LogFAQs > #949709869

55.) Victoria II (PC, 2010)


I love 4x strategy games and while Paradox has a better title than this one, I vastly prefer Victoria II to Europa Universalis. I think the main reason why is that Victoria games put a huge emphasis on international diplomatic politics that defined the world post Napoleon. Each nation has its circle of influence and you can devote your resources to trying to turn nations into satellites or allies in your game of diplomatic chess against the other great nations of the world.

There is also an internal political game - you begin in most nations playing as the conservative party and conservatism/monarchy gives you more control over your economy and as you might expect the more you can control and plan, the better in this sort of game. You can give certain progressive reforms of your own free will to calm down your liberal or socialist factions within your nation to prevent yourself from losing one of the periodic elections to the liberal parties. If you do end up with a liberalized economy (or if you play the USA and start with one), you have to use different tactics to try to lure the capitalists into doing what you want to do, which is harder. Of course, hold on to power too tightly and you face revolution. I had an Argentinian monarchy which had managed to conquer the entire Brazilian coastline and turned into a fishing and food canning empire, but which then succumbed to a anarcho-capitalist revolt that overthrew me and took control of the country from me for 20 years and I had to watch as they disassembled my empire's military and lower my taxes to nothing. The bastards.

And this sort of thing is what makes these games endlessly replayable. Grab a different starting point, and watch things play out totally differently.

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Board 8's Voice of Reason
https://imgur.com/AWY4xHy