Is EUIII better than EUII?

[frogbeastegg]

Finally had a chance to shoot over to Best Buy today (in the midst of running other errands). Went to the PC games section to pick it up....and it was gone.

Typical, really.

You know, I was kind of expecting you to say that. Don't know why. Psychic froggy?

[Martok]

Psychic froggy?

That....or you just know me well enough by now that if I don't do something right away, I tend to end up waiting/holding off until it's too late.

[Xiahou]

That....or you just know me well enough by now that if I don't do something right away, I tend to end up waiting/holding off until it's too late.

Amazon has it for $12.

[Crazed Rabbit]

Hmm. The complexity intimidates me. I've played Civ games and Alpha Centuri and Railroad Tycoon 2 and Civil War Generals 2 as well. But this seems like it'd take a while to learn.

So, how hard is it really?

CR

[seireikhaan]

Hmm. The complexity intimidates me. I've played Civ games and Alpha Centuri and Railroad Tycoon 2 and Civil War Generals 2 as well. But this seems like it'd take a while to learn.

So, how hard is it really?

CR

It takes a while to get a hang on Paraoxian games. They are a bit of an investment on time, as each campaign takes a pretty good while to complete. Further, the complexity can be a bit intimidating at first, particularly with Victoria. Its pretty likely you'll get kicked around your first couple of goes, with no offense intended.

That said: Paradox strategy games have overtaken Civ as my favorite strategy games. The AI is excellent compared to most games. Diplomacy is a requirement, not an auxilliary feature. Wars are rarely fought without reason, and when they do happen, you can see why ol' George Washington warned against entangling alliances. You can also see why isolationism can get you butchered.

There's one other really big plus: Moddability. EU III had a multitude of excellent mods, with Magna Mundi being the most popular. Victoria has one massive one, the Victoria Improvement Mod(VIP). Both give the game a different feel and can ratchet up the difficulty in ways the vanilla falls a bit short. That said, vanilla paradox games are quite excellent.

If you've got the time to invest, I would give EU III complete and Victoria: Revolutions a two thumbs up. I've alse heard lots of good things about the Hearts of Iron series. However, I've still yet to get my brain wrapped around the game's mechanics.

[Jolt]

I've alse heard lots of good things about the Hearts of Iron series. However, I've still yet to get my brain wrapped around the game's mechanics.

You'll feel awesome when you have accomplished this against HOI DAIM on the conditions I did:







If you guys are interested in the unique history of my game, I'd be willing to write it out. :D

[Monk]

If you guys are interested in the unique history of my game, I'd be willing to write it out. :D

Better yet, post it in the Mead Hall!

[frogbeastegg]

Hmm. The complexity intimidates me. I've played Civ games and Alpha Centuri and Railroad Tycoon 2 and Civil War Generals 2 as well. But this seems like it'd take a while to learn.

So, how hard is it really?

CR

For the first hour you'll find yourself doing this a lot:

It's mostly a case of a very steep curve at the start. Once you find your way around the interface, grasp the basics, and gain an idea for what you should be trying to do then the worst is over. After that it's a case of learning mid and high level aspects and honing what you have. If you are prepared to give the game around 10-15 hours newbie disaster time combined with a few hours of reading the official forums then you should make it over the step. From there the rest is much easier to grasp. Partly because your country won't be on the edge of imploding every five minutes

If you can play high end civ 4 then you should be able to play EUIII without problems. They are about as demanding as each other; the difference is that civ 4 is more intuitive and is much more welcoming to new players. Civ4 tells you what is wrong and gives a suggestion on how to fix it. EUIII pretends not to notice as you cry and carries on without breaking step.

[Xiahou]

Hmm. The complexity intimidates me. I've played Civ games and Alpha Centuri and Railroad Tycoon 2 and Civil War Generals 2 as well. But this seems like it'd take a while to learn.

So, how hard is it really?

CR

Give it a shot- for the price of admission, you won't regret it. I learned by diving right in. When I didn't know what something was, I checked the EU3 wiki. When that failed, I just Googled. My first campaign was a disaster, but by the second go 'round, I had enough of a handle on it to enjoy myself.

[pevergreen]

edit: should be ok now

[Crazed Rabbit]

Give it a shot- for the price of admission, you won't regret it. I learned by diving right in. When I didn't know what something was, I checked the EU3 wiki. When that failed, I just Googled. My first campaign was a disaster, but by the second go 'round, I had enough of a handle on it to enjoy myself.

Well, bought EU3:Complete for a twenty with shipping. Should arrive on Friday. Any recommendations for a first campaign to learn with? Eventually I think I'll try to restore the glory of Byzantium from 1399.

CR

[Monk]

Well, bought EU3:Complete for a twenty with shipping. Should arrive on Friday. Any recommendations for a first campaign to learn with? Eventually I think I'll try to restore the glory of Byzantium from 1399.

CR

You might be tempted to start with a small nation, but thats really the opposite of what you should do. The larger nations have more manpower and more economical strength, and therefore give you more things to do right from the word go. Save the smaller powers for when you've mastered the game and wanna take an extremely slow build up to glory (imo)

Each era has some recommended choices for you to start with, and each has a difficulty indicator. Just look around and see who seems like a good fit, but be prepared to lose while you learn the ropes .

[seireikhaan]

Well, bought EU3:Complete for a twenty with shipping. Should arrive on Friday. Any recommendations for a first campaign to learn with? Eventually I think I'll try to restore the glory of Byzantium from 1399.

CR

Byzantium is a REALLY tough game, from my own experience. Others may have done better than me, perhaps, but I just could not get over those Turks.

As for a recommendation.... I would say Spain starting around 1500 would be the ideal, as they start with a big edge on colonization, have a large base to work with in Europe, and you can start getting an idea of what the politics of Europe in the game are going to look like.