EU4 is a simple game. At the same time though, it's not simple to get to a point where you'd start considering EU4 a simple game subjectively.
Other "hard" strategy games like AoE2, SC2, among many others base their difficulty around adaptiveness, ie. your ability to intuitively respond to what the game or your opponent throws at you, and the way these games are structured that adaptiveness is similarly difficult for both newcomers and pro players alike.
EU4 has that aspect of responding to the game too, but it's based more on game knowledge than any particular 'skills'. It's significantly less circumstantial.
To this day I see tons of people who are probably struggling with the game because they have a wrong understanding of how a particular mechanic works, or they've been straight up misled by other members of the community(that ridiculous "Ideal army compositions" sheet is one of the worst perpetrators), and I get that from their perspective this game is difficult and very complex.
Once you get through that initial entry barrier you realize that far too many mechanics in EU4 are actually rather irrelevant or easily ommitable, and far too many decisions have an easy, objective answer that you just have to memorize.
That's not really the case with other "complex" strategy games. In EU4 the more you play the less complex the game becomes, in other games often the opposite applies.
Other "hard" strategy games like AoE2, SC2, among many others base their difficulty around adaptiveness, ie. your ability to intuitively respond to what the game or your opponent throws at you, and the way these games are structured that adaptiveness is similarly difficult for both newcomers and pro players alike.
EU4 has that aspect of responding to the game too, but it's based more on game knowledge than any particular 'skills'. It's significantly less circumstantial.
To this day I see tons of people who are probably struggling with the game because they have a wrong understanding of how a particular mechanic works, or they've been straight up misled by other members of the community(that ridiculous "Ideal army compositions" sheet is one of the worst perpetrators), and I get that from their perspective this game is difficult and very complex.
Once you get through that initial entry barrier you realize that far too many mechanics in EU4 are actually rather irrelevant or easily ommitable, and far too many decisions have an easy, objective answer that you just have to memorize.
That's not really the case with other "complex" strategy games. In EU4 the more you play the less complex the game becomes, in other games often the opposite applies.
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