Victoria II, comparable to HOI3/SF?

[Oof]

I've been playing HOI and SF for quite a while and am looking for something similar so I can have a bit of change every once in a while. Thats why i am thinking of buying Victoria II. But is it comparable? I.e. same strategy level, diplomacy, research, etc.

I would love to hear from HOI fans that own both games what their experience is with VII. If it isnt comparable I would also like to hear what you would recommend.

Thanks


PS Sorry to put this on the HOI3 forum, but since i dont own VII i cant post on the correct forum.

 

[comsubpac]

victoria II is similar but different in every way. hoi3 is about war. in victoria II war is not that important, politics, economy and diplomacy are far more important.

 

[Chipster]

Victoria 2 is more focused on nation building and less focused on warfare. The wars have a lot less strategy than in HOI3, but there is other stuff to do like build up your industry, and colonize Africa.

I am still new to Hearts of Iron, so I haven't got a good feel for it yet, but I recommend getting Victoria 2 anyway, since it's lots of fun.

 

[TheBromgrev]

If you do get it, be prepared for the no-liquor bug introduced in V2 1.3. There are custom fixes for it in the Vicky 2 forum. I like it quite a bit, and my favorite thing to do so far is form Greater Germany (normal Germany + Luxembourg + whatever Austria owns) as Prussia in 1848. If you're a HOI player, then you're used to doing encirclements, which is extremely easy to perform in Vicky 2 since the military AI simply throws everything it has into a single apocalyptic battle. Surround the battle with your own troops, win it, and watch the AI doomstack disappear, leaving you alone to occupy the country.

 

[Danmark Rising]

What would be supper awesome would be to have the ability to take a save game from Vic 2 and actually continue playing it in HOI3. Or even Super Extra Amazingly awesome would be to take a save game from EU3 and play it all the way through Vic 2 and HOI3.

Of course I'm dreaming, but there is always hope.

 

[Oof]

So far its sounds alright though the military aspect might be a bit too easy compared to HOI. From what i gather it is at the same strategic level but warfare is not as much part of the game as in HOI.

 

[TheBromgrev]

That's right. Wars in V2 won't let you, for example, take over France in one go. With the exception of the CSA and Prussia or Austria (special case due to a potential design flaw), it's impossible to completely destroy any of the major nations in one war like you can in HOI, as you're limited to taking back your cores and at most 2 states. Prussia and Austria are special cases, as if you occupy them completely and have a humiliate war goal, you can potentially annex them completely if they drop out of the top 8 and you create Germany immediately after an assert hegemony wargoal is completed. That's a special case though, and it requires you to know the game mechanics in order to abuse the German unification decision.

Wars are also fought differently. In HOI you have to take over VPs, whereas in V2 you need to spend a few months stationing troops in enemy provinces in order to occupy them, which requires you to completely destroy the enemy army first. That makes wars last for a long time and become tedious, as you have to chase down the enemy armies after they retreat in order to destroy them all, then do the boring task of splitting up all of your armies and occupying the enemy country as fast as possible.

 

[jju_57]

I always like EU3 as an alternative to HOI. And you may want to look at DH.

 

[Rancher]

Info

Dh ????
Darkest Hour?

 

[Raaritsgozilla]

I do not enjoy Vicky 2 as much as I enjoy HOI3 to be honest.

 

[RazakelApollyon]

Vic II is just a less fun version of EU III. My all time favorite Paradox game is still HOI 3. It still hasn't gotten old to me, and with this next expansion out soon it probably will be awhile before I shelf it for good.

 

[comsubpac]

Vic II is just a less fun version of EU III. My all time favorite Paradox game is still HOI 3. It still hasn't gotten old to me, and with this next expansion out soon it probably will be awhile before I shelf it for good.

vicII has nothing to do with EU3 and they as different as HOI3 and VIC2.

 

[Ksyr]

vicII has nothing to do with EU3 and they as different as HOI3 and VIC2.

The op asked for comparison and advice. Why don't you respect that?

To op:
I just bought EU3 after having played HOI3+SF for a long time and it looks good. I considered Vic2, but after some forum research I decided to go with EU3 because some people thought Vic2 was "easier"

 

[comsubpac]

The op asked for comparison and advice. Why don't you respect that?

To op:
I just bought EU3 after having played HOI3+SF for a long time and it looks good. I considered Vic2, but after some forum research I decided to go with EU3 because some people thought Vic2 was "easier"

respect what? he can have his opinion fine but i have played both games and i can assure you that eu3 and vic2 are very different.
why don't you respect my opinion?

 

[Ksyr]

respect what? he can have his opinion fine but i have played both games and i can assure you that eu3 and vic2 are very different.
why don't you respect my opinion?

Then tell him your opinion. No reason to jump on someone elses opinion in the process. You don't have the monoply on truth so try to be nice to others.
I guess this "Not the same game" thingy is a pet peeve of yours, but people like to compare them because they are in a category by themselves.

Edit: if it continues we better move to personal messages.

 

[comsubpac]

Then tell him your opinion. No reason to jump on someone elses opinion in the process. You don't have the monoply on truth so try to be nice to others.
I guess this "Not the same game" thingy is a pet peeve of yours, but people like to compare them because they are in a category by themselves.

Edit: if it continues we better move to personal messages.

vic2 has an economy -> eu3 has nothing (hoi3 has IC)
it has a government system with votes and constitutions -> eu3 has kings (in hoi3 the elections don't really matter and you have no influence on them)
it has different groups of pops -> eu3 has manpower (sort of)... (and so has hoi3)
in vic2 wars are not always a good idea -> eu3 wars are everything (that is even more the case in hoi3)
in vic2 you reach your goals due to economy and laws -> war... (see above)
i could go on forever...

thinking about it hoi3 is closer to EU3 then to Vic2 when you ignore the way wars are moddeled (in fact the wars may be the only thing similar between vic2 and EU3).

as i already said: he can have his opinion but so can i.

the only thing the 3 games have in common is the engine.

 

[Oof]

Thanks everyone for your advice and recommendations. I think I am gonna do a comparitive search on VII and EUIII (already had that one in the back of my head as well) and make a decision on which one I am gonna spent my money.

Before I started this thread I already had the idea that it wasn’t gonna be easy, or close to impossible, to find a game that’s really comparable to HOI3/SF. Your replies confirmed that. On the other hand, playing HOI3 all the time isnt a solution either.

 

[anam]

In a way they are all different but alike in that they are Pi games, and so are based on the same concept(map, events, nation building etc). The implementations are different though , and the focus is different for each game. HOI is(mostly) a pure warfare game, Eu III is a conquest game(not necessarily trough warfare), Vicky II diplomatic game.

But to me the biggest difference is the maturity of each game. Hoi 3 is a semi mature game(give it 1-2 more expansions, meaning it has bugs yet, not everything is as balanced, optimized, and realy good(as with HOI 2....didn't get really good until the last two expansions, but people tend to forget that). Vicky II is not even to it's first expansion and need that of course (i still think it is a good game, and will become better, but it has it's bugs, but nothing as bad as HOI 3 was in version 1). Eu III is basically the most mature game. It has 5 expansions, with all the development and bugfixes that entails, and has a lot of ways to be played. Always a new way to play, you haven't done before. So as it is the most deep and 'perfected' PI game, i would recommend Eu 3.

 

[nestorius]

Vic II is much more similar to EU3, being aimed at controlling your country through a long period of history. Though EU3 is far more about war, while Vicky is more about your economy.

My favourite paradox title is probably EU3 though atm playing a lot of Vicky 2. I personally think HOI3 is the most different of the games being completely concentrated on warfare but probably the biggest difference is the scope.

EU3 covers about 420 years
Vicky 2 100 years
HOI3 12 years

The countries allied at the start of HOI3 are likely to be allied at the end, while Vicky 2 and EU3 will completely change during the game, with old alliance broken and new formed.

 

[JakopDalunde]

Victoria II is a great game, but very different then HOI3. It allows you to develop you nation into a powerhouse without warmongering.