PARADOX Strategy Bundle - $5/£4.40

[FlickJax]

Gamestop offering pride of nations, Sengoku and Rise of Prussia for $5.....are they any good?

http://www.impulsedriven.com/products/ESD-IMP-W3919?affid=gsnow

[Huw the Poo]

The only one I've played is Sengoku and yes, it is very good.  It's a character-based dynasty simulator set during the Sengoku period of Japan.  It's a really good game.  However it's somewhat eclipsed by Crusader Kings 2 which does the same things in a much bigger and deeper world.

It's definitely worth that price though.

[Nefaro]

They're all decent games.

Sengoku is like an stripped down version of Crusader Kings 2, although it doesn't contain hardly any of the character system & events that make CK2 so great.  Mostly just the military side, sadly.  A lot of people have been hoping Pdox would flesh out it's character system closer to CK2, with a DLC pack, but I don't think that's in the cards.  You can still get some pretty basic Pdox gameplay in, and it would be a good entry point if you're new to paradox' in-house games (CK2, EU3, Victoria 2, Hearts of Iron 3, etc)

Rise Of Prussia is a nice AGEOD game.  If it's your first AGE game, there's a learning curve (as with them all) and this one has the full military organizational stuff so it's a bit more of a learning cliff than the easier Wars In America game since the armies are much larger and you have to keep the chain of command organized.  Still, I began my AGE experience with AGEOD's American Civil War which uses the same system and it all clicked after I spent some time with redo'ing the tutorials and reading up on it.  The hump, for me, was figuring out how to properly select & use the buttons for creating army "containers" and their child Corps.

Pride Of Nations uses the basic military system from AGE games, as above, but without the organization things since it's on a world scale.  I really like PrON due to it's massive scope covering the Victorian+ era.  It's colonization and influence mechanics are wonderful, and the economic side of it is interesting too.  The huge size & scope of the game is also a con since it takes almost 2 minutes for each turn to process (on my PC) right from the start, before wars or anything start up.  This time has been reduced in updates, so it's much better than it had been before.  But you'll still take forever to get from the 1850 start date to post-WWI, if you can avoid letting the British Empire insta-win (or via a small mod).   The game engine is getting up there, in age, so the massive content of PrON means that you'll be watching the AI thinking a lot more than most other turn-based games.  If you have patience, plenty of time, and love big intricate grand strategy games, I can still recommend it.

Another great thing about the last two is that AGEOD continues to update their games for the better, even years after release.  Rise of Prussia and PON are still getting updates and I'd say that the AGEOD guys are the best in the business at post-release support regarding such updates.  :-*  These two games are a couple of their more difficult to learn, however, so you'll probably want to dig around for video tutorials on YouTube for the AGEOD engine as they have helped people learn it before, if the tutorials don't flip the light on.  ;)

[Huw the Poo]

Sengoku is like an stripped down version of Crusader Kings 2, although it doesn't contain hardly any of the character system & events that make CK2 so great.  Mostly just the military side, sadly.  A lot of people have been hoping Pdox would flesh out it's character system closer to CK2, with a DLC pack, but I don't think that's in the cards.  You can still get some pretty basic Pdox gameplay in, and it would be a good entry point if you're new to paradox' in-house games (CK2, EU3, Victoria 2, Hearts of Iron 3, etc)

That's a much better summary.  It is a fantastic way to get into Paradox games.  I always hoped that they'd add to it, but if I recall correctly the game was always meant to be a sort of tech demo for CK2 which was in development at the time.  I think that's why it was never sold at full price.

You can still get hours of fun out of it, but unless you have a strong fetish for the setting, there's no point playing it if you have CK2.

[Gusington]

Dammit all to hell. I've been wanting Rise of Prussia for a long time. Sengoku would be a nice bonus. I already have PrON. But for 5.00 how does one say no?

[Nefaro]

Dammit all to hell. I've been wanting Rise of Prussia for a long time. Sengoku would be a nice bonus. I already have PrON. But for 5.00 how does one say no?

It's five bucks, mang!!!  :o

With this weekends sales swooping in, I had the luck of some checkout issue at GG causing my card to be locked.  Wonderful.  ::)  Just in time for the weekend and the banks to be closed.  Good thing I'm not an alcoholic anymore, needing to hit the liquor store.  :P

[Gusington]

Bought it and loaded up Rise of Prussia.

[Nefaro]

Bought it and loaded up Rise of Prussia.

You are soooo gonna be lost. 

I didn't, and still don't, know many fine details of that war so if you're like me.. take your time not only gauging your objectives and the times given to achieve them but especially who is gonna come from where. 

It's probably got the highest learning curve of the bunch (aside from probably RUS) just due to my extremely vague knowledge of the historical campaign.  I think the era is one of the most interesting in history but at the same time I don't know all the fine details of the very numerous conflicts and the progression of the war & armies in this specific one.

[Gusington]

Uh...thanks? :/

[Nefaro]

Uh...thanks? :/

MUAHAHAH!!



(Evil Laugh)

[Gusington]

HA! You freak.