Stellaris is currently in a poor place. They just got another total population system rework. It's not going so well right now.
this post was submitted on 13 May 2025
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It's a shame distant worlds 2 flopped. Stellaris lost a lot of flavour when they went with hyperlanes and map painting.
RIP my beautiful wormhole stations...
I dont love Distant Worlds 2 but the game is still getting updates and support. Just saying.
Victoria 3 would probably be the best if they didn't insist in the terrible war system it has (it might have been improved, but being forced to automate it is boring to me)
EU IV is in a good spot since it isn't getting anymore updates, but it suffers from being an old game.
CK3 is alright as a character simulator but the GS bit is lacking.
Stellaris has overhauled everything again so it's a mess currently.
HoI4 is for roleplaying your favorite ideological strawman, not much else.
Here are my two cents: I freaking love Stellaris, but Id probably wait a couple of months until the current version gets more patches and hotfixes.
Victoria 3, while not my favorite, is fun, but it’s getting a sizeable update in June, so it’s a wait and see situation for now.
Out of the modern Paradox games, I think CK3 is the easiest to get into and the one in the best state right now.
If you like the idea of playing as a character, there’s little reason not to recommend CK3. Mind you its best played as a rpg and not as a map painter.
I think the most cohesive experience right now is CK3, though my favorites are Vic 3 and Old World Blues (Fallout mod for HOI4).
It really depends on what you enjoy the most out of such games, but as a blind recommendation I’d say CK3
It really depends on what you enjoy the most out of such games
The illusion that states are run by sane people making good plans :P
I dunno, the numbers do stuff and it's fun because the numbers affect the other numbers and if you massage the bad numbers right then the good numbers get large.
You should definitively give Vic 3 a try at least then, it’s the epitome of “numbers chain reaction” like you described.
I dunno which is best but the only one I've ever been able to get into is Stellaris because the others' starting states overwhelm me instantly.
I once tried ck3 my video card was somehow about to ignite, granted it's a Chepo video card, but it's a fancy map game. Ck2 is getting no more dlc so I'd go with that one because its finished.
For the same reason I'm avoiding Viky 3.
Also, pirate, don't buy, paradox uses steam dmr as far as I know.
CK3 by a country mile, it simplified a bunch of mechanics and focused on the RP, but everything works together
Vicky 3's navy and combat are simultaneously too finicky and hands off
Stellaris is good if you just roll back the latest update (needs some hot fixes)
For me personally, Vicky 3 is the winner by a long mile. I have sunk hundreds more hours into that game than Stellaris or CK3, and EU4 was my previous favourite.
I actually think Vicky 3's developments borderline obsolete the EU series for me.
It seems that all hexbear can agree on is that hoi4 is busted and stellaris is temporarily busted. I suppose I'll need to find time to learn viccy.
Can you fuck with the English in it right proper? I think have an ancestral grudge because my number one starting goal in all these games it to evict the English from England as Ireland.
HoI4 has always been the one I struggled to get into. I've loved Stellaris (big ups to Gigastructures mod), but not tried the recent busted-ness.
You absolutely can fuck the English in it right proper, but it isn't easy. They start as the #1 most powerful country, largely due to owning the East India Company/British Raj, and they own all the British Isles outright.
Liberating India isn't too hard if you pally up to them. But after that you kinda need a strong-ass navy (with pretty strong armies), and ideally a couple big European allies to conquer the mainland.
No major restrictions on your choice of war goals in Vicky, so you can evict them with impunity. Probably takes a fair few wars though. I've seen various European countries be evicted from Europe and are stuck as a single island province.
Bonus points if you get good at doing trade wars and using soft power. If you can liberate more colonies to deny them raw resources, and outcompete them in high-value goods, it is possible to fuck over their economy repeatedly. Sometimes they'll eventually succumb to a trade union-led revolution.
CK3 is pretty good for losing time. It’s definitely the easiest to just go with the flow. Most losses don’t feel game ending and can give you something to go after. I got a friend really into it even though he doesn’t seem to have any interest in the other games.
Vic 3 is alright once you figure out how to keep things stable enough while still ignoring the more complex systems.
HoI4 is a horrible broken mess. I’ve been playing it a lot recently.
I’ve never played EU4 so idk there.
Is it praxis to pick Germany in HoI4 and lose as fast as possible?
I think they added a communist path for Germany recently, but I haven’t played it yet.
I saw there was a kill Hitler path but I thought the man himself already had that covered.
The earlier the better.
If it is then I’m a damn activist
CK3 is really good and probs one of their most approachable. the khans of the steppe DLC just came out which looks great and they are adding china soon too. i think they've supported the game really well with DLC (price notwithstanding) and updates, it's in a nice mature state now and is super fun. i think the leaders and traits systems in CK3 make roleplaying really fun too. it's pretty RP centric with the variety of events and decisions in the game now especially with tours and tournaments which i like.
Isn't there a new one coming soon?
EU V was officially announced a few days ago. Still no release date.
EU4 is in a pretty good place, all the DLC since Leviathan has been good, and Leviathan was patched into a pretty good state after a while.