Is EUIII better than EUII?

[Martok]

I figured I might as well post in this thread instead of starting a new one.

To repeat a question I posed to Monk in the screenshots thread:


For those of you who've played EUIII a fair bit now, what do you think? Honestly? I'm especially curious to hear from those who have played a lot of turn-based strategy games, and how much of an adjustment it is to playing EU3 (and I suppose Paradox games in general), although I would still love to hear everyone's opinion regardless.

To give you an idea of where I'm coming from, my favorite strategy games are (in no particular order) Shogun Total War, Medieval Total War, Star Trek TNG: Birth of the Federation, Lords of the Realm II, and Galactic Civilizations 2. As you can see, I like big, epic empire-building games where I think and plan out what I want my nation/race/faction to do.

Now I've heard people say that while they are in real-time, Paradox games are played at a very measured pace just like turn-based strategy games, but I can't help but wonder just how true that is. Do they really move slow enough that a plodding old fogy like myself could still keep up? And what about EU3 specifically? I've read that it's much more accessible to players than most previous Paradox titles, but since I've never played any of their other games, I really don't have anything to compare it to.


I would really like to hear what people here think about it. As I stated in the screenshot thread, my local Best Buy has a copy of EU3 Complete for around $10.00 (IIRC), and I'm wondering if it would be worth my while to pick it up.