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

[Kagemusha]

I never played the Original Victoria, but currently what time i have to play is usually consumed by EU III. If Victoria 2 has any of the same qualities EU has i think il give it a go.

[frogbeastegg]

Victoria is ... grand. There's no better word for it. There's a feel to it which I've encountered in no other strategy game. It partly comes from the subject matter, I believe. You are taking your nation and pushing it through into the dawn of the modern age. When you start there's no railways, few factories, no grand late imperialistic colonies. By the time you end everywhere looks like a precursor to the current day, and mankind has learned to fly, make electric lights or telephone, and your empire can sprawl from one side of the globe to another with all the Victorian flag-waving you can think of - poised ripe to collapse as modern attitudes start to form.

There's a strange feeling to painstakingly educating your middle and lower classes, invoking the social reforms they then understand sufficiently to clammer for, and watching your government be pressed into a new shape by the pressures of an urban poor who have started to think in terms previously restricted to the higher classes. It makes you feel like the parent of your chosen nation in some strange way; you grew it and taught it and now it's become an entity of its own.

It's hard work though. At least pre-Revolutions. I hear they toned the micromanagement down a lot and added some clearer feedback in the expansion.

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

Pretty excited about this. Vicky was my first Paradox game (talk about trial by fire) and I never actually got good at it. My best games were with China or Japan where I fought off the white devils enough to develop in peace, and I won (or came close to it) by building a nation of shiny railroads. :P Then I got EU3 and haven't gotten the nerve up to go back. I hope Vicky 2's interface is more EU3 while letting me play Vicky style.

[frogbeastegg]

Pretty excited about this. Vicky was first Paradox game (talk about trial by fire) and I never actually got good at it. My best games were with China or Japan where I fought off the white devils enough to develop in peace, and I won (or came close to it) by building a nation of shiny railroads. :P Then I got EU3 and haven't gotten the nerve up to go back. I hope Vicky 2's interface is more EU3 while letting me play Vicky style.

That was my problem with Vicky. By the time I'd learned enough to be half decent at it I was that worn out I needed a break. Then they released Revolutions and I faced needing to learn the game all over again; the new features were too good to pass over yet changed the game dramatically.

The game was great material for a comedy "I don't know what I'm doing!" AAR. 'They Call me *MR* Newbie!' was fun to write. I sometimes hanker to do a sequel, 'Return of the Newbie'.

[Meneldil]

If it's anywere as buggy and stupid as HoI3, then I guess I'll pass. I like the era, I liked Ricky (even though I never got good at it) but HoI3 kind of killed my enthousiasm for Paradox games.

[Furunculus]

it does look like they have improved things from the carious AAR reports that have come out.

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

That AAR you posted was a good read, Rurunculus. :D

[Meneldil]

it does look like they have improved things from the carious AAR reports that have come out.

Yeah, it does, except for that whole part about Prussia forming Germany after getting her butt kicked. That was kind of weird, but still not as "wtf-ish" as Italy declaring war on Germany in 1937 or some similarly ridiculous HoI3 event.

[Kagemusha]

Well after that description i think im definetely getting this game. By the way Froggy, maybe you should visit the chapterhouse one of these days as franconicus is hosting a forum game there that address the very same period and you can pick your country, playing together and against human opponents. This ofcourse goes to rest of you guys also