I preffer eu4 tbh, and if you are an steam user, dont buy dlcs, just pirate them. About hoi4, it is the simplest history strategy game of paradox, the runs are a lot shorter, there is no economy stuff, no money, and the games are aways based around the ww2, with is not bad, but it is a lot less diverse then other paradox games. The combat is the most fleshed out part of the game, but it is not that hard to understand after you learn about the op templates and how to encircle troops. The alt history is most frequent on dlc countries, and it depends mostly on how good or bad the focus trees are (some countries are better with the original generic tree then their dlc ones). About politics, it is more boring then bad really; blue are the "democratics" countries, browns is the "fascist countries, red is the "communists" countries, and grey are the "neutral" countries, the first three are self explanatory, but the neutral ones sucks because of how bland it is, neutral can go from the KMT, to monarchys, to anarchism, to dictatorships, to chinese cliques, and its so annoying how little thought its but into it. Even the three actual ideologies are bland, democratic countries sucks ass, fascists are the ones you play when you want to win fast, and communists are for when you want to be based. The mods makes politics a lot better because there is actual nuance, even if its from an liberal mind, instead of the blandness of the vanilla game.
Comradeship // Freechat
Talk about whatever, respecting the rules established by Lemmygrad. Failing to comply with the rules will grant you a few warnings, insisting on breaking them will grant you a beautiful shiny banwall.
A community for comrades to chat and talk about whatever doesn't fit other communities
They took out all the good parts of HoI out of the game, then slowly started re-adding them in paid DLCs lmao
I hate Paradox's DLC model so much
Same with CK3.
"Yeah, we took most of the CK2 mechanics out, but we'll bring them back in paid DLCs that we'll make for next decade lmao"
Most mechanics they took out were outright trash. Mostly because they were cash grabs disconnected from one another in an quick $ effort and then abandoned to flaunt on the wind, but still. CK3 seems to integrate mechanics way better, but it will still be 10 years since their pace of development is significantly slower than any previous PDX game.
The hoi4 community is absolute cancer, but the game is fine imo. It's enjoyable in a healthy way, but the moment you start considering yourself a "hoi4 player" it's over, much like for people who identify as "redditors".
when it comes to mods, it can be fun if you don't take it seriously. Yeah, most people who make these are completely politically and historically illiterate (communist mussolini because he was a socialist for like 15 minutes goes brrrr), but that doesn't mean it can't be a fun playthrough.
Yeah, the TL;DR is that the game and its mods are nice. Just don't approach it thinking it is anything more than a game.