So Im thinking about playing one of these games for the next 10 days or so. Assume all DLCs and the newest version.
Stellaris. This ones a favorite of mine, but I already have north of 500h in it. I havent really messed around with the newest 4.0 update that much, and I still need to properly “learn” it / get into it. But just based on the sheer number of hours I’ve played, I know how to have fun with it. Its Comfort food.
Imperator: Rome. I have only got about 20–30h in this one, but I liked what I played. The game feels a bit basic, but I would play it with the highly recommended Invictus mod. Probably as Carthage or one of the Diadochi. It’s not one of my faves, but I’ve been wanting to get back into it one day.
Age of Wonders 4. Not 100% sure how I feel about this one. I’ve got a bit over 50h in it. I like it, but I don’t love it. I think I need to play more of the turn based battles to get the most out of it. I tend to auto resolve too much. The nice thing is I can usually finish a game in about 6h, or under 10h at least. I think its a cool game but I think I havent clicked with it just yet.
Victoria 3. Close to 90h in this one. I really like this one. The game really found its stride with the last big update. Unlike the others, I already have a save that’s like 40 years in as Spain, and I’m doing okay (as far as I know). It’s funny, sometimes I tank my economy other times I do fine, but I can’t always tell what exactly I did right or wrong. Kinda fun though. I definitely lack deeper game knowledge, which makes it the opposite of Stellaris, where Ive got an almost natural affinity for it.
I vote Vicky, play Japan for the “building your economy from scratch” experience. No trade for a while means you have to manually increase all inputs yourself and ime it helped to develop a sense of how to manage the economy. (Note: I’ve not played since the last few updates so it might be different now).
AoW got another dlc recently earlier this month. I’m with you on finding it hard to determine how I feel about it. Some of it I really like, some of it seems like it should work for me but just doesn’t, and some of it feels just really “messy” in terms of game feel. I have enjoyed it a bit more as I’ve learned the game’s patterns better and more carefully constructed my games to be thematically cohesive and focus on certain mechanics. The tactical portion of the game can be a mixed bag too, sometimes it really sings when you set up a great army, but other times it can feel like you’ve spent a lot in investment in a hero or to produce units that get immediately outclassed on the battlefield by like a big rock guy you picked up randomly. It does rule to transform all your little people into glowing plant symbiotes or whatever though.
So I actually have a buddy that played AoW4 for like over 500h and that loves the game. I think I can see the appeal when you have a deeper understanding (which im lacking) since there seem to be a lot of synergies and combos that should be cool and possible.
I also agree with you that on paper AoW4 should be right up my alley with its themes and elements.
((idk if this is a recc or me just rambling about my latest vic3 experience but I wrote it anyways))
Vic3 gets slightly more intelligible I found the more I applied realistic economics to it:
“Oh if I overtax my citizens, they can’t move their money into businesses. Okay but if I take that tax and increase social services then they get a standard of living increase and they just have more to spend anyway. Okay I have a lot of underdeveloped farmland and my productive base sucks as this country, why don’t we open up investment to this larger country I consider an ally and then I can get revenue off of their business here. Then I can flex my construction into urbanized goods so I don’t have to depend on trade for tools and other necessaries that could break my economy. Oh the world market is real low on X good, let me build into that and triangulate a way to to be more dominant in that market.”
That and when you can start gobbling up vassals but you have to be careful about investment flight too. Your capitalists want cheap labor, sure, but that’s money you’re not making in a place that a greater power or a rival might take for themselves. If they develop a good your market needs though it could be worth it.
Last game I played I did some nation hopping for small quest lines. I kept central america together than formed etheopia and subsequently the horn of Africa country (I think a mod I have does that). Fought off Egypt, the English, French, US, English a 2nd time and almost became a great power before the game ended. When you get to the later military techs defense becomes a crazy advantage.
Also doing cheeky leapfrogging with naval invasions and practicing encirclement tactics is real viable and gratifying. With war in general now I feel like there’s a really clear line between my economy and my military to the point where I can plan ahead and pull stupid results.
It can be fun to purposefully radicalize a population and switch to the rebels in some cases too. I did that for France to get an early 2nd republic. Having the ability to almost instantly pass 2 really radical reforms feels hilarious.
Theres a culture overhaul mod I had that I liked. It got a little hairy with notifications but had plenty of options to opt out of some. It really added extra tasks and challenges for your economy other than war which I really really like.
There’s an extended politics mod too which I was 50/50 on. Cool addition of depth but too many interest groups for me to keep track of personally. I think base game hits the right balance of political group verity and abstraction.
Okay that’s all I got on my Vic3 take. Play it with real economics in mind and the system acts (usually) appropriately regardless of what a tooltip might say or not say, try out mods (especially the Morgereote culture one), purposefully cause revolutions for the plot, be open to doing country swaps to make something interesting happen. The best Vic3 I’ve played usually started with a save scum point and me thinking “alright, let’s be really funny here, what if…”
Among us
