The USSR arguably won the war for everyone else, but since victory came at the highest of all possible costs, I assumed that with the benefit of hindsight I could surely do better. Hearts of Iron IV is the most immediate of these, with gameplay simulating the hours of the day as the player proceeds from 1936 to 1948.
Stellaris, I guess, constitutes the futurist installment of this epic history, a chance to extend a now-spacefaring mankind's destiny to the stars and beyond.Įvery moment of each of those games amounts to a crisis point every decision has consequences that can resonate months or centuries later. Victoria takes Europe's great powers through an age of empire building, culminating in the chaotic Great War that sets the stage for Hearts of Iron. In Europa Universalis, the great city of Constantinople is about to fall, and little seems likely to stop the advance of the Ottoman Turks.
In Crusader Kings, the vast, disjointed empire forged by the Frankish king Charlemagne has begun to fracture, and Islamic expansion threatens both Western and Eastern Europe.
