potential new paradox fan

[Fracchione]

Hi.Fracchione(the superior being)here.
Never tried any paradox title;lurkin' around and so far good impressions about:victoria 2,eu3,hoi3,magna mundi et similia...
needs advices:
which one to choose?which is the better one?

loving deepness at all levels...

surfin'youtube cannot understand how the turns work:is it like tw,with end-turn button?

[Musthavename]

EU3 is the most accessible and general one imo. You can't really go wrong with it. The rest are all rather specialised, so unless you have an interest in that style or time period, i'd only try it after EU3. Vicky2 is based on the economy and playing influence. Crusader Kings is based on Noble Families rather than nations as such. Hearts of Iron is essentially combat based surrounding the one war. EU:Rome is similar to EU3 but borrows a lot of elements from other games like Crusader Kings.

As for how turns work, each turn is a day. Instead of pressing an End Turn button however, you alter the speed at which these turns progress, from a speed dial from 1 to 5 plus pause. So if nothing is happening, you can whack it up to 5. Or you can play on very slow speeds and pause often if you're in a war.

[shikaka]

Hi.Fracchione(the superior being)here.
Never tried any paradox title;lurkin' around and so far good impressions about:victoria 2,eu3,hoi3,magna mundi et similia...
needs advices:
which one to choose?which is the better one?

loving deepness at all levels...

surfin'youtube cannot understand how the turns work:is it like tw,with end-turn button?

I think you should buy a version of EU3 (I have In Nomine, but there are newer releases) or Crusader Kings (this is for the old engine, a new CK will come next year)
Vicky2 is good, I think better then EU3, but I think it is quite complex to try as a first game.


Turns:
It is not a turn based game. If you have tried Baldur's Gate or Planescape, it is very similar. Real time but with auto-pause.
You just push start and the time is flying by on the level you set it. When you want to arrange something, you push pause and do it. You can also set the auto-pause option for different events (like you are invaded, there is a popup event, etc.)
I usually go with one of the faster settings and pause when I want to examine something or are a bit overwhelmed (like checking the available advisors or actually commanding my regiments during a big scale war)

[Fracchione]

thx for this reply,can you clarify a bit more about turns?also which one is the most recent?ah,and you said hoi3 is combat-oriented,hmmm from videos it doesn't have units 3d on map ingame,just symbols....hmmm

edit:ok ,turns clarified!thx

yep I loved baldur's gate!!!
why u say "version of eu3"?what u mean??

[Fracchione]

also can someone describe the battle-combat system to me(your friend Fracchione)?

[Galloglaich]

My personal favourites are EU: Rome and Crusder Kings. EU 3 has a lot of potential and I would no doubt like it. I just haven't found enough time and motivation to start learning it. Everything happens on the map, and there is really a lot strategy involved.

The battle system is done with dice system If I'm not wrong. Then there are different things that might make a slight change to the starting positions. For example the leader of your army, terrain etc.

[Fracchione]

dice system??????what's it?

ohhh on steam there are 2 version:eu3 complete and eu3 chronicles..which one to choose?

[shikaka]

also can someone describe the battle-combat system to me(your friend Fracchione)?

EU3 and CK (not Hearts of Iron series) are grand strategy games, where you don't wage wars to kill the enemy army, but you siege castles to occupy provinces. You can have a battle if you want, but it is not profitable.
Example: you have 20k men, and the enemy starts sieging your province with a 40k army. What do you do?
- you can attack him, and most likely get beaten
- or, split up your 20k army into 4 5k armies, evade him, and start sieging 4 of his provinces. When he will be done with the siege and occupy 1 of your provinces, you will have 4 of his, which is a good thing before peace talks.
So battles are not preferred way of fighting a war in EU3 and CK.


But in general a battle is not played in paradox games, but 'calculated'. You have an army, the AI has an army, and a program does the rest. Better generals, better equipment, more numbers have big effect, so you can influence the outcome indirectly, but actual battlefield commanding is out of the scope of the games.

ohhh on steam there are 2 version:eu3 complete and eu3 chronicles..which one to choose?

EU3 had numerous expansions:

Napoleon's ambiton (revolutionist things included, also extended years into revolutionist period And from now on Kingdom of Italy can be formed - even earlier then in history )
In Nomine (religion overhaul and extended time period, this time on the other end, so from here you can play Byzantines)
Heir to the throne (hereditary system overhaul)
Divine wind (asian nations overhaul)

I think the difference is that chronicles has all 4 expansions, while Complete has Nappy and In Nomine.

[Fracchione]

and what about victoria 2?it seems very nice...
I am still very confused about battle mechanism:it seems you say it sucks big time,something not worth to describe,horrible nightmare,precalculated with no room for human influence,just numbers and bonuses,,,,,whatever,,,give me your opinion on my choice:::

victoria 2 + all DLCs PLUS eu 3 chronicles(50 euro ca on steam)

[rabenschnabel]

Victoria 2 is the best vanilla (without expansions) Paradox game. The first time ever I really enjoyed a Paradox game right out of the box. As a bonus they released the latest patch (1.3) today.

[Fracchione]

Victoria 2 is the best vanilla (without expansions) Paradox game. The first time ever I really enjoyed a Paradox game right out of the box. As a bonus they released the latest patch (1.3) today.

so u say to go with it and ignore eu3?

[rabenschnabel]

so u say to go with it and ignore eu3?

It is a different game about a different time period. Victoria 2 focus isn't that much about warfare like EU3. It's more about industrialisation and internal politics. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria_II
It's also the first Paradox game with a good tutorial. I think both Victoria 2 and EU3 (with all but the last expansions) are very good games.

[Fracchione]

last expansion divine wind?

[rabenschnabel]

last expansion divine wind?

Yes. I don't like the changes to China, horde nation and diplomacy (alliances) that much. There are some serious balance issues, especially with the AI. They are working on a patch, maybe it will be better in a few weeks.

[Fracchione]

ok,,,last question:civilization series is different ?????

[shikaka]

and what about victoria 2?it seems very nice...

Actually I think it is a better game then EU3, but a bit more complex.

There are actually much more things to consider, such as industries, the makeup of your population (and creating plans on how to influence their vote, so they will vote for the party you would like)

I am still very confused about battle mechanism:it seems you say it sucks big time,something not worth to describe,horrible nightmare,precalculated with no room for human influence,just numbers and bonuses,,

It is not precalculated, but this is not a tactical game, so you have little control over actual battles, but it seems natural.
I cannot explain it better, sorry.

victoria 2 + all DLCs PLUS eu 3 chronicles(50 euro ca on steam)

Go with it. Both are very good games with good replay value. This is not Total War that you want a mod before finishing a campaign properly!

[Sevasti]

Regarding battles. There are several ways to influence them but they are all on the "pre battle stage". Generals attributes, terrain, army discipline and moral etc all affect combat but once the battle has begun you have no direct influence over it from there on (except for withdrawing or sending reinforcements).

There nothing more aggravating than sending in an excellent general with a superior army just to be routed because of luck favoring the enemy. On the other hand, it's glorious when the opposite happens.

There's strategy to it but in terms of picking when and where to invade and how to handle reinforcements and withdrawal etc. Tactics, not so much.

[cenkiss]

Play eu3.It is the most new-user friendly.Crusader Kings is really hard for a beginner.

[MehemtAli_Pasha]

it depends on the kind of game you are looking for. i would choose between Victoria 2 and EU3, the latter is probably the best of them all but my personal favorite would be Vic2 mainly due to how deep it is. in either option, prepare yourself for a good read before playing any of them and dont hesitate to ask around.

[.Achilles.]

Go for the period of history you enjoy the most. Cannot stress that enough. There's no point struggling to unite the greek city-states if you would rather be carving out your dream British Empire.