ARE PARADOX GRAND STRATEGY GAMES BETTER THAN TOTAL WAR?

I've sunk thousands of hours over the past 23 years into both, but I have to give it to Total War, particularly M2TW/Empire/NTW...before all the newer 💩 came out with zero physics, bugs, and sucky battle animations...I have Shogun II, Attila, RTWII, and I just couldn't...really tried. I'm in that CIV3 to CIV4 "wtf is this cartoon 💩?" phase with Total War lately. Do I wish the series would emulate the layered, dynastic politics and roleplay of Paradox at times...absolutely...but nothing within Paradox ever really came close, except maybe Stellaris, in which I've been transfixed on the tactical engagement that could determine the fate of a strategic campaign. At least I'm not waiting and fast-forwarding the 💩 out of time for a GD event like a mind-numbing, dice-determined siege to finally conclude in EU4. Meanwhile, CK2/3 gave me the sense that I had some role in the character, realm, and narrative outcome...loved it.

Would you say Crusaders Kings III is the best or among the best historical titles in Paradox? Im new into Paradox

I have both , but TW has become less enjoyable over the years , Shogun 2 looks lovely , but the battles are a bit of a mess ,. Paradox games are very immersive , but they like to rinse every £ out of you with endless DLC's

basically:
tactical strategy
vs
Deep overall strategy

I play games from both companies and they all have their own charms.

absolutely not. How ever modern total war is *ss too

Paradox is more about politics and Total War is more about war

I've tried my damnedest to have fun with the Crusader Kings franchise and just never did. Meanwhile I've put in who knows how many hours in to every total war game and had a blast each time.

Do we have any game like RTW about East Asia?

I have a dream that one day I'll graduate from FPS to learning how to play these games.

These will improve the campaign side of things for Total War historical titles:
1. Region trading
2. Military, diplomatic and saboteur schemes
3. More provinces and building slots
4. More recorded events and historical progression
5. Ultimatum and casus belli
6. Annexation ( citizenship, vassalage )
7. Individual war coordination

This is provided that CA doesn’t give all of this to Warhammer first and give a more terrible version of these changes to the other titles.

You cannot beat total war in battles you just can't

It’s like you should play Paradox - up to the point where diplomacy FAILS and you switch to Total War - then the outcome plops you back into Paradox to pick up the pieces… like HISTORY!

in complexity - yes, in experience - no

Paradox games are wayyyyy too complicated and they abandon all their good games
CA has been failing with TW recently but they can save it

Nope, simply because of battles, maps and poktics are great but after an hour it just gets tedious. You need a battle or so in between to change it up

CA and Paradox came together it would look like Knights of Honor

i want a game where u can make ur own borders instaid of already made states like u can make borders straight or make werid borders

i just want a game right in the middle

I think you can only compare the two to a certain extent, since they are fundamentally different. Imo TW is not 100% in the Grand Strategy genre, but it's rather a mix of RTS, Turn Based and Grand Strategy and that's what makes the formula so unique and appealing, especially in the early era when there was TW, Age of Empires, Civilization and not much else (PDX games were obscure, hardcore and still unripe). PDX games deliver a better Grand Strategy experience just because they are pure Grand Strategy games.
Also, when comparing the two studios, one should consider that PDX is on a totally different page when it comes to the care and effort they put in their games. CA has been releasing crap, buggy, half-finished games since Empire, selling out the soul of the series and alienating a large chunk of the fan base. PDX, on the other hand, puts a real effort in nurturing their games, patching and expanding them for years after release, constantly improving and fixing them and they also developed a better relationship with their fanbase, by mostly staying true to them.
For me PDX games are a way better experience not for the mechanics or the genre, but because you can feel the dev's love and craft in fine tuning a great strategy gaming and immersion experience, while most CA games after M2TW feel cold, rushed and streamlined, just another blockbuster whos only purpose to sell as much as possible.

Total war games are tactics game, paradox games are strategy games.

Completely different styles of games, same category maybe but the style and end goal is waaay different. Ridiculous to even say which one is better, there is a time and place for everything.

At the end of the day total war and paradox can both agree stellaris is awesome

I haven't even made it past the ad, but I will say that Medieval 2 is still better than anything Paradox has yet to put out and I will fight you in the street with a bowl of wet spaghetti noodles if you have a problem with that.

mhmm You cant really compare both games, in fact they are totally different, except the genre/topic being the same.
One is mainly focused on actual battles, sieges, fights the other is mainly focused on characters, interactions, diplomacy, more grand scale roleplaying.
Apples and oranges. Though both games are excellent in what they do. Truly the giants of the industry.

No. Next question.

Total War Warhammer III's immortal empires campaign is one of the most amazing achievements I've ever seen in gaming. It's truly satisfying to have all the content of three freakin whole games in one place. Including the DLC I got for the earlier ones... just, damn. Glad they finally explored a fantasy setting and such an ambitious long-term project! ( They're constantly updating it too, so they're responding to community feedback fixing and improving things constantly )

Has playing grand strategy games helped any of you better understand and track real-world events?

The total war fanboy "Eric" trying so hard to defend total war's lack of strategic depth in the comments is fucking hilarious to read. Paradox doesn't provide good tutorials for their games and many mechanics are redundant and its battles are a complete joke but total war's campaign map is severely lacking and even on the hardest difficulties it is extremely easy to become powerful.

Paradox games are not even games

I want a game that has the movement and time as hoi4 and the combat system of total war

Paradox for in-depth strategy, long-term planning and better and more realistic flow of time, Total War for tactical detailed thinking and battles.

yes

My take is total war emphasizes total war. Okay the campaign mechanics are designed around factions that are engaged in total war. You’re basically always a military leader directing your generals to victory. Sometimes there are advisors for economics and diplomacy but all of that directly serves military expansion. You’ll love total war if you only go for domination victory in CIVILIZATION games.

Not really a fair comparison, it’s like apples and oranges

There are no battles in the Paradox!!! and this greatly reduces the game as a full-fledged strategy! in games from paradox you play with numbers but in strategies from Total War you feel that you are participating in world conflicts! and of course, as a strategy, I prefer Total War games!

Paradox Games are buggy af

Yes.

The answer is simple. Both.
Play a total war campaign and a ck one as the same faction.

The big flaw you didn’t mention with paradox is that 90% of the content that should already be in the game is locked behind a paywall. And is frustrating and really ridiculous. as someone who got into HoI3 having bought the game on a discount, I was shocked when I found out how barebones the game felt not knowing that the content that should already be in the game(faction sprites etc, etc,) where locked behind a paywall like really paradox!? You don’t have that problem with total war games as dlcs for those games don’t hinder your enjoyment or playability of the base game as they are just complementary to the base games.

Is chess better than...dungeons and dragons? Here, have a dislike.

I think you mixed together ck3 and eu4 when talking about the pope in the ck3 segment at the start. Other than that this was a really good video

All depends on my mood, I've gone back and forth many a time

Paradox is way better than TW. TW is just battles and just sometimes are worthy

GTA vs FIFA whic one is better ? They are both video games

I like both. For a game it is better to focus on certain aspects of the strategy rather than trying to simulate all. Yes, e.g. EU4 or CK3 could take a slice of tactical battles from TW series. And indeed TW series could look more into diplomatic and trade relations with a chain of supply etc.
But at a certain point you reach a situation where the player may get stressed out by so many possibilities and need to do things. For Multiplayer it could only work in RT, otherwise the other players will spend a lot of time just waiting for others to complete their move. This waiting is my biggest gripe when trying to play a campaign in TW Multiplayer. So in total I prefer Paradox as Grand Strategy.

They've probably surpassed CA in terms of polish...

The sort of thing that would be cool to see in a total war is something where it’s made clear that you’re a nations military commander, not it’s head of state. Like you plan campaigns, decide which where to move your forces and how to organize them, but you don’t have to worry about the complexities of cultural, political, or diplomatic affairs at all

Paradox games are overrated. People claim its got such depth but all it really does is offer endless sub menus, all with very basic mechanics based entirely on the numbers in the various menus. The lack of ANY military strategy makes paradox games nothing more then a map with menus. Do you like constantly managing number values in dozens of menus while watching a map that nothing really happens on, then paradox games are for you. The fact that pardox makes so much $$ of their titles and still has yet to offer any sort of military action is just one more reason this series is overrated. Each title is a copy/paste of the previous, seriously its like the fifa or madden of strategy games, rerelease the same game again and again.

I want play game like both