All Paradox Interactive game discussions going here - from showing your uber, fantastic, impressive or interesting empires you've formed in Hearts of Iron, Europa Universalis or Crusader Kings. (And Victoria II)

First question - what got you into Paradox Interactive games? Who do you like about their style of games, and the ability to shape history to what you'd prefer it or just making lulzy history. (Such as changing byzantium's fate and reforming the Roman Empire, Centralizing and unifying the Holy Roman Empire, destroying Catholicism or spreading it across the globe, surviving Colonialism or dominating the entirity of the Americas, Winning the HYW as the Plantagenets or the Valois, etc)

Hmm.

I found HOI2 on the shelf at a Target store 5 years and bought it on a whim even though I don't like RTS games. I loved the game and I eventually made my way to their forums where I found my first "on-line home". I now own every game that Paradox has developed in-house and a lot that they have published.

HOI2 with all expansions is an amazing game, my favorite game was as Germany as I tried to conquer the world. The Soviet Union was my second favorite.

EU3 with the first 3 expansion packs is probably the best strategy game I have ever played. I usually try and play somewhat historically. It is also fantastic in MP if you can find 6-8 people that can commit to 4 hours a week for 3-4 months.

CKII is very good but I lost interest pretty quickly for some reason.

I am not a big fan of PI's other recent games and their forums have become horrid, I don't go there any more.

I've been seriously considering getting EU3, any recommendations for a potential newcomer to the series? Any tips that will save my pixellated kingdom?

First get it. EU3 Complete is the base game plus the first 2 expansions (Napoleon's Ambition and In Nominee). EU3 Chronicles is all 4 expansions (NA, IN, Heir to the Throne and Divine Wind). You need to get at least HttT, though Chronicles is probably the best value.

As for advice in game, that is too hard to do without knowing which country you are playing. If you get the game I would be more than willing to give specific advice or answer questions but the game is way to big and complex to try and give generic advice.

basically EUIII involves with mini-micro economics (handling of paying for armies and navies) as well as political stuff (what your state is, how much do you research for land, or naval, or production, or trade or government tech trees). Basically get it, play through with it a bit and then plot out what nation you want first. Some nations are harder to play as (Byzantium) due to their situation and what time you exactly play as. Byzantium 1410s is easier than Byzantium 1399.

I also recommend getting mods to also enhance your experience. Mihi Est Imperare Orbi Universo is a good one as well as Death & Taxes.

And I only dwell in the EU section of the forums.

EDIT: It always depends on what nation your playing as. Victoria will punish you much harder for being a Non-European or 'Great Power'/Civilized Nation. For example the tech trees are as follows.

Western - Oriental - Muslim - Indian - Asian

These tech trees are what specific nations get. Western being the 'best' and it's a always iffer on what is the most inferior. but basically Western > Everything.

So when a Non-European power - you must 'Westernize'. Byzantium as oriental - so you must Westernize.

Westernization also allows you to modernize your army.

And then there's the whole what the condition of the nation is in. Golden Horde at the start is very weak due to tech being way behind.

The most fun way to absorb all the different mechanics of the game is to read a good long gameplay AAR. I got started by reading the AARs of this guy called Prawnstar. Other than that, I'd say, watch your inflation and infamy, and pick your fights carefully. Play an easy nation first, like England, Spain or Austria. I got started with Austria, as it's mostly landlocked and you won't have to worry about the naval or colonial mechanics, plus a lot of your opponents have the more inferior Eastern tech while you have Western tech. Also, while very few slider positions are better than the other, there are certain slider settings that are more newbie friendly - Centralization, Quality, Defensiveness, Free Subjects, Innovative.

Get Chronicles, that's the one with all the expansions. Base EU3 is a mediocre game at best, and the expansions transform the game into something great.

I bought Hearts of Iron waaay back when I was thirteen or fourteen, but didn't really get into it. I only really got into Paradox games last year. I was having trouble being interested in my early modern European history course, so I thought I'd play a game set in that era, EU3. Before long my interest in the game was fueling my reading. I've play Victoria 2 and Crusader Kings 2, as well as lesser Paradox titles like Majesty or Warlock, but my personal favorite is still EU3.

My favorite faction to play is probably Brandenburg. It's challenging, doesn't have much of a colonial game, and has a few cool formations (Brandenburg - Prussia - HRE/Germany) and decisions (Prussian military reforms!). Though I've probably played even more Byzantine games. There's just something about the Romans.

Pft, they're Nicaea Greeks though

I was always more fond of the Byzantines anyway. Those upstart Latins have nothing on the Greeks.

in Death &Taxes you can actually reform the Roman Empire. And get two new governments. (Roman Empire and Senatorial Republic)

However, when attempting a Byzantium > Roman Empire > Holy Roman Empire it soon became apparent that the HRE tag makes everything sound Germanic.

Bleurg.

Death and Taxes is awesome. I've been playing that mod almost exclusively since it was in 2.x. Though my epic Roman game in 6.x died on me (always CTD on a certain date) just as it was getting fun (I had just cleaned up my eastern borders and was ready to make a serious push over the Alps). I've been too burned out on the Byzantine early game to start another one.

Make a Plantagenet game and re-form France.

His Iroquois one? That was some good stuff there.



Agreed.



I disagree here. The EU3 sliders are not very well balanced, IMO. The ones you mentioned are very clearly superior in one position. Depending on where your sliders start it might not be worth trying to get it there, but it is obvious were the sliders should end up.

Will somebody please help me with Sengoku? This is my first introduction to a Paradox game and I'm not enjoying it very much. Granted- I haven't played too much, but that's because it's hard to get into because there's just so much damn information to try and get a handle on. Not to mention I'm just learning from the tips the games gave me and nothing else. There are just too many options and I'm afraid that I'm going to leave something important undone and lose the game 5 hours later because I married my daughter to the wrong guy.

Any thoughts, or should I just get EU3 instead?

How's the Paradox forums? Did you register there? They're more likely to know what they're talking about.

The ones that I learned from were his GH and Prussia AARs, but his Iroquois one is pretty amazing too. Towards the end I was just going 'ohmygod ohmygod ohmygod '

You're half right. In all games it's always a good idea to centralize as much as possible, but in some situations the others may not be ideal. I like defensive and get it for all my games regardless of country, but going offensive is a viable tactic for any country, except maybe Russia. Full quality is usually good, but if you're someone with low forcelimits, like Sweden (who also has a decision that counters the quantity slider's discipline penalty), quantity is a better bet. And a Russia that is narrowminded and full serfdom is quite a terrifying force, while an innovative, free subjects Russia will be bogged down in too many wrong religion provinces and perpetually low stability. Narrowminded is also good for colonials, Catholics and countries that conquer a lot of wrong religion provinces, like Byzantium.

Some of my maps from EU3:


http://i485.photobucket.com/albums/rr212/Qeros/italy3.png


http://i485.photobucket.com/albums/rr212/Qeros/bret1821.png

http://i485.photobucket.com/albums/rr212/Qeros/rom2.jpg


http://i485.photobucket.com/albums/rr212/Qeros/per2.jpg


http://i485.photobucket.com/albums/rr212/Qeros/EU3germany.jpg

http://i485.photobucket.com/albums/rr212/Qeros/papal1.jpg

http://i485.photobucket.com/albums/rr212/Qeros/daifin.jpg

http://i485.photobucket.com/albums/rr212/Qeros/EU3_MAP_GBR_164711_1.jpg

http://i485.photobucket.com/albums/rr212/Qeros/eu3end3.jpg

Surprisingly not that helpful. Half the threads are about buying the game, and the other half are obscure very specific questions that are way over my head. Then, the Sengoku-FAQ (aha- just what I'm looking for) page is empty. So I'm debating incurring the wrath and starting a "I'm a total noob, someone explain the very basics of what's going on because I'm clueless" thread, but I haven't gotten around to doing that yet.

Haha, I see. I guess it's a little different in the less active forums. Still, you can't go wrong with a "noob here, pls halp!" kind of thread. They're a friendly bunch.

Nice empires!