an Indian Empire, and there’s even a Japanese team. You can check out the trailer for the event, which was officially sanctioned by Paradox, above.