Grand Strategy Games

How do I get into the Grand Strategy genre?
Is Grand Strategy a patrician genre? What are some patrician vidya?

The mindset you need to play grand strategy is wanting to fuck shit up.

Start with EUIV if you like Civilization
Start with CK2 if you like RPGs

If you want something more accessible, wait until Monday for Stellaris

EU4 is a good starting point. It's incredibly casualized and pretty easy to get things rolling. (It's still tough much the easiest of any paradox game.)

CK2 is also a good spot if you prefer the RPG elements.

I recommend you wait until this week. Paradox is releasing Stellaris, their GS/4X hybrid. It looks really good from what we've seen. I'll be giving it a pirate to see how it is.

Start with Hearts of Iron 3, its the best paradox game for beginners

...

>play grand strategy game
>spend the vast majority of my time in war attempting to enforce sexy borders because ugly borders flairs my autism

Remember: losing is part of the fun in the beginning.

Once I forced myself to understand this, I was able to get way more into GS.

Its basically work simulator. You have a billion of obvious, retarded decisions to make to get +0.000003% to reputation while the game's RNG actively tries to fuck you up. About as fun as doing taxes.
The thing I dislike about GS is how un-videogamey they feel. Everything is just a placeholder, things are represented by very abstract terms like "prestige", "wealth", "piety", "military" with equally abstract number. People who play that kinda shit must be either autistic, or have fountain of imagination they should be using for better things, like reading, or inventing cure for cancer.
The reason I love something like Dorf Fort so much is because everything in this game is visual. Your treasures aren't a number, they are things you can see, touch, carry around etc. Trading mechanic happens when actual horses pull actual caravan into your actual trading post and unload actual goods. In a Paradox game the same thing would be represented clinically by a menu and some sliders. Fuck that shit.

man that eu4 mod looks terrible

I wouldn't bother with tutorials they are usually pretty shit. If you're confused watch a few youtube videos to pick up the mechanics.

This is pretty spot on.

Personally I enjoy CK2 a whole lot more. Repeated plays feel a lot more different because there are so many more things to do besides painting the map.

depends on the GS, if you actually manage to lose in say CK2 consider suicide
same thing in EUIV if you lose after 10 years (some starts can be impossible)

Don't play EU4, Paradox is very clear on forcing a particular style of play.

Try Hoi, CK2, or vicky 2

CK2 is more fun because you can bang the plebs, make a horde of bastards and get killed right when you're at the peak of your ruling

CK3 when

problem with CK2 is that unless you're intentionally fucking yourself up after 50 years you've invincible

>likes dorf fortress for its visuals but thinks things such as "piety" and "prestige" are abstract
Hell im not saying dorf fortress isnt hands on but what the fuck am i reading

my only issue is I don't know the cheese tactics so I'm stuck waiting on fabricated claims for 20 years

Are there any GS games without a shit tier UI?

this is why you start as an old gay retarded Muslim dwarf in Italy

Things like this in DF are supplementary to main gameplay, like characters stats are supplementary in RPG games. In grand strategies the whole thing's built upon that.

eh problem with starts like that is the random factor
you could get your titles revoked day 1 by the emperor with nothing to do about it given both CK2 and EUIV's combat systems virtually ensure a numerical advantage will always result in a victory so there's no way for a small army to, through tactics enforce a victory despite the odds

all the crossing and mountain penalties don't matter when your opponent has more heavy cavalry than you have light infantry

supplementary? your stats are literally the most important thing in a rpg

EU III or EU IV
Play France
Blob like you mean it
If you can't blob, keep trying until you git gud. France is a good starting nation.

>a numerical advantage will always result in a victory
Incorrect. Tech and terrain play a huge difference.

>mountain penalties don't matter
They do. If you play as a country in the path of the Mongol invasions, luring them into fighting in the mountains is the only way to survive.

>having concepts and numbers to represent abstractions is un-gamey
nigger that's the basis of games

tech makes a difference sure but I was talking about a day 1 DOW situation in which case tech is not going to be important
and mongol invasions atm are bugged given that the good horse archer tactics never fire

>he doesn't play ck2 purely for the incest and doesn't jack off to the shitty portraits simply because the idea that it's your character's kid who also happens to be his sister is arousing

The only patrician way to play GS games is to form Germany as Luxembourg in vicky2.

If you can't do that you will always be a pleb.

I just finished an America game. Started around 1700 as GB, when the Thirteen Colonies were sizeable enough, then released and played as them. immediately formed USA with no complaints and proceeded to try and re-create the borders.

I got everything except some stuff owned by Spain, because Mexico never declared independence and it's hard as fuck to fight all of Spain's colonies at once and the only person who wants to be your ally is weak-ass britain.

I should note that Portugal is under a personal union with Spain, so they were part of the problem, too.

>not playing as the thirteen colonies and declaring a war of independence
there's a shitload of mechanics for it mate, just don't skip the hardest part

You didn't want to do the war of independence start? Gotta fight for you freedom bro.

I just wanted a comfy Manifest Destiny game.

Vicky2

Europa Universalis 4 or Hearts of Iron 2 are probably the best for beginners.

CK2 is kinda weird as a hybrid between GS and incest simulator RPG were you lead not a nation but a dynasty.

Victoria II is more complex and needs intense autism to handle the economy just as HoI 3 to manage the divisions and fronts.

Here come the willy wagglers

So I take it /vg/ threads are basically gibberish at this point?

/gsg/ was a mistake

They are, it's basicly only memes and gibberish.

What are some games where I can make profits off of reselling items?

What is the best grand strategy game?

>Tech and terrain play a huge difference.
>tech

you mean the tech you can barely fucking advance properly because it takes a trillion years? Nah man, ingame (and realistically) a muslim dwarf in southern italy has no technological advantage versus their liege or his titular counterparts.

this
sounds great a f

Also
>expulsion of the jews got nerfed as hell this last update

PARADOX I LIKED MY EASY SHEKELS