Paradox Interactive Games Thread

[Bacon King]

I forgot the wife had bought it already, so I've been playing hers with the Steam share thing, but you're probably right.

How different is Civ 6 from Civ 5, actually? I do like Civ 5 and my only experience with 6 is watching a few youtube videos but from what I have seen it looks... incredibly similar to 5. Much more so than 5 was to 4, 4 was to 3, and 3 was to 2 (I never played civ 1, before my time, so I can't speak to it)

[Devout Centrist]

I've played over 980 hours of Civ 3 and ~5,000 hours of Civ 4. I've played, like, 55 hours of Civ 5. I just couldn't get into it. If Civ 6 is that similar to 5, I'll probably stick with Civ 4

[dead0man]

I forgot the wife had bought it already, so I've been playing hers with the Steam share thing, but you're probably right.

How different is Civ 6 from Civ 5, actually? I do like Civ 5 and my only experience with 6 is watching a few youtube videos but from what I have seen it looks... incredibly similar to 5. Much more so than 5 was to 4, 4 was to 3, and 3 was to 2 (I never played civ 1, before my time, so I can't speak to it)

it plays more enjoyable than 5, the "districts" mechanic isn't a bad one and the fighting is better....but, like 5, the AI is just HORRIBLE at fighting.  I just got back from vacation, the first "comfort" game I played when I got home was Civ4.  You are right that 5/6 are the most alike of all the Civ games, if only in feel if nothing else.

[Bacon King]

~5,000 hours of Civ 4

I just got back from vacation, the first "comfort" game I played when I got home was Civ4.

It looks like I'm on the same page as both of you.  Civ 4 definitely hits the sweet spot for me where I can play it for countless hours to when I'm seeking an enjoyable and familiar experience. The third game definitely has the biggest nostalgia factor for me, and while I do revisit it every now and then (61 hours played since I added it to Steam in 2013) I can't put up with it for too long just because it lacks so many basic quality of life features found in all of the later games

The most frustrating example of for me is that I have to keep track of the population growth of every city to note the happiness level IMMEDIATELY whenever anywhere grows in size, because the game gives you absolutely zero warning before your cities experience unrest, so you have to micromanage EVERYTHING so your cities aren't sitting completely useless every time they grow.

Four hits the sweet spot, mixing nostalgia/familiarity with reasonable anti-frustration features. Honestly the only thing I really wish Civ IV had was a hexagonal map, that was easily the best change 5 did

Not that 5 isn't good, I do enjoy it occasionally, but it's just not really a "comfort" game for me

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Anyone seen this?

https://twitter.com/armenia/status/1029296342500298754?s=19

Official Twitter account for the Republic of Armenia.

[Bacon King]

Anyone seen this?

https://twitter.com/armenia/status/1029296342500298754?s=19

Official Twitter account for the Republic of Armenia.

Yes! They also tweeted about the release of the Iron Century patch

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Anyone seen this?

https://twitter.com/armenia/status/1029296342500298754?s=19
Official Twitter account for the Republic of Armenia.

Yes! They also tweeted about the release of the Iron Century patch

Yeah Armenia is a fun start in that bookmark.

[dead0man]

Erdogan is a fragile man, something like this could set him off.  Didn't a couple of central American countries get in a fight over soccer once?  Would anyone be surprised if the Turks got set off over a video game?

[Bacon King]

I've owned this game since release but in all those years I've never actually attempted to do a world conquest or even to play 100% optimally with a goal of long term uninterrupted expansion. I decided to finally play a game where I went all-out, and started playing shortly after the most recent patch, playing here and there as time permits. I plan to go all the way to 1453 because I've never actually gotten the achievement for playing a game from this start date all the way to the end.

I started as Charlemagne in 769. I just reached my seventh ruler, just over 150 years into the game, and since it's kind of a milestone I thought I'd share my progress so far!


_{(all images are screenshots taken by me and their use here is entirely aboveboard)}


Current political map (right click and open in a new tab to see a bigger image)





And religious map:





THIS unexpected event happened just before I quit for the night, which is how Catholicism spread just like the rains down in Africa




Here's the history of my top-level title, the Empire of Francia, showing how long each of my characters reigned

[Bacon King]

Also here's a big chonker of an image showing each of my rulers. I literally just began playing as Frederic and honestly his stats are AMAZING but honestly this entire sequence of rulers has been great

(right click and open in a new tab to see it)

[Bacon King]

Also if anyone has any questions about how to play super-optimally like this, please ask! I have accumulated so much knowledge about this game that I can share

[Wikipedia delenda est]

(I just had to rewrite this whole post since I accidentally left the page for a second. Where is the Save Draft button?!?! )

I've recently been doing a game where I played as Alfonso X of Castile, starting in 1257. Early on, I pressed a claim on the Holy Roman Empire and seized it from Richard of Cornwall. Then, I went on Crusade and secretly converted to Islam. I indoctrinated all of my children and formed an Islamic secret society that may have even been called the Muslim Brotherhood.

When I died, my brother Luis, who was Catholic, succeeded me on the Imperial throne. As Luis, through a mixture of assassinations and a divided opposition, I was able to get my nephew (Alfonso's son) named as the heir to the Empire even though he was an openly practicing Muslim. To be able to play as him when Luis died, though, I needed to get the Sword of Islam DLC, which I subsequently purchased. Therefore, when Luis died, a Muslim was sitting on the throne of the Holy Roman Empire. The Empire remains overwhelmingly Catholic however, which could definitely cause some problems in the future.

[Continential]

I wonder if you can be Hindu/Eastern Religion in Europe

[Bacon King]

Nice! Islam can be really fun in CK2, when you're done with this game I'd recommend trying out some of the game-recommended Muslim starts

Here are some tips:

The law for religious revocation can be very useful - but only revoke the titles of Christians who have no chance of going into rebellion instead of giving you their titles, unless you can handle a revolt (if you can defeat a revolt, though, it will be very useful to provoke someone into rebellion, because when you win they're your prisoner and you can instantly revoke all their titles instead of waiting weeks for them to respond to every individual request)

Wherever possible, add Muslim vassal kings between you and Christian dukes (and Muslim vassal dukes between you and Christian counts, but I don't see many direct vassal counts there). Basically you'll be offloading some of the angry heathen vassals onto some loyal Muslim vassals who will love you for giving them the new title(s)

The key to quick conversion of your realm (provinces and characters) is to do ensure there are as many layers of same-religion vassals as possible. Remember, every landed character ranked Count or higher has a Court Chaplain they will use to convert in a province. So the ideal scenario is to have a single count for each county so every province is the demesne of a ruler trying to convert it, and then every single one of those counts has a duke above them and a king above that, who both can convert provinces of their vassals in addition to their own demesne -- and your vassal kings/dukes can convert their own vassals below them

Also, vassals with higher stewardship will convert their provinces faster (this also applies to cultural conversion)

edit: oh of course there's the "request conversion" decision too, you might need to give someone a gift before they like you enough to do it though

[Bacon King]

I wonder if you can be Hindu/Eastern Religion in Europe

yes! with the ruler designer you can start as someone of any religion anywhere, but there are many other ways to change religion to anything you want. The easiest way is to use whatever means available to get a wife/concubine of the faith you want, then take the character option to convert to her religion

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

I played as a Muslim ruler of the British Isles by starting as a Germanic pagan, abducting a woman from North Africa in a raid, making her a concubine and then converting. After that I killed all the Catholic bishops in my realm to convert all the cathedrals to mosques and made sure that no Irish characters got to rule, basically it was a f[inks] over Irish Catholics as much as possible game while converting Ireland to Islam.

[Bacon King]

To be able to play as him when Luis died, though, I needed to get the Sword of Islam DLC, which I subsequently purchased. Therefore, when Luis died, a Muslim was sitting on the throne of the Holy Roman Empire.

Btw in case you didn't know, since it's your first time playing as a Muslim: you now have the Iqta government type which is the Muslim equivalent to feudalism but has some key differences. To see all the details, hover over the "government type" symbol just to the right of the religion symbol on your character page (for you it's the symbol of the Quran with a red bookmark, in front of a green circle. It's just to the right of the Sunni star and crescent symbol).

The biggest difference is that you can now directly control temple holdings (e.g. churches/mosques/whatever) just like you can already have castles. They usually give you more taxes than castle baronies and also gives you a lot of piety

[Bacon King]

this is hands down the BEST DEAL for CK2 that will EVER exist. if you want to buy the game or any DLC or whatever, you have one week remaining here:

https://www.humblebundle.com/games/crusader-kings-2-bundle

pay ONE DOLLAR and you get the base game + five important DLC

pay $11 and you get another five DLC in addition to the above

pay just $15 dollars and you get Crusader Kings 2 and ALL FIFTEEN MAIN CONTENT DLC

this is literally THE ENTIRE SERIES for cheaper than a single DLC + the money goes to charity too

[Bacon King]

if you're reading this, no matter who you are, you should seriously at least spend the $1 for the game and the rest of the first tier stuff. Given that you post on dave leip's election atlas forum you are statistically very likely to enjoy the game. And if you do like it, then seriously go for tier three because a chance to buy all of this for so cheap is probably never going to happen again

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

if you're reading this, no matter who you are, you should seriously at least spend the $1 for the game and the rest of the first tier stuff. Given that you post on dave leip's election atlas forum you are statistically very likely to enjoy the game. And if you do like it, then seriously go for tier three because a chance to buy all of this for so cheap is probably never going to happen again

[heavy breathing]

[Green Line]

I've spent too much money on hoi4 tho.  Why can't they do it for that game?

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

I've spent too much money on hoi4 tho.  Why can't they do it for that game?

Probably because it is newer relatively speaking.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

if you're reading this, no matter who you are, you should seriously at least spend the $1 for the game and the rest of the first tier stuff. Given that you post on dave leip's election atlas forum you are statistically very likely to enjoy the game. And if you do like it, then seriously go for tier three because a chance to buy all of this for so cheap is probably never going to happen again

Hello, can you please point me in the direction of which CKII to buy? I've searched the name and I don't seem to see a complete package for $15 or a single game for $1. FTR I'm checking on Steam--not sure if there's a different site you're referring to.

[Bacon King]

if you're reading this, no matter who you are, you should seriously at least spend the $1 for the game and the rest of the first tier stuff. Given that you post on dave leip's election atlas forum you are statistically very likely to enjoy the game. And if you do like it, then seriously go for tier three because a chance to buy all of this for so cheap is probably never going to happen again

Hello, can you please point me in the direction of which CKII to buy? I've searched the name and I don't seem to see a complete package for $15 or a single game for $1. FTR I'm checking on Steam--not sure if there's a different site you're referring to.

It's not on the Steam store, it's a Humble Bundle, which I linked right here

this is hands down the BEST DEAL for CK2 that will EVER exist. if you want to buy the game or any DLC or whatever, you have one week remaining here:

https://www.humblebundle.com/games/crusader-kings-2-bundle

When you make the purchase/donation, it will give you keys that you then enter into Steam and the game will be added to your account there

also when you donate you get to decide how much of the money goes to the website, how much goes to the game's developers, and how much goes to the charity (and you can pick from literally hundreds of charities) which I think is a really nice touch

[Bacon King]

also, to make sure I'm communicating it clearly: when you buy the bundle(s) and get the game keys, this is where you go to register them on Steam