Paradox Interactive Games Thread

[Virginiá]

^ thank you nerd73

The only thing I can add is that it's actually easy to "allow" your party to be overtaken by rebels - just let them hold your capital for a few months (iirc 6?)

Advanced strategy for quick government change
The easiest way I've found to trigger a large revolt is, when you're able to pass a reform, only enact reforms nobody wants. People want a free press and an expanded franchise? Change the election system from FPTP to Jeffersonian. Upper House feeling enough pressure to pass another reform immediately afterwards? Change it from Jeffersonian to PR. Keep doing this and the POP militancy will skyrocket, they will join militant revolt factions, and then you only have to wait for the ideology of your choice to rise up and just let them win. Voila, your dictatorship is now a democracy (or your democracy is now a Dictatorship of the Proletariat)!

Why can't life be this simple

[ltomlinson31]

I'm very much enjoying Victoria 2, probably the most enjoyable of the Paradox games as far as actually playing the game goes.  I still love the idea of Hearts of Iron, but actually playing it can be a chore sometimes.


So, uhhhh, anybody play the Total War games?  I'm a virgin and my son got me Total War Saga:Thrones of Britannia.  It kind of looks like Civ5/6, has aspects of Crusader Kings, but as a RTS layer that is kind of fun.  Otherwise, I'm totally confused

I have all of them except for Thrones of Britannia. I have been playing Warhammer 2 a ton lately.

[Orwell]

I'm very much enjoying Victoria 2, probably the most enjoyable of the Paradox games as far as actually playing the game goes.  I still love the idea of Hearts of Iron, but actually playing it can be a chore sometimes.


So, uhhhh, anybody play the Total War games?  I'm a virgin and my son got me Total War Saga:Thrones of Britannia.  It kind of looks like Civ5/6, has aspects of Crusader Kings, but as a RTS layer that is kind of fun.  Otherwise, I'm totally confused

I have all of them except for Thrones of Britannia. I have been playing Warhammer 2 a ton lately.

Thrones of Britianna is sadly, probably the worst game of the series. If you want to play one of the better ones I suggest playing Medieval 2 or Rome Total War, both are RTS classics. 

[7,052,770]

After over 500 hours of CK2, I decided to take the plunge and try out EU4. After watching some YouTube tutorials, I've begun a game as the Huron.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Man, playing as Transvaal, a Boer state in South Africa I was able to conquer Mecca and Medina. LOL.

[No War, but the War on Christmas]

After over 500 hours of CK2, I decided to take the plunge and try out EU4. After watching some YouTube tutorials, I've begun a game as the Huron.

As someone whose put over 600 hours into the game; I wouldn't really suggest Huron as a first nation, you won't learn many core mechanics and they're gameplay is incredibly boring for the first 200-300 years. I'd go for Portugal or England, perhaps even France since it's very hard to mess up as them.

[Obama-Biden Democrat]

I want to see Huron colonize Africa and conquer Europe. Make Huron great again!

[7,052,770]

After over 500 hours of CK2, I decided to take the plunge and try out EU4. After watching some YouTube tutorials, I've begun a game as the Huron.

As someone whose put over 600 hours into the game; I wouldn't really suggest Huron as a first nation, you won't learn many core mechanics and they're gameplay is incredibly boring for the first 200-300 years. I'd go for Portugal or England, perhaps even France since it's very hard to mess up as them.

I kinda liked having 200 years to get used to the interface and what all the buttons do without having any real pressure. However, I think I wasted a lot of points getting all of those "native techs" that disappear once you switch to a European style government. I did put everything into getting exploration and expansion ideas so I have 4 colonists now and I've made a huge blob completely surrounding the Great Lakes and down to the Ohio River, so that if the Euros (including Muslim Granada) start taking some away from me, I'll still have some power base.

Overall I'm enjoying it, even though I'm undoubtedly missing a lot.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

Bought VII during what I guess must have been the last day of the Steam winter sale because the prices are so much higher today. Didn't get the complete version since it's not a franchise I'm familiar with, and there's always Steam summer sale in case I like it. Forgot about CK, which I have also never played, I'll have to look into that as well for the summer.

[7,052,770]

After over 500 hours of CK2, I decided to take the plunge and try out EU4. After watching some YouTube tutorials, I've begun a game as the Huron.

As someone whose put over 600 hours into the game; I wouldn't really suggest Huron as a first nation, you won't learn many core mechanics and they're gameplay is incredibly boring for the first 200-300 years. I'd go for Portugal or England, perhaps even France since it's very hard to mess up as them.

I kinda liked having 200 years to get used to the interface and what all the buttons do without having any real pressure. However, I think I wasted a lot of points getting all of those "native techs" that disappear once you switch to a European style government. I did put everything into getting exploration and expansion ideas so I have 4 colonists now and I've made a huge blob completely surrounding the Great Lakes and down to the Ohio River, so that if the Euros (including Muslim Granada) start taking some away from me, I'll still have some power base.

Overall I'm enjoying it, even though I'm undoubtedly missing a lot.

I got into the mid-1700s and had everything from the Rockies to Appalachians, down to around Arkansas-latitude, and then Portugal and the Dutch declared war on me. I lost big battles even with 2x numerical superiority, and it all fell apart. I guess I was too far behind technologically?

So far, I like the game OK, but it hasn't grabbed me like CK2 does. I'm going to keep playing and see if something clicks.

[Bacon King]

I got into the mid-1700s and had everything from the Rockies to Appalachians, down to around Arkansas-latitude, and then Portugal and the Dutch declared war on me. I lost big battles even with 2x numerical superiority, and it all fell apart. I guess I was too far behind technologically?

So far, I like the game OK, but it hasn't grabbed me like CK2 does. I'm going to keep playing and see if something clicks.

1. Yes, military technology is probably the single most important factor in combat

2. If you managed to somehow enjoy a game as a North American tribe (literally the worst gameplay experience anywhere on the map) I'm sure you'll be thoroughly grabbed once you choose a reasonable start that actually allows you to do more than a small fraction of the game's features (you just did the EU4 equivalent of starting as, like, the Emir of Socotra)

3. Play as the Ottomans. They're a juggernaut but not in an overwhelming way. They have the versatility to expand in any direction with any sort of playstyle. Try out different game systems and such at your own pace. Their missions point you in general directions if you're looking for direction but you are free to ignore them and try out whatever you want to.

The best reasons the Ottomans are so great for new players is that they are "robust" enough to allow you to survive and make a comeback, even if you don't discover an essential part of gameplay until you're already a century into the game.

[Devout Centrist]

I bought CK2 and all of the DLC (less those flavor packs and Monks+Mystics) for $100 last month.

I'm already up to 66 hours in-game. Up till now, I've only played HOI4 and Vicky 2. The reformed pagan mechanic introduced in Holy Fury is loads of fun. I started in 769 as Kiev and reformed Slavic Paganism into a bloodthirsty matriarchal religion ruled by a psychopathic heroine in the Warriors of Perun. Great stuff!

[Badger]

I'm very much enjoying Victoria 2, probably the most enjoyable of the Paradox games as far as actually playing the game goes.  I still love the idea of Hearts of Iron, but actually playing it can be a chore sometimes.


So, uhhhh, anybody play the Total War games?  I'm a virgin and my son got me Total War Saga:Thrones of Britannia.  It kind of looks like Civ5/6, has aspects of Crusader Kings, but as a RTS layer that is kind of fun.  Otherwise, I'm totally confused

Raises hand immediately.

I have played every single one of these games except for Thrones of Britannia and Rome Total War 2, because both got really bad reviews. Very disappointing regarding the Britannia one because I really really am interested in that era of History. But yes, I've been playing these games since I bought the original Shogun Total War on CD in the early 2000s. The number of hours I have put in to these games are... Scary.

I have a particular love for Total War Shogun 2. The conflict, development, and diplomacy options are all particularly good for the game. Of particular interest though is the mod you can purchase on Steam called fall of the Samurai, which is an amazing replication of the 1860s Civil War which I can't recall the name of despite having played that game numerous times. The ship-to-ship combat with dreadnoughts and lesser type Cruisers and destroyers is so cool. I was looking the other week online and I'm shocked no one has used that expansion create an American Civil War mod which would work perfectly. A few people have trying to use the original actual Shogun 2 machine, but it looks lacking, especially in naval combat.

Anyway, I concur that the original Rome Total War or medieval Total War 2 are worth the cheap price you can get them on sale at Steam. Medieval Total Wars expansion I believe is called conquerors, which allows you to invade or play as the Aztecs or other Native American tribes, is absolutely worth buying on sale as well.

I'm a sword-and-sorcery geek and accordingly have become utterly and completely obsessed with Total War Warhammer 1 since I bought it on sale over Thanksgiving break. I've always said Total War would fit a fantasy Conquest game with actual tactics and Logistics quite well, and by God it does. I just started playing Warhammer 2. I was a little put off that playing the lizard man, who have kind of a magical Aztec culture, winning one of the earliest missions gave me this huge Army of dinosaur-like creatures. Great, but I can't begin to afford it and I'm about to go bankrupt in the next couple turns because this happened as I said early in the game. Still haven't seen enough to learn more about that game. But if you like the idea of mixing city building Logistics and tactical combat where things like morale and rear charges etcetera combined, get Warhammer for sure.

Total War Attila is pretty darn good. This was a big change from the Pryor games, including Shogun, in that one cannot create just a multitude of tiny little one to 20 unit armies. Each Army has to be commanded by a lord, and the overhead cost of increasing numbers of armies starts to ramp up rather quickly. While having two or three armies the cost does start getting prohibitive if you start growing well beyond that. Also, the Army's recruit directly writhing units having to Spring forth from a city and March God knows how long to join the Army, though you do have to be unfriendly territory with the proper buildings to raise whatever units you want, of course. The end result is that the game becomes a lot more manageable, only having to pay attention to a handful of units and agents rather than literally dozens of one or two man units you're trying to guide from their origin City to your main Army on the other side of wherever. Also, Attila started the Trend with having various officers of the Court you can fill, better diplomacy, and the age of Charlemagne expansion offers up decent alternative to Britannia in terms of that whole Viking versus Saxon milieu.

Total War Empire, which is the Revolutionary War Napoleonic age game. It's gotten some bad press which I think is overstated in terms of the land units being glitchy and difficult to control. A grain of Truth, but still a great game. And the ship-to-ship combat is amazing. The only other one that comes close in that regard is total Shogun 2 fall of the Samurai, and I think the whole dueling broadsides thing is even more cool than dreadknots, IMHO.

Oh, I wouldn't get the Total War Shogun 2 expansion for Rise of the Samurai. Haven't played, but the consensus seems to be that it's essentially the same as the original game, except when one starts to develop Samurai units mid to late game they are essentially Unstoppable. Ho-hum.

Okay, I'm rambling. If you want to know what games to try in this system, medieval Total War 2 and maybe Rome Total War depending on your historical tastes are both good classics. Total War Shogun 2 is better than either and probably worth the extra literally couple bucks if you're going to just try one. If you were all about Revolutionary War era combat and classic wooden ship sea battles, grab Empire mediately. If sword-and-sorcery sounds a bit more preferable than any of those, Warhammer one is cheaper and, according to many reviews online, at least as good if not better than Warhammer 2. Frankly,  although my love fur sword-and-sorcery is at least as strong as that for historical reenactment, I can ignore that bias and still firmly say that Warhammer one is possibly one of if not the very best of the total war series I've ever played.

If you prefer getting to know the latest version of the total war franchise with all the bells and whistles, I would get Attila Total War, and if you are a fan of that whole Saxon Viking era thing then definitely pay a few more bucks for the age of Charlemagne expansion.

If you were looking for some actual hints on what to do and how to play the game, well, let me know and I'll try to be less verbose. Unfortunately I haven't played Britannia despite my love of the era due to pretty crappy reviews, but from what I've heard it is absolutely merciless to the point of silliness in terms of your nobles rebelling against you. I kind of like that in theory because, while there are always individual peasant or low-level nobility rebellions an individual provinces in all the total war games, having generals or Lords actually turn on you as was historically common is rather rare in these games. But again, reviews indicate it's just to the point of frustration in Britannia.

Okay, signing off and getting my mouth arrest. You've obviously hit a nerve for one of my loves, especially for computer games. Let me know what your thoughts are in if you need any guidance. The last thing I can add is that just about all the games have very good tutorials. Play one even if it involves stupid no duh lessons like moving units with mouse clicks and the like.

Good luck and have fun!

[Ye We Can]

People who play Hoi4 without Kaiserreich are the weakest race

That being said Hoi4 feels like a supply simulator sometimes compared to Hoi3

For all the Victoria 2 lovers in this thread, you better not be playing with Vanilla

HPM and HFM (PDM I find meh beyond the vastly improved Great War mechanic) both make the game vastly better depending on what youre looking for.  I wish I understood CWE better, because I can only play the cracked version of East V West so much until I get sad it was cancelled.

Wheres my Cold War Grand Strategy game paradox

[Obama-Biden Democrat]

I just finished a big EU4 binge. It was my first time playing as France any my first as a Western European country. I was penned in most of the time, with England to the north, Spain/Portugal to the south, HRE to the East. I was able to knock out Burgundy, England's continental territory, big chunks of Italy, all of Belgium and half of the Rhineland and Holland. I also took all of Tunisia, half of Algeria, Libya and big chunks of Canada and the US. I should have been satisfied, but I felt that I was still missing something. I have only played countries in eastern and southern Europe such as Muscovy and Byzantium and half of Europe won't jump me if I take territory. It was much easier to become big blobs of doom to crush all enemies if you play far away from Western Europe. It is also much cheaper to core less developed territory in the east,  and you can take more territory with a lower war score needed. It also looks less impressive as in Western Europe provinces are smaller, and your empire looks less impressive compared to the Ottomans or Russia.

[Del Tachi]

Just did a HOI4 playthrough as France where I refused the remilitarization of the Rhineland, Germany went for it anyway, and then Britain and I drove the Germans back to Berlin by Fall 1937.  If you play this way, you also generate a French Civil War (which I was able to win by Summer 1936).

Unfortunately, in the peace deal, most of Germany was released as a British puppet.  While that means they're Democratic, they still have their Nazi focus tree.

Can't wait for Democratic Germany to Anschluss Austria  

Depending on how the Spanish Civil War goes, my next goals will be either capitulating Nationalist Spain or defeating the Soviet Union.  I guess I'll have to handle Japan at some point too.

[Bacon King]

People who play Hoi4 without Kaiserreich are the weakest race

That being said Hoi4 feels like a supply simulator sometimes compared to Hoi3

For all the Victoria 2 lovers in this thread, you better not be playing with Vanilla

HPM and HFM (PDM I find meh beyond the vastly improved Great War mechanic) both make the game vastly better depending on what youre looking for.  I wish I understood CWE better, because I can only play the cracked version of East V West so much until I get sad it was cancelled.

Wheres my Cold War Grand Strategy game paradox

You played the leaked version of East vs West and you didn't hate it?

You think literally anything feels more like a supply simulator than HoI 3?

I don't usually say this but wow your opinions are bad

(Kaiserreich is great tho)

what help do you need with CWE i love that mod

[Joe Haydn]

After over 500 hours of CK2, I decided to take the plunge and try out EU4. After watching some YouTube tutorials, I've begun a game as the Huron.

As someone whose put over 600 hours into the game; I wouldn't really suggest Huron as a first nation, you won't learn many core mechanics and they're gameplay is incredibly boring for the first 200-300 years. I'd go for Portugal or England, perhaps even France since it's very hard to mess up as them.

I kinda liked having 200 years to get used to the interface and what all the buttons do without having any real pressure. However, I think I wasted a lot of points getting all of those "native techs" that disappear once you switch to a European style government. I did put everything into getting exploration and expansion ideas so I have 4 colonists now and I've made a huge blob completely surrounding the Great Lakes and down to the Ohio River, so that if the Euros (including Muslim Granada) start taking some away from me, I'll still have some power base.

Overall I'm enjoying it, even though I'm undoubtedly missing a lot.

I got into the mid-1700s and had everything from the Rockies to Appalachians, down to around Arkansas-latitude, and then Portugal and the Dutch declared war on me. I lost big battles even with 2x numerical superiority, and it all fell apart. I guess I was too far behind technologically?

So far, I like the game OK, but it hasn't grabbed me like CK2 does. I'm going to keep playing and see if something clicks.

I have this exact same problem, and it's really annoying. For some reason, my armies have randomly started sucking and we lose battles even with massive numerical superiority. I've checked seemingly everything: military moral, military tradition, military technology, prestige, infantry-to-cavalry ratio, and quality of generals; and there seems to be no problem with any of them. And yet, we still constantly lose. It's mind-boggling and extremely frustrating, making the game almost unplayable.

[CMB222]

Thoughts on Imperator: Rome?

I think the characters and battle tactics will be the most intriguing part of the game.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Has anyone played a game from CK through the end of Victoria?

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

I downloaded Victoria II a long time ago and haven't played more than an hour of it. I can't figure it out at all. I definitely need a tutorial of sorts.

[GoTfan]

I downloaded Victoria II a long time ago and haven't played more than an hour of it. I can't figure it out at all. I definitely need a tutorial of sorts.

There's a very long one here, but it does explain quite a lot: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2EL3QgGklk

As a side note, I have kicked off my first ever Paradox Mega-Campaign.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

I downloaded Victoria II a long time ago and haven't played more than an hour of it. I can't figure it out at all. I definitely need a tutorial of sorts.

There's a very long one here, but it does explain quite a lot: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2EL3QgGklk

As a side note, I have kicked off my first ever Paradox Mega-Campaign.

Thanks! I'll check it out! I've long mastered EUIII but couldn't for the life of me figure out Victoria II.  I'll give it a whirl tomorrow.

[Continential]

I can't wait for the The New Order: The Last Days of Europe mod to come out. It looks great.

Here's the discord link
https://discord.gg/P8Yzgkz

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Just played my second full game. First was as Transvaal, I (sort of correctly) assumed that would be a good learning placed nustled away in Africa away from action with a small country. It wasn't very eventful, I took over the Zulu country and eventually seized a part of Arabia with Mecca and Medina, LOL, but in the end I didn't get to play in the major events much.

My last game was starting as Austria. I wanted to partake in the Scramble for Africa, but picked a country that didn't have African colonies for the novelty value. I started out getting a base to colonize Africa by seizing Madagascar, and then Zanzibar. I ended up getting bogged down in a couple wars in Europe, especially once Italy was unified, but usually won them. Once the Scramble started I carved out an area basically consisting of modern day Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda, bordering Spanish Africa in what is now the Congo. In a weird way Spain ended up taking most French territory. The other colonizers were the Ottomans through Libya and through Chad, Britain in the south and other areas in the west, Portugal in its normal areas, France through Tunis and then all over North Africa, Belgium with modern day Mauritania, Denmark with a colony in modern day Togo and the Netherlands in Somalia. I eventually also decided to set foot in Asia by seizing...Korea. This happened after the event occurred that made me Austria-Hungary but aside from a color change I noticed no difference.

The biggest event had to be a crisis where I chose to back Poland over the Russian Empire, but the UK, France, Spain and the Netherlands sided with Russia. I was backed by Germany and Belgium. This broke out in a war, the first Great War, and basically WWI in this universe. Luckily Russia was bogged down, already fighting a war with the Ottomans, Denmark and some Arabia countries. So I granted them military access, and the Germans mopped up the Russian military pretty quickly and started occupying spreading like a fungus. So I shifted my forces to the west, where the main fighting was occurring. France invaded Belgium and basically wiped out the Belgian military immediately, meaning Belgium only played a role fighting in Africa. My forces in Africa were swamped by the Spanish unfortunately and I forgot out their control of the Philippines, so I also lost Korea. Luckily the UK mostly stayed out of it, and the Netherlands did too once Germany steamrolled them like France did Belgium, most of the fighting was Germany vs. France in France, and Germany usually won, with me backing up Germany. This plus the rapid occupation of Russia resulted in them folding, Germany seizing a French state, and an independent Poland.

After that I basically democratized and kept putting down rebellions, the most notable event at the end was a disastrous war I started against Romania due to Romania becoming a fascist dictatorship, so I opted to take a state. I underestimated their military and they bogged me down fast. The war ended in a white peace, thanks to the efforts of my ally then, The Netherlands who liberated most of my territory. As a result though I fell from 5th place to 11th losing my Great Power status, but by then the game only had three years left. I released all my colonies at the end too. Fun times! Highest I ever got was #4. I'm also happy I was able to knock Russia for awhile out of even being a secondary power.