I have always been a gamer more focused on titles that ask me to thing before acting and that’s why, over time, I have become enamored with the experiences that Paradox Interactive creates, franchises like Crusader Kings, Europa Universalis, Victoria, or Hearts of Iron.

Within two weeks, the developers have delivered two expansions, one called Charlemagne and another named Art of War, which are designed to introduce more options and choices for players, while also updating some of the core game mechanics.

Playing both I noticed something that I have been doing for a long time: I no longer aim to replicate historical outcomes in any way and I am only focused on alternate scenarios, some of which stretch the limits of what could have happened in actual history.

In earlier titles from the company I tended to try and replicate what nations actually did, or to get to reasonable goals that were theorized as being achievable.

Now I just choose the most outlandish options and try to see how far the game mechanics of Crusader Kings II and Europa Universalis IV can take me.
Grand strategy, learning and realism

Alternate reality exploration is very interesting and it can easily take up hundreds of hours in any title created by Paradox Interactive.

My longest running game of Hearts of Iron II, for example, which aimed for world conquest, probably occupied six months, on and off.

Trying to create a Khazar-dominated Europe in 100 years or aiming to wipe out all the Catholic rulers in the same time frame can be fun, but it is also a long-term problem because it drives the player further away from history that he should be.

Trying to win a World War III which involves the USSR and the United States and Western democracies in 1949 is equally fictional but is one of the actual possible courses for the XX century history.

I and many other members of the Paradox fan club learned about the Dark Ages, or the evolution of Bohemia or the rise of France as a superpower because we wanted to replicate these achievements in Crusader Kings or in Europa Universalis.

Aiming to create a situation that does not have a historical foundation means that it’s not so important to get info about the real world and could make the franchises move closer to fantasy than grand strategy.