How long did it take you to fully understand these games?

And how the fuck do I do it? Is there some 700-page book that will make me able to play this and the other Paradox games? Am I just an embarrassing baby who can only handle Civ V?

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eu4 is babies first grand strategy.

just watch someone on youtube play it.

Just start playing it, fuck around. Start with France or Castile. Gives you a lot of room to fuck up and learn. Takes a while, but once you understand it becomes addictive as shit.

Usually about 200 hours give or take if you're just playing on your own.

The easiest way is to watch an LP by someone who knows what they're doing while you play along on your own game. That will usually give you all the nuance you need while you learn the ropes.

Play Portugal, make friends with everyone, shit on morocco and colonize the new world. After that you'll have an idea of how to play

Litterally all you have to do is look at the buttons/Words/Numbers on the UI and google what you dont understand

eu4 is extremely simple and way too easy so it shouldn't be hard after watching a few videos. for the others it's best to watch a lot of videos and read a couple guides if you're having trouble

eu4 is the simplest one. Biggest mistake I made starting out was not using mercenaries in my army and it destroyed my manpower.

You can play EU4 just well without understanding most of the mechanics. You just don't get their benefits.
Like loans and bankruptcy, which pretty much no player understands, or is u willing to use. You can abuse bankruptcy to such an extent to be possible to convert the entire world to Judaism.

Play CK II or Vicky II, didn't really get hooked on EU IV.

> Watch 3 hours of youtube explaining victoria 2 mechanics
>get into a game and actually know what im doing
>The game is boring as fuck compared to eu4
Victoria 2 is a meme

>You can abuse bankruptcy to such an extent to be possible to convert the entire world to Judaism

esplain, ese

You win the Grand Strategy like this:

youtu.be/T8GIvDWTvKg

clips dot twitch dot tv/ChillyAstuteWalletHeyGuys

Fuck forgot to quote

Just play the game, you'll figure stuff out and eventually have specific questions to google.

To this day no human has unraveled the mystery of Victoria 2's liquor-based economy

>implying

HPM made liquor worthless

To what level?

120 hours in here. Understand everything except the minutae of trade and combat. Still don't know what a 'pip' is.

80 Hours of gameplay and I finally feel like I understand 85% of the game. Trial by fire, my friend.

A general can have between 0 and 6 pips in fire/shock/maneuver/siege. Similarly units have a certain number of "pips" (dots).

Ah, but I don't know what fire/shock/maneuver/siege actually DO, nor do I know how the phases or rolls of combat work.
One day I'll find out, but that's a hassle.

EU4 is casual babby shit.

It should take you no longer than a day to completely understand it.

Yeah, but what foes that mean? Plus, unit pips have nothing to do with general pips

I started by playing Italian states over and over. They're not the hardest but certainly not the easiest, and give you plenty of opportunities to learn about the games mechanics. But you just play and lose over and over, getting a little better each time.

I assume you are fat and/or rude in real life.

Let's get something out of the way. EU4 is casual compared to Hearts of Iron. But the entire fucking genre is incredibly complex compared to everything else.

If, one the one end, you have Civilization Revolution, you would sure as hell have EU4 closer to HoI.

The best way to learn by playing id to play lots of different countries who all excell at different things.
Play Portugal for colinization, Ottomans for world conquest, austria for diolomacy/hre stuff, and France for a little bit of everything and just being a general dick.

Siege pips just adds +1 to siege modifier for every pip.

Maneuver increases reinforcement rates (+10% iirc) and influence river crossing penalties. If there would be a river crossing penalty, and the attacking general have higher maneuver than the defending general, the penalty is negated.

Fire and shock pips adds a bonus to their respective phases. Whichever general has the highest amount of pips get the difference as a bonus to the dice roll.

Combat is a bit more involved.
It is basically divided into alternating Fire and Shock phases with each phase lasting three days starting with Fire.
Your units deals damage (Morale damage and Casualty damage) based on the dice rolled during each phase (0-9 + fire/shock bonus), the unit pips, the enemy's unit's pips, your fire/shock modifiers, maximum morale, combat ability and tactics (I may have forgotten some things).

Your units take damage in the same way, but defend with discipline instead of tactics (discipline gives a bonus to tactics!).

Unit pips are not generally worth bothering about unless you have some insane bonus to fire or shock. Just pick any of the most current unit and you'll be fine (barring tactical errors).

It is worth noting that cannons do not directly attack, but rather give half their pips to the unit in front of them.

EU4's mechanics are not very complex by themselves, but the way they are all connected can be a bit overwhelming.

About 120 hrs in EUIII and I never did a good job in any game
I once managed to form Ireland after starting at the earliest year

2-3 hours

I was quite interested in playing EU IV, but I was always scared it would be too complex to understand...

Your post just confirmed what I thought.

It isn't too complex to understand, it just takes time. It isn't something you just sit down and play, you have to think a little bit.

I have over 800 hours in EU4 and I can't say I fully understand the game still (mostly because they keep changing it), but I learnt a lot from my second game where I started as Poland and ate all of Asia and Africa. Watching people better than you playing the game can help if you find it overwhelming.

The game is as easy or as hard as you want it. Starting as Ottomans is very easy, while starting as Albania next to a hungry Ottomans is quite challenging. Set your own goals and take it from there.

Pic is from my favorite run as OPM Nagaur taking over Germany!

It's really not that complicated. Mostly just throw bigger numbers at the enemy and you're good. Stacking modifiers is only for fun stuff like or pic related.

I've been trying to play CK2 and I'm convinced the tutorial is harder than just playing the game normally.