What if I say I'm not like FRIDAY

[MetalDog]

You really shouldn't do that.  EUIV is similar but different enough to scratch the CK2 itch, but, be its own game and a hella good time.

[Toonces]

Hmmmm....ok, maybe I'll have to give EUIV a shot sooner rather than later.  But what country?  Is Scotland a player in the EUIV timeframe?  Maybe Sweden?

[undercovergeek]

Swedens meant to be an awesome game - you've got Denmark and Norway to war with and there's always the slight suspicion they're overpowered as paradox are Swedish

[Nefaro]

Hmmmm....ok, maybe I'll have to give EUIV a shot sooner rather than later.  But what country?  Is Scotland a player in the EUIV timeframe?  Maybe Sweden?

Sweden and Norway begin the earliest start date under Denmark's control.  Although they tend to revolt at the first chance.

My first EU4 campaign was Denmark.  Certainly kept me busy, between assimilating the others (often by force) into a new Nordic kingdom, colonizing North America, and then getting in regular fights with all the other colonial powers.  Don't think I'd necessarily recommend any of those three for a beginner but Denmark wasn't as tricksy as some of the other larger ones.

[Toonces]

Yeah, that sounds like the country for me.  I groove on Scandinavia.  I'm sure it has nothing to do with their women...   

[Gusington]

Toonces definitely do not get Attila at full price...there are 25% discounts from Green Man all the time.

[JasonPratt]

Man, I'm not sure I played much of any games this weekend after Friday... mostly what I recall is cute little banshee nieces. 

Pursuant to banshee nieces and gaming, though:

1.) Riding Academy 1 (on the Surface, originally bought for the nieces on PC but never played) -- dreadful controls which probably made more sense on the PSP (I bought it for youngest cousin back then, and seem to recall it being more manageable), but it doesn't matter because the tutorial/campaign is so obscure we never had any clear idea what we were trying to do or how to do it. Eventually deleted.

2.) Kerbal Space Program (Surface) -- the tutorial still seemed a little over the head of Niecemus Prime, so I'll come back to it later once she has more experience in other things.

I don't clearly recall if we tried anything else on the Surface.

3.) Stone Age (iOS) -- after watching me play against one AI player a while, and building up a solid lead, she took over to experiment playing with it. Her first Euro game!  She seems to want to play more of this later.

4.) Run That Town (iOS) -- a city-manager game developed by the country of Australia (may even be free, I don't recall) which allows players to manage a random city of any size in Australia (or a specific one if the zip is known) as an instructional game to teach people what local politicians do. She now knows vastly much more about the game than I do, since I haven't played it yet at all. Her approval rating last I checked was 14%, the little tyrant.  >:D

5.) Carcassone (iOS) -- she learned how to play the solo game (sort of) a while back, and we have a running game of 'real' Carc which we played a little over the weekend. Would have played more but got distracted by real-life something at the time.

6.) Lost Cities (iOS) -- a simple strategy card game she's been practicing on for a while; finally beat the 'tutorial' AI for the first time this weekend, which is a major step!

7.) Through the Desert (iOS) -- played about 2/3 of a game of this area-control game before we had to go do something else.

I tested a number of other games on the Surface afterward, too, with an eye toward her playing them soon/later.

8.) 8th Wonder of the World (Surface) -- an older (2003) RTS with (apparently?) minimum combat, kind of like the Settlers; might still be a bit too complicated for her, and the user interface is lumpy anyway. Saved for later.

9.) 4 Elements 2 (Surface) -- she's already played the first game a little; the second game keeps the gem-destruction strategy and adds a number of other colorful puzzle elements. And at least 4000% more fairies. She should adore it.

10.) A Walk Through The Woods (Surface) -- a hex-based puzzle game, where hexes are shuffled around to get Red Riding Hood down various forest paths, avoiding obstacles (like the wolf). Pop-up storybook gfx; this could be her first hex map game.

11.) Weather Wizard (Surface) -- a game in the time-management genre (sort of a mixture of RTS and worker-placement), quite delightful, should go over big and prepare her for more complex things.

12.) Hero of the Kingdom (Surface) -- more of an action-management game than time-management (or a turn-based time management?); the player spends health to accomplish various map-management tasks. She should love this, too. (A big multi-platform hit from last year, a sequel was recently released.)

The last two give me hope that similar pre-RTS/TB strategy games will work well for her (and for Microniece soon). :)

[undercovergeek]

Won the first PBEM of the weekend against the map designer

Con and Jomni keep shooting at me

and lots of AOW III - i have captured 5 cities, have a metropolis, turned an enemy wyvern mid battle to be on my side who then ate the enemy leader - all good fun so far

[smittyohio]

I *almost* finished the Terran campaign from the original Starcraft (in SC2 using Mass Recall mod).   I can't believe how much harder it is than the SC1 version.  I know I'm older now, but still... I made it to the same point years ago, and I don't think I had to restart missions, at least not many.