Looking to try a strategy game

[Toesyy]

As the title states, I am looking to try a strategy game. Ive played Age of Empires and Stronghold before but nothing like CK3 or Age of Wonders 4. Which one out of those two would you all recommend for someone like me? I love fantasy/medieval settings so its a toss up between the two.

Thanks in advance.

[Deusmodeus]

CK3 if you want to do alot of goofy plays in a open world

AW4 if you rather have a more structured gameplay loop.

[TorKhan]

Originally posted by Toesyy:

As the title states, I am looking to try a strategy game. Ive played Age of Empires and Stronghold before but nothing like CK3 or Age of Wonders 4. Which one out of those two would you all recommend for someone like me? I love fantasy/medieval settings so its a toss up between the two.

Thanks in advance.

Ck3 has more randomness and you can completely change how the game works with mods

AW4 gets boring after a while and is more restrictive

[Dak Janiels]

Originally posted by Toesyy:

As the title states, I am looking to try a strategy game. Ive played Age of Empires and Stronghold before but nothing like CK3 or Age of Wonders 4. Which one out of those two would you all recommend for someone like me? I love fantasy/medieval settings so its a toss up between the two.

Thanks in advance.

CK3 is a great role-play style strategy game. But I struggle to recommend Paradox games for new players - especially when CK3 has been around for so long. Why? Because DLCs are expensive. You can play the game still, but it'll lack a lot of features without these $20+ DLCs. And there's a lot of them. I've dumped a lot of hours into CK3, more than any other strategy game. But I stopped buying DLCs during Chapter 4. And Chapter 5 just confirmed my suspicions with $45 DLCs. It's absurd.

[Toesyy]

Originally posted by Dak Janiels:

Originally posted by Toesyy:

As the title states, I am looking to try a strategy game. Ive played Age of Empires and Stronghold before but nothing like CK3 or Age of Wonders 4. Which one out of those two would you all recommend for someone like me? I love fantasy/medieval settings so its a toss up between the two.

Thanks in advance.

CK3 is a great role-play style strategy game. But I struggle to recommend Paradox games for new players - especially when CK3 has been around for so long. Why? Because DLCs are expensive. You can play the game still, but it'll lack a lot of features without these $20+ DLCs. And there's a lot of them. I've dumped a lot of hours into CK3, more than any other strategy game. But I stopped buying DLCs during Chapter 4. And Chapter 5 just confirmed my suspicions with $45 DLCs. It's absurd.

Thats wild. $45 for DLC is highway robbery. A whole expansion? Sure..maybe... But just DLC? nonono

[brownacs]

Originally posted by Toesyy:

Thats wild. $45 for DLC is highway robbery. A whole expansion? Sure..maybe... But just DLC? nonono

That's not entirely accurate. $45 is for the whole of chapter 5, which is a bundle of the next 2 major DLCs, 'Silk and Silver' and 'By God Alone', plus a minor one with some extra music. You can also get the season pass if you're a latecomer, which is a subscription model for all the DLC. 'All Under Heaven' is, I think, still the most expensive singular DLC, and it's about $30. There's definitely a conversation to be had about the amount of DLC Paradox games tend to get and the cost, but, again, '$45 DLCs' is a little misleading and not totally accurate.

[Dak Janiels]

Originally posted by brownacs:

Originally posted by Toesyy:

Thats wild. $45 for DLC is highway robbery. A whole expansion? Sure..maybe... But just DLC? nonono

That's not entirely accurate. $45 is for the whole of chapter 5, which is a bundle of the next 2 major DLCs, 'Silk and Silver' and 'By God Alone', plus a minor one with some extra music. You can also get the season pass if you're a latecomer, which is a subscription model for all the DLC. 'All Under Heaven' is, I think, still the most expensive singular DLC, and it's about $30. There's definitely a conversation to be had about the amount of DLC Paradox games tend to get and the cost, but, again, '$45 DLCs' is a little misleading and not totally accurate.

I get what you're saying. But the bigger point was the sheer volume of DLCs and their price. It's just a matter of time before Paradox slaps a subscription on this like EU.

[brownacs]

Originally posted by Dak Janiels:

I get what you're saying. But the bigger point was the sheer volume of DLCs and their price. It's just a matter of time before Paradox slaps a subscription on this like EU.

That's already happened. To be fair, it makes economic sense if you're going to binge the game for a few months, then cancel the sub and renew it the next time you're feeling a binge.

[Dak Janiels]

Originally posted by brownacs:

Originally posted by Dak Janiels:

I get what you're saying. But the bigger point was the sheer volume of DLCs and their price. It's just a matter of time before Paradox slaps a subscription on this like EU.

That's already happened. To be fair, it makes economic sense if you're going to binge the game for a few months, then cancel the sub and renew it the next time you're feeling a binge.

OMG, you're right. There's a subscription for CK3 now. I don't think there's anything fair about Paradox's monetization strategy. But they've got a monopoly on the best grand strategies atm so I get why they abuse it. Once again, insane to try and convince a new player to pay a subscription for a singleplayer game.

[brownacs]

Originally posted by Dak Janiels:

OMG, you're right. There's a subscription for CK3 now. I don't think there's anything fair about Paradox's monetization strategy. But they've got a monopoly on the best grand strategies atm so I get why they abuse it. Once again, insane to try and convince a new player to pay a subscription for a singleplayer game.

I more meant as a strictly economic proposition from the player's point of view.

[N0rmaN]

Originally posted by Toesyy:

As the title states, I am looking to try a strategy game. Ive played Age of Empires and Stronghold before but nothing like CK3 or Age of Wonders 4. Which one out of those two would you all recommend for someone like me? I love fantasy/medieval settings so its a toss up between the two.

Thanks in advance.

This is a very different type of game to regular RTS games. 99% of your time in CK is going to be diving through menus with the other 1% being autoresolved battles that you pretty much won or lost before they even happen.

If you are interested 100% give this a go. It is the only game that hits the niche of managing a dynasty etc. outside of pure battling like a total war game. It will be a relatively steep learning curve though.

[TorKhan]

Originally posted by Toesyy:

Originally posted by Dak Janiels:

CK3 is a great role-play style strategy game. But I struggle to recommend Paradox games for new players - especially when CK3 has been around for so long. Why? Because DLCs are expensive. You can play the game still, but it'll lack a lot of features without these $20+ DLCs. And there's a lot of them. I've dumped a lot of hours into CK3, more than any other strategy game. But I stopped buying DLCs during Chapter 4. And Chapter 5 just confirmed my suspicions with $45 DLCs. It's absurd.

Thats wild. $45 for DLC is highway robbery. A whole expansion? Sure..maybe... But just DLC? nonono

The expansion pass for aw4 is 50..... Chapter 5 is an expansion pass, The user is wrong and trying to mislead