Paradox Interactive Games Thread

[Bacon King]

thanks for all the advice!! decided to wait and play until the next steam sale to buy all the DLC i was missing, so after doing that two weeks ago I finally have a few days off work so I'll be jumping into it this weekend

[Alben Barkley]

"The British be damned! France supports her friends! The Czechs shall not be betrayed!" Honestly almost brought a tear to my eye as I wrecked Germany with that option. I've now beaten Germany as France in basically every possible way: The historical route where you ally with Britain and simply defend and survive. The route of making a pact with the Soviet Union which allows you to build up until Barbarossa. The route where you immediately oppose Germany remilitarizing the Rhineland. The Napoleonic Empire route where you invade Germany first. And now the route where you refuse to appease at the Munich Conference.

Each one is satisfying in its own way. By god I basically bought this game so I could make France win like they should have been able to historically, and by god has it ever delivered!

[Alben Barkley]

So I went with the Stresa Front route as Italy to guarantee Austria's independence and fight the Anschluss. After I defeated Germany, I puppeted them. Aaand.,. their leader is still Hitler. I guess because I played as fascist Italy, and the default fascist leader for Germany is Hitler. It's just a little ridiculous that I'd fight this war and Hitler would still be in power! Also ridiculous that the UK kept inviting me to and kicking me out of the Allies. I feel like this path wasn't developed to work well with the game...

[Alben Barkley]

This one's especially for you BRTD:



It's an older run of mine, but it checks out.

Next time I do the Papal States, I'll be sure to not stop at taking Vichy France and puppeting Germany, but conquering all of Protestant Europe!

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

This one's especially for you BRTD:



It's an older run of mine, but it checks out.

Next time I do the Papal States, I'll be sure to not stop at taking Vichy France and puppeting Germany, but conquering all of Protestant Europe!

How is that even possible when the Papal States didn't exist in that time frame?

[Alben Barkley]

This one's especially for you BRTD:



It's an older run of mine, but it checks out.

Next time I do the Papal States, I'll be sure to not stop at taking Vichy France and puppeting Germany, but conquering all of Protestant Europe!

How is that even possible when the Papal States didn't exist in that time frame?

Pope takes over Italy.

Anyway, last night I did an "Ingsoc" 1984 run where the British Communinst Party takes over most of Europe, with George Orwell as an advisor:

[Alben Barkley]

This is the most disgusting thing I've done yet in the game, and that includes taking over the world as Hitler:

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Is it possible to actually take over Germany and/or the Soviet Union playing as Poland?

[Alben Barkley]

Is it possible to actually take over Germany and/or the Soviet Union playing as Poland?

Yep.

Started as Poland in this game:

[Alben Barkley]

The UK is officially my favorite country in the game. The democratic, non-aligned, communist, AND fascist paths are all loads of fun!

And when you go fascist and still create the Imperial Federation, you literally become THE Empire lol:



At this point in the game, I've basically won. I have 360 divisions and over 1000 factories. I can easily take out my "ally" Italy, the only remaining "major" in the game (Japan is my nearly-annexed puppet). As well as Spain, which I have a war goal on. And China, the closest thing remaining to a "threat" beyond that. But honestly it's a foregone conclusion at this point. Once the US, Japan, Germany, and the Soviet Union (in that order) were gone, the game was essentially over. World conquest is within my grasp.

For THE Empire!

[Alben Barkley]

Revenge of the Kaiser! (And the original Central Powers!)



Guide to do this:

1. Kill Hitler.

2. Put Wilhelm II back on the throne.

3. Start building up your navy for a showdown with the UK.

4. Pressure Austria, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia to reform Austria-Hungary.

5. Assassinate Mussolini and empower the king so Italy joins you.

6. Go to war with France and the UK.

7. Schlieffen Plan to take out Belgium, Luxembourg, and France. Take out anyone else in Europe foolish enough to join the Allies (in my case Poland, Lithuania, and the Netherlands).

8. Use your powerful navy to cross the channel and capitulate the UK.

9. Profit! I annexed everything except Ethiopia, which I let Italy keep. As is tradition.

[Alben Barkley]

Revenge for 1812! Canucks and Euros, close your eyes!

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Revenge for 1812! Canucks and Euros, close your eyes!

"The Star Spangled Banner" began playing in my head as I saw this.
Bring out the bald eagles!

[Alben Barkley]

Let's not forget about the Aussies and Kiwis!

[Alben Barkley]

Got the achievement for defeating Germany as the USSR before the Allies could take a single tile from them. Also got the achievement for taking Rome as the USSR (Italy is my puppet, as usual). Ate practically all of Eastern and Central Europe for good measure. Would have eaten Finland too except they actually conceded to my demands for Karelia. Hopefully the new DLC makes Finland more interesting. As it is now, the Winter War is a joke and they don't even do the Continuation War.

[Alben Barkley]

OUR land, comrades!





I finally achieved a personal goal of mine: Take out all of Germany, the UK/France, and the US with just the Soviet starting army. Next up is Japan (they'll attack me anyway since I took land they want from the Allies). Then I guess I'll go through the standard process of going after Finland et al.

Anyone interested in a guide, here's how to do this:

1. Justify on Poland as soon as you hit 50 political power.

2. Save up your political power beyond that for when Stalin starts the purge; use it to shoot down any of the nastier purge options that pop up. Meanwhile continue going through the focuses that lead to the end of the purge, with boosts to the army and industry in between.

3. Start justifying on Germany once the justification with Poland is finished, and at the same time start your invasion of Poland. It should be pretty easy.

4. After you take out Poland, prepare to invade Germany and knock them out, almost as easily. (You'll simply overrun them in 1937.) Meanwhile start justifying on France.

5. Once Germany is finished, prepare naval invasions of Hull and the tile to its north in the UK through the North Sea from Wilhemshaven. Leave an army on the Maginot Line. The UK will defend France when you declare war on them. If you set up your naval invasion right, you should have a moment of naval supremacy which allows you to launch your invasion of the UK right after the war starts. Flood most of your army into the UK after you land and take the port, and capitulate them.

6. To take out France, naval invade them through the English Channel from a Southern England port like Dover. Beware they might be garrisoning Dunkirk hard, but find a port that you can take. (In this game I actually landed next to Dunkirk, then encircled and took the port.) Once you do have a port, repeat the process of flooding your army in, then quickly march to Paris and capitulate France.

7. I didn't start justifying on the US until after the war with the UK/France was over, but it likely could have been done earlier and easier if I had started the justification earlier. Anyway, at some point justify on the US. Now you should have Canada after the peace conference with the UK, so simply put most of your army on the border with the Northeastern US with a single army guarding the western Canadian/US border (and a few divisions on Alaska). Watch out for naval invasions; you should have a massive navy if you stole the UK and France's, so put it on the East Coast to thwart US attempts at taking back what you took and parts of Canada.

And it's done! The Soviet Union now reigns supreme by early 1940.

[LAKISYLVANIA]

OUR land, comrades!





I finally achieved a personal goal of mine: Take out all of Germany, the UK/France, and the US with just the Soviet starting army. Next up is Japan (they'll attack me anyway since I took land they want from the Allies). Then I guess I'll go through the standard process of going after Finland et al.

Anyone interested in a guide, here's how to do this:

1. Justify on Poland as soon as you hit 50 political power.

2. Save up your political power beyond that for when Stalin starts the purge; use it to shoot down any of the nastier purge options that pop up. Meanwhile continue going through the focuses that lead to the end of the purge, with boosts to the army and industry in between.

3. Start justifying on Germany once the justification with Poland is finished, and at the same time start your invasion of Poland. It should be pretty easy.

4. After you take out Poland, prepare to invade Germany and knock them out, almost as easily. (You'll simply overrun them in 1937.) Meanwhile start justifying on France.

5. Once Germany is finished, prepare naval invasions of Hull and the tile to its north in the UK through the North Sea from Wilhemshaven. Leave an army on the Maginot Line. The UK will defend France when you declare war on them. If you set up your naval invasion right, you should have a moment of naval supremacy which allows you to launch your invasion of the UK right after the war starts. Flood most of your army into the UK after you land and take the port, and capitulate them.

6. To take out France, naval invade them through the English Channel from a Southern England port like Dover. Beware they might be garrisoning Dunkirk hard, but find a port that you can take. (In this game I actually landed next to Dunkirk, then encircled and took the port.) Once you do have a port, repeat the process of flooding your army in, then quickly march to Paris and capitulate France.

7. I didn't start justifying on the US until after the war with the UK/France was over, but it likely could have been done earlier and easier if I had started the justification earlier. Anyway, at some point justify on the US. Now you should have Canada after the peace conference with the UK, so simply put most of your army on the border with the Northeastern US with a single army guarding the western Canadian/US border (and a few divisions on Alaska). Watch out for naval invasions; you should have a massive navy if you stole the UK and France's, so put it on the East Coast to thwart US attempts at taking back what you took and parts of Canada.

And it's done! The Soviet Union now reigns supreme by early 1940.

Thank you for doing the USSR justice.

[dead0man]

I think it's the Cold War child in me, but I have much harder time doing the above (i've never even tried, I think I've played as the USSR all of once), than I do doing the same with Germany.  When playing vanilla HOI4, I'm pretty sure I've played as Germany more than any other specific nation.

[Alben Barkley]

I think it's the Cold War child in me, but I have much harder time doing the above (i've never even tried, I think I've played as the USSR all of once), than I do doing the same with Germany.  When playing vanilla HOI4, I'm pretty sure I've played as Germany more than any other specific nation.

You can find out your most played nations, number of playthroughs started and in-game time spent playing as them, etc. by clicking on Career Profile in the main menu (though I think it does only go back to when this feature was introduced a year or two ago). It even divides your playthroughs by vanilla and mods. For me the top 5 in vanilla by far are USSR, UK, Germany, France, and US. Then Italy, Poland, Finland (probably gonna go even higher with the new DLC focusing on it), Spain (played both sides of the Civil War), THEN Japan lol. They're the ones most distasteful to me. Also more frustrating to play. The war in China is a slog (it can be easier with spies/collaboration governments but still not the most fun part of the game to wait on the "escalation" decisions to get rid of debuffs), and then I'm never even sure what to do. Can't invade the US or the Allies easily as Japan anymore.

Anyway, I get why so many people play Germany the most even though I do think (Nazi) Germany was morally worse than the USSR. It's probably the most fun and action-packed and easiest. I myself just did a 1939 start Germany game for fun, because you get to skip straight to the action without doing cheesy ahistorical stuff like taking out France or Poland/USSR right at the start. It's quite satisfying to just beat up on the AI sometimes, moral implications aside. This was also the first time I did Berlin-Moscow Axis so I could avoid the slog of fighting the USSR (which can be fun the first few times but not as much the 100th). I just beat the Allies within a few months at the start of the game, then beat the US, then Japan, then finally Switzerland just for s--ts and giggles. All with only a slightly tweaked starting army. Germany was also the first country I did a (near) world conquest with. (Never gone all the way because of war justification times.)

On the other hand, Germany seems so OP in the game they get boring to me (although I like the alt history paths). I find the USSR more challenging. Like all the stuff I did in that last USSR playthrough can more easily be done as Germany. Plus I like the "defend until you can counterattack" gameplay of historical USSR. The first time I pulled it off, I was more of a novice at the game and I didn't know the optimal place to put defensive lines, so I really did feel the historical desperation and pressure of defending Leningrad/Moscow/Stalingrad, and it was super satisfying to finally push them back.

[Alben Barkley]

Kaiserin Victoria has just Barbarossa'd way more successfully and earlier than Hitler did!



Now all I have left to do before I can FINALLY restore the Holy Roman Empire is to take out France, Switzerland, and the Benelux (already defeated Italy, laughably easily, and took all the relevant land). The only problem is that if I go after them, I'll be dragged into war with the Allies, and by the time the justification is complete, Pearl Harbor will have happened and the US will be involved... It is a major pain in the ass to take out the US without capitulating the UK before they get involved so you can invade from Canada. The good news is I believe you can still restore the Holy Roman Empire just by occupying the land, without having to capitulate everybody and take it in the peace conference.

Also I DID last night restore the Holy Roman Empire in the "Great War Redux" WW1 mod:



The only problem is some weird funkiness happened as a result of me taking out France by invading directly from our shared border as well as through Switzerland (which is my puppet) instead of the Schlieffen Plan. For some bizarre reason Belgium was awarded Northern France despite them not being involved in the war at all...

Ultimately I think it's a good mod, and actually there's arguably even more of a need for a WW1 strategy game than a WW2 one (given how the combat and diplomacy and everything worked back then, as well as how sorely underrepresented WW1 is in games). But it definitely has its bugs and quirks, especially when you deviate at all from history. It also seems way too easy; as you can see, I totally wrecked the Entente by 1913, and the only reason it even took that long was waiting for focuses to complete. Howitzers just completely annihilate the enemy. It also seems like it takes forever to research anything. Which I get, given the technological limitations of the time, but I often found myself forced to choose between either researching useless stuff or going way far ahead of time on research. Also when I played the US, it was even more boring than WW2 US, as it took 6 whole years to prepare, then when I finally went "over there," I completely steamrolled the Germans in like 1 day and instantly ended the war with the click of a button. So yeah, I like that the mod exists but like most if not all HOI4 mods I've tried, I find it to be much less well-balanced and "finished" than the vanilla game.

[Alben Barkley]

Well, in my last run before the new HOI4 DLC focusing on Finland and Scandinavia -- "Arms Against Tyranny" -- dropped today, I managed to form the Holy Roman Empire:



In my first run with the new DLC (as Finland, naturally), I kicked the Soviets' ass in the Winter War despite low manpower and weak industry. I didn't capitulate them but I did take Leningrad and white peace them on favorable terms for the Finns. Next time I'll probably go fascist for "Greater Finland" and actually try to take out the Soviets entirely, but I wanted to do a historical run first.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

I played loads of CK2 to distract from world events. Screenshots and descriptions of what I played will be forthcoming.

[Bacon King]

I played loads of CK2 to distract from world events. Screenshots and descriptions of what I played will be forthcoming.

I've been playing a LOT of CK3, specifically the Elder Kings 2 mod (based on the Elder Scrolls games)

also in the middle of a Jadd campaign in the EU4 Anbennar mod

[Alben Barkley]

I played loads of CK2 to distract from world events. Screenshots and descriptions of what I played will be forthcoming.

I've been playing a LOT of CK3, specifically the Elder Kings 2 mod (based on the Elder Scrolls games)

also in the middle of a Jadd campaign in the EU4 Anbennar mod

Funny thing is the game that really finally got me into Paradox was CK3. I tried HOI4 first but was so confused by the tutorial and so overwhelmed by all the mechanics that I just gave up.

Then I tried CK3, and it had an excellent and user-friendly tutorial and interface. I was able to go from a petty king to Irish ruler of the British Isles in my first run as a result. That run started the addiction, really.

But now, CK3 has been left in the dust in favor of HOI4, at least in terms of hours played. Mainly because I prefer the HOI4 WW2 setting and overall prefer the wargame mechanics to the almost RPG/Sims-like mechanics of CK3, where war feels more like "siege your opponent's cities faster and have bigger armies/more allies" than it does anything truly strategic like HOI4. Not that CK3 doesn't have its place and appeal as well.

As for EU4... I've still never really gotten into that one. The dated UI and massive amounts of DLC and complex mechanics still intimidates me despite all my hours in HOI4 and CK3. I tried Vic3 and boy were that game's war mechanics such a huge letdown that I haven't picked it up again since; I hope they fix that eventually, because the bones of a great game are there. But the war gameplay as it is SUCKS. I have no idea what's going on or why, everything seems to be completely random. They cut out all micromanagement in favor of a system that basically gives you no control whatsoever; I hate it!

Also Stellaris I've played casually. It almost feels more like Civ than these other games to me though, and obviously doesn't have the history theme which is so appealing to me. Once in a while I'll get in a sci-fi mood and Stellaris might scratch that itch, but it's nowhere near as omnipresent as my infatuation with history, WW2 especially.

[7,052,770]

I have played 1,400 hours of CK2 and lately enjoyed Vic2 a lot too, but I've never gotten into EU4. I actually picked up both Stellaris and HoI4 on a Steam sale but haven't played them at all. It's just hard to find a time to learn all the mechanics of a new game like this.