Sat down to play Europa for the first time properly. Gave up after an hour or two last time. Help.
Gaming Paradox Interactive grand strategy games (Europa Universalis, Crusader Kings etc.)
- Thread starter Count Orduck
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I gave up again. Downloaded Crusader Kings III which is much more accessible and enjoying it so far. Carried on the tutorial just to learn the game and almost unified Ireland. Will play a bit more and then start anew game as Scotland!
I invested many hours into ck2. Scotland was brutal with early starts due to vikings pillaging all your holdings. Ireland is a bit more sheltered. The best mod I played was shattered kingdoms where the whole game starts as individual counties, it makes it more dynamic, new countries and kingdoms form and develop. Always envisaged transferring saves across the games but never had the time.
yeah. I invested around 200 years into my Scotland CK3 save. Had built up the kingdom of Alba into a pretty mighty force and then everything that could go wrong did. My king suddenly died in the middle of a minor war for a tiny county (he was only 32) and then my heir was someone everyone hated which led to three simultaneous wars with the Norse and a faction who wanted to disband the kingdoms. Lost pretty much everything in a couple of years.
The vikings are definitely tricky to deal with though as Scotland. They’re very powerful.
Try starting with a proper easy country. England, France or Spain. Make allies immediately. Also failing is part of the fun.
Cheers. Have a mate who plays and sent me a bunch of good YT tutorials. I'm addicted to CK3 right now, it's a lot of fun.
Anytime
. I haven't tried CK3 yet, but it looks very enticing. Youtube is probably the best way to learn EU4, I have a friend who did it that way too, worked well for him. If I were you I'd try not to watch the vids for the country I'd play though because figuring out how to get that 1 province / region etc. without your country falling to pieces in the process is the real fun in it, following directions might detract from that a bit (after learning the basics).But if CK3 is similar to universalis I also suspect it might be a good while until you get around to trying universalis again
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Anytime
But if CK3 is similar to universalis I also suspect it might be a good while until you get around to trying universalis again
CK3 is definitely way more beginner friendly than EU4 but have sat down with mates in the last two weeks who are big EU players and they've got me hooked on it now! We did a Portugal/Castille/Venice run (I was Portugal). Also did a solo Portugal run and colonised the shit out of everyone. Think I'll do a Castille run next.
I have around 1300 hours in Stellaris, maybe I should try one of their other games!
Are these the games where you can basically do what you want? Like become King, kill who you want, exile people, etc..?
Think I tried getting into one of the Crusader Kings games years ago but found it all incredibly overwhelming, so many buttons and menus.
Think I tried getting into one of the Crusader Kings games years ago but found it all incredibly overwhelming, so many buttons and menus.
If you ever tried getting into one again I'd recommend CK III, it's very beginner friendly compared to the others and feels more like a game for the masses rather than for the grand strategy market. EU4 is very much a game for players who are into grand strategy games, I wouldn't recommend to people playing it if they haven't played a paradox game before. But I suppose that's my experience of it.
Second what SW is saying. If you're going to get used to one of their games it'll probably be this one.
It's part of the charm of these things - just like the new Victoria. If you play it with some basic knowledge it's okay, but once you get to grips with all of the mechanics they become so much better and everything just starts to make sense.
Just checked which one I have. It's Crusader Kings II. Last played December 2019.
Looks like it's time for you to buy CK3 or even Hearts of Iron 4 then because you're a bit out of date
Looks like it's time for you to buy CK3 or even Hearts of Iron 4 then because you're a bit out of date
There were so many buttons and menus. It felt absolutely insane to try and get to grips with.
Honestly, some of them aren't that relevant. You can get by with never knowing what they do/learning about them on your 4th or 5th playthrough.
I'll third what the other two have said - CK3 is a lot more beginner-friendly than CK2. There are still a shitload of menus, but it's a lot more forgiving in terms of there being a manageable numbers of core mechanics you really need to know about to get stuff done, and then a load of width/depth beyond that. Knowing about the non-core stuff opens up your horizons a bit, but it's not absolutely vital so you can dip into it as you go along.
Really enjoy me some HOI4. Especially now that mods for it are so easy to install.
I'm loving the Cold War mods. I start every game being a good guy and usually half way through I just think "Yes, why shouldn't I nuke China? I live in Fascist Peru, after all."
I'd say ck3 is outright dumb if you're used to the othe games.
I've put about 80 hours into CK3 and still have no idea what I'm doing. Sometimes I have a little kingdom, and then suddenly I don't anymore and everything has gone to shit. I usually have no idea why it all went wrong, but then I usually have no idea how I ended up with a kingdom in the first place. It's fun.
Paradox games are overwhelming at first and the amount of DLC pre-subscription used to be offputting, but if you find a group of friends to play multiplayer with, they can be incredibly fun. I've had a blast playing EU4 and HOI4 down the years.
If you're wanting an entry level game I'd say CK3 is probably the easiest.
If you're wanting an entry level game I'd say CK3 is probably the easiest.
Stellaris is cracking good fun if you’re a patient sci-fi fan. It was frustrating at first, with so many menus and buttons and whatnot, but after enough time has passed you start connecting dots and it becomes easier.
Soundtrack is fantastic, and it’s stuffed with little sci-fi stories and concepts.
Soundtrack is fantastic, and it’s stuffed with little sci-fi stories and concepts.
Anyone give Knights of honor 2 a go?
Loved the first one, thinking of getting this.
Loved the first one, thinking of getting this.
So I’ve been playing WWI Redux and Millennium Dawn the most recently. I played the shit out of the Cold War: Iron Curtain mod last year.
I’m the same way though. I’ll start out as a good guy and then after the first big war is over I somehow end up going full imperialism on some folks.
If you haven't played Kaiserreich yet you have to do it asap. Easily the best mod for a Paradox game... ever.
Ooh, I didn't realise that Millennium Dawn worked with the latest version of the base game. That's my evening sorted out.
So I’ve been playing WWI Redux and Millennium Dawn the most recently. I played the shit out of the Cold War: Iron Curtain mod last year.
I’m the same way though. I’ll start out as a good guy and then after the first big war is over I somehow end up going full imperialism on some folks.
It’s the Millennium Dawn: Modern Day version of the mod. My only issue with it is that it’s run time per hour is slower. They’ve recently done some major reworks to major country focus trees.
I’ve been back and forth about downloading it. Would be interesting to see if I can win the 2nd civil war for the good guys.
I'm amazed anyone actually plays Millennium Dawn, because it's almost impossible to find the right version unless you already know that it exists. If you put "Millennium Dawn" in the workshop (defaults to the most popular the last week), the correct one is the 131st result. There are literally thousands of them. I didn't even know the actual mod still existed until I saw your posts.
The workshop is truly useless for Paradox mods. I wonder if these mod makers realize how much more popular they could be if the workshop actually functioned.
The workshop is truly useless for Paradox mods. I wonder if these mod makers realize how much more popular they could be if the workshop actually functioned.
There are just so many different interesting "scenarios" to play. The 2nd American Civil War is my favourite (as the Combined Syndicates of America, obviously), but China is super interesting, Russia is interesting, India is okay and is going to get updated at some point, the Balkans are fun, the Ottoman Empire, stuff in South America (Brazil, Chile, Argentina stuffs), Italy is fun, etc. There are so many national focus trees. And a lot of those have many interesting and wildly different ways to play them. You haven't lived until you've conquered China and defeated Japan as the Left Koumintang.
Actually I'm beginning to think the Millennium Dawn developers don't want their mod to be popular. I tried joining the Discord but it was a chore and it didn't even work in the end. And that's their main channel of information.
Alright, you’ve convinced me. I’m gonna play it this weekend.
I’ll be honest, I’m not sure what discord is. I’ve never been on it
It's a voice and chat platform. Well, it's the voice and chat platform. It basically killed Skype and other voice-chat services. And a lot of games and modders use it as their main platform of communication.
I've played loads of Stellaris over the last few years. Definitely takes a bit of learning but it's so good once you get into it. The Xbox version has had a fair few expansions add to the game as well.
Oh FFS I just finished rebuilding my home town in the first one. I've been working on it all year. For some reason Big Ben is now on the Scottish east coast.
If they can make the cities seem less "clean" that would be amazing.
Haven't played it in years but sunk hundreds of hours into the original.
I was the same until I drove back in. Some of the latest mods are brilliant. There's a certain serenity to be found in placing little park benches whilst listening to Slipknot.
I bet.