Paradox Interactive Games Thread

[Bacon King]

Paradox Development Studios creates excellent games in a niche genre called "grand strategy games" which are very popular among atlas forum posters. Affectionately called "map painting simulators" by fans, the games involve you controlling a nation/civilization/etc throughout a certain historical period, interacting with the game world primarily through the world map itself.

Here's a list of the current "generation" of games, sorted chronologically by setting.

Imperator (Ancient Rome): 304 BC to 27 BC
Crusader Kings II (769 to 1452): control a noble dynasty through the middle ages!
Europa Universalis IV (1444 to 1821): control your nation with war, diplomacy, colonization, trade, religion, and more: this game has it all!
Victoria II (1836 to 1921): the focus on politics and the economy fits well here, in a game focused on the industrial revolution and the drastic change it thrust upon society!
Hearts of Iron IV (1936 to 1951?): World war two! This one naturally the most focused on war and the military
Stellaris (THE FUTURE!) a new twist on the formula, set in a future of interstellar exploration in a randomly generated galaxy!

I'll add so much more to this OP later but ask any of us if you have questions about what to buy or how to do something.

Also Paradox games all have large communities of game modders so there's a LOT of great mods out there in addition to the vanilla experience

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

I've never played one of these type games before, so I'll check this one out.

Thanks BK! ^.^

[_]

I should've waited a year instead of dropping like 40 dollars on it

[Obama-Biden Democrat]

victoria 3 confirmed



I want to believe!!!

Vicky 3 and KOTOR 3 FTW!

[Lumine]

You sir, are a hero.

[7,052,770]

Great game. My favorite memory is playing as Yemen and setting up an empire that stretched from Egypt to Pakistan. It's my only major Muslim game.

[diptheriadan]

although 4 real can someone tell me who i should play to learn the game?

i kick ass in Victoria but Crusader Kings is just so difficult.

Any Irish count. Arumba's tutorial series is also really good at exploring all the game's features.

[dead0man]

The new patch for HOI4 is ballin' too.

[Pyro]

CK II is fantastic, though incredibly addicting. The DLC is pretty essential, too.

victoria 3 confirmed



I want to believe!!!

One can dream!

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

Obviously I suck at this because I don't even know where to begin, even with the help of the starter game.  Do I build my military, marry a princess, drone the Balkans, what?

I guess I'll need help from the Tubes.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Would this game allow me to Protestantize Ireland?

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

Would this game allow me to Protestantize Ireland?

Seeing as the game ends automatically in 1453, probably not.

[Lumine]

Would this game allow me to Protestantize Ireland?

Not due to the time span. The closest thing would be to convert Ireland to one of the Catholic heresies in the game (Cathar, Fraticelli, Lollard and Waldensian), with some special dynamics such as the Fraticelli having a Pope (unlike the other three) and the Cathars having stronger female succession laws and allowing greater participation of women as military commanders or councilors. And the Lollards and Waldensians don't seem to have anything special, it's mostly flavor.

[WritOfCertiorari]

If you want to play the Protestant Reformation, try EU4. You can pretty much do whatever you want there.

Prussia is pretty interesting. The kings were Calvinist, though the major of the population remained Lutheran.

The US is considered secular in EU4.

As for CK2, I actually already have the game, though i haven’t played it much.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Would this game allow me to Protestantize Ireland?

Not due to the time span. The closest thing would be to convert Ireland to one of the Catholic heresies in the game (Cathar, Fraticelli, Lollard and Waldensian), with some special dynamics such as the Fraticelli having a Pope (unlike the other three) and the Cathars having stronger female succession laws and allowing greater participation of women as military commanders or councilors. And the Lollards and Waldensians don't seem to have anything special, it's mostly flavor.

Cathars sound good!

Can you overthrow the Pope? In that time period there must be Papal states to conquer.

[7,052,770]

Would this game allow me to Protestantize Ireland?

Not due to the time span. The closest thing would be to convert Ireland to one of the Catholic heresies in the game (Cathar, Fraticelli, Lollard and Waldensian), with some special dynamics such as the Fraticelli having a Pope (unlike the other three) and the Cathars having stronger female succession laws and allowing greater participation of women as military commanders or councilors. And the Lollards and Waldensians don't seem to have anything special, it's mostly flavor.

Cathars sound good!

Can you overthrow the Pope? In that time period there must be Papal states to conquer.

If you play as a Norse pagan, you can capture him and sacrifice him to the gods.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

I enjoyed EU3 and it's expansions. I might give this a whirl if it is still free.

[Obama-Biden Democrat]

The new patch for HOI4 is ballin' too.

I loved HOI 1 and 2 and played both games to death for years, but I couldn't get used to the learning curve in HOI3. After the failure of HOI3, I never bothered to get into HOI 4

[dead0man]

I didn't discover Paradox games until like, two years ago, so I've only played HOI4 and CK2 (I've dabbled with HOI3 and and EU4).  HOI4 is one of those games that's more fun to think about playing than it is to actually play sometimes.  I probably feel that way because I'm really bad at it and feel like I shouldn't be.

[Bacon King]

I loved HOI 1 and 2 and played both games to death for years, but I couldn't get used to the learning curve in HOI3. After the failure of HOI3, I never bothered to get into HOI 4

HOI 3 is easily the worst game that paradox has ever made. HOI 4 is very much a spiritual successor to 2 in terms of the core mechanics (as in it's an actual strategy war game and not an annoying logistics micromanagement simulator)

If you really liked 2 but don't want to take a risk on the new game, though, I definitely recommend Darkest Hour. It was a licensed fan-made game that basically took HOI 2 and gave it a comprehensive update, a lot of cool new features, great quality of life improvements, and the modding community is still fairly active for it (DH Kaisserreich is absolutely amazing)

[Bacon King]

victoria 3 confirmed



I want to believe!!!

I've been hoping for Victoria 3 for years!

I'm actually very hopeful it will be announced at this year's Paradox Con (May 18-20). They've already announced the next CK2 DLC is going to be the last one, and that's going to free up a lot of developers for a new project!

[MAINEiac4434]

I've never played one of these type games before, so I'll check this one out.

Thanks BK! ^.^

Prepare to lose all of your free time.

[WritOfCertiorari]

Victoria 2 is easily the best Paradox game I've played.

[Obama-Biden Democrat]

I loved HOI 1 and 2 and played both games to death for years, but I couldn't get used to the learning curve in HOI3. After the failure of HOI3, I never bothered to get into HOI 4

HOI 3 is easily the worst game that paradox has ever made. HOI 4 is very much a spiritual successor to 2 in terms of the core mechanics (as in it's an actual strategy war game and not an annoying logistics micromanagement simulator)

If you really liked 2 but don't want to take a risk on the new game, though, I definitely recommend Darkest Hour. It was a licensed fan-made game that basically took HOI 2 and gave it a comprehensive update, a lot of cool new features, great quality of life improvements, and the modding community is still fairly active for it (DH Kaisserreich is absolutely amazing)

I loved how in HOI 1 and 2, you could take direct military control of your allies. This was absolutely vital for when I was playing Germany. I needed the help of Hungary, Bulgaria and Romania. People laugh them off as sh**tty small countries, but together all 3 of them sent 60+ divisions for Barbarossa under my command. Without me directly controlling them, I can't put them to good use as the AI is just way too stupid to properly coordinate on the Eastern Front. I hope you can do direct military control of allies in HOI4.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

I've never played one of these type games before, so I'll check this one out.

Thanks BK! ^.^

Prepare to lose all of your free time.

these games are addictive, can confirm