Victoria 2 (and indeed Victoria if there's still anyone left playing it here)

[frogbeastegg]

Oh, demo! Unexpected. :clicks download, waits:

Vicky 1 was complex and takes an effort to learn, yet simultaneously I found it to be the second easiest to really get into and get going with. CK was the easiest but that's because it was as shallow as could be pre-deus vult. Much easier than EUII or EUIII, in that they always feel somehow illogical and archane to me thanks to the UI and design choices.

Vicky has a lot to keep track of and to do; a lot of that is quite logical to the modern player thanks to the setting. You can intuit what the technologies and settings do for the most part. Balancing the needs, and learning the many options and how they interact is the hard part. You can tell what education will do for you people, you can tell higher rates of it cost more, and you can guess some ways to make money. Finding the best ways to make money, what level to have education set to for best results for your needs, and how to play it off against other needs - that's the hard part.

For anyone who hasn't got it, the original Vicky complete pack (includes expansion) are half price on gamersgate. DRM free, can be installed on multiple PCs, no program like steam or impulse required for installation or play. Cheap, bug-fixed entry point for those wanting to dabble, and it looks like the sequel will be different enough that the original will still be worth playing.

EDIT: those servers are getting hammered! I'm getting less than 1/6 of my usual download rate from gamersgate. Shame fileplanet demands I install their junk on my PC; I refuse. :looks at download timer: 2 hours 30 minutes to go. Ulp!

Good sign, I guess. Must be a huge demand to make this kind of a dent; gamersgate's normally very reliable.