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What is the best of the current paradox strategy games?

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Alexander Seil said:
Victoria's far too static, unfortunately. The mechanisms are there, but they're not powerful enough to cause CK2 levels of internal mayhem.
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Internal mayhem what are you talking about 50 years Russian revolution after revolution would like to have a word with you it caused so much immigration one time Russia population decreased by 2 million and the US population to explode.

Some nations get it even worse If ausrtia collapse they are left with a rump state due to all the foreign cores on them.
 
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How many times have you seen the Ottoman Empire sit there with all its European possessions intact in 1936? Granted, I'm basing my opinion here mostly on the first one, but I haven't read anything to convince me otherwise about V2.

EDIT: However, I might finally pick it up on sale and check it out with PDM.
 
Alexander Seil said:
How many times have you seen the Ottoman Empire sit there with all its European possessions intact in 1936? Granted, I'm basing my opinion here mostly on the first one, but I haven't read anything to convince me otherwise about V2.

EDIT: However, I might finally pick it up on sale and check it out with PDM.
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Well you see nations can kinda collapse in the second one not all the time its till a little to stable but if Say Ausrtia loses a massive war they can very easily collapse before they rebuild there military.

In fact its little annoying every 5 years late game you might have 400 revloting birgades and you have to rebuild the part of your army that joined the revolution it can be a bit annoying.
 
Minor aside - currently having my first run-through of Rights of Man (EU4, 1.18) and it's a cracker - the game's definitely still getting better. CK2 also improved with Reaper's Due. Both very good options imo :).
 
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Alexander Seil said:
How many times have you seen the Ottoman Empire sit there with all its European possessions intact in 1936? Granted, I'm basing my opinion here mostly on the first one, but I haven't read anything to convince me otherwise about V2.

EDIT: However, I might finally pick it up on sale and check it out with PDM.
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Pops of Darkness is one of he best mods I've ever played. It's one of those mods that you can't come back from.

In PoD the balkans fractures almost everytime. I've seen Austria collapse in 1848 multiple times. Sometimes Prussia also suffers a Jacobin revolt and becomes a republic, which totally upsets Europe. I think Britain goes communist/fascist too often though.
 
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LiberiusX said:
Pops of Darkness is one of he best mods I've ever played. It's one of those mods that you can't come back from.

In PoD the balkans fractures almost everytime. I've seen Austria collapse in 1848 multiple times. Sometimes Prussia also suffers a Jacobin revolt and becomes a republic, which totally upsets Europe. I think Britain goes communist/fascist too often though.
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I cant play it I like my armies to have a lot of arty and if you add arty to your armies they are really slow :p
 
Alexander Seil said:
How many times have you seen the Ottoman Empire sit there with all its European possessions intact in 1936? Granted, I'm basing my opinion here mostly on the first one, but I haven't read anything to convince me otherwise about V2.

EDIT: However, I might finally pick it up on sale and check it out with PDM.
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The crises system and revolutions definitely make some unique things occur. Even if the Ottomans are around in 1936, guarantee you their form of government is much different than what they started with.

I think the biggest downside to the game is that the same strategy applies to basically any non major. (I'm looking at you Sokoto).
 
jdavis86 said:
The crises system and revolutions definitely make some unique things occur. Even if the Ottomans are around in 1936, guarantee you their form of government is much different than what they started with.

I think the biggest downside to the game is that the same strategy applies to basically any non major. (I'm looking at you Sokoto).
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Well the strategy makes sense if you have low pops you only chance is colonizing Africa and you want to colonize it anyways for resource
 
I think there's a curve effect with Paradox games.

Here's a crappy graph to show what I mean.
QfrH91O.png


The games pretty much always get more refined over time but the popularity is bound by a cross section of newness and refinement. At first all the games are really new and explode but aren't refined. Then they enter a lull because they're still not refined but also not fresh off the presses. It comes back though after the 4 or 5th dlc. By the last few dlc, as we see with ck2, the game is fully refined but is getting old and people are looking towards the next new thing. I think all PDX GSG games will follow this curve as long as pdox's dlc policy is in place (not that it's a bad thing).

My prediction is that in 3 years eu4 will take ck2's place, hoi4 will take eu4's place (and stellaris will be just slightly behind) and rome 2 or vicky 3 or whatever is next will take up hoi4 and stellaris' spot. ck2 will enter the nether realm of 'It's a classic but I can't wait for the next one' that vicky 2 currently resides in.

So in the end imo the best games go vicky2 > ck2 >eu4 >hoi4> stellaris and they'll all move up one bump in a year or two.
 
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If it weren't for the horrible combat system, probably CK2.
 
klopkr said:
I think there's a curve effect with Paradox games.

Here's a crappy graph to show what I mean.
QfrH91O.png


The games pretty much always get more refined over time but the popularity is bound by a cross section of newness and refinement. At first all the games are really new and explode but aren't refined. Then they enter a lull because they're still not refined but also not fresh off the presses. It comes back though after the 4 or 5th dlc. By the last few dlc, as we see with ck2, the game is fully refined but is getting old and people are looking towards the next new thing. I think all PDX GSG games will follow this curve as long as pdox's dlc policy is in place (not that it's a bad thing).

My prediction is that in 3 years eu4 will take ck2's place, hoi4 will take eu4's place (and stellaris will be just slightly behind) and rome 2 or vicky 3 or whatever is next will take up hoi4 and stellaris' spot. ck2 will enter the nether realm of 'It's a classic but I can't wait for the next one' that vicky 2 currently resides in.

So in the end imo the best games go vicky2 > ck2 >eu4 >hoi4> stellaris and they'll all move up one bump in a year or two.
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I think CK3 if it ever happens will be inherently different from the other sequels because it'll be the first sequel to a Steam era DLC format Paradox title. There's also the fact that DLCs will have to very different from the previous CK2 DLCs since all they really did was unlock characters and regions for the most part. The only real EU4 style DLCs CK2 has had were WoL and RD, everything else was basically here have pagans, nomads, and rajas. Unless CK3 goes back to Christians only, which frankly would be such a shitshow I don't think Paradox would be dumb enough to do that, it'll have to be mostly gameplay expansions. Of course there's also China which I think can safely be excluded from CK2 now given the fast track to the end CK2 is on, but for the most part the DLCs CK3 will get will be very different from CK2. In fact giving a global upgrade to CK2 would be such a monumental task I don't think CK3 will happen for at least another 5 to 7 years, and at that time some of the oldest Paradox devs might even have retired.
 
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Definitely EU4.

At this point, I don't really even consider V2 as part of this generation of games. She's been in a coma on life support for so long it's hard to tell if she's alive or dead. Sad, she's always been my favorite old lady too...

HOI4 and Stellaris are still finding their footing. HOI4 has a solid base, just needs fleshing out content-wise.

CK2 has jumped the shark.
 
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heliostellar said:
Definitely EU4.

At this point, I don't really even consider V2 as part of this generation of games. She's been in a coma on life support for so long it's hard to tell if she's alive or dead. Sad, she's always been my favorite old lady too...

HOI4 and Stellaris are still finding their footing. HOI4 has a solid base, just needs fleshing out content-wise.

CK2 has jumped the shark.
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well V2 really is a member of the 3rd gen paradox core game, alongside EU III, HOI 3, MOTE and Sengoku. but yeah at this point V2 is so old and outdated compared to the current generation it's creaking.
 
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In terms of hours played for me it's, EU4, CK2, HOI3, Stellaris, HOI4, VIC2. I find that EU4 has been going downhill for some time now, forts and ZOC completely killed it for me. My current favourite would be CK2, it has been going from strength to strength recently and I'm looking forward to its final couple of DLC. I have high hopes for HOI4 but at the minute it needs a lot of work in the AI dept to get it up there. How well Stellaris fares will totally depend of whether or not they can find a way of making each playthrough feel unique because right now it's very bland and samey.
 
I play a lot of CK2, EU4, and Vicky 2 as and how different moods strike me - they are all excellent games.

(I've never gotten into HOI - too much of a pure war game for my taste - and don't yet own Stellaris, though I should like to, as I like 4X games.)
 
At the moment, CKII and EU4 tie close for me as the best out there. They are well aged, refined, and tonnes of fun to play. CKII I prefer when I am game for an RPG, and EU4 I prefer when I am game for nation-building.

I prefer Stellaris of the two new games, but I have been playing TfV recently a lot.

Victoria II is up there, but that game really needs a sequel, and now I don't find Vicky as fun as EU4.
 
CK2 is objectively best, everyone pretending they like something else should go stand in the corner and think hard about what they have done.

Actually I'm in my honeymoon period with it, but its approach means it pretty much transcends its own genre. It doesn't necessarily mean it's a better "grand strategy" than, say, EU4 or V2 (the little known Paradox game about ballistic missiles) but it means that, at least for me, it's more satisfying to play. At least for now.
 
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