Anyone a fan of Paradox entertainment/interactive games?

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I personally Can't get enough of them and Im looking forward to Europa universalis III

Anyone know what im talking about

I do!! !! !!

I had a recent relapse into my 4x strategy addiction with Hearts of Iron 2.

I like their games... but in the way an alcoholic likes liquor. Once I start, I just don't know how to stop.

I have a real love/hate relationship with Paradox games! I have EU1, EU2, HOI1 and Victoria. I really like what the games are aiming to achieve, yet IMHO they've not realised their potential. I guess it's because noone else is really even attempting truly 'cerebral' strategy games anymore, I keep coming back to Paradox games and keep being disappointed!

The one that I like most is EU2, although due to the length of the game, I only ever finished maybe 1 game out of about 20 starts! What eventually bores me is the immense amount of micro-management involved, which seems at odds with games that are supposed to be grand-strategy. And all of the games I've played have truly terrible user interfaces so I find myself battling against the UI rather than the abysmal AI!! Their economic models are also highly suspect. In EU, much of the game is about colonisation, yet colonies invariably cost more than they earn, so it's best not to bother. HOI1 has a simplistic 'world market' that everybody cans buy from. So the reality of Germany and Japan attacking to secure vital resources is lost as that can just buy them on the world market!

Having said that, I have enjoyed well over 100+ hours playing those games. And I respect what Paradox are *trying* to do. It just frustrates me that each game could have been truly great, yet ultimately falls short. As for EU3, well it looks like they're following the herd and redoing EU2 with 3D graphics, rather than improving the gameplay. But I bet I'll still buy it when it comes out, get hooked for couple of weeks, then give up after finding a whole mass of irritations!

Ah i know the feeling manerg I can see the flaws your talking about as well.

You can begin to see the flaws in the engine of the game when you use converter tools. Ive aquired the EU2 to victoria save game converter and lead Great Brtain and Prussia from 1419 to the first world war so far...

In my great britain game me, spain and russia were the super powers of the world and it felt like i had no challenege at all really, especially since i had a monopoly on most products for the world marktet.

This game ive been doing over the weekend of Prussia from 1419 so far im in the 1880's. When I converted to victoria i'd carved out most of the poland/lithuanian land so most of modern day poland was under my control and i had colonies in greenland, northern canada, Bahamas, bermuda and madagascar. Most of the Holy Roman empire states were either vassals of spain myself or portugal or annexed by spain and portugal or the netherlands. Made for quite an interesting europe. When I began the game I had a very small but high tech army russia had strength in numbers and basically flattened me in a war near the start of the game. Later on I developed a mobilised levee un masse army of about 100+ divisions and took most of bellorussia and the ukraine off them and made buffer states. When the event to trigger the war with austria happened i took the territories of romania and created a state to have a buffer between me and the ottomons.

I'll post a screen shot of the world actually It was a far more interesting game then the british one.

Im not sure what nation to take into victoria for my next attempt. I reckon I might try to unite italy before victoria so you start the industrial revolution with a unified italian state? Need to work on getting a more fragmented europe rather then having super powers emerge.

Laz, for a while Victoria was my favourite Paradox game. It's the one I've probably finished most, at least. I only get maybe 2 or 3 evenings per week to play, so while EU takes about 2 months to do 350-ish years, 100 years of Victoria took only a couple of weeks. I tried a few countries - Japan was quite enjoyable. I also tried U.S.A. which is, as you'll know, very easy to win with, so I deliberately challenged myself by adopting a "be nice to the native americans" policy! I didn't attack the indians, I gave them techs & weapons and a couple of them became quite powerful nations. I think the U.S.A. still finished first, though.

I would be interested in Victoria 2, if they ever did it. This covers a really interesting time period. There's an old wargame - Age Of Rifles - that covers the same era and is very good. I'm not really a wargame fan, but I do like an intellectual challenge every now and then and wargames seem to offer the best intellectual challenge. It's sad, as I'm a wimpy pacifist at heart!

It is difficult to make historical games. Any other game just sets up a fantasy world (eg Civilisation) and makes a balanced game around it. Paradox are caught between providing a history lesson and a true game. I've lurked on the Paradox forums for years and seen people get really angry about the slightest non-historical outcome! Yet if the game just becomes straightjacketed into following history, it's not a fun game. This is a real Paradox! I'd like to see an option slider that went from "historical" at one end to "fantasy" at the other and you could set your own preference.

Like you, Laz, I've managed to have huge N.American colonies with unlikely nations like Russia and Austria. If it was that easy, why didn't the Russians, Austrians or Prussians think to do it in real life? I'm not complaining - I think the game wouldn't be a game if you couldn't 'cheat' history like this. Maybe I'll reload EU2 or Vic back onto my PC for a blast - or even the dreaded HOI1

Heres prussia recently unified as Germany abit late in the day (notice its mid 1900's)

I pretty much am the most powerful land military there is but my navy is quite under powered compared to the UK or Spain

Great games, for computer games.

I prefer the original EU boardgame though.

I love Europa Universalis 3. Incredibly addictive game.