Giant Bomb Presents: Scope and Intimacy: Talking Historical Accuracy, Grand Strategy, and Space Aliens with Henrik Fåhraeus

@austin_walker: All set now, thanks!

I can't fault anybody for disliking Hearts of Iron 3. There are integral features of the game that just aren't fleshed out at all and there are many features that just aren't explained and don't feel satisfying once you've figured them out. It's one of the rare Paradox games where even mods can't address it's glaring issues - the BlackIce mod comes pretty close but even the developers of the mod have just came out and said "the game is falling apart the more we work on it".

I've dumped hundreds of hours into HoI3 and I've become competent at it but the game is difficult for all of the wrong reasons. The tech tree and the trade system are bizarrely abstracted, tedious and gamey. The aerial combat (which is important for a WW2 game) was always inconsequential and a pain in the ass to micromanage. The AI tends to shoot itself in the foot on a regular basis. Honestly, the real difficulty of the game relies on you maintaining interest in it, not the actual tactics or strategy.

HoI4 seems to be addressing most of the complaints I have with HoI3, which is great. I wouldn't recommend HoI3 to anybody, even die-hard Paradox fans. It's a neat milestone to see how far Paradox has come, and how many tiny refinements and improvements made CK2 and EU4 what they are now.

For anyone who feels intimidated by Paradox grand strategy games I suggest jumping in with Crusader Kings 2. It's worth taking the time to do the tutorials IMO because it's going to point out a number of the systems you have to be aware of to play successfully.

Think part of the thing with CK2 is letting go of some of the habits and conventions many of us are used to from playing games like Civilization. For example you don't just declare war but actually have to acquire or earn a justification for war by way of having a claim to a territory or title through diplomacy or espionage. Also losing a war isn't the worst thing in the world compared to some other games if you can end a particular conflict with decent terms (the game disfavors long continual wars by way of having limited amounts of troops being available within a certain time span and the risk of unrest and rebellion for having troops abroad).

Paradox does unique but sensible takes on mechanics. It's one of the reasons that I'm really looking forward to Stellaris. As someone else pointed out the 4x space genre has a lot of titles most of which have tried to recapture and build upon the magic of Master of Orion 1 and 2. What I've heard about and seen of Stellaris that seems to suggest they're trying something really different.

For people interested in 4x space games there's a really good Three Moves Ahead podcast about the state of 4x space games that I think is highly worth a listen. It's a couple years old but I think the discussion is really interesting and still relevant. https://www.idlethumbs.net/3ma/episodes/lost-in-space

Edit: Paradox games certainly aren't for everyone but if one hits with you it really sticks.

The new intro has a smooth MF Doom groove to it.

@austin_walker This was great, I love Paradox games. Keep up the good work Austin

Not my type of game, but glad it's out there for the people that like it.