Install Anvil

Anvil works with Europa Universalis IV for Windows, 64-bit, from Steam.

Install

1. Download anvil-windows-x64.zip from the latest release.

2. Optional: compare the archive’s SHA-256 with SHA256SUMS.txt from the same release. In PowerShell:

   Get-FileHash .\anvil-windows-x64.zip -Algorithm SHA256

3. Find the game folder. In Steam, right-click Europa Universalis IV → Manage → Browse local files. It is the folder that contains eu4.exe.

4. Extract the archive into that folder. You should now see version.dll and an anvil folder next to eu4.exe.

5. Put plugins into anvil/plugins/, one folder per plugin, for example anvil/plugins/eu4-startup-boost/.

6. Start the game as usual, from Steam or the Paradox launcher.

After the first start, anvil/anvil.log lists what was loaded. See Troubleshooting if something looks wrong.

Folder layout

<game folder>/
  eu4.exe
  version.dll              Anvil
  anvil/
    anvil.toml             optional settings
    anvil.log              log of the last start
    plugins/<plugin-id>/   plugin manifest and DLL
    data/<plugin-id>/      files a plugin writes (caches, settings)

Uninstall

Delete version.dll and the anvil folder. Nothing else was changed, so the game is back to vanilla.

To turn plugins off without uninstalling, set enabled = false in anvil/anvil.toml, or list single plugins in disabled_plugins:

enabled = true
disabled_plugins = ["eu4-startup-boost"]

Game updates

Plugins declare which game builds they support. After an EU4 update, plugins that do not know the new build are skipped and the game starts normally until they are updated. Steam updates and Verify integrity of game files are not affected, because eu4.exe is never modified.