Any Grand Strategy gamers?

[Oni]

Oh man, I have spent so many hours playing MoO2. I was so excited when the third one was coming out, but I then I felt kind of let down... it wasnt nearly as good as 2.
I actually still have MoO2 installed too.. Every once in a while I get the urge to go back and play more.... I also have been looking for another, newer game like it, but I havent found anything quite as good.

I also play the older Medieval: Total war... Again, I still have it installed too. I loved it, though I was also disappointed in the battles. I liked the larger aspect of the game enough though that I could still enjoy it quite a bit.

There is only a handful of games even remotely like the MoO is Galactic Civilizations & Space Empires V are the most recent. Both are okay but no MoO 2, which I too also still have installed. It's sad how the final installments of the great space 4x series, MoO and Space Empires were so bad it killed them.

Fun fact, I've never finished any turn based strategy game I've ever played. I always play until I'm undisputedly the victor and then I shelf it and move on to the next scenario or what not.

Edit: Removing some random numbers. Should pay more attention when I'm doing multiple things at once

[One_Medic_Army]

Ok, supposedly as of the Diplomacy expansion Sins of a Solar Empire is actually a 4x game, did not know that.

[Oni]

I was actually wondering how any kind of diplomacy worked in Sins of the Solar Empire. In RTS games you can't slow down even for a second if you want to be competitive. Seems like a odd thing to add to a RTS...

[One_Medic_Army]

I was actually wondering how any kind of diplomacy worked in Sins of the Solar Empire. In RTS games you can't slow down even for a second if you want to be competitive. Seems like a odd thing to add to a RTS...

Well sins is a bit slower than most RTS games, since it takes so long to actually get anywhere, research anything, or such. If you're playing free-for-all, there's enough planets that everyone can have their own little empire. As to the diplomacy system, it's based on a number, one to relate how much a specific other faction likes you, and a number to show how much you like them. There's a pair for every combination of sides. If the number becomes high enough, through fighting the same enemies, being the same race, doing missions for each other, giving people resources, researching technology, etc... you can propose alliances/pacts in various stages. There is the opportunity for both allied victories and diplomatic victories.

TL:DR it's a slow game, and diplomacy can be highly useful for additional intelligence, combining forces, and you can win via diplomacy.

[Last of The Finest]

Seems like a good place to ask. I LOVE grand strategy games, but I just absolutely get overwhelmed by Victoria Revolutions. Is there a place I can learn how to play it without feeling like I'm drowning?

[BigBiker05]

I bought Crusader Kings II a couple hours ago. I can't really say I know what I am doing. If anyone wants to help me please do.

[Oni]

Seems like a good place to ask. I LOVE grand strategy games, but I just absolutely get overwhelmed by Victoria Revolutions. Is there a place I can learn how to play it without feeling like I'm drowning?

The original victoria game is one of the only paradox games haven't really played. I know it requires alot more micromanagement than Victoria 2, which is almost too easy.

This from paradox forums, a dev posted it...it's pretty long but the original victoria is pretty involved, it doesn't cover the expanision however.

http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/sho ... 2fd8e44d39

The paradoxian usually has some guides but the quality varies but they are usually short.

http://www.paradoxian.org/vickywiki/ind ... ted_Guides

Good Luck, to quote my friend that got me in to Paradox Games, "Victoria is one of the more complicated games you will ever play but it's worth it."

[Oni]

I bought Crusader Kings II a couple hours ago. I can't really say I know what I am doing. If anyone wants to help me please do.

I could give you some general tips but I don't have the second game yet, maybe E.T could be more specific for you.

Crusader Kings is a little different then most strategy games. You pick a ruler and from their you focus on building a powerful kingdom.

The most important things from the first game were inheritance, vassal management, province development and political expansion.

Inheirtance is important, your ruler won't be around forever so you need to get married to a suitable women ASAP. You are going to be looking for a wife that has good stats and traits, I've had quite a few wives that have been in important positions in my kingdom. You want to make sure they don't have the celibate trait and they are as young as possible.

You need hiers to carry on your legacy so you must take great care but either way you still might end up with an idiot of a son. You will also want to take look at the types of inheritance, they all have their place depending. I know I might seem like I'm focusing alot on this but you can lose the game if you aren't on top of this.

Vassal management is essential because one rebellion can undo all of what you had been working on for years. You need to keep them happy, give them just enough but don't make them too powerful.

Province development will be key in establishing economic and military might. You want to focus on economic development unless absolutely necessary.

Political Expansion can be gained through conquest, inheritance of titles and politcal marriages. I don't know how the mechanics in the new game work but in general you want to amass as much land and influence as possible.

Other thoughts, a good spymaster is required if you don't want your awesome ruler to end up assassinated before he can have a heir.

Here's a good guide I found on the paradox forums, probably more helpful then my generalities.

http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/sho ... de-to-CKII

[E.T. EddieTorrez]

All of what Oni said was good advice. If you have any specific questions feel free to ask away. But I do have a couple of other tips.
-If you are playing as king you can only have 2 ducal titles( without a popularity hit) so I suggest giving any extras to a trusted vassel who is neither envious nor ambitious but make sure he only holds one county title. Only allowing dukes to hold one county is a pretty safe way to prevent rebellion.
-Try to breed people with similar high stats to create whole family's devoted to being your ministers.
-One of your ministers has the ability to create a claim on a title, use this sparingly because it is very slow and expensive.

[BigBiker05]

With 17 hours played I still don't really know what I'm doing. Though, 3/3 times so far have my second wife plotted to kill my first born son (heir/with first wife) so our son together would become heir. Bitches be in prison.

[E.T. EddieTorrez]

Yeah that kind of stuff happens, remember if you show clemency to someone you've imprisoned by releasing them you gain a +10 bonus to your kings approval rating. I will often make an example of someone unimportant by doing this.

[BigBiker05]

Yeah that kind of stuff happens, remember if you show clemency to someone you've imprisoned by releasing them you gain a +10 bonus to your kings approval rating. I will often make an example of someone unimportant by doing this.

I've someone become King of Sweden. I basically schmoozed myself onto the election. Two princes fought for votes while I accumulated all the neutral votes. I then assassinated the king and wha-la! The kings family has been in and out of my prison or on house arrest. Also had two civil wars with them.

[E.T. EddieTorrez]

Just remember if someone rebels and you defeat them you can remove one of their titles without a hit to your opinion.

[BigBiker05]

Just remember if someone rebels and you defeat them you can remove one of their titles without a hit to your opinion.

Yup, I've slowly been making these princes worthless and hated by everyone. Also forcing their vassals to change to my religion making them disliked by their own vassals. Now I just need to figure out how to get max crown rule, remove election system, then bring crown rule back down without everyone hating me.

I also have all 4 of my kids so far bethoreled to princes/ess to give me some incredible allies in decades to come that could even put a dent in france.

[E.T. EddieTorrez]

There are a couple of considerations which you should think about. Firstly, the amount of taxes and levies which a vassel provide you is predominantly based off of how much they like you. Therefore many people suggest keeping crown authority in one of the more middle settings so as not to take too bad of a popularity hit. My opinion is middle since it keeps vassels from fighting in most surcomstances but if you are having problems with holdings passing from your realm than the next one up might be useful.

Secondly, you may also want to consider popularity and flexability with your form of succession. Since your goal in nearly every circumstance should be to be loved by your vassels, elective succession should not be overlooked since vassels love it, its easy to change your heir, its easy to institute and if your vassels like you MOST will elect your selected heir. Many people do the same as you though, rushing high authority then instituteing primogeniter then dropping authority down but it can leave a new heir in a sticky situtation if they are not in a situation to wrench control of their realm after succession.

Thirdly, consider alliances wisely since they can mean a direction of non-expansion and endlessly sending troops. As Sicily I once had alliances with both the holy roman empire and the byzantines. The hre has remained stable as a stone meaning I am unable to easily snaffle up territory in italy while the byzantines have been plauged by rebellion much of my game. So quite often I get the call to come to the byzantine's aid, even if the weirdo keeps trying to marry my daughters to his sons( cousin love).

So I hope some of this info was useful for you. I really love the game because of the amount of options a person has and on some levels it nearly reminds me of A Song of Ice and Fire series of books. Just play it however you will have the most fun.