A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry
A look at history and popular culture
This week's post is coming to you all a bit early, as the folks at Paradox Interactive were kind enough to send me a review code for Victoria III - Paradox Interactive's long awaited historical grand strategy game set during 19th and early 20th centuries - so I could have something to say about it … Continue reading Miscellanea: Victoria III Confirmed! (First Impressions)
This is the last part of a four part series (I, IIa, IIb, III, IV) examining the historical assumptions behind the popular medieval grand strategy game Crusader Kings III, made by Paradox Interactive. In the previous sections, we'd laid out what CKIII does very well: building a simulated model (albeit a simplified one) of power … Continue reading Collections: Teaching Paradox, Crusader Kings III, Part IV: Emperors, Soldiers and Peasants
This is the third part of a four part series (I, IIa, IIb, III, IV) examining the historical assumptions behind the popular medieval grand strategy game Crusader Kings III, made by Paradox Interactive. In the last part (in two sections), we discussed how CKIII attempts to model decentralized political power in the fragmented polities of … Continue reading Collections: Teaching Paradox, Crusader Kings III, Part III: Constructivisting a Kingdom
This is the back half of the second part of a four part series (I, IIa, IIb, III, IV) examining the historical assumptions behind the popular medieval grand strategy game Crusader Kings III, made by Paradox Interactive. Last time we looked at how the game tried to mechanically simulate the internal structure of the highly … Continue reading Collections: Teaching Paradox, Crusader Kings III, Part IIb: Cracks in the House of Islam
This is the second part of a four-part (I, IIa, IIb, III, IV) series examining the historical assumptions of the popular historical grand strategy game Crusader Kings III, by Paradox Interactive. Last time we opened by discussing how CKIII attempts to simulate and represent the distinctly personal character of rule and decision-making in the Middle … Continue reading Collections: Teaching Paradox, Crusader Kings III, Part IIa: Rascally Vassals
This is the first post in a four-part (I, IIa, IIb, III, IV) series examining the historical assumptions of Crusader Kings III, a historical grand strategy game by Paradox Interactive set during the Middle Ages and covering Europe, North Africa and both West and Central Asia. This is also the continuation of a larger series … Continue reading Collections: Teaching Paradox, Crusader Kings III, Part I: Making It Personal
Hey everyone! This week is going to be a gap week as I am currently at PDXCON 2022, possibly playing the Victoria III preview as you read these very words. I expected there to be no posts this week but controversy overtook that plan so there was something, albeit not the normal fare. Fear not, … Continue reading Gap Week: September 2, 2022
Fireside this week! I had hoped to have the next post in the logistics and foraging series ready to go for this week but we are also moving house next week and a number of things related to that have gotten in the way. One of those things was Ollie: Ollie 'helping' me pack my … Continue reading Fireside Friday, July 22, 2022
This week, we're going to be a bit silly and talk about the recently released Royal Court, a DLC expansion for Paradox's medieval grand strategy game Crusader Kings III, because I think it is attempting something fairly interesting that relatively few strategy games do. This isn't going to be a review - there are a … Continue reading Miscellanea: Thoughts on CKIII: Royal Court
This is the third and final part of a three part series (I, II) examining the historical assumptions of Paradox Interactive's 19th and early 20th century grand strategy game, Victoria II. Last time, we looked at how the game's models for the industrial revolution and warfare interacted: by simulating (even in a fairly limited and … Continue reading Collections: Teaching Paradox, Victoria II Part III: World’s Fair