Any followers of Paradox Development Studios?

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So besides England, what other countries have you enjoyed playing?

After reading some various walkthroughs/advice on countries, my first real game was with France. I ended up with half of Europe and the New World. But France is easy.

I tried my hand at Castle, but again found it a little boring due to its location and chances for the New World.

Then I went to far and tried to play Moscow and got my butt handed to me by the Golden Horde. lol

I then tried playing Brandenburg and again was crushed by Poland and Hungary.

That was when I took a few steps back and went to try England, which is going fine.

What countries would you advise as a step up from France/England/Castile? Venice? Poland? Ottoman?

I find playing Georgia is quite fun. Your an Island of Orthodox Christianity in a sea of Islam to the south and the Mongolians to the North. If you make it through that its then avoiding being swallowed up by the rising powers of Russia and the Ottomon Empire

If you take advantage of the breakup of the Golden Horde early on (wait for them to have large revolts/wars to strike) you can carve out a good chunk of the region for yourself. Maybe bag a trade centre in Astrakhan. Early on there are a few minor powers nearby you can grab. Armenia has some good territory too.

Dunno how you managed to loose so badly as Moscow? The Golden Horde seem like a scary threat early on because of their sheer size but their armies are low quality and most of their territory is rife with rebellion and religious unrest. The trick is to be opportunistic, don't take them on your own take them when they are fighting multiple wars at once. They collapse later on in an average game.

With Moscow or any of the other potential Russia creating countries you get to a certain size and its a snowball effect. By the time you are able to trigger the event to create Russia you should find your a significant power in the region. Your rivals in the region are usually Sweden in the north, Lithuania to the west, Crimean Khanate to the south and whatever remains of the Mongolian/Tartar states to the east.

Let's see, I had an absolutely EPIC game as Castille where I united Spain, conquered all of Europe, colonized the New World, and conquered as far east as the Caucasus. I then reloaded that save as the Ming and pushed as far as I could West, and then jumped back to Spain to fight the most ridiculous clash of nations in the history of the world. That was fun.

I like Poland, but it is ridiculously difficult in the beginning, due to the Mongols, but if you can keep them in check, it's got a great position to expand west and east. You just have to maintain an enormous army, since you have no natural defenses. Conquering the Hansa early is good, to have the best trade center in the world.

I've had some good times as Holland and Brabant, both to build the Netherlands and then operate as a pure trade/colonial power. Got a great trade center on Amsterdam to help. An early alliance with Burgundy helps, and, as per history, an alliance with Britain is a must, until colonial interests interfere.

I've also had some good times playing as non-European powers. Trying (and failing) to build up the Cherokee to be an empire capable of withstanding the Europeans was a unique experience. My favorite for this kind of thing was... I can't remember which, but one of the Indian nations. I actually conquered Britain, Holland, and Portugal, which wasn't easy, but played into my odd sense of humor.

So take your pick. If you go eastern european, then you've got the Golden Horde to worry about. Alliances will make all the difference here. Also, the golden horde's troops are many, but weak. A good sized European army with a good commander will wipe the floor with them. The problem, of course, being the expense, as you have to advance slowly and build forts to prevent their little one unit armies from reconquering everything you take.

although not made by Paradox directly, I recently picked up Cities in Motion 2 which is published by Paradox. After reading about the complete failure of EA's SimCity launch I felt the need to do some civil engineering and Cities in Motion 2 looks like it should work out quite well to scratch that itch.

EU3 is a wonderful game to teach you patience and political manuevering.... just try to be Dennmark expanding south with a strong emperor....not easy.

EU4 should be out in 5 months....all hail Johan!

I just picked up the Vicky collection on Steam. I'm impressed and excited by the sheer complexity of Vicky II, but I'm almost unsure how to even go about starting and playing a game... Haven't tried the original Vicky yet.

I hope your computer has high performance. Also, the economy does'nt keep any stockpiles of supplies on a daily basis, so your economy crashes everytime you reload.

CK2's balancing of the republic has made that very interesting (read: difficult).

I have a free copy of EUIII with expansions due to Sword of the Stars II shipping in a terrible state.

What makes it so awesome I should play it?

(No one is going to sell me on playing it because I already plan to, I just want to know what makes it fun)

Hard to describe (I bought in on sale because I heard all of the over the top reviews, which are justified). At least with all of the expansions (make sure you have all of them, I think it's EU3:DW), it's complex, but it makes a reasonable amount of common sense. Unlike Vicky, you usually can't destroy yourself in 10 game years, but it's not easy by any measure, unless you're France.

Part of it is the thrill of remaking history.

I have Heir to the Throne and Divine Wind.

I think version 5.2 or someting is the final, but that sounds right.

I just spent 2 hours on Vicky and I still can't figure out why my economy is'nt running right. Why Johan why! It's Sweeden for Johan's sake!

If you did'nt know, Sweeden always seems to be much better than it's historical counterpart.....guess what currency Paradox reports earnings?

It should be 5.2. I have it on Steam.

I'm in a strategy mood anyway, thanks for the recommendation.

It was only my second game -and I had just come off a high as playing France. I bit off more than I could chew -and had to swallow a big piece of humble pie. I very much under-estimated the size of the Golden Horde. I also found Novgorod to be harder than expected. The two countries gave me a two front war at one point and overran me. I'll try again when I have more experience. I think it would be a thrill to grow Moscow into Russia and advance not only to the Pacific, but the Indian Ocean as well!

Reportedly, they've moved EU4's projected release date to August 2013 (that's not official).

We eagerly await the next product of Johan's mind, long may he program!

Paradox is so great. EU3 is my second favorite game ever, and Hearts of Iron 3 is probably also top 5. Minor nations are always fun. In EU3 try Byzantium because it's great.

Last edited by monumentstothieves on 30 Apr 2013, 6:33 pm, edited 1 time in total.

EU3 is great. I first discovered EU2 and eventually convinced a couple of friends to play it online. Currently two of us are playing a cooperative game as Castille. It's the first time we've tried cooperative mode. Discussing the various decisions is interesting and fun.
I've picked up Vicky, HOI2 and 3, CK2-3 too. They are all good games, but I've never actually played one all the way through. At some point I've obviously lost or won and it stops being fun.

EU4 looks pretty cool.