Is Grand strategy just not for me?

[Cyber_Wizard]

Over the last two years, I been trying to get into grand strategy games like hearts of iron and cruasder kings but can never finish a game or stay long in one ( I did once but it was a no clear winning war) should I just look at other strategy games?

Sorry for asking this of question its just been bothering me for the last few days.

[Squirrel Lord]

The adventure is sometimes the game, not a clear winning end. You might be more interested in arcade feeling 4x like Endless Space 2 or the civilization series.

[kbmodigity]

It all depends> Grand strategy usually means doing a bit of research and lots of learning, trial and error, and a few to alor of losses before you even get the hang of things.

My first Paradox game was HOI3,, saw it in a lets play video and was in love with the detail and the amount of choices and beifits and repercusions of everything. I spent a week just watching tutorial videos after my first game as I had no clue what I was doing. Once I finally learned the basics I tried again. OMG I beat an army. Overall I still got crushed. I went back and watched more videos to teach me more advanced things. After hours of that went back and tried again. Finally things started coming together. Started another game. Was able to hold my own. Game was more or a stalemate but I had learned alot. Started another game and checked out a few videos here and there. This game I was able to win as Germany.

Grand strategy means you need to learn the strategy of the game itself and how to beat it. Some say getting help from videos is wrong, but for games as complex as HOI3 you need them just to learn the basics.

Stellaris on the other hand is a much less detailed grand strategy. Yes my first 5 games or so I lost. But every loss I leanred and applied that to my next game. Eventually things got easier as I got better as I knew what to choose at certain points and what to go after at certain times in the game.

If you are wanting to play and like grand strategy, well dont give up, to the players of it the fun is to see what they did wrong when they get crushed and make themselves better players because of what they learn from it.

[Cyber_Wizard]

Could be my problem I always want a goal/endgame on what to do. Tho I will admit I do enjoy CK2 family stuff. I may just have to keep learning this game.

[The Tempted Man]

Stellaris gets boring fast because it's snail paced game with no a whole lot of depth to it or strategy for that matter.

[kbmodigity]

Originally posted by The Tempted Man:

Stellaris gets boring fast because it's snail paced game with no a whole lot of depth to it or strategy for that matter.

Says the guy that doesnt own the game.... No little mouse next to your name to show you own it

[Meewec]

there are times in paradox's games where you do hit a "huh, i think i'm done here" because you've become powerful enough that nothing is a threat anymore. like the game i have going with my brother in ck2, he's one of my kings and i'm emperor of the holy roman empire with a vassal pope. pretty much can take on anyone near me but am feeling too lazy to do so

[Storm]

Originally posted by kbmodigity:

Originally posted by The Tempted Man:

Stellaris gets boring fast because it's snail paced game with no a whole lot of depth to it or strategy for that matter.

Says the guy that doesnt own the game.... No little mouse next to your name to show you own it

The point does stand though. Since 2.0 and static borders the game has been slowed down to a crawl. Some people like that some find it boring. At least in early game anyways.

[Oakshield]

As some smartarse person once said: "It's not the destination, but the journey to that destination, that enriches us." Or something like that.

I've in all my playthroughs of Stellaris, never finished the game, never managed to get the goal in mind and only once - in a MP game - seen what a PitA the end-game crisis can be.

Yet, I do like the game and I do play it from time to time. And each and every time I'll learn something new; often something I wished I'd known before.

If you want to play and enjoy this game, it might be a good idea to set up (a lot of) smaller goals to get to the big one in the end.
Meaning, starting for instance with a goal like "I want to colonize X amount of planets", folowed by "I want to have a better tech as my neighbours", followed by "I want to have a better and stronger space navy as my neighbours", followed by "I want to conquer / vassalize" my neighbour and so forth, all the way to "I want to be the sole ruling empire in the galaxy, able to defeat the end-game crisis.

Some of these goals - like the better tech - are easier to accomplish as others. There are some useful guides - even some pre 2.0 ones - here which might help you setting up a race helping you to focus at and getting to your goals. However, keep in mind that each and evey galaxy map is different when it comes to spawning empires, so following a playthrough won't help much.

And finally, when learning this game, don't pick the easiest setting. Instead, pick the one above it - I believe that's Captain - and select the scaling option. Pick a small map, with only a few empires, no advanced AI's, multiple hyperlanes, portals and wormholes and end-game crisis set to 0.25 or 0.5. It'll help you to get the hang of the game, and with that experience you can start playing at a larger map which is basically the same, except it has more AI empires.
And in case you think you fail; you can even learn a lot from failure. Most important, how NOT to do something.

Good luck!

Thorin :)

[-Singularity-]

Ive been playing grand strategy games for decades and almost never officially finish. There comes a point in all of them where there is no chance of losing or even being challenged and the rest of the game is going to just be mopping up. When I reach this point I consider the campaign won and move on.

[Peter34]

Don't play to win.

Play to play. Play for the experience.

Set yourself a goal, not necessarily a martial goal, then pursue it. For instance, often the goal that I set for myself is I want to go Biological Ascension and genemod my entire POPulation into very long-lived hyper-"Fertile" super-geniuses, while advanced Droids with hefty productivity bonuses provide the Food and Minerals.

Ideally get myseslf a Ringworld, so that I can have 4 segments POPulated by Erudite scientist POPs Assisted by 4 high-level Scientists, and a Dyson Sphere and at least one Habitat stuffed with Matter Replicators, so that I can maintain a navy so strong that nobody would dare attack me, and when the End Game Crisis comes, I can defeat it on my own, without having to rely on stupid AI empires.

[Cyber_Wizard]

Yes, I must just think of small goals to work on rather then the destination.

[Peter34]

I wrote about a very large goal.

[Oakshield]

Originally posted by Peter34:

I wrote about a very large goal.

But I didn't. ;)

Thorin :)

[haloace999]

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1458678332

my goal is to somehow win

[Cyber_Wizard]

Originally posted by haloace999:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1458678332

my goal is to somehow win

damnnn thats alot of management