Just catching up @DensleyBlair and am enjoying the Windscale calamity and its aftermath. I must congratulate you on your portrayal of Penney, a man I've always admired, he reminds me, in a way, of George VI (the crushing shyness, the weight of expectation etc).
Thank you, my friend. Penney is a fascinating character, in the sense that (to me at least) he seems to fulfil the classic trope of 'scientist just doing their job' while that job happens to be infinitely destructive. In this world, at least, there was no Anglo–American Manhattan Project, so the butterfly of Penney only having been involved in an entirely experimental Tube Alloys does away with the unfortunate fact of his involvement in some of the most heinous of the destruction.
I know @DensleyBlair has already responded, but this. True in our world, true in this one.
And a very grim fact, to be sure.
I did play it for a bit, but (tin hats at the ready) can't get into it. I find the 867 start unplayable in Western Europe, and 1066 is just a pile of 'meh'. So I'm 'retiring' it until some patches make it enjoyable.
Interesting. I am (as I've mentioned over in some of the CK3 AARs I've been following) yet to buy a copy, currently not being able to install any more games on my laptop so long as I have all of my Vicky mods. (My Steam library operates on a one in, one out policy – and with a rural internet connection, installing a game is a day's work, so best to get all shots right first time.) I also hadn't played CK2 for years before lockdown, so there's still plenty I feel I can get out of it. I'll probably pick up 3 the first time I notice it on sale.
Ironically, given my hatred of the Vanilla game, I've had fun in Vic2 recently. I still find it weirdly 'small' in scope, but I've had fun as Spain and GB.
It is an incredibly odd game, which I can only really bear thanks to the many excellent mods out there to keep the timelines interesting. But damn it I do enjoy the time period, and as far as writing goes I've never had much luck with anything else. Where I think it falls down is that,, of all the pdx games I've played, it is the most like a spreadsheet. Which I don't necessarily mind (here's looking at you, Football Manager) but there isn't much RP flavour to pull things back in the other direction. If they ever did a third (do I dare still hold out hope?) I'd love to see something like the HoI focus trees implanted. I think they'd do wonders for the game.
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