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[Gervassen]

DF was being sustained by fans on /tg/ and SA since the old days of 2d maps. Might as well say the userbases are heavily overlapped.

[Catastrophic lolcats]

And there's a whole bunch of priests in hell, doesn't make it a church.

[Delta Foxtrot]

I haven't had the privilege of trying any of the newer generation paradox games yet, but I have a bunch of friends that have so there's that. HoI2 is pretty good, with or without mods. Most of my friends still play modded HoI2 occasionally, despite having bought and liked HoI3.
I was surprised at how playable CK is in this day and age, but I don't know how well it would stand a comparison with CKII, it would probably be pretty redundant to get CK if you already have CKII.
Victoria was just godawful, probably the most flawed gem I've ever had the joy of playing. Back when my friends and I used to play Vicky fairly actively, we would tell ourselves that the only reason we play Vicky is because there's nothing like it anywhere else. Then V2 came out.

If you're deadset on getting something, I'd say HoI2 or EU3. Paradox recently gave away a huge bunch of EU3 keys to their email subscribers, if you're lucky someone might still have one they can give you. I'd say EU3 is more versatile of the bunch, it runs the whole gamut of warfare, diplomacy and general empire building.

[Majestic7]

I love CKII for the obvious reasons (liked CK a lot too). Europa Universalis III is very fun with great mods like Magna Mundi or can't-remember-the-name. EU: Rome had potential, but it was left without support and didn't get great attention from modders either, sadly.

If you want to include games published, but not created by Paradox, Mount & Blade is a classic for a good reason. Sword of the Stars II is pretty good. The launch was horrible, but they fixed their mistakes, they get a nod of the hat for that.

[Darvi]

Metal Gear Solid 3

[snelg]

In my opinion all the sequels except maybe HoI3 are simply put a better version of the earlier ones.
Rome was okay, I really liked fighting the barbarians coming to visit and that you were never really safe but it felt kind of small with only a few countries that actually matter.
The problem with the smaller titles is that they are just that I guess. Rome, Sengoku, March of the eagles (but I'm looking forward to seeing what mods might show up here) and so on.

I probably like victoria 2 the most since it gives you a feeling of doing something more constructive than painting the world one colour (expansion and "pop demand mod" is a must for me though). I also find it a bit more challenging than the other games they have. If there's one thing I dislike about it it's that the end tends to pop up when things start getting really interesting (it's shorter than the others but has more content I feel). I really like that populations are represented and matter very much, there's an actual economy to play around with and the variety of ways to get more powerful.
With the new expansion coming up there might be another sale on it I guess.

I'd suggest you check out the dev-diaries on their forums for the games that seem interesting or a let's play or something. Should help a lot deciding.

By the way if you have been a registered user on their forums they handed out an EU3 key for free by mail to everyone there a while ago. Though a lot of people might have missed it.

[Tyler6498]

By the way if you have been a registered user on their forums they handed out an EU3 key for free by mail to everyone there a while ago. Though a lot of people might have missed it.

Don't forget to mention the free Crusader Kings I months back that the newsletter also gave which many missed, and should have been a warning to sign up for goodies!

[Majestic7]

Victoria II is great, but I think the research mechanics suck. It is not very plausible to think economic inventions wouldn't spread without dedicated research to neighbouring countries. I think there should be some sort of passive progress at all areas, based on neighbour's tech or the like. Basically, if you aren't a major nation, you have to choose a narrow focus for your tech. If you want to keep your army competitive, you'll suck with industry and vice versa... and no real chance to catch up, since old techs don't get any cheaper. :/ This even with national focus on increasing literacy. Perhaps the expansion will make things different, but we'll see. Seems they just concentrate on international conflicts and colonization there.

I like the way tech spreads in CKII, it is a model that would be nice for other games too.

[boki]

Hearts of iron 2 is best game for me

[kingfisher1112]

Seriously man, HoI 2 or Darkest Hour. ( I guess, I never did get it.) Or wait until East Vs West comes out. I need to make a thread about that.

[Dutchling]

I'd recommend getting Victoria II: A House Divided (I heard it's pretty bad without that expansion).

While I liked it less than EU3, there will soon-ish be a EU4, and EU3 is a tad featureless compared to Vicky II, so I'd recommend Vicky.

[lastverb]

I'll call Pride of Nations. Not made by paradox, but they released it. It's grand strategy made by AGEOD set in victorian era and it's more dwarfy Victoria with just 2 drawbacks - turn processing time and you can play only major nations.

[mainiac]

Hey Darkest Hour.  It's a modders remake of HOI2.  HOI2 is in many ways a simpler, more streamlined version of HOI3 and Darkest Hour has some great mods for it like Kaiserreich and Fallout.

[snelg]

Victoria II is great, but I think the research mechanics suck. It is not very plausible to think economic inventions wouldn't spread without dedicated research to neighbouring countries. I think there should be some sort of passive progress at all areas, based on neighbour's tech or the like. Basically, if you aren't a major nation, you have to choose a narrow focus for your tech. If you want to keep your army competitive, you'll suck with industry and vice versa... and no real chance to catch up, since old techs don't get any cheaper. :/ This even with national focus on increasing literacy. Perhaps the expansion will make things different, but we'll see. Seems they just concentrate on international conflicts and colonization there.

I like the way tech spreads in CKII, it is a model that would be nice for other games too.

Techs are actually getting cheaper as time progress (I'm pretty sure it's from the first expansion though), while it doesn't let everyone keep up it helps a bit. But yeah, the main problem I have with the game is that if you're playing a minor country the game tends to end just as you're about to catch up. Since it takes a long time bridge the gap to the great powers.

[Vonyx]

I'll give you a free copy of EU3. (Chronicles)


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