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[LurkerPrime]

I wish there was a more reliable method of keeping track of New World explorers in EU4. I keep getting distracted from wars or pauses and end up losing my huge exploration fleets at sea.

Oh well.. at least they followed my orders to the bitter end.

 

[Haly]

You don't need an exploration fleet. Just 1 explorer guy on a Light Ship. And you should give looping commands so they always come home in time to stay alive.

 

[LurkerPrime]

You don't need an exploration fleet. Just 1 explorer guy on a Light Ship. And you should give looping commands so they always come home in time to stay alive.

But what if I come across sea monsters?

Spoiler

YOU'RE A GENIUS!

 

[Striek]

Finished my first CK2 campaign after ~100hrs. Could use "something" at the end even as a free-form game.


Late game (for lack of a better word) is not balanced at all. As the Emperor of Alba (Britannia, I don't know why it used the title Alba), it was very easy to start pressing claims everywhere in the world. Only slight difficulty arose when the Aztec empire invaded and took my Republic in Navarra out along with the rest of that region, but after I hired enough mercenaries to smash their event spawned stack of ~80k troops the game was over. I had casus bellis (religious war) to take out the rest of their holdings in that region one by one and form the Empire of Hispania, and that was that.

Half my realm revolting for independance? No worries, send in the retinues and let the other half my realm beat them.

Newborn 2 year old emperor on the throne with maximum crown authority, imperial administration, harsh taxes and -50 or worse with most of the vassals? Send gifts and award titles.

If I had figured out how broken the game is earlier I'm sure I could've literally had the entire map 100 years before the end. As it was, I only had about 50% but claims on most of the rest.

 

[Fitz]

End game difficulty is a big problem with both CK and EU unfortunately, I suppose that's in the nature of being able to play for hundreds of years. But the combination of AI that can't keep up with a human player, and the lack of checks on big empires means that even playing a weak start is just that, a weak start. I don't get the impression that mid-end game challenge is high on Paradox's to-do list however.

 

[The Llama]

End game difficulty is a big problem with both CK and EU unfortunately, I suppose that's in the nature of being able to play for hundreds of years. But the combination of AI that can't keep up with a human player, and the lack of checks on big empires means that even playing a weak start is just that, a weak start. I don't get the impression that mid-end game challenge is high on Paradox's to-do list however.

Finished my first CK2 campaign after ~100hrs. Could use "something" at the end even as a free-form game.


Late game (for lack of a better word) is not balanced at all. As the Emperor of Alba (Britannia, I don't know why it used the title Alba), it was very easy to start pressing claims everywhere in the world. Only slight difficulty arose when the Aztec empire invaded and took my Republic in Navarra out along with the rest of that region, but after I hired enough mercenaries to smash their event spawned stack of ~80k troops the game was over. I had casus bellis (religious war) to take out the rest of their holdings in that region one by one and form the Empire of Hispania, and that was that.

Half my realm revolting for independance? No worries, send in the retinues and let the other half my realm beat them.

Newborn 2 year old emperor on the throne with maximum crown authority, imperial administration, harsh taxes and -50 or worse with most of the vassals? Send gifts and award titles.

If I had figured out how broken the game is earlier I'm sure I could've literally had the entire map 100 years before the end. As it was, I only had about 50% but claims on most of the rest.

Yeah, once you start to blob up in EU4 (and it seems pretty similar to CK2, though at least in the games I'm playing there are other blobs to contest you) the game is on easy mode and kind of loses the charm.

 

[Deleted member 125677]

End game difficulty is a big problem with both CK and EU unfortunately, I suppose that's in the nature of being able to play for hundreds of years. But the combination of AI that can't keep up with a human player, and the lack of checks on big empires means that even playing a weak start is just that, a weak start. I don't get the impression that mid-end game challenge is high on Paradox's to-do list however.

In EU IV I've ended all my single player campaigns at the points where it feels you've reached critical blob mass. I really like doing stuff like uniting Italy, Russia, Germany, Netherlands etc. in SP, but pretty soon afterwards it's pretty much just do-what-you-want time against the AI and watch the years pass by.

 

[RipperGrim]

Got a question for this thread. Are there any good fantasy grand strategy games? I enjoyed the Game of Thrones mod quite a bit for CK 2 but it's not quite the same.

 

[LurkerPrime]

Got a question for this thread. Are there any good fantasy grand strategy games? I enjoyed the Game of Thrones mod quite a bit for CK 2 but it's not quite the same.

Paradox has pretty much cornered the market as far as I'm aware, and they deal wholly in semihistorical games. (RIP Runemaster.)

There might be some turn-based board game conversions that could be classified as "grand strategy," but nothing that approaches the Paradox style of gameplay. I also, regrettably, do not know any of their names offhand; Rock, Paper, Shotgun, has articles dealing with that sort of stuff from time to time.

 

[Fragamemnon]

Got a question for this thread. Are there any good fantasy grand strategy games? I enjoyed the Game of Thrones mod quite a bit for CK 2 but it's not quite the same.

There's Distant Worlds if you want scifi.

As for fantasy-there's no clear EU/CK analog. If you want heavily simulated, dynamic worlds with (albeit low) fantasy , you should look at learning Dwarf Fortress.

 

[RipperGrim]

Paradox has pretty much cornered the market as far as I'm aware, and they deal wholly in semihistorical games. (RIP Runemaster.)

There might be some turn-based board game conversions that could be classified as "grand strategy," but nothing that approaches the Paradox style of gameplay. I also, regrettably, do not know any of their names offhand; Rock, Paper, Shotgun, has articles dealing with that sort of stuff from time to time.

There's Distant Worlds if you want scifi.

As for fantasy-there's no clear EU/CK analog. If you want heavily simulated, dynamic worlds with (albeit low) fantasy , you should look at learning Dwarf Fortress.

Thanks guys, I will look into these, it's a pity not more companies are into this genre though. I guess it is pretty niche.

 

[KorrZ]

In EU IV I've ended all my single player campaigns at the points where it feels you've reached critical blob mass. I really like doing stuff like uniting Italy, Russia, Germany, Netherlands etc. in SP, but pretty soon afterwards it's pretty much just do-what-you-want time against the AI and watch the years pass by.

Yup. I'm approaching 700 hours of played time in EU4 and I've only actually played a game out until 1821 once and that was on purpose for the achievement lol.

At a certain point it just becomes more tedious than fun when all you're doing is using 3-5 diplomats to constantly fabricate claims and do one steam roll war after another. Getting bigger and more powerful, but why? You're already unstoppable.

 

[Haly]

From the East, there's the Nobunaga's Ambition series but that's also mostly historical.

It has some spinoffs like Pokemon Conquest which would loosely fit your criteria but I can tell that's not what you're after.

 

[RipperGrim]

From the East, there's the Nobunaga's Ambition series but that's also mostly historical.

It has some spinoffs like Pokemon Conquest which would loosely fit your criteria but I can tell that's not what you're after.

Honestly I will take what I can get so I will look into Nobunaga's Ambition.

I quickly looked up Pokemon conquest and man I had no idea a pokemon game like that existed.

 

[Fragamemnon]

Looking for a good country to play Vicky 2 w/ the NNM mod as-was thinking Morocco since with the mod they can form into Maghreb and the geographical location is perfect for global troublemaking without devolving completely into european continental wankery. Has anyone played Vicky 2 lately?

edit:I went with Egypt. Good times. Victoria 2 is a real gem in the series, I know why it was kind of ehh at release but I like it as much as EU4 and much more than the pettiness of CK2.

 

[Mgoblue201]

Looking for a good country to play Vicky 2 w/ the NNM mod as-was thinking Morocco since with the mod they can form into Maghreb and the geographical location is perfect for global troublemaking without devolving completely into european continental wankery. Has anyone played Vicky 2 lately?

If you're going to play Morocco, I'd also recommend forming the Arab Union, unless you just really want to remain as Maghreb. All those extra resources and population should easily propel you to a top three or four great power as long as you can westernize early enough. I did that with Egypt, but Morocco is obviously a lot more challenging. (Just saw your edit; Egypt is a really good choice and at least gets some interesting flavor)

Anyway, I finished a Victoria 2 game last week (using the Pop Demand mod) in which I formed Indonesia out of Atjeh. Though I ended up in fifth place (the other four nations ahead of me were really strong), most of score came from prestige. I wasn't really happy with my industrial score, but at least my factories were expanding rapidly by the end of the game. If I play another uncivilized nation ever again, I'm going to use the Concert of Europe mod for the extended timeline. Unless you're just an amazing player, or willing to destroy everyone else in great wars, a hundred years isn't nearly enough time for a nation like Atjeh to catch up if you have any aspirations to become the greatest power in the world.

 

[Fragamemnon]

Getting top dog in Vicky 2 when you start out as an unciv requires the kind of time micromanagement and trickery on par with EU WC attempts or some of the crazier achievement runs. It takes a LOT of war and patience to get there. I'd be more than happy with that result above with Atjeh, nice work.

 

[nampad]

Own CK2 and am interested to get into another one of their games. Would prefer something released more recently. Is there any Paradox game on the horizon I should know about before I buy something?

 

[ThoseDeafMutes]

Own CK2 and am interested to get into another one of their games. Would prefer something released more recently released. Is there any Paradox game on the horizon I should know about before I buy something?

Hearts of Iron 4 is Q2 this year.

 

[nampad]

Hearts of Iron 4 is Q2 this year.

Thanks. Hearts of Iron sounds interesting to me with the bigger focus on the battles.

 

[KorrZ]

Own CK2 and am interested to get into another one of their games. Would prefer something released more recently. Is there any Paradox game on the horizon I should know about before I buy something?

If you like CK2 then EU4 is basically the 100% pure crack version of that.

 

[Pociask]

Damn it CK2. I really, really wish there was some kind of tool/map mode for "What would happen if I died today." Started a new game in 1066 as Galicia. Married an Italian duchess, and after a long and battle-filled life, I had conquered Leon and Castille. I figured it would be for my heirs to begin the push against the infidels to the south.

First, my Italian duchess wife dies, leaving her Italian lands to my two elder sons (a third I had used free-investitture to get out of the line). I guess? because those Italian lands made the HRE their liege, I immediately lost one of my richest Spanish provinces to my favored second son, now a count in the HRE. Remembering I've got to do something about having two sons and gavelkind succession (apparently you can't name your first son a successor to a bishop?), I get elective succession passed so I don't have to deal with Gavelkind. I'm the only voter, I've got a ton of titles and can't for some reason give any of them away. So that happens, and I die.

And all of a sudden the kingdoms of Castille and Leon are resussicated, and led by random cousins! On the plus side, the HRE was no longer a liege lord of anyone in my dynasty (not sure how that works). On the minus side, I've got to spend another generation reassembling the lands I had already conquered. Some quick movement and stabby-stabby quickly took care of Leon, and when the re-conquest of Castille bogged down, I called in the HRE, so it should fall soon as well - BUT STILL. Where the hell did that succession come from?

 

[Mgoblue201]

Getting top dog in Vicky 2 when you start out as an unciv requires the kind of time micromanagement and trickery on par with EU WC attempts or some of the crazier achievement runs. It takes a LOT of war and patience to get there. I'd be more than happy with that result above with Atjeh, nice work.

That depends on what you mean by trickery. There are some things I just won't do, like exceeding the infamy limit or conquering states in Europe if my capital is not already in Europe. So that means no Indonesian France, unfortunately. Otherwise you can just enforce your will upon the other AIs in great wars and the game becomes too easy.

Anyway, if you're not very familiar with the new nations mod, the Egypt start is dramatically different, because in 1836 they're a puppet of the Ottoman Empire. The easiest way to free yourself is just to declare war immediately. NNM also includes an event chain for the Oriental Crisis, but if you rely on that, the other great powers could side against you (I haven't done it myself, so I'm not entirely sure how that works). If you manage to westernize while keeping the entire Levant intact, you get 20 free prestige, which goes a long way toward immediately making you a great power. The earlier you do it the better.

 

[Kyougar]

I am playing EU4 again with Wealth of nations as my latest DLC (so not art of war)

Was playing a Portugal colonizing game with random new world.
Can I disable or delay autoforming of the independent colony states? They dont do shit with occupied native land and occupied western land. In late game it's Rebel whack-a-mole that I am loosing in the end because the rebels are massively outnumbering my forces because I dont have enough manpower with my low european holdings.

 

[KingSnake]

You could colonize sets of 4 provinces in different areas to avoid the colonial nations to be formed. Indeed, it's quite strange that the colonial nations don't attack natives, but they attack colonial nations of other big countries just to fuck you up.

 

[Soph]

Today Paradox Con 2015 starts off, they will be showing all the games with commentaries that they or their subsidiaries are working on. I'm mostly excited about seeing HOI in full action, although I can't wait to try an Aztec run in EUIV with the new mechanics finally implemented in El Dorado

Just thought I'd post this here.


Where?
http://www.twitch.tv/paradoxinteractive

When?

Thursday the 12th of February at 14:00 CET
Crusader Kings II with game director and creator of CK2 Henrik ”Doomdark” Fåhreus together with Arumba.

Friday the 13th of February 15:00 CET
Europa Universalis IV: El Dorado expansion with project lead Martin ”Wiz” Anward together with Arumba, Quill18 & Mathas

Friday the 13th of February 17:30 CET
Hearts of Iron IV with project lead Dan ”podcat” Lind together with Arumba & Quill18.

 

[LurkerPrime]

Today Paradox Con 2015 starts off, they will be showing all the games with commentaries that they or their subsidiaries are working on. I'm mostly excited about seeing HOI in full action, although I can't wait to try an Aztec run in EUIV with the new mechanics finally implemented in El Dorado

Runemaster. :'(

Actually, I had no idea Paradox had their own convention. The newest expansions for CK2 and EU4 are fantastic, so I have high hopes for wherever they go next with those properties.

Spoiler

HOI is too deep for me.

 

[The Llama]

Maybe it's just because I'm still new at it, but CK2 feels a lot harder than EU4. Anyone else think this, or is it just me? Seems like there are too many rebellions, either because of culture/religion or just rogue vassals.

 

[LurkerPrime]

Maybe it's just because I'm still new at it, but CK2 feels a lot harder than EU4. Anyone else think this, or is it just me? Seems like there are too many rebellions, either because of culture/religion or just rogue vassals.

I'm inclined to agree. EU4 is all about the numbers, whereas CK2 is about the people. Tthe former is, naturally, more predictable than the latter.

They're both a lot of fun, though CK2 edges out EU4 to me through sheer personality. The Way of Life expansion was a huge boost to CK2's greatest strengths.

 

[Haly]

CK2 is a lot less deterministic than EU4, yeah, and that'll manifest as difficulty. Like when your king is like a shy hunchback skeptic in a court full of gregarious zealots. Or you have to deal with terribad succession laws like Gavelkind. Or when you can't annex more than one province per war because of your limited casus belli.

On the other hand you have a very fine level of control with marriages, plots, assassinations and so forth.

 

[rickyson1]

well it finally happened went off the deep end with eu4(65 hours played in the past two weeks apparently)

so obsessed with this game right now

achievements are pretty nice for giving goals to work towards,just wrapped up an ottoman game where I went for master of india and that's a silk road

 

[Almighty]

Well little out of the loop, but I like the sound of being able to create custom nations in EUIV with the new expansion. I think I will actually have to grab that one as I love that idea. Just a fun little fact in the 500 or so hours I have put into CKII I have always used the ruler designer.

 

[Soph]

Runemaster. :'(

Actually, I had no idea Paradox had their own convention. The newest expansions for CK2 and EU4 are fantastic, so I have high hopes for wherever they go next with those properties.

Spoiler

HOI is too deep for me.

Runemaster has been cancelled since start of december last year, =(

 

[LurkerPrime]

I dunno why, but I enjoy the semihistorical naming conventions in games like EU4 or CK2, to the point that I'd rather avoid dynamic names. I guess this preference is partly because it helps me keep track of where they originated from and partly from the alternate history angle.

Runemaster has been cancelled since start of december last year, =(

Bingo. What a heartbreaker.

 

[Soph]

Bingo. What a heartbreaker.

I was really looking forward to it to, although I had my doubts about a "Grand Strategy" dev tackling an rpg, but the way they explained it with events like in CK2 which came random , with random choices and random quests. It all sounds great, question is whether it was also fun.

About CK2 and EUIV, I have a big problem.. I can't finish campaigns normally, I always get bored once I'm at the same strength as other superpowers as there's no reason to play on. Started with Theodoro for the achievement Gothic Invasion, and I pretty much already have the achievement.. I just need to conquer like 20 more provinces in Germany all held by minor powers and I can't be bothered... I can't even fathom starting with a big country at start.

 

[belushy]

Paradox CEO says Game of Thrones is "one license I would consider"

Wonder how likely it would be to pull in the GOT mod group into Paradox to help work. I'd guess some of them have no formal game dev training, but other big studios have hired mod makers before, right?

 

[Kabouter]

Paradox CEO says Game of Thrones is "one license I would consider"

Wonder how likely it would be to pull in the GOT mod group into Paradox to help work. I'd guess some of them have no formal game dev training, but other big studios have hired mod makers before, right?

So has Paradox I'm 99% sure.

 

[The Llama]

So I'm in ~1050 of a CK2 game I started in 768 (or whatever the earliest start date is). Started as Northumbria, ended up forming Brittania around 950 and now I pretty much have perfect control of it. Am I right in thinking Brittany would be an obvious place to expand to?

 

[Almighty]

Paradox CEO says Game of Thrones is "one license I would consider"

Wonder how likely it would be to pull in the GOT mod group into Paradox to help work. I'd guess some of them have no formal game dev training, but other big studios have hired mod makers before, right?

Paradox hired the guy behind CK2+(Wiz) in 2013. So they have done it before.

Edit: Dang and now it looks like Wiz is the EU4 lead Edit2: and CK2+ has been handed off to others. I am way out of the loop

 

[Haly]

They haven't hired DDRJake yet so I'm not 100% sure.

EDIT: Okay nevermind, apparently Jake is relocating to Sweden?

 

[nampad]

Paradox CEO says Game of Thrones is "one license I would consider"

Wonder how likely it would be to pull in the GOT mod group into Paradox to help work. I'd guess some of them have no formal game dev training, but other big studios have hired mod makers before, right?

Don't think it will be possible for them though. Their games are niche and GoT is such a huge franchise. The rights will cost them and the gameplay isn't for the average gamer.
As long as the mod exists, we can be happy.

 

[Haly]

GRRM is a huge nerd though. He might be favorable to the idea of GoT Grand Strategy. This genre certainly makes more sense for GoT than anything else, other than point-and-click adventure novel.

Maybe a limited license?

 

[coastel]

So fucking torn between PC and ps4. I really want grand strategy and I am a big fan of them but my laptop wont run them well, it went to crawling speed on hoi2 at around 1944. I only have time for one platform and games like this I really miss.

 

[ThoseDeafMutes]

So fucking torn between PC and ps4. I really want grand strategy and I am a big fan of them but my laptop wont run them well, it went to crawling speed on hoi2 at around 1944. I only have time for one platform and games like this I really miss.

What kind of laptop do you have?

There are more powerful ones out there I'm sure. But even on my i5 4670 their games sometimes run slow.

 

[coastel]

What kind of laptop do you have?

There are more powerful ones out there I'm sure. But even on my i5 4670 their games sometimes run slow.

An old dual core I am buying a new one soon as its on it's last legs but don't plan on buying a gaming one. Yea I guess it will always run slow eventually which kinda suits the game play anyway with all the micro management. Couldn't play hoi3 at all on it.

 

[Rosenskjold]

One of my friends is really into these games, especially Crusader Kings, and I tried to get into them myself but I just never get past the first hour where it feels like nothing much is happening and I have no idea how to get the action started.

 

[ThoseDeafMutes]

An old dual core I am buying a new one soon as its on it's last legs but don't plan on buying a gaming one. Yea I guess it will always run slow eventually which kinda suits the game play anyway with all the micro management. Couldn't play hoi3 at all on it.

My Surface Pro 2 runs EU4 but somewhat poorly. I have to play at speed 2-3 (out of 5) otherwise it can't keep up. Which is a bit annoying. However, Broadwell CPU components are out or are coming out now. A 5200 processor and up should do a bit better, and the integrated graphics being a solid 20%+ improvement should help too. The XPS13 is a sexy laptop that has these kinds of specs.

If you can get a lappy with a moderate discreet video card and a beefier processor that's going to do MUCH better, but will make them pricier, larger/heavier, and with worse battery life usually. If you're going pure functionality, you might be interested in a Clevo or Sager or something.

 

[coastel]

My Surface Pro 2 runs EU4 but somewhat poorly. I have to play at speed 2-3 (out of 5) otherwise it can't keep up. Which is a bit annoying. However, Broadwell CPU components are out or are coming out now. A 5200 processor and up should do a bit better, and the integrated graphics being a solid 20%+ improvement should help too. The XPS13 is a sexy laptop that has these kinds of specs.

If you can get a lappy with a moderate discreet video card and a beefier processor that's going to do MUCH better, but will make them pricier, larger/heavier, and with worse battery life usually. If you're going pure functionality, you might be interested in a Clevo or Sager or something.

Have considered the beefier laptop choice. Will a laptop i5 even be enough to play these kind of games.like I said don't want to go down the gaming laptop route as I find them expensive for the performance they give compared to a desktop. Was considering getting rid of my ps4 and putting it towards a desktop PC in the lines of a i7 4770k and gtx 970 as I wouldn't have the time for both platforms. Though if a i5 or i7 laptop could play these games with integrated graphics ( which I didn't think they would) then it would save me going all in on PC.

 

[ThoseDeafMutes]

Hearts of Iron 4 is an open question, because it's not out yet. But CK2, EU4 and HoI3 all function sufficiently well to play them on a Surface Pro 2, which is sort of '2013-2014 ultrabook' class specs. But like I said, they can be a little slow. If you can get something moderately more powerful on the CPU and GPU front, those should be pretty playable. Integrated graphics have come a long way over the last 5 years and the paradox games are more CPU than GPU heavy.

Desktop is the preferred way to play them, but there is obviously some convenience associated with the laptop or tablet/convertable form factor.

Surface Pro 2 specs:

i5 4200 CPU
HD4400 graphics

So try to beat that if you're looking for something portable.

 

[FiggyCal]

Is there a game like Crusader Kings, but more of a modern era type setting? I love democracy 3 and such, but I'd like a little more action.