In November last year, I came across Paradox's Hearts of Iron IV. I had never played one of Paradox's grand strategy games but I had been wanting to for quite some time. So I started playing and now, a few months later, I am confident enough to say that I have mastered Paradox's grand strategy. Following I would like to give a quick account on how my journey went.

## Hearts of Iron 4
After launching the game for the first time, I have to admit that I have never been so overwhelmed by complexity in a game before. There were a thousand things I had to learn and I was overwhelmed by the numbers and statistics that the game used.

I immediately closed the game, sat back and realised that for the first time, I might actually need to 'study' a game. No game had ever defeated me before, so I was not going to start there. I spent hours watching videos online and reading user manuals and guides to help me.

When I was ready, I decided to start easy. I was making progress and eventually conquered the world as Russia. After that, I could not help but try to lead my country of South-Africa to global dominance. I was quite amazed by HOI4, so I wanted to see what else Paradox had.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9BiUtINy4w

## Europa Universalis
Next game to fall! Europa is set in an era that I deemed worth conquering. It starts in  1444 and plays to the 1800's. This game however allowed far more than just conquest. Colonisation, trade and politics came at me quite aggressively and once again, I realised that this game will not be as simple as starting to play. This time I played as England in hopes of reproducing or even improving their attempt at global conquest.

I played the game through multiple times with different factions, but have so far been unable to conquer everyone before time runs out.

This game blew my mind and has probably helped me sharpen up my map reading and Geography skills...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPgbydq3qMs

## Crusader kings 2
Now this is the game that has been able to truly trap me! For this game, the focus was not so much on conquering the world with your faction. The focus instead turned to feudal personal politics.

 The goal was to build a lasting and powerful family Dynasty. Religion played a major role in the game as it focused on the time period starting 867, the Viking invasion and carried all the way to the 14th century. The game is unbelievably complex and in depth.

Best of all? A game of thrones mod exists that brings your dynastic building skills to the world George RR Martin created.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LU2LZm9bd6c

## Stellaris
Though still a very new game in comparison, this game finally takes us off planet for a truly Universal conflict. I have not spent much time in the game yet as I believe there is still a lot of room to get better.

### Critique
The only critique I have of these games, are its prices. To pick up the games and all ts DLC can be very pricey as Paradox has truly ripped the DLC model out of proportions.

# Please follow me @dracosalieri, I would very much appreciate the interaction.
# All videos are sources from the Paradox YouTube channel

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