This game's tutorial does not give justice to just how many mechanics there are. There's a reason that the community jokes about how the tutorial ends on hitting the 1000 hour mark.

Don't let that scare you away, tough! It's the most stream-lined grand strategy game from Paradox. Probably why it has the highest player count. It's not like HOI4 where you can literally pick individual parts of every individual warship to customize it. Mechanics are pretty simple, there's just a lot of interaction between them that you need to learn.

You have 400 years of human history to guide a random nation through. This being a sandbox game, you set your own goals to reach through a campaign. A good starting point are either easier achievements or trying to unite the home region of your starting nation.

That being said... the base game without the DLCs feels restrictive and limited. If you get hooked into this game, I recommend only getting the most important DLC centered around the nations you like to play as or plan to play as.

On the other hand, Europa Universalis would probably be even more newb-unfriendly with all the additional mechanics from the DLCs. Think of the base game as a "extensive demo".

In conclusion, best glorified map-staring competition. Would bring the mighty empire of Ulm back to its former glory again.

This game's tutorial does not give justice to just how many mechanics there are. There's a reason that the community jokes about how the tutorial ends on hitting the 1000 hour mark. Don't let that scare you away, tough! It's the most stream-lined grand strategy game from Paradox. Probably why it has the highest player count. It's not like HOI4 where you can literally pick individual parts of every individual warship to customize it. Mechanics are pretty simple, there's just a lot of interaction between them that you need to learn. You have 400 years of human history to guide a random nation through. This being a sandbox game, you set your own goals to reach through a campaign. A good starting point are either easier achievements or trying to unite the home region of your starting nation. That being said... the base game without the DLCs feels restrictive and limited. If you get hooked into this game, I recommend only getting the most important DLC centered around the nations you like to play as or plan to play as. On the other hand, Europa Universalis would probably be even more newb-unfriendly with all the additional mechanics from the DLCs. Think of the base game as a "extensive demo". In conclusion, best glorified map-staring competition. Would bring the mighty empire of Ulm back to its former glory again.