Paradox Games

Somebody once turned the people of planets he took off some neighbouring empire into livestock, while playing as a xenophobic synth empiry - and then gave/sold the food to the same empire he originally took the planets from.

Well, I mean, it's just mystery meat. It's approved by the synths' FDA, what could possibly go wrong?

Started a new HOI4 campaign with a friend - he's playing Japan, I'm China. We're trying to do a "democratic Asia" campaign.

Germany ended up being at war with the Soviets in '39 because the Soviets - opportunistic bastards that they are - invaded Manchukuo after it achieved indepence due to the Japanese civil war. Manchukuo promptly joined the Axis. So did Poland when Germany tried to get Danzig.

I mostly concentrated on building up my economy, annexing all the warlords (and Mao) and getting some support from the western powers to beef up my military.

Communist China actually proved to be an absolute pain in the neck - all their defensive bonuses combined with the artillery nerf meant that their line of defense was absolutely impenetrable. Than idiotic luck struck. When I tried to reorganise my frontline, the frontline AI temporarily left a hole in the north, so the communists kept expanding upwards - which meant that their southern line of defense was too weak to keep my troops out anymore.

World War 2 produced some... weird results. Croatia was allowed to live, reduced to the Dalmatian coast. Germany became democratic and held onto Bohemia-Moravia, while Austria became a Soviet puppet. Italy also became democratic, with Britain annexing both Zara and Albania.

Due to some Vichy France-related shenanigans all its overseas colonies etc were up for grabs, so the British grabbed French Africa for themselves and liberated Syria and Lebanon.The cake goes to the Soviets, though - they released Communist China as a puppet in this one French port city. It's like a shittier Taiwan.

Poland got absolutely screwed by the end of the war, though - the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact somehow became active again and they lost their western half to now Democratic Germany. The the Russians started off World War 3 by attacking Estonia. Germany had guaranteed them and this meant our alliance - which Germany and Italy joined - was now finally at war with the Soviets.

This is the current state of the war. Both Italy and Germany have capitulated while Japan and I are making slow progress in Asia. Because of some screw-up on my part the Soviets managed to break through at one point, but I'm in the process of fixing it.

One of the weirdest things about this war has to be this battle◊ where a combined army of Mongolian, Manchurian and Polish soldiers was defending against Chinese forces under Alexander von Falkenhausen. Also note this one Russian general I got via focus tree earlier who decided to stick around. I assume he's scared of getting purged if he ever went back home.

edited 30th Apr '18 7:53:45 PM by DrunkenNordmann

Meh, that's the third Stellaris game in a row where I roll all the sliders to the max to get as contested a galaxy as possible and then end up in one of the spiral arms alone, with plenty of room to expand while the others crowd each other, thus making for an easy victory.

Annoyingly, by the time I only know for sure I'm all alone in my corner I'm so far along already I don't feel like restarting.

Consequently, that's the third game that ends before either a Fallen Empire awakens or I hit an end game crisis. I did enjoy the Khan thing, but the tribe that marched all over its neighbours was in the third of the galaxy where I wasn't, so I didn't get to scrap with them either. I need to start using those mid and end game sliders and making those events happen earlier. But then, if I actually get a game where I'm struggling it'll be annoying.

I do like how you can change your direction mid way if you don't like what you're doing though. My Shi'bas of the Kwaiisa Pack started as an egalitarian democracy, but half way through the game I decided to have a military coup and ended the game as a militaristic empire.

edited 3rd May '18 10:47:32 AM by GabrieltheThird

Hm. Guess war in Stellaris really has changed. Tried to fight a war against an enemy that was quite clearly labelled as "inferior" but I no matter how many fleets I destroyed I couldn't force them to capitulate. And bombarding planets has gotten weird too with the Fortresses.

The mid and late game sliders are set way too high by default. Next time, I'm probably dialing them to 75 and 125 years, respectively. Though dialing them all the way down is tempting, or would be if I didn't have crises set to 5x and have a multiple crises mod active.

edited 3rd May '18 3:33:10 PM by Balmung

There's some number on a war status screen you can mouse over to see what's influencing their willingness to accede to your demands, and it's more useful than the war weariness percentage in the bottom-right corner of the screen to know when they're about to cave. If you've declared a war of conquest for some systems you claimed, for example, they're not going to admit defeat until you actually occupy those systems. And if you're asking for their last territories they're even less likely to concede.

Fortresses don't change the bombardment mechanic in themselves, that whole part was overhauled with the big patch. You're not reducing a planet's defenses, you're simultaneously hurting the garrison and filling up a bar that results in a ruined building (which may be the Fortress), potentially a dead pop, and maybe a tile blocker, and then the process repeats until your bombardment policy makes you stop. The big thing about Fortresses is that they can act as hyperspace inhibitors, forcing you to conquer the world or pound it into rubble from orbit so your fleets can proceed.

I wish I'd figured out how to switch ethos that game I found Earth during World War II. I wanted the Outside Context cheevo but couldn't invade primitive planets due to being a xenophile. I think I've found Earth twice since then, and it had a space station around it one game and had been purged by a xenophobe in another.

Welp, broke the Marauder Horde.

I've learned from previous games, and when the Great Khan appeared (very lategame for some reason, about the time I was taking down things like the Enigmatic Fortress), the fleets that jumped into the wormhole right next to that Marauder polity ran into a Citadel guarding the other side and my two fleets for an additional bit of punishment. I was planning on sitting back and watching the Marauders tear through the unfriendly empires on the other side of the galaxy from me, with occasional turkey shoots whenever a Marauder fleet made the mistake of going through the wormhole again.

Instead, what does my Sentry Array see but a conga line of red fleets, burning a path across a third of the galaxy. They were headed towards some systems in my territory around the wormhole's exit point, but instead of taking the direct, suicidal approach they'd evidently learned from that first incursion. And instead of going through the obvious access points to reach my empire - which also had Citadels guarding them - they were trying to flank me by cutting through my neighbor's space.

So I quickly began upgrading the four starbases along that flank, and as soon as they got big enough to have hyperspace snares, suddenly the Marauders stopped. The Great Khan herself is just idling in an empty system because she and half her Horde can't figure out a way to get at my territory that doesn't go through a space fortress, even if it's a lowly Starport with only three modules on it.

I could move in and kill the Khan while her fleet's isolated, but I think I'll watch and see if the Marauders figure out that my other flank has some holes in its defenses. Or maybe see what happens when I plug those holes.

So, apparently anything even remotely related to Manchukuo is kind of broken.

Remember when I mentioned how Germany and the Soviets ended up at war early because of Japan going democratic and now independent Manchukuo joining the Axis?

Well, this time something else happened. We started a three-player communist campaign as Shanxi, the Soviet Union and Japan. Manchukuo is supposed to go independent/switch to Imperial Japan's control during the civil war. What instead happened was they they became a communist puppet and started going down the Assertiveness path.

So while Communist Japan was winning the civil war, the People's Republic of Manchuria started a war of independence. Japan beat them back into submission, but kept them as a puppet - the player was planning to go down the Manchuria branch of his focus tree to develop the area for me before annexing them and returning the land to me.

Then comes the next screw-up. Being re-puppeted doesn't block you from further progressing down the Assertiveness tree. So at some point the Ma Clique and Yunnan suddenly become puppets of Manchuria - which is a puppet of Japan.

At this point I was pretty much close to throwing something through the room, but then I found out a fun thing: If you attack a puppet of a puppet, you don't automatically end up with the top overlord.

So now I'm fighting a war with the Ma Clique and Manchuria, while Japan's holding out on the sidelines, not getting involved. Meanwhile Mengkukuo is completely independent, at least until I get around to claiming their territory.

In other news: Blorg body pillows will be available at PDCXON

Hmmm, wonder what's getting announced for it this year. I'm guessing a few more of their published games, plus DLC for those already out. As for PDS products, well CK 2 has gone a few months without a specific announcement but is confirmed to have at least one more big DLC in development. EUIV obviously has some life left in it to. HOI and Stellaris are still coming off big releases, but will likely get some attention to the next mainstay expansion DLC. Outside bet is of course, V Ictoria 3.

Damn my bravado. Was doing really good as Holland in a Netherlands attempt game but an ambitious war against Friesland when they were allied with Denmark would have set me back beyond where I started and I wasn't having that shit.

edited 9th May '18 9:39:42 PM by theLibrarian

The long awaited Crusade rework is finally coming.

https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?threads/ck2-dev-diary-83-god-wills-it.1097740/

Pleasantly surprised that this is a free patch feature.

edited 14th May '18 7:38:58 AM by Rationalinsanity

Finally. Hopefully this means that the Crusades will also be more unified in the game, rather than a bunch of smaller armies running around getting destroyed piecemeal.

Also, if we can switch characters to be the ruler of the Crusader state, can we switch back in case the kingdom collapses?

PDS is also announcing a new game later this week, and are heavily implying that its either Victoria or EU: Rome, trolling the hell out of their fanbase at the same time.

If it is Victoria 3 I hope they make it more user-friendly than 2.

It's not Victoria 3. Why does nobody actually listen to the devs?

Well, they did deny CK 2's existence and development until it was announced.

Sadly, they probably decided to go the EU: Rome route. I doubt I'll be grabbing that, unless its a major divergence from their other titles. That era really requires focus on internal matters and blob management, to a scale not seen in their other franchises.

Seriously, though - it's not Victoria 3.

What if it's called Elizabeth 1!

EU: Rome 2, or maybe EU: Rome: Attila. The latter is really wishful thinking on my part though - but think of the possibility for megacampaigns!

Alternately, a Paradox-style grand strategy game in a fantasy Constructed World! ...nah, CK 2 modders already do that.

Until they actually make an announcement, it's 100% irrelevant what they say. Seriously, it is. This would not be the first time a creator adamantly said they weren't making something, or weren't announcing something, just to say "gotcha" when the announcement came out. You cannot trust creators until the product's out.

While you aren't wrong there is a point to the idea that if the creators are strongly saying something it's not a good idea to assume the exact opposite, thus the (serious) cries of "Victoria 3!" are rather foolish.

Sure it's not literally impossible but I would feel safe assuming that it's rather implausible.

edited 16th May '18 7:56:17 PM by Fourthspartan56

Especially when the developers are visibly annoyed by the "IT'S VICTORIA 3, GUYS!" crowd at this point.

Clearly it is "Prince Albert 1" - instead of being the ruler, you play the rulers spouse and have to influence them to make the decisions you want.