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Paradox Grand Strategy - Thread of Fighting WW2 as Bithynia

ZZMitch

Member
I gave HoI3 a shot a few weeks ago after watching many hours of let's plays and tutorial vids. Playing as Italy I was doing pretty well. I had organized by OOB (which took like an hour by itself heh) and even successfully puppeted Ethiopia!

Then the game crashed and I lost a bunch of progress and no longer have the desire to play, at least for a while.
 

Sblargh

Banned
I am playing CK2: The Old Gods as Asturia, since I try to go for whatever resembles Portugal the most and by 867, this is it.

When not playing with Vikings (or near them), they are not so much a new threat as they are a kind of annoying whack-a-mole mechanic. They'll appear, raid something, you'll raise an army, send after them, they'll run back to the ship, rinse and repeat forever. The rest is pretty much the same, but a new starting age by itself is enough to make things interesting even if, like me, you enjoy sticking to good old catholic folk.
 

Sblargh

Banned
It's funny how a piece of common sense sometimes escape me completely on these games.

About CK2, it's all about having gold for mercenaries. There's really no rush in building stuff like barracks, but when a civil war or a holy war comes out of nowhere, then the rush to hire mercenaries become very real. And in most wars, so far at least, that's all you really need.

And it's such a simple concept that money equals lots os soldiers out of nowhere, why I ignored it for so long?

Also, schemes. I used to look for some specific reason to plot a murder, trying to figure out the family trees and whatnot. In the end, fuck that, if it is on the screen, plot it. 4 or 5 dead little children later and a barony will somehow fall on your lap. Then you can give it away to some slightly unhappy vassal whose little children you are plotting to murder next.

Man, how I love this game.
 

traveler

Not Wario
I'm considering getting into these games starting with CK2, but I need to know how the multiplayer is. I know Grand Strategy is a whole different beast from Civ, but do you think I'd have a good shot and getting my Civ group to try this and actually stay with it? Or is single player much more the draw here?
 
I'm considering getting into these games starting with CK2, but I need to know how the multiplayer is. I know Grand Strategy is a whole different beast from Civ, but do you think I'd have a good shot and getting my Civ group to try this and actually stay with it? Or is single player much more the draw here?

Remember how the first time you played Civ you thought, "Man, Super Mario Bros is a game for babies. Civ is where it's at."

CK2 will make you think that about Civ.

Then Europa Universalis will make you think that about CK2.

Then Victoria will make you think that about EU.

Then Hearts of Iron will make you kill yourself.
 

Dice

Pokémon Parentage Conspiracy Theorist
What if I think Civ is a game for babies? Because to me it seemed maybe a step above candy land. It's so reactive I wouldn't really call it strategy, let alone having 4x of strategy.
 

traveler

Not Wario
I have EU3 and I get that these games are considered heads and tales above Civ in complexity. I'm just wondering if these have the same level of multiplayer fun and community that the Civ games have. I did a search for multiplayer and all the stuff I saw was just people trying to get it to work, not really discussing strategies, etc. I realize this isn't the best way to find out, but that's what I'm looking for to make the call as to whether to jump in or not.
 
I have EU3 and I get that these games are considered heads and tales above Civ in complexity. I'm just wondering if these have the same level of multiplayer fun and community that the Civ games have. I did a search for multiplayer and all the stuff I saw was just people trying to get it to work, not really discussing strategies, etc. I realize this isn't the best way to find out, but that's what I'm looking for to make the call as to whether to jump in or not.

On the Paradox forums I've seen some good tales of multiplayer antics. Seems like these games would be fantastic for that experience, particularly with a group of people you know. I cannot imagine playing with randoms. However, I have never been able to successfully get multiplayer to work, so I cannot vouch for it personally.
 

Mgoblue201

Won't stop picking the right nation
It's funny how a piece of common sense sometimes escape me completely on these games.

About CK2, it's all about having gold for mercenaries. There's really no rush in building stuff like barracks, but when a civil war or a holy war comes out of nowhere, then the rush to hire mercenaries become very real. And in most wars, so far at least, that's all you really need.

And it's such a simple concept that money equals lots os soldiers out of nowhere, why I ignored it for so long?

Also, schemes. I used to look for some specific reason to plot a murder, trying to figure out the family trees and whatnot. In the end, fuck that, if it is on the screen, plot it. 4 or 5 dead little children later and a barony will somehow fall on your lap. Then you can give it away to some slightly unhappy vassal whose little children you are plotting to murder next.

Man, how I love this game.
Upgrading buildings only provides a marginal utility. They're a long term investment, one which should only be made when you have a surplus of funds. Hiring mercenaries, however, can turn entire wars. Even if you hire a large mercenary group that you can only keep around for a few months, it's often worth it just to win decisive battles. For kingdom level titles and larger duchies, I like to keep at least 500 gold in reserve for occasions in which I may need to hire them.
 

zoku88

Member
On the Paradox forums I've seen some good tales of multiplayer antics. Seems like these games would be fantastic for that experience, particularly with a group of people you know. I cannot imagine playing with randoms. However, I have never been able to successfully get multiplayer to work, so I cannot vouch for it personally.

It's a good thing they're using steamworks for EU4. It should be easier, I guess.

This thread should try to set up multiplayer sessions.
 
It's a good thing they're using steamworks for EU4. It should be easier, I guess.

This thread should try to set up multiplayer sessions.

CK2 uses Steamworks, unless Paradox is going to change how their matchmaking works, I don't see how it matters.
 

Dice

Pokémon Parentage Conspiracy Theorist
I don't know how people can get into Civ multiplayer. Boardgames do not really interest me.
 

oipic

Member
Crud! The ASoIaF mod for CK2 is incompatible with the most recent patch?

You may have found this info since, but you can roll back to 1.09 for now, until the mod is updated (which should only be days away, in any case).

I'm not home to detail this properly, but via the Steam library > CK2 properties > 'beta' tab, you can select the 1.09 patch - it'll then download that version, and you'll be good to go.
 

Sblargh

Banned
Upgrading buildings only provides a marginal utility. They're a long term investment, one which should only be made when you have a surplus of funds. Hiring mercenaries, however, can turn entire wars. Even if you hire a large mercenary group that you can only keep around for a few months, it's often worth it just to win decisive battles. For kingdom level titles and larger duchies, I like to keep at least 500 gold in reserve for occasions in which I may need to hire them.

Exactly!
I am using the 500 gold rule, either. I'm just baffled that it took me so long to figure this out.
 

Fitz

Member
I wonder if GMG will have one of those preorder discount deals on EU4.

I saw a 20% off code last night for GMG but I just tried it and it doesn't seem to be working. I actually wouldn't mind getting a boxed copy of the game but I've no idea if Paradox even do them.
 

Son1x

Member
Crud! The ASoIaF mod for CK2 is incompatible with the most recent patch?

Not yet. As far as I know only PB (Project Balance) is compatible with 1.10.

But there is supposedly a way to revert to 1.092 on steam as well. Go to library, CK2 Properties, BETAS than select the 1.09x patch level. From what I've read it works.
 

traveler

Not Wario
I don't know how people can get into Civ multiplayer. Boardgames do not really interest me.

That's kind of a weird statement. What types of boardgames don't interest you? Worker placement, card drafting, area control, auction based, etc? There's a pretty large variance of complexity in the medium, even strictly within the empire building genre, which ranges from civ lites like Through the Ages all the way up to 4x giants with massive scope and playtime like Twilight Imperium.
 

Xian

Neo Member
It's a good thing they're using steamworks for EU4. It should be easier, I guess.

This thread should try to set up multiplayer sessions.

Their current netcode really is a mess. Can't play at higher speeds (2nd lowest max) and the game constantly goes out of sync. And that's over LAN.

I have high hopes that this will improve with Steamworks.




At the same time it's a damn shame they're abandoning GG. Really liked the DRM and client free nature of it.
 
I grabbed Victoria 2 at full price, even though I'm sure it'll be $5 during the Steam Summer Sale. It's the only Paradox game I've purchased that wasn't massively discounted.

Moral of the story: If you like them, Paradox's GS games are well worth the SRP.
 

ZZMitch

Member
I grabbed Victoria 2 at full price, even though I'm sure it'll be $5 during the Steam Summer Sale. It's the only Paradox game I've purchased that wasn't massively discounted.

Moral of the story: If you like them, Paradox's GS games are well worth the SRP.

Yeah me too. I could never find Vicky 2 on sale and eventually just bought. I knew it would be worth the extra price considering the obscene amount of hours I put into the EU3 and CK2.
 

zoku88

Member
Their current netcode really is a mess. Can't play at higher speeds (2nd lowest max) and the game constantly goes out of sync. And that's over LAN.

I have high hopes that this will improve with Steamworks.




At the same time it's a damn shame they're abandoning GG. Really liked the DRM and client free nature of it.

Not sure about EU4, but the Steam version of CK2 is DRM free, I believe. As in, you can run it without Steam open. Copy it to another directory and run, etc.

Hopefully, EU4 is DRM free as well.
 

Clevinger

Member
Not sure about EU4, but the Steam version of CK2 is DRM free, I believe. As in, you can run it without Steam open. Copy it to another directory and run, etc.

Hopefully, EU4 is DRM free as well.

You don't even have to move/copy it to another directory.
 

Kabouter

Member
Looks like owners of another EU title on Steam get -10% on the preorder price.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/236850/

Still waiting on GMG, though.

Pre-order is up on GMG as of like two or three days ago, Paradox forums said some were even able to buy with a 20% off code for a while, but that doesn't work anymore :(.

Not sure about EU4, but the Steam version of CK2 is DRM free, I believe. As in, you can run it without Steam open. Copy it to another directory and run, etc.

Hopefully, EU4 is DRM free as well.

I think they said it will be a similar situation to CK2, except that EU4 uses Steam for multiplayer.
 
Codes don't work, but GMG has $10 credit or $7 cashback offer available. $10 credit for $40 game is roughly equivalent to 25% off, and $7 cashback is more than the 10% steam discount anyway.
 
Also, the Digital Extreme edition is $8 cashback or $12 credit.

I'm going there, I doubt it will go much lower and they deserve my money anyway.
 

speedpop

Has problems recognising girls
I feel dirty because it goes against all of my values and morals, but I'd bend over and take it all from Paradox purely for EU4.
 
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