Paradox Interactive Games Thread

[Bacon King]

regarding EU4: I can't even imagine picking it up now for the first time. I've been playing the game for a full decade, accumulating upwards of 3,000 hours of playtime, yet STILL periodically find myself learning new things about the game. Nothing huge, mind you, mostly edge cases where two niche mechanics interact in an unexpected way - but sometimes even a minor/secondary impact of a core gameplay element (for example i literally only just discovered the size of your spy network in a country reduces the INITIAL "Aggressive Expansion" penalty formed in that country by your actions elsewhere.)

And that's not even getting into the tons of gameplay DLC, which I've mostly if not entirely kept up with (kind of an exception here when i was younger and had less discretionary spending. I couldn't afford to buy DLC on release and would instead spend birthday + christmas money during the Steam Winter Sale to catch up at a discount). Like I'd genuinely have no idea what DLC to recommend as "must buy" at this point, and honestly the $5/month subscription option is the only sane option for any new player getting into EU4 for the first time. Of course the worst problem with the DLC isn't even it's sheer volume!

Say what you will about the way Paradox handles DLC but contrary to most complaints their DLC policy has actually gotten MUCH better since they began developing their current generation of games. Because it's such an old game, EU4 uniquely still carries this burden.

These days Paradox does a good job at keeping their DLC, for lack of a better word, "self-contained" and focused entirely on adding new things, accompanied by free patches updating core gameplay. That distinction was not always so clear and many early EU4 DLCs were focused on 'expanding core gameplay' in ways they would absolutely not get away with doing today. The worst offenders are "Rights of Man", "Art of War", and "Wealth of Nations" for being entitely themed on fleshing out the basic gameplay experience (rulers, combat, and economy respectively) but every patch of the first four/five years contains at least one feature that SHOULD be free content (now that development is finally base game and i THINK estates are as well, the worst offender here is paywalling the extremely useful Diplomacy Macro-Builder behind the entirely unrelated Mandate of Heaven DLC. Like i literally cannot fathom playing the game without its convenience)





All that said though EU4 is still fun. It's the best all-round experience if you like paradox games but aren't particularly interested in the unique gameplay focus of their other grand strategy titles (war management in Hearts of Iron, industrial economy focus of Victoria, individual/personality focus of Crusader Kings, and Stellaris is a 4X space game so it's kind of its own thing).

Europa Universalis is very much the "generalist" line of Paradox games that takes the common elements and themes of their other gsg titles,  "make your side stronger and bigger to paint the map in your color" and elevates THAT into the central gameplay focus. honestly they pull it off really well, too.

If that sounds appealing to you, AND if you're already experienced with other Paradox games (especially when it comes to approaching the inevitable learning curves they all share: navigating complicated interfaces, determining the mechanics that ACTUALLY matter and what stuff you can safely ignore until you figure out what's going on, recognizing when/how/where these games provide feedback on the consequences of your actions, recognizing when you're missing something and knowing how to go about finding it) then consider getting EU4 on sale and spending $5 for a month of the "all DLC subscription" thing to try it out and see if it's something you'll enjoy. For reference even with all its feature bloat the game's learning curve is more gentle than Victoria 2.

If that sounds interesting to you but you aren't very experienced with other Paradox games, then first welcome to the thread, second you should wait for EU5's inevitable release in a few years and for now get a game like Crusader Kings 3 or Hearts of Iron 4 - popular titles in the CURRENT generation of Paradox Interactive's grand strategy games. One of the biggest and most remarkable characteristics of the current generation is they are MUCH more accessible for first-time players. EU4 is the last remaining currently-active game of the previous generation and therefore is notoriously impenetrable in the way ALL Paradox games used to be

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

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

My favorite CK3 accomplishment was creating basically hipster Christianity and then successfully defeating the Catholics in a Crusade against me.

Somewhat ironically in order to do so I had to be a total inquisitor with Catholic characters and take over all of Iberia and completely rid it of Islam. Also needed to stock up piety.

I posted about it here: https://talkelections.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=416028.0

[Bacon King]

Crusader Kings III and Europa Universalis IV have a big sale on Steam right now!

the base game of EU4 is 70% off and almost all DLC is 50% off! (Lions of the North released last year is only 30% off, the two released this year are still full price)

CK3 base game is 50% off, most DLC either 30% or 20% off - again only the newest two are still full price (Legacy of Persia, Wards & Wardens)

I just noticed these sales now when buying their new DLC so I'm not sure how long it's been going on or how long it's gonna last

great opportunity to pick up CK3 for anyone, and if you're an EU4 player it's a good opportunity to pick up any older DLC you might have missed




if you're interested in buying EU4 in the year of our lord 2023: don't buy any DLC. the only sane economical choice is the $5/month subscription for 100% DLC access - just pay for one month at a time without automatic renewal so you aren't getting charged whenever you stop playing the game

that said though the base game is only $12 right now which is by far the best deal for EU4 I've ever seen so if you are interested in checking the game out now's the time

[Bacon King]

also a word of advice for anyone trying to decide on any sort of Paradox DLC purchase: never trust the Steam user scores, in the vast majority of cases they have no correlation with the actual quality of the DLC itself. Vote brigading for stupid reasons is a perennial hobby for a certain segment of the community

[Bacon King]

MORE SALES!

the previous sales are over - this time it's Stellaris and Victoria 3 available on the cheap

first off Victoria 3 is free to play for the next two days! try it before you buy it, this weekend only. Everyone is saying the game is finally good now and the new 1.5 update finally brings it up to par. Don't take my word for it though, play it for free this weekend and see for yourself lol

if you like it and want to keep playing after the free weekend ends, you can currently buy the base game at a 50% discount. V3 only has two gameplay DLCs; the brand new one is at full price (which is only $6 tho so not bad) and the other one is 40% off.

Meanwhile Stellaris is a whopping 70% off right now and the discounts for its DLC are structured like in the EU4 sale. Most have a 50% discount, and the scale of the discount decreases based on how recently it was released: from 50% to 30% to 20%, and those released in 2023 are still at full price

Just like I said above with the other sale, this is a great opportunity to check out Stellaris and Victoria 3 if you're thinking about buying it - especially the latter, which you can play literally for free throughout the weekend. Also a great opportunity for existing Stelllaris players to pick up any DLC they've missed

[Bacon King]

also even if you've never tried a game by paradox or any other grand strategy game I'd still recommend taking a look at Victoria 3 right now when you can play it for free

the Victoria series is objectively the most Atlas Forum games that have ever existed

[No War, but the War on Christmas]

also even if you've never tried a game by paradox or any other grand strategy game I'd still recommend taking a look at Victoria 3 right now when you can play it for free

the Victoria series is objectively the most Atlas Forum games that have ever existed

And the 1.5 update, including mostly free additions, has genuinely put the game into the best place it's been since launch.

It's almost like a whole different game, so yeah, +1 to this.

[Alben Barkley]

I think this might be the fastest I've ever KO'd the Allies. They're dead before Christmas 1937, and even that only took so long mostly just because of the justification time on Belgium/France. (I memed Belgium to death by letting them walk into Germany, then encircling pretty much their entire army and destroying it. France was actually even easier to beat LMFAO.) And all with a small number of default divisions. Sea Lion is laughably easy in this game. I don't know how they fix that though without it being impossible to win as Germany... unless that's the point?

[FT-02 Senator A.F.E. 🇵🇸🤝🇺🇸🤝🇺🇦]

Here's the aftermath of my Vyatka campaign in TNO with the Second West Russian War submod enabled

Spoiler alert! Click Show to show the content.

Show

I started as the small Principality of Vyatka amidst the squabbling Russian warlord statelets in the aftermath of the collapse of the West Russian Revolutionary Front after the German victory in the First West Russian War.

Our situation wasn't the best considering having practically no economy because of the Luftwaffe terror bombings but I had a somewhat "all right" army only hindered by infighting and corruption within the White Army.

His Majesty, Tsar Vladimir III, immediately set out to work to rectify this situation by setting up and promoting the profitable Vyatka vodka distillery, setting up public works projects alongside establishing a central bank, restoring law and order by fighting against banditry, piracy, and numerous raids by other warlords, and fostering traditions of the White Army.

All that said and done, when the accursed Fuhrer himself finally kicked the bucket, and the terror bombings stopped, our economic situation was significantly improved, the Tsar was adored by the citizens, and the military was modernized (in comparison to the other warlords) and ready to reunify West Russia.

Once the Smuta began while the rest of the Einheitspakt devolved into anarchic civil war, the Tsar's first conquest was that of the unstable Komi Republic which had been taken over by the Reds. He justified this under the assumption that while the Vyatkan army could hold out against the forces of the Republic by themselves, they couldn't fare as well when they would inevitably realign and forge an alliance with the remnants of the W.R.R.F. in the north.

Fortunately for the Tsar, this would not come to be. The W.R.R.F. invaded the warrior-priest state of the Order of Saint George and got too bogged down to aid the Komi despite the fact the order was invaded by both the W.R.R.F. and the Aryan Brotherhood.

The Tsar, after his conquest and consolidation of the former Komi Republic, immediately set his sights up north to avenge the humiliation of 1917 once and for all. Being a devout Christian himself, he used the pretext of the Godless Bolshevik assault on Gayny to declare war on the Reds. Catching Zhukov's forces by surprise, the resurgent White Army made quick work of pushing north to Archangelesk and extinguishing whatever was left of the Soviet Union in Western Russia.

After the campaign in the North, a disgruntled former soldier of Gayny had attempted to assassinate the Tsar after word was spread that instead of reinstating the Order's territories, he'd be directly integrating them into his realm. After consolidating his gains, the Tsar of all Russias set his armies south to conquer the ever-loathed and hated A.B. in Perm, and they were no match for the righteous fury set upon them.

Soon afterward, the Tsar would face his last rival regarding dominance over West Russia; the hated Nazi collaborators otherwise known to the world as the Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia. In an ironic twist of fate, it would be two states who initially collaborated with the Nazis who are fighting for West Russia. However, unlike the Tsar who has sought to, and has been trying to rectify the stain of collaboration with the German invaders, the Samarans under Andrey Vlasov have never tried to sever ties with the Germans.

[LAKISYLVANIA]

My Swedish Empire



Morocco in 1532



Mewar into Bharat



Brandenburg into Prussia into Germany (around 1630 or so) with Burgundy and Two Sicilies as PUs.

[7,052,770]

Anyone ever done a Zun or Zoroastrian playthrough in CK2?

[Kuumo]

Anyone ever done a Zun or Zoroastrian playthrough in CK2?

Yes, the Zunist reformation campaign was one of the most fun games I've had in CK2. Empire of the Sun is one of the most challenging achievements, but the setbacks on the way made it more interesting and enjoyable. It took me three or four tries.



I became the Saoshyant starting as the 769 Bavandids too.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

I think this might be the fastest I've ever KO'd the Allies. They're dead before Christmas 1937, and even that only took so long mostly just because of the justification time on Belgium/France. (I memed Belgium to death by letting them walk into Germany, then encircling pretty much their entire army and destroying it. France was actually even easier to beat LMFAO.) And all with a small number of default divisions. Sea Lion is laughably easy in this game. I don't know how they fix that though without it being impossible to win as Germany... unless that's the point?

So question what's the most irrelevant country you've played as and what happened then? I'm actually curious what you would do playing as like Panama or Nepal.

[Alben Barkley]

I think this might be the fastest I've ever KO'd the Allies. They're dead before Christmas 1937, and even that only took so long mostly just because of the justification time on Belgium/France. (I memed Belgium to death by letting them walk into Germany, then encircling pretty much their entire army and destroying it. France was actually even easier to beat LMFAO.) And all with a small number of default divisions. Sea Lion is laughably easy in this game. I don't know how they fix that though without it being impossible to win as Germany... unless that's the point?

So question what's the most irrelevant country you've played as and what happened then? I'm actually curious what you would do playing as like Panama or Nepal.

I rarely play as tiny minors like that because, while it's possible to meme your way to success or play a support role for one faction or another, it's BORING and takes a LONG time. Because you have no resources, no military, etc. You have to build everything from scratch and it's not even hard so much as it is time-consuming. Mid-sized minors like Poland and Turkey and (with the latest DLC) Nordic countries are more fun because:

A. They have focus trees and interesting things to do.

B. They are a better balance between challenge and potential, between build-up and action.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

I think this might be the fastest I've ever KO'd the Allies. They're dead before Christmas 1937, and even that only took so long mostly just because of the justification time on Belgium/France. (I memed Belgium to death by letting them walk into Germany, then encircling pretty much their entire army and destroying it. France was actually even easier to beat LMFAO.) And all with a small number of default divisions. Sea Lion is laughably easy in this game. I don't know how they fix that though without it being impossible to win as Germany... unless that's the point?

So question what's the most irrelevant country you've played as and what happened then? I'm actually curious what you would do playing as like Panama or Nepal.

I rarely play as tiny minors like that because, while it's possible to meme your way to success or play a support role for one faction or another, it's BORING and takes a LONG time. Because you have no resources, no military, etc. You have to build everything from scratch and it's not even hard so much as it is time-consuming. Mid-sized minors like Poland and Turkey and (with the latest DLC) Nordic countries are more fun because:

A. They have focus trees and interesting things to do.

B. They are a better balance between challenge and potential, between build-up and action.

What about playing as a country that was minor in the war but still close to the action and active? Like Bulgaria or the Netherlands.

[Alben Barkley]

I think this might be the fastest I've ever KO'd the Allies. They're dead before Christmas 1937, and even that only took so long mostly just because of the justification time on Belgium/France. (I memed Belgium to death by letting them walk into Germany, then encircling pretty much their entire army and destroying it. France was actually even easier to beat LMFAO.) And all with a small number of default divisions. Sea Lion is laughably easy in this game. I don't know how they fix that though without it being impossible to win as Germany... unless that's the point?

So question what's the most irrelevant country you've played as and what happened then? I'm actually curious what you would do playing as like Panama or Nepal.

I rarely play as tiny minors like that because, while it's possible to meme your way to success or play a support role for one faction or another, it's BORING and takes a LONG time. Because you have no resources, no military, etc. You have to build everything from scratch and it's not even hard so much as it is time-consuming. Mid-sized minors like Poland and Turkey and (with the latest DLC) Nordic countries are more fun because:

A. They have focus trees and interesting things to do.

B. They are a better balance between challenge and potential, between build-up and action.

What about playing as a country that was minor in the war but still close to the action and active? Like Bulgaria or the Netherlands.

I should play the Netherlands some day, I know they have a focus to "lead the minor democracies" which sounds like it could be fun.

Anyway, I just beat the Allies as Germany by early 1938 using only default light tank divisions, so clearly I'm running out of ways to challenge myself and have fun playing majors. So maybe more minor playthroughs are in my future.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

also even if you've never tried a game by paradox or any other grand strategy game I'd still recommend taking a look at Victoria 3 right now when you can play it for free

the Victoria series is objectively the most Atlas Forum games that have ever existed

I've had trouble getting into Victoria 3 since it seems to have very slow starts, you have to keep upgrading a paper mill or something as your first focus. Maybe the recommended starter countries just aren't good. Chile seems to be a tough one, it's notoriously underrated in Victoria 2 (it's the only democratic country in South America when the game begins so being democratic and New World gets it massive immigration and means you can develop it fast), but this seems even more complicated.

My hot take is that the best learning country in Victoria 2 is Australia, which obviously requires starting as the UK and granting independence. But it has a ton of advantages, loads of immigration (again also democratic and New World), good natural resources, and no real competition in its part of the world, so you don't have to worry about being dragged into wars. And it's easy to max prestige and become a secondary power and then colonize the Pacific as well. Any equivalent in Victoria 3? I guess the new system means you can start out playing as Australia as a colony instead of independent but I've never tried it.

[Alben Barkley]

Well I just did a Netherlands playthrough, and I have to say, it was actually AWESOME! Most fun I've had in this game in a while.

You start out with basically nothing and horrible debuffs, but can become the leader of the European Union and wreck the Axis without even any help from Britain and France!



To do this, I:

1. Went down the focus tree to "Lead the Minor Democracies," "Form the Benelux" (merging Netherlands/Belgium/Luxembourg), and "Form the European Union." After all this is done every non-major democracy in Europe will be in your faction, even Sweden and Switzerland!

2. Tried to remove the debuffs as best I could while slowly building as many 9/1 infantry divisions with support AA, ART, ENG, and recon as I could, using Dutch East Indies puppet troops for manpower.

3. Refused to betray Czechoslovakia at Munich, but Germany -- surrounded by me to the West, Switzerland to the South, and the Nordics to the North -- actually wussed out and refused to invade them! This gave me extra time to train more divisions.

4. Guaranteed Poland once world tension was over 25%; interestingly, Britain and France did NOT guarantee Poland, meaning my ragtag group of minor democracies would be on our own against the German Reich.

5. Germany attacked Poland on schedule, if not a little early. But using Grand Battleplan for planning bonuses and boosts to infantry, I was able to wreck them as they were still surrounded, even with only a fairly small army and essentially no air force.

6. Germany capitulated within months, at which time it was simply a matter of marching down Italy. Mussolini was deposed and they fractured into Civil War but Mussolini surrendered almost immediately anyway.

7. Puppeted/liberated everybody, while allowing Poland to take some German land to match their modern borders as well as their pre-1939 borders.

All this done, by the way, before the end of 1939! It was a blast to play in part because it was pretty quick; whole campaign was done in a couple hours.

Now it's just a matter of whether I want to take on the Soviets, who are now justifying on Poland themselves. With German/Italian industry and manpower as my puppets, it's probably feasible but I could also call it a day here. Fun run either way!

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Well I just did a Netherlands playthrough, and I have to say, it was actually AWESOME! Most fun I've had in this game in a while.

You start out with basically nothing and horrible debuffs, but can become the leader of the European Union and wreck the Axis without even any help from Britain and France!



To do this, I:

1. Went down the focus tree to "Lead the Minor Democracies," "Form the Benelux" (merging Netherlands/Belgium/Luxembourg), and "Form the European Union." After all this is done every non-major democracy in Europe will be in your faction, even Sweden and Switzerland!

2. Tried to remove the debuffs as best I could while slowly building as many 9/1 infantry divisions with support AA, ART, ENG, and recon as I could, using Dutch East Indies puppet troops for manpower.

3. Refused to betray Czechoslovakia at Munich, but Germany -- surrounded by me to the West, Switzerland to the South, and the Nordics to the North -- actually wussed out and refused to invade them! This gave me extra time to train more divisions.

4. Guaranteed Poland once world tension was over 25%; interestingly, Britain and France did NOT guarantee Poland, meaning my ragtag group of minor democracies would be on our own against the German Reich.

5. Germany attacked Poland on schedule, if not a little early. But using Grand Battleplan for planning bonuses and boosts to infantry, I was able to wreck them as they were still surrounded, even with only a fairly small army and essentially no air force.

6. Germany capitulated within months, at which time it was simply a matter of marching down Italy. Mussolini was deposed and they fractured into Civil War but Mussolini surrendered almost immediately anyway.

7. Puppeted/liberated everybody, while allowing Poland to take some German land to match their modern borders as well as their pre-1939 borders.

All this done, by the way, before the end of 1939! It was a blast to play in part because it was pretty quick; whole campaign was done in a couple hours.

Now it's just a matter of whether I want to take on the Soviets, who are now justifying on Poland themselves. With German/Italian industry and manpower as my puppets, it's probably feasible but I could also call it a day here. Fun run either way!

You should see about deposits Franco in Spain too.

[Alben Barkley]

Well I just did a Netherlands playthrough, and I have to say, it was actually AWESOME! Most fun I've had in this game in a while.

You start out with basically nothing and horrible debuffs, but can become the leader of the European Union and wreck the Axis without even any help from Britain and France!



To do this, I:

1. Went down the focus tree to "Lead the Minor Democracies," "Form the Benelux" (merging Netherlands/Belgium/Luxembourg), and "Form the European Union." After all this is done every non-major democracy in Europe will be in your faction, even Sweden and Switzerland!

2. Tried to remove the debuffs as best I could while slowly building as many 9/1 infantry divisions with support AA, ART, ENG, and recon as I could, using Dutch East Indies puppet troops for manpower.

3. Refused to betray Czechoslovakia at Munich, but Germany -- surrounded by me to the West, Switzerland to the South, and the Nordics to the North -- actually wussed out and refused to invade them! This gave me extra time to train more divisions.

4. Guaranteed Poland once world tension was over 25%; interestingly, Britain and France did NOT guarantee Poland, meaning my ragtag group of minor democracies would be on our own against the German Reich.

5. Germany attacked Poland on schedule, if not a little early. But using Grand Battleplan for planning bonuses and boosts to infantry, I was able to wreck them as they were still surrounded, even with only a fairly small army and essentially no air force.

6. Germany capitulated within months, at which time it was simply a matter of marching down Italy. Mussolini was deposed and they fractured into Civil War but Mussolini surrendered almost immediately anyway.

7. Puppeted/liberated everybody, while allowing Poland to take some German land to match their modern borders as well as their pre-1939 borders.

All this done, by the way, before the end of 1939! It was a blast to play in part because it was pretty quick; whole campaign was done in a couple hours.

Now it's just a matter of whether I want to take on the Soviets, who are now justifying on Poland themselves. With German/Italian industry and manpower as my puppets, it's probably feasible but I could also call it a day here. Fun run either way!

You should see about deposits Franco in Spain too.

Problem is democracies can't justify war goals on countries that haven't generated world tension, and for some stupid reason the game doesn't consider Franco couping a democratic government in a devastating civil war to be generating world tension. Also world tension isn't even 100% yet, which is also required for democracies to justify war goals. And furthermore, I'd have no easy way of getting to Spain as France isn't in my faction. I'd have to naval invade. Plus with the Soviets knocking on Poland's door, they're clearly the bigger and more immediate threat.

However, there IS a focus which could give me a war goal on the UK, which COULD lead to me taking out both Britain and France, and then if I annex my German and Italian puppets, I'd have cores on the EU as a formable nation.

But I don't know if I'm gonna do all that... I'm pretty pleasantly surprised with how fun this Netherlands game was as is.

[Alben Barkley]

This game is absolutely ridiculous and I love it.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

also even if you've never tried a game by paradox or any other grand strategy game I'd still recommend taking a look at Victoria 3 right now when you can play it for free

the Victoria series is objectively the most Atlas Forum games that have ever existed

I've had trouble getting into Victoria 3 since it seems to have very slow starts, you have to keep upgrading a paper mill or something as your first focus. Maybe the recommended starter countries just aren't good. Chile seems to be a tough one, it's notoriously underrated in Victoria 2 (it's the only democratic country in South America when the game begins so being democratic and New World gets it massive immigration and means you can develop it fast), but this seems even more complicated.

My hot take is that the best learning country in Victoria 2 is Australia, which obviously requires starting as the UK and granting independence. But it has a ton of advantages, loads of immigration (again also democratic and New World), good natural resources, and no real competition in its part of the world, so you don't have to worry about being dragged into wars. And it's easy to max prestige and become a secondary power and then colonize the Pacific as well. Any equivalent in Victoria 3? I guess the new system means you can start out playing as Australia as a colony instead of independent but I've never tried it.

So I actually found a good country to learn the ropes: Hawaii of all things!

It's small and isolated, so any changes to the economy are felt quickly and significantly. Also ran into issues with government legitimacy and ended up having to democraticize.

Unfortunately the small population means you eventually hit a point where you can't get enough workers for any of the buildings you set up, and the government is very unstable with so many factions, maybe realistic, after all there's a reason Hawaii was so easy to annex. But it made me very familiar with the new game mechanics which are quite different from even V2. And actually a very realistic economic portrayal. You can run into things like where the market is flooded with cheap goods actually hurting the overall economy. By the end I was stuck in a position where I couldn't get people to work at the rice farm or sugar plantation because grain and sugar prices were so low, and no grains meant I couldn't get the livestock farm to process, I even tried ending liquor imports so liquor was only obtainable via production there which would increase the demand for sugar and fruit but didn't help much. I ended up having to push through an interventionist economic policy so I could subsidize some of those and what's interesting is the sugar plantation soared in employment after I subsidized it and that remained even after I lifted the subsidies. You kind of have to find a solution to complex economic problems based on real life economics!

[Alben Barkley]

Finally won a 1939 start HOI4 game as the USSR. It was annoying. For those who don’t know, the 1939 start is severely underdeveloped and basically every nation except Germany is not optimally set up. Usually the Axis will steamroll the Allies in a 1939 start game; not only Germany but also Japan will beat China. The USSR in particular is severely weakened compared to both real life and a remotely competent player starting from 1936.

And I took that personally.

So I did a 1939 start USSR game where I went as historical as possible. I even stuck with the “Mass Assault” land doctrine, my least favorite of the four. But the AI, which is wonky at the best of times and especially in a 1939 start, did not want to play along. Not only did Japan still beat China easily, the Western Allies didn’t even ATTEMPT to invade Sicily or Normandy or anything. Vichy France joined rhe Axis and became a major. Germany seemed more interested in holding Minsk and Kyiv than defending their own territory, so I was able to march to Berlin and beyond and have the victory music play while Germany was still deep in Belarus/Ukraine, the Western Allies were nowhere to be found, and I still had a ton of mopping up to do.

But in the end I won, and because I had to do pretty much everything by myself, I got most of the war score and was able to puppet/annex everything I wanted. I guess I can say I did it now but aside from maybe quick Germany games, I’ll probably stick to 1936 starts from now on. Despite starting later, felt like this actually took LONGER as the USSR.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Finally won a 1939 start HOI4 game as the USSR. It was annoying. For those who don’t know, the 1939 start is severely underdeveloped and basically every nation except Germany is not optimally set up. Usually the Axis will steamroll the Allies in a 1939 start game; not only Germany but also Japan will beat China. The USSR in particular is severely weakened compared to both real life and a remotely competent player starting from 1936.

And I took that personally.

So I did a 1939 start USSR game where I went as historical as possible. I even stuck with the “Mass Assault” land doctrine, my least favorite of the four. But the AI, which is wonky at the best of times and especially in a 1939 start, did not want to play along. Not only did Japan still beat China easily, the Western Allies didn’t even ATTEMPT to invade Sicily or Normandy or anything. Vichy France joined rhe Axis and became a major. Germany seemed more interested in holding Minsk and Kyiv than defending their own territory, so I was able to march to Berlin and beyond and have the victory music play while Germany was still deep in Belarus/Ukraine, the Western Allies were nowhere to be found, and I still had a ton of mopping up to do.

But in the end I won, and because I had to do pretty much everything by myself, I got most of the war score and was able to puppet/annex everything I wanted. I guess I can say I did it now but aside from maybe quick Germany games, I’ll probably stick to 1936 starts from now on. Despite starting later, felt like this actually took LONGER as the USSR.

Paradox AI tends to be wonky like that. One rather annoying aspect of Victoria 2 is that the USA about 2/3 of the time tends to expand into Alberta because that area is unsettled at the game begin, thus resulting in Canada being disconnected and the USA having a weird northern appendage. It also doesn't always get the Maine/New Brunswick border right and is often stuck with the 1836 borders, this means if you want to play as an independent New England, you have to start out as the UK, sign the Webster-Ashburton Treaty and then switch to the USA and grant independence to New England, otherwise you may get a weird looking Maine and the name being "New English New England".

Side note: I ran a Victoria 2 game recently mostly as an observer (I played in Chile for most of the game so away from all the action), but I switched to the USA to intentionally lose the Civil War and grant independence to the CSA, and then back to Chile. The USA ended up invading and retaking the CSA in the 1880s anyway. That's probably the most likely real life outcome too, which is another reason why what-if scenarios about the CSA in the 20th century are just purely hypothetical.

[Alben Barkley]

First time really digging into alt-history mods in HOI4. In this case, Kaiserreich. Only played the US Civil War in that mod before (yes, I made the South rise again under Huey Long). This time I reclaimed France from the commies, starting with just French colonies like Algeria and ultimately taking back the mainland. As you can see, at great expense to my limited manpower however. Hopefully I can rebuild and reintegrate/core the rest of France now, before taking on the Germans to reclaim Alsace-Lorraine and avenge the first Weltkrieg.