I last two weeks I had two big surprises. First one was that Civilization Beyond Earth sucks more than I thought and is basically beta version of Civ5 mod.
However this doesn't matter as ART OF WAR is even better than I expected. For me it is the best Paradox expansion I know, because of how huge leap between this and pre - AOW game seems to me. This game is amazing right now.
Especially, the World. I love observing 'world history simulation' in EU4 and the difference between AOW and pre - AOW is devastating. THE WORLD IS SO MUCH COOLER!
1) Historical Dynamic Americas with lot of more colonizing nations and Native Americans!
Before AOW (and in North America before CoTP) Americas were extremely bland: there were basically only three colonising powers, Portugal/Spain/Great Britain, with much smaller impact of France and insignificant presence of few smaller European states; there were few provinces, almost no American Indians, and the entire history of this area was "Spain dominates, Portugal chases it" - two countries!
Now there are much more colonising countries and almost ten times more American Indian Nations here which makes these continents so awesome and unexpected...
Pre AOW: Portugal, Spain, England, very poor colonies of France/Scotland
Post AOW: Portugal, Spain, England, France, Brittany, Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, Ireland, Scotland, Morocco (!), Sweden
Also Colonies are much more likely to revolt - pre AOW it almost never happened, in my last game there were 3 independent colonies by the end of game and 7 independence wars!
2) Historical Western/Eastern Africa with lot of nations and their ultra dramatic fates
Pre AOW West Africa was very boring and very unrealistic - as I am very interested in its history IRL, it was so stupid it was always united by Europeans or Mali in the 16th century! Absurdly easy European invasions and almost no African nations - corrently so much is going on between these states I barely can understand it - and this is absolutely cool. Also Nubia and Coptic faith in Eastern Africa are absolutely awesome.
3) European History: so much more flavour
While AOW <almost> doesn't introduce new European provinces, new mechanics introduce a lot of flavour here.
Pre - AOW: the only 'continental event' is Reformation which is completely random mess. Reformed faith doesn't exist.
Post AOW: Reformation surprisingly makes sense, and leads to amazing Thirty Years World Wars over the control of Holy Roman Empire, where hundreds of thousands of soldiers from countless nations fight; later Revolutions kick on and Europe is endangered once more...
4) Caucasus - Heart of the World
Pre AOW Caucasus basically didn't exist: it was always place of total domination of Ottomans or Russia, with Georgia being basically the only nation here (Armenia never appeared).
Post AOW - it is amazing, just like in history: many small nations face dramatic wars while all giant empires nextdoors have influences here... But they still fear of annexing Caucasus due to resistance of its people.
5) Asia - no longer static
Pre AOW Ming usually completely collapsed, while Oirat remained super strong (inexplicably), Manchu almost never formed, Korea was conquering absurdly much hordes, while Indochina was dominated by Ayyuthaia. Now...
Seriously, observing all of that is absolutely cool. AOW has flaws but for me it is 9/10 for adding amazing amount of complexity while also making empire managment (UI) much more ergonomical.
However this doesn't matter as ART OF WAR is even better than I expected. For me it is the best Paradox expansion I know, because of how huge leap between this and pre - AOW game seems to me. This game is amazing right now.
Especially, the World. I love observing 'world history simulation' in EU4 and the difference between AOW and pre - AOW is devastating. THE WORLD IS SO MUCH COOLER!
1) Historical Dynamic Americas with lot of more colonizing nations and Native Americans!
Before AOW (and in North America before CoTP) Americas were extremely bland: there were basically only three colonising powers, Portugal/Spain/Great Britain, with much smaller impact of France and insignificant presence of few smaller European states; there were few provinces, almost no American Indians, and the entire history of this area was "Spain dominates, Portugal chases it" - two countries!
Now there are much more colonising countries and almost ten times more American Indian Nations here which makes these continents so awesome and unexpected...
Pre AOW: Portugal, Spain, England, very poor colonies of France/Scotland
Post AOW: Portugal, Spain, England, France, Brittany, Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, Ireland, Scotland, Morocco (!), Sweden
Also Colonies are much more likely to revolt - pre AOW it almost never happened, in my last game there were 3 independent colonies by the end of game and 7 independence wars!
2) Historical Western/Eastern Africa with lot of nations and their ultra dramatic fates
Pre AOW West Africa was very boring and very unrealistic - as I am very interested in its history IRL, it was so stupid it was always united by Europeans or Mali in the 16th century! Absurdly easy European invasions and almost no African nations - corrently so much is going on between these states I barely can understand it - and this is absolutely cool. Also Nubia and Coptic faith in Eastern Africa are absolutely awesome.
3) European History: so much more flavour
While AOW <almost> doesn't introduce new European provinces, new mechanics introduce a lot of flavour here.
Pre - AOW: the only 'continental event' is Reformation which is completely random mess. Reformed faith doesn't exist.
Post AOW: Reformation surprisingly makes sense, and leads to amazing Thirty Years World Wars over the control of Holy Roman Empire, where hundreds of thousands of soldiers from countless nations fight; later Revolutions kick on and Europe is endangered once more...
4) Caucasus - Heart of the World
Pre AOW Caucasus basically didn't exist: it was always place of total domination of Ottomans or Russia, with Georgia being basically the only nation here (Armenia never appeared).
Post AOW - it is amazing, just like in history: many small nations face dramatic wars while all giant empires nextdoors have influences here... But they still fear of annexing Caucasus due to resistance of its people.
5) Asia - no longer static
Pre AOW Ming usually completely collapsed, while Oirat remained super strong (inexplicably), Manchu almost never formed, Korea was conquering absurdly much hordes, while Indochina was dominated by Ayyuthaia. Now...
Seriously, observing all of that is absolutely cool. AOW has flaws but for me it is 9/10 for adding amazing amount of complexity while also making empire managment (UI) much more ergonomical.
