How Difficult is this Game to Understand?

[Malevolent King]

On a Scale of 1-5 for Paradox Games, how difficult is this game to figure out how to play? I've played Hearts of Iron 4 and still don't understand everything in that game, and with all the micromanagement it stresses me out more than actually having fun.

I want to play this game but have become wary of Paradox Games and the way have you worry about everything all the way down to the toilet paper in their games (sarcasm)

Honest opinion, how is it? And how would you rate other Paradox Games on this scale too, because I'm also interested in various others

[Stormwind]

If you dont like the type of game where you have to learn a lot and pay attention to detail its probably not for you. I think its like most paradox games. There is certainly a learning curve.

[HappySack]

3 at first then 2 afterwards.

It has a higher skill floor but once you grasp the basics it's relatively simple and you can let automation handle the tedious aspects of large-scale colony management.

Now if you want a truly difficult game to understand then jump into Hearts of Iron IV, while you can be brain-dead and jump into combat immediately the most difficult part is handling the logistics side, allocating your production to different priorities, and figuring out template designs based on what you can afford.

That game starts from 2 then goes to 4 but it sure is rewarding when you can make it work.

[Kypamop]

It's not that hard if you want to play on normal difficulty and you are ok with not winning. You'll have to learn basic game mechanics and it's enough.
If you want to win, especially on harder difficulties and without cheesing, it will take much more time and effort.
After you become decent you can start roleplaying just for fun. Like you can do not best empires and follow your lore making not effective decisions and still be ok. And here the game really started becoming fun for me, 1500 hours in.

[Sero]

I don't know much about other Paradox games but from hearsay this is the easiest to learn.

[pipo.p]

The hardest thing to "understand" in economy, for me, was that having positive income in resources is not enough, and that forecasting short-term needs and scheduling their fullfilment prior to having those needs is a necessity, except if you have vast stockpiles of resources. A simple example is when you undock two or three large fleets and the next month, you start loosing energy. Another example is when you decided to upgrade/increase your alloy production before actually increasing your raw resource income.

Otherwise, I'd say like Kypamop above.

[Fyre]

For a paradox game... honestly the highest I can give it is a 3. It was my first and looking back easily the most simple. After the combat rework it's a little more complicated but part of the fun of a paradox game is figuring out your own niche and how to succeed, at least to me. Once you settle into a routine and play the same game over and over it's nice but you don't get to click around blindly in a paradox game a second time, savor it.

Also don't give them any ideas with the toilet paper.

(And if it's still too hard and don't wanna feel like a baby try out like 3 civics, 6 trait points, little cheat mods to give a boost without godmode activating. Civic rework mods are also kinda nice and usually very imbalanced, Empires Expanded civics only I've found best, unfortunately all the tradition/perk mods are broken from last patch's ascension stuff... I don't cheat, you cheat, leave me alone, I paid my dues in the salt mines.)

[Tiasmoon]

Originally posted by Argon:

It's one of the easiest strategy games I've ever played. Most of the difficulty comes from learning what counters what, and build orders to maximize your chosen starting build. The AI is extremely predictable.

Pretty much immediately went to grand admiral difficulty + ironman mode after a couple of runs.

Stellaris isnt much of a strategy game. Most of its difficulty is in empire/economy management and decision making.

[Sero]

Originally posted by Tiasmoon:

Originally posted by Argon:

It's one of the easiest strategy games I've ever played. Most of the difficulty comes from learning what counters what, and build orders to maximize your chosen starting build. The AI is extremely predictable.

Pretty much immediately went to grand admiral difficulty + ironman mode after a couple of runs.

Stellaris isnt much of a strategy game. Most of its difficulty is in empire/economy management and decision making.

Yes, it's more an empire management game than strategy.