Paradox Studio Thread

[Payday]

Paradox Development Studio is well known pumping out hit grand historical strategy games. They have developed the Crusader Kings, Europa Universalis, Hearts of Iron and the Victoria series with each game following the general basic idea of either fulfilling history to extraordinary detail or fucking off and conquering the world as a third world country. Each game tends to have one major featured way of conquering, through violent warfare (Hearts of Iron) or economic prowess (Victoria) along with hundreds of possible ways to end a game.

Europa Universalis
The game series that began the life of Paradox. The smash hit that went into creating a long lineage of many, many strategy games. Almost every game in the series takes place between the 1400's and the 1800's and ranges between 14 and 250 playable nations. The game's primary focus is diplomacy between nations with players being able to set up royal marriages, trade embargoes and create vassal states. Of course you can also do things the old fashioned way and beat your opponent to a bloody end (or make John Romero proud and make them your ever loving bitch)

Crusader Kings
A highly received game series, Crusader Kings is a staple in Paradox's life span. The games take place between the 1000's and the mid 1400's. You play the role of a dynasty and it is your goal to make sure your dynasty lasts. It is your realm and you are able to do what you see fits.

Hearts of Iron
My personal favorite out of the Paradox made strategy game is Hearts of Iron. In the game you take the role of any country active between 1936 and 1945 (plus a slew of other countries that may form due to rebels). The primary focus of the game is the Second World War, again you are able to follow history to the letter or make it fun by fucking around and stealing the world with Iraq. Obviously, the main entree of the game is brutal warfare, with one being able to create the most basic of soldier to nuclear based weapons. It is a fun game and I am very excited for the fourth one.

Victoria
The games I have little to no knowledge of it's the Victoria series. An often overlooked game, it's primary power is economy with a very complex system in place that accounts for resources and a world market. It also apparently has a great diplomacy thing so if you like things complicated and very deep, I believe this would be the game for you.

If you feel there is anything I should be adding to this thread please feel free to let me know.

 

[John Titor]

I've been playing copious amounts of HoI2 and I am still bad at it. I still haven't figured out Naval Combat.

One time I was playing as China giving them a fighting chance against Japan; it provides a decent challenge because the battles are mostly landlocked. And then America turned near Fascist. What the fuck went wrong?!

 

[KingGeedorah]

I know Paradox just published the new city building game Cities: Skylines.

Worth a look if you enjoy SimCity.

 

[Splendid]

Don't bother buying the current HoI. Wait for the sequel. Supposedly, it will actually make the giant armies manageable.

 

[Watcher]

I know Paradox just published the new city building game Cities: Skylines.

Worth a look if you enjoy SimCity.

Someone on my contacts list has mentioned it's really easy to make mods for.

Plus there's a Half Life 2 Citadel mod.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=408156634

 

[Konstantinos]

Hells yeah, Paradox titles are where its at. I've been way into Ck2 since January last year and I finally got around to playing EU4 during a Christmas sale. Never before have I been able to exercise my murderous, imperialistic whims with such ease as in Eu4.

 

[DuskEngine]

I've been playing through the Charlemagne campaign they just added. I'm at least two generations late on forming the HRE because I'm too busy carving up the Hashimids. Good stuff.

 

[Bound2]

I play a fair bit of CK2 and am trying to get into Europa Universalis but am garbage at it. Maybe I need to invest in a couple of the expansions.

 

[WachtAmWeb]

I've been playing HoI3 (For the Motherland expansion) for a good couple of years now. I love the amount of detail you can put in, and I'm fine with the whole micromanaging-massive-armies thing. The difficulty level and learning curve are insane though, I'd recommend playing to completion at least five times on the easiest setting before even trying anything else. Land armies are very satisfying to control with all the different types of hybrid divisions you can make; research leads to extremely rewarding upgraded units like carrier aircraft that will stomp your enemy's ports and heavy armour that will crush any defensive lines. The battles are challenging and force you to be really analytical about where to attack.
I've still never managed to take over the world playing as some tinpot third-world country though - I think the expansions to HoI3 must have significantly reduced the amount of economic strength little minor nations like Lithuania and Liberia can muster.

 

[Konstantinos]

Okay, I've got to talk about this observation round I've been having in Ck2. It's pretty nuts. I started in 867 and at the time of this post its at 1375.

Spoiler: Religious Strife

Nestorian Christianity has become a major religion. I'm not quite sure when that started but I believed it was around the 1100's or so. The Knights of Santiago also took over a good chunk of middle eastern clay, hence why that area in the lower left of this picture is all Catholic. Also, those are some of the last patches of Sunni on the map. Shia died in the 900's and Sunni has been having trouble since then too.

The Suomenusko faith reformed and one holy war later they captured Sweden. Some patches of Nestorianism also showed up in Norway too.

Aquitaine expanded down through Spain and into Morocco and converted all of it too Catholic. Lotharingia went orthodox and Germany became Sunni due to weird dynastic shenanigans. Same deal with Scottland. There was a Holy Roman Empire at one point but its long since been reduced to just Genoa and some Dutch land.

Spoiler: Border Gore Galore

So yeah, Wales got really stronk and took over Aquitaine. The Karlings still control Francia and the German and Italian regions are a clusterfuck. Byzantium made a comeback, the empire of Russia formed(renamed to 'Ugralia' by moi), Nubia and Abbyssnia stayed Miaphysite and got pretty stronk and Carpathia was formed by the Bulgarians.

Spoiler: Mordvin Menace

Mordvin culture came to predominate the landscape. Also, take note of the Hindu one-province Poland next to the Russian land. The kingdom of Ruthenia converted to Hinduism of all things but got wrecked in a Suomenusko holy war. Alas, Poland is the last Slavic Hindu remnant.

It ought to make an interesting converted Eu4 game!

 

[Vitriol]

Okay, I've got to talk about this observation round I've been having in Ck2. It's pretty nuts. I started in 867 and at the time of this post its at 1375.

Spoiler: Religious Strife

Nestorian Christianity has become a major religion. I'm not quite sure when that started but I believed it was around the 1100's or so. The Knights of Santiago also took over a good chunk of middle eastern clay, hence why that area in the lower left of this picture is all Catholic. Also, those are some of the last patches of Sunni on the map. Shia died in the 900's and Sunni has been having trouble since then too.

The Suomenusko faith reformed and one holy war later they captured Sweden. Some patches of Nestorianism also showed up in Norway too.

Aquitaine expanded down through Spain and into Morocco and converted all of it too Catholic. Lotharingia went orthodox and Germany became Sunni due to weird dynastic shenanigans. Same deal with Scottland. There was a Holy Roman Empire at one point but its long since been reduced to just Genoa and some Dutch land.

Spoiler: Border Gore Galore

So yeah, Wales got really stronk and took over Aquitaine. The Karlings still control Francia and the German and Italian regions are a clusterfuck. Byzantium made a comeback, the empire of Russia formed(renamed to 'Ugralia' by moi), Nubia and Abbyssnia stayed Miaphysite and got pretty stronk and Carpathia was formed by the Bulgarians.

Spoiler: Mordvin Menace

Mordvin culture came to predominate the landscape. Also, take note of the Hindu one-province Poland next to the Russian land. The kingdom of Ruthenia converted to Hinduism of all things but got wrecked in a Suomenusko holy war. Alas, Poland is the last Slavic Hindu remnant.

It ought to make an interesting converted Eu4 game!

thats why i love ck2- that just looks awesome and the eu4 conversion will be great post us the state of the world at 1700?

i really enjoy ck2 and eu4 (though i'm fairly hopeless at the latter). Before my computer died I was playing this mod for ck2:

http://www.reddit.com/r/CrusaderKings/comments/2t83vs/after_the_end_04_released/

for an album with the mods example screenshot.

The conversion shifts the game to post apocalyptic america and has 'americanist' and 'consumerist' religions as well as love craft religion, mormons , machine cult, new rome (centred on st louis) also evangelicals in the south and crazy revelationist types in the midwest.

theres also a titular title of president that can be won via election. new york is the republic of gotham- complete with house wayne. It's just full of cool wee references.
If the forum ever does a ck2 succession game then it has to be with this mod!

 

[Dork Of Ages]

I remember playing EU3 some years ago. I always used to fuck it up by playing as a small nation and getting annexed by large ones or playing as a large one and mismanaging it to oblivion. Good times.

The Victoria series seem to be highly interesting, I might try them one day.

 

[Strelok]

Just won the Second American Civil War, fighting back the dual threat of the Syndacalist Commies in the north and the Fascists in the south, with a military alliance with the secessionist pacific Coast states, and after a brutal 2 year long conflict witharound 700,000 military casulties from all sides, I bullied the Pacific States into rejoining the Union without any additional bloodshed. Now it's 1938 and war looms in Europe.

Playing the Kaiserreich mod for Darkest Hour, which has one central concept, "what if the Axis won ww1". So it's got all sorta of divergances like the Whites winning the Russian Civil War, Britian and France falling to communism (Which involves both a government in exile for France existing in North Africa, and the British Royal Family fleeing to Canada), Syndacalism being the form of Radical Socalism that takes hold instead of Lenin/Stalinism, and all sorts of stuff like that. Also amusingly Hitler is noted as having died in the trenches and his war diaries being published under the title "Mein Kampf".

 

[Kingofmoe]

Okay guys i have a problem whenever i play a game of eu3 or 4 i get bored and stop after about a hundred years or so.
Anyone else have this problem too?

also rome 2 when?

 

[Vitriol]

Okay guys i have a problem whenever i play a game of eu3 or 4 i get bored and stop after about a hundred years or so.
Anyone else have this problem too?

also rome 2 when?

Its all about setting yourself goals and enjoying the stories the game spits out.

Have an achievable short term goal and a wider long term one (take x province, conquer italy).

When things inevitably go tits up don't save scum but adjust your goals, keep an eye on the wider political scene for the perfect moment to isolate and attack others.

These games will just trundle along on their own if you do not make an effort to engage- this is what works for me I hope it helps.

 

[Luvs2Sperg789]

I love CKII, that's my favorite Paradox game proper. My favorite game they have published has got to be Mount & Blade: Warband tho.

 

[TheAmazingAxolotl]

Let me just say that Europa Universalis IV has been my on-and-off addiction since I bought it sometime last year.

You'd think you'd stop playing it after getting the Three Mountain's achievement, having conquered the world as a puny island OPM, but absolutely fucking not you need to conquer more as a different country.

 

[Azazel]

I only seem to like the games they published but didn't develop. Mount and Blade was great, and Magicka was fun provided you could round up a buddy to fling spells with.

 

[Strelok]

You know the ones, the map looking games that cover various historical eras. Didn't see a thread for them so thought I'd make one to brag about possibly the hardest I've ever broken history.

So, I was playing Victoria II, which is their most complicated without being bullshit micro (aka Hearts of Iron 3) as Austria using the Historical Plausibility mod, and after severe backlash by the aristocrats who made up the government from several liberal rebelions, my upper house turned reactionary. And I was erm.. able to enact laws abolishing the serfdom system. By making them slaves. Yes, in the 19th century when most countries were abolishing slavery, I instead instantly enslaved 2 million eastern Europeans for not speaking the Kaiser's language. I am 90% sure my county is headed for violent rebellion now.

Anyone else got any amusing stories like that?

Oh also Stellaris, their space 4x, is due to be out in 2 weeks, and the LP of it by a streamer and dev look promising. HOI 4 looks promising too, and seems to be a return to form of HOI 2 levels of complexity, which is IMHO a good thing as HOI3 was micro hell if you didn't trust the AI to manage your fronts, which I didn't.

 

[exball]

Stellaris is something I'm incredibly hyped for. I plan to do my best at copying the Covenant from Halo and the Imperium from 40k.

I really want to get Crusader Kings 2 because I had a blast with the first one and 2 is supposed to be leagues better. I'm kind of a poorfag right now though.