Paradox Interactive Games Thread

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Would this game allow me to Protestantize Ireland?

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Would this game allow me to Protestantize Ireland?

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

Cathars sound good!

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

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

I tried my first Ironman game in Poland. Poland seemed like a good choice because it was relatively large and powerful but not too big to be unweildly like the Holy Roman and Byzantine Empires, and close to some pagan counties to allow for expansion and holy wars. Started out pretty well, I took over a few pagan counties in the Baltics, wiped out one pagan county and started the Christenization. The problem was when my King died in one of the battles in Lithuania. His child son took over, and immediately all sorts of claims were forced against me from pagans, Holy Roman Empire counts, and his cousin who tried to usurp the throne...successfully and took over ruling a rump Poland. After this and his loss of title I took over as his sister, who was married to a Danish prince, but still held the title of Duchess of some area in Poland and was a vassal. Alas she died in childbirth to a daughter, thus ending the dynasty and the game.

Anyone played as those Miaphysite kingdoms in East Africa? Seems interesting and a unique game, how does that go?

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

I actually dabbled and got sucked in. I established the Kingdom of Nubia taking over most counties in the area, and wiped out Askum with my allies Abbinysia. My goal is to take over Egypt and then invade Europe and convert the Catholic areas, but the Fatimid area is quite powerful. Playing as my original character's grandson now, he has an evil uncle who killed his sister and still has a title so I'm plotting to kill him. Also his sister is married to the Byzantine Emperor, so we have a powerful ally.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Has anyone played as a Zoroastrian? Now that I have the DLC allowing it I want to check it out, but it appears there's only one notable such country (Karen, located north of modern day Iran, around modern day Turkmenistan), and I've read it's quite difficult because you're surrounded by powerful Muslim neighbors who love to holy war.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

I need to get some DLC for CK2, any suggestions outside of the character builder one which I'm already planning on getting.  It would be nice to play as the Mongolians and/or start in 866(?) instead of 1066.  And I think vanilla limited the mod choices I had, but it's been a month or so since I looked and it was just the once.  I'd look now, but I'm at work and the DoD frowns on installing Steam on thier networks for some reason.

The Old Gods lets you start in 867 and play as pagans like Vikings with tons of extra tropps. Even if not playing as a pagan I think 867 is a more fun start date. I think you need Horse Lords to play as the Mongols that I don't have.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

I agree with Bacon King about 769, but I also think it's because the date was created just for the Charlemagne scenario. It's worth it to play as Charlemagne, but not for playing as anyone else.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

So question, now that I've established the Empire of Brittania as a Germanic pagan (reformed, it was reformed by the King of Denmark), is it easy to convert to Islam? I think that would be a fun twist to the game, especially as the British Isles are now basically half Catholic/half Germanic. Just expanding the Germanic Church is kind of boring, as would be just switching to Catholic, but converting to Islam and carrying out a Jihad in Northern Europe would be fun!

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

So basically go raid southern Spain and north Africa?

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Wow this DLC allows you to create a matriarchal female supremacist religion!

I can't wait to do that and exterminate Catholicism. And have it be a Bloodthirsty Gods religion too so I can sacrifice tons of patriarchal bishops and the Pope to the Goddess.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Well, Holy Fury is awesome. I may have to play as all the different Pagans and reforming to see how it goes.

I was taken aback by the extra counties in the British Isles and Iceland.

Are you going to create a feminist religion?

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Executing rebels is never a good idea. Unless you're a pagan sacrificing them to the gods.

The best thing to do is throw them in the Oubliette, in which case they probably die soon anyway but you aren't blamed, or just banishing them.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

1921 seems too early for the game to end. It should run through WWII at least. Still worth checking out.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

BUT...

It sounds like this game would allow me to Protestantize Ireland!

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Bacon King: how do you shift from dictatorship to democracy? Or from an absolute to constitutional monarchy?

[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.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

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

[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.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Does anyone name their kids after real people?

I currently have a princess named "Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez" with a brother named "Beto O'Rourke"

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

What's a good starting country in EU4?

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Lots of people are very hostile at Imperator Rome but honestly the game is pretty fun. People are mad it's not "as good" as other paradox titles but they aren't taking into account the other games have years of ongoing development + DLCs on top of the original base game. Every game since EU4 I've bought on release day (not counting HOI games) and this is by far the best experience I've had in a version 1.0.0 paradox game

Have you heard about the "Iron Century"?

It's a new bookmark and free update starting in 936 (first 10th century start) and the starting map has been revealed. Surprisingly and shockingly balanced!

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Have you heard about the "Iron Century"?

The most fun I've had in the vanilla game in years, so many great starts all over the map. These days I mostly play total conversion mods like Game of Thrones, Elder Kings, Winter Kings, etc, because while I love the game I reached a point where the base game wasn't really interesting enough for me anymore. This new Iron Century bookmark though is so good I'm honestly amazed it's free

What's your favorite start in it?

I do appreciate how balanced of a starting map it is.

[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.

[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.

[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.