Originally posted by Louis IV the Fat
Should I give it another go? Which one out of the series is best?
My favorite is Crusader Kings, in the EU II engine (the "2D", "old" engine). The game and its community are alive currently.

It is a strange mixture of elemnts the SIMS and a grand strategy game. Typical of Paradox, it takes a little investigation and getting used to to find the right strings to pull and understand how things work and how does that affect the gameplay. Again typically of Paradox, the game lacks a concrete set of goals although there is a "Victory points meter".

The best parts of the game is the combination of Roleplaying and Strategy, that unlike most strategy games allows you to play in unorthodox, unoptimal ways. Also because you can set your own goals, once you understand how the game works, you can play for them and see history unfold in front of your eyes.

The simulation of the societal/political aspects of the middle ages is more than decent and really well done. Combat is typically of PI again, abstracted - actually this was teh major thing that kept putting me off in the beginning, everytime there was a battle going on, i was foaming to... get in the battle map in person, being a typical MTW player

However, once i saw the game for what it was, i had great fun with it - playing felt almost like semi-writing your own Novel - in particular while playing teh Batatzes Byzantine family in one game, it fely like i had written "The Sisters Karamazof" - really good times.

Just allow your self to slowly get into it, as the level of detail is at first overwhelming.