

STOPGAME portal, for which I have been following for several years, but for which I dare to write only a second time, replete with many materials about interactive entertainment of a variety of calibers, from the category of AAA-Mastodonts to various small indie, present and future and future. However, among all this wonderful set, there are unexpectedly few materials about global strategies from Paradox, in fact, the games of a completely separate genre, which with the light hand of their marketer not so long ago acquired the definition of Grand Strategy. At the same time, the average online games in Steam often last on weekdays in the area of a couple of tens of thousands of people, even if these games came out initially four, seven or all nine years ago (Hearts of IRON IV, Europa Universalis IV and Crusader Kings II).
The reason for this phenomenon is quite simple and lies both in the contents of these games, historical and strategic sandboxes that give the user a remarkable reigree, and in the policy of the publisher, who can maintain each project for 10 years, sometimes (as in the case of Stellaris) changing it beyond recognition according to players’ reviews and adding content in the form of DLC.
In domestic Internet, you can often hear dissatisfaction with a large number of DLC for games from Paradox (on average it comes out one year for each game and is accompanied by a free content patch), however, as for me, to get an extremely deep and honed project that will saturate with qualitative content for a long time, listening to players, it is better than to have new half -empty numbered projects with a slightfinalization of content for the full price, which, after the release, will quickly abandon both developers and players. So I consider this feature an extremely rare and successful example of shooting the game in our market reality.
In this article, my first on the topic of games from Paradox, I want to first concentrate the reader’s attention on a more common topic: on the features of their game design and his connection with the history. The first half of the article will have an introductory nature, And the second is more analytical, and I hope it will be interesting to both beginners in “big strategies” and veterans, Since it will affect the question that will be atypical for the gaming community about what elegant connection is built by their game designers with the historical and political realities of the depicted eras. And this is, by the way, extremely difficult.
What is so special about?
I: Let’s buy Grand Strategy.
Mother: No, we have Grand Strategy at home.
Grand Strategy at home:
*4x strategy*
The main thing that distinguishes Paradox strategies among other “consolidated” genre brothers – especially 4 step -by -step strategies for the type of Civilization – Rialtayminess, historical and physical reliability of the game world, lack of fixed goals and ways to victory with the player, as well as minimizing game conventions.
I will run briefly for each of the points.
Yes, Paradox strategies are RTS with the ability to speed up time and pause. As a rule, one “tick” in such games is equal to one day or one hour. So each event takes place in a specific year, month and day.
Maps of these games repeat the parts of our planet or planet entirely (if we are not talking about Stellaris), given the features of the landscape of various regions, their economic and cultural development. The countries depicted on these maps are controlled by built -in intelligence and do not always behave completely historically, however Guided by historical logic. Therefore, France, Britain and Austria in EU4 will behave as France, Britain and Austria in real history: while the first two will butt in the colony, Austria’s attention will be focused on dynastic operations and political dominance in Central Europe. Not at all because the behavior of the countries is strictly scriched, but because the behavior of the countries depends on objective economic and geographical factors, as well as their political structure and internal features.
Reliable, but at the same time non -linear and often surprising behavior of countries owes a high level “Sanding“These games. II countries can well play with themselves and without a player, there are many records on YouTube, in which the player only looks at what is happening in an accelerated mode from the point of view of the observer, while the map on his screen changes beyond recognition without his participation. The player can get hooked on Anyone the state on the map and put it independently Any goals, whether it is economic or political dominance, the formation of a new state, the colonization of America for Lithuania, anything. And you can be sure that no new match will look like the old one, even if the player will constantly start playing again for the same country.
And, finally, the fourth: it is impossible to create a game without game conventions, but they can competently minimize them for the sake of the gamemerade can be extremely beneficial. In the games from Paradox in your army you will always have a specific number of people, and in the battle such parameters as moral and discipline, the characteristics of specific types of troops, the availability of supply, the area, time of the year, sometimes even the time of day and many other details, which you may not delve into even after 500 hours of the game and still have fun. However, all this depth among experienced players in complete seriousness can give rise to many hours of discussions about specific battles and, for example, losses in them. Among the players there are challenges to capture Europe in Hoi4 for Germany with losses of up to 2000 people, since the game reliably calculates every killed and deceased, both in battle and from, for example, exhaustion. In addition, in most games in the form of actors are presented toHe are renovated characters who are subject to aging and death. That is why to bring Trotsky to the authorities in the USSR in 1940 in HOI4 or capture and make his concubine Jeanne d’Arc in CK2, forcing to accept Islam is much more fun than declare war on theodor Roosevelt in the 320 year of our era in Civilization VI.
Total, if you compare global strategies with specific board games, then any Grand Strategy from Paradox is DND, while the same Civilization is chess. The first allows you to live in a particular world according to its rules and feel like it, but you never know what will happen to this world in 10, 20, 200 years. Whereas the second offers to play a party with a debut, Mittelshpil and endglings, each of which will be characterized by a specific tactic and a pre -known situation as a whole, but an unknown alignment of forces and the location of the parties on the “board”.
Unobvious difficulties of setting historical strategies
And now, when we found out what distinguishes games from Paradox on the stage of global strategies from any analogues at the moment, I propose to talk about one game design of cunning, Without which no strategy from this studio would have coped with the creation of a “reliable” game world, or with the notorious “minimization of game conventions”.
Have you ever wondered why Crusader Kings 2 and Europa Universalis 4 are two different games? Why is it impossible to make one game about dynastic intrigues, and about the colonization of the New World, and about the era of revolutions? After all, the monarchies were abundantly preserved in the world in the 19th and 20th century? And why, if “paradoxes” have games that allow you to play parties almost continuously from antiquity to a near future (Imperator: Rome> Crusader Kings II> Europa Universalis IV> Victoria II> Hearts of Iron IV >> Stellaris) and even convert the conservation of one game in one game in one gameanother, you can not make one big game that allows you to go through a “big campaign” within the framework of one game?
Below I will try to answer this question.
Taking advantage of the fact that I at one time graduated from MGIMO’s bachelor’s bachelors and had good assessments on the history of international relations (although now it is more connected with the art market than with international relations or history), I will allow myself to “flaunt” and talk about how elegantly the game designers adjust the games for the systems of international relations of various epochs, and what a remarkable theoretical subtabilityThey have to have.
I will briefly present each of the current global Paradox strategies through the prism of the history of international relations. Several systems of international relations are distinguished, and each of them was a completely new political, economic and even cultural reality. You can learn in detail about this both from Wikipedia and from open training materials of HSE and other universities that go on the request of “systems of international relations”.
I will try to present each of the current global strategies Paradox and tell something new about them, mentioning the system of international relations of those eras to which these games are dedicated to. At the time of writing the article (August 2020), Crusader Kings III has not yet come out, because the example below will be described by Crusader Kings II.
IMPERATOR: ROME
The era of antiquity in which the events of this game occur is extremely removed from the modern history of international relations. Therefore, to write in detail about this game from a historical and political point of view I will not. However, we reliably know that economic and political ties, like dynastic marriages, occurred even between the civilizations of the Bronze Age, although in general the developed world before the Roman Empire was much more localized than in the Middle Ages or in modern times.
In this game, we will try to become there, the first in history, “Global“by the state, not forgetting about cultural assimilation, the economic development of their provinces and cities and local, not yet global, trade.
Crusader Kings II
– Great visual novel with strategy elements.
A game dedicated to the Middle Ages with a much larger focus on characters and dynasties than on states. This is still an era that does not enter the sphere of any of the systems of international relations, but having a number of distinguishing features: the result of feudal fragmentation becomes fragmentation and personification of power institutions, an increase in the role of a leader’s personality in the conditions of a decline in civil law. So far, the monarch often has unlimited power (or limited only by church law), and only the church in some cases has more authority than the leader of the state.
In this game, we have to play not for the country, but for a specific person, the leader of the dynasty, who can stand at the head of several states at once or be destroyed without the destruction of the state in principle. Religion, like religious figures, have a much greater role in the “Crosses” than anywhere else, and often religion is an excuse for wars, deprivation of titles, executions or palace coups. If you want to play the game of Thrones in the present Middle Ages – you are here (by the way, there is a mod on the book/serial game of thrones too). However, prepare for the fact that The second part of the “Crosses” is a real mixture of strategy, RPG and, suddenly, a visual short story (ha), perhaps the only one of its kind.
Europa Universalis IV
– without fashion for the “ode to joy” Beethoven in the main menu to play non -canonically.
So we got to you to the promised systems of international relations. After the decline of diplomacy in the Middle Ages, which was carried out rather, with the help of wars or dynastic marriages (sometimes literally your daughter, married to another country, was a guarantee that you will not attack this country, otherwise lose your daughter), in the fragmented and constantly fighting between the North Italian states of the 15th century, the first embassies begin to appear: permanent representative offices of some countries in the territory of other countries in the territory of other countries. From now on, diplomats receive inviolability, diplomatic agreements are formalized, and The role of international relations grows up. Defensive unions appear, which are created as often as they are torn, sometimes every few years. States begin to “be friends against someone”, and jumping from one camp to another becomes safer than maintaining neutral. Perhaps this era can even be correctly called “Multipolar world“, with many centers of power in different parts of Europe and the world, as well as the first globalization sprouts, thanks to colonies and global trade. WITH Westphalian peace treaty (1648.) the new system of international relations receives its name.
In Europa Universalis IV, your party will begin with you will be kindly offered to choose “rivals“To then know who to be friends against, and to conclude a number of unions. These unions, like rivals, can be changed an unlimited number of times during the game, and a long-term ally for 100-200 years is a rarity, as, however, was in real life. The gameplay is changing several times: tangible changes are introduced by the discovery of the New World and the first European colonies, the reformation, the spread of gunpowder and, finally, the no less explosive spread of humanistic, and, as a result, revolutionary ideas, which by the beginning of the 19th century change the world beyond recognition. This is a game of states, about diplomacy, trade and colonies, the struggle for the first revolutionary ideas or against them.
Victoria II
– Oh no, the liberals won the elections and again close all my factories!
During the centuries that preceded the events of this game, the world has come a long way from medieval feudal fragmentation to centralization of power and creating large centers of power, both in Europe and on other continents, and technological progress for the first time led to a huge gap between European powers and countries of Asia and Africa. So is born “European concert “, Vienna system of international relations. Vienna Congress (1814-1815.) marks the era of dominance of European powers in the world and a continuous race between leaders. Military, diplomatic, cultural, economic, scientific, technical, colonial, in the end, ideological race … Before the First World War, the world was determined by the actions of competing Great powers, the number of which Victoria II quite reasonably limits eight. Each of them, moreover, tried to expand her sphere of influence and colonial possessions, ending with the section of the world ready for the First World War, now the global war. In addition, “floating” alliances have not gone away, and there was still far from the bipolar world of the Cold War. And ideas national states And revolution The last real empires of Europe are jeopardized.
If in Victoria II you chose a great power at the start, you will be constantly in the conditions of the race, and with other states, and over time. If you have managed to choose a small state or-God forbid-something African or Asian-you will spend all your strength to challenge the great powers and get into their list at least by the end of the game, and not get stuck forever in the field of influence of one of the “major states”. In addition, the global market is now appearing, and the means of production enter a new technological level of development, therefore, you can play exclusively through the economy in Victoria II and, with some luck, fly into the list of great powers without a single war. However, it is worth being careful: the operation of the working class in this imperialist race risks turning into a revolutionary disaster (or good?) for your state.
Hearts of Iron IV
– Israel was filmed from the English colonies, rolled up for fascism for him, asked for an axis.
The European concert ended when several European empires at once played in a box (HA) after the First World War. The end of the war determined the new world order for two decades ahead: Versailles-Vashington system of international relations. The most unstable of all, she infringed on the losers in the Great War and gave rise to more crises than decisions. Her collapse was a matter of time, and he was not long in coming. Requested wanted revenge and restore the former relics of infringed in rights. It went to World War II.
In 1936, the world was on the verge of disaster, the victorious countries of the First World War suffer from its consequences now even more than the losers, and the European map has transformed beyond recognition. Past empires fell apart into a whole scattering of national and multinational states. “Irons“, as Russian-speaking fans call them-this is largely Vargam, you are playing for the state again, but now the military and military-economic side of the issue is much more important than trade or diplomacy. In the conditions of the coming war, all this becomes only tools for strengthening the relics of the army. The game is ending (in the case of a classic script and victory over Germany) by the beginning of the Cold War, which the player has the right to turn into hot in the very first days. Cold war occurs when new, Yalta-Potsdam system of international relations It consolidates a new world order and for the first time in the history of mankind calls the war an unacceptable and immoral instrument of international relations, which, in a word, is also facilitated by military-technical progress.
– In short, I will dump 5,000 units of mass demand and fall on the global market in the global market. This will reach the main exporters of the TMS, and you – on the contrary – you will buy them at a low price. Then deal with the redistribution of workers in factories and it is better to producing alloy without spending energy on TMS production.
– And this is definitely not Victoria 3?
Obviously, this game does not fit into any current system of international relations, and is not at all historical for obvious reasons. However, her gameplay allows her to unequivocally attribute her to “big strategies”, which are previous games from the list.
This is a game not so much about the conquest of the cosmos (this is just the first stage of the game), but about the new “multipolar world” in the galaxy and about the new round of economic, diplomatic and military race. Here I deliberately put the word “economic” in the first place: at the time of August 2020, the game was extremely strongly deepened in this direction, and therefore in the middle of the game you will fight with your own economy much more active than with other states. If you like the production chains and the achievement of dominance through economic or political development, this game is for you. Especially if you liked Victoia II once, but now I want something more modern and worked out. If you played Stellaris on the release, but have not launched since then – I recommend trying again, because the game was redone in detail in the years after the release of the release.
In total, each of these games does not only take into account the political and economic reality of its era, but was fully created with the knowledge of the dominant systems of international relations at certain moments of the history of mankind. These are far from the most meticulous and deep strategies of this type (for example, there is Power & Revolution-Geopolitical Simulator), however, in my opinion, Paradox games are the perfect balance between this very meticulousness, realism and the fan, without excessive complications or simplifications. If you have not played any of them yet, I hope this material has interested you try.
I thank you for the time given to this article, and I hope that we will see you again, whether on the site (unless, of course, you are interested in this format) or on game servers!
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