I think I’m just looking for some hope or catharsis lately. What’s a good game where I can see some success as a communist group, country, etc?
Would playing as the USSR for Hearts of Iron IV work? It sounds super satisfying to defeat the Nazis in a war, but the game also sounds extremely complicated - well, the one time I tried it (and found a 6 hour tutorial or something like that on YouTube, then gave up).
What do people think of that game? Are there other alternatives to scratch that itch?
There’s the recent game where you play as the Mensheviks or Bolsheviks post USSR Revolution in 1917, but I’m still figuring out the German SDP version of the game. My brain isn’t ready to learn all the nuance of a new version of that yet, I don’t think lol.
Victoria3 is from the same makers of hearts of iron and I think it’s at least technically feasible to get a communist revolution in any country.
I got the game shortly before my spouse and I had kids tho so haven’t been able to play it much but loved it when I was playing.
That’s one where you’re just running a country, right? It like Civilization or something like that?
I would characterize it as more like HoI4 than Civilization, as it’s a “real time with pause” grand strategy game rather than a turn based one, except with a much greater focus on the economy and diplomacy, whereas HoI4 is a very warfare-centric game and the economy is highly abstracted. You take control of a nation starting in 1836 and lead it through the process of industrialization with all the social and political upheval that comes with it. I’ve seen a lot of people call it a materialism simulator, because you can’t simply just jump to communism like is possible in HoI4, you actually have to build up an industrial base to create a proletarian class who then become interested in communism and then through them, socialism can eventually come to power via either reform or revolution.
Thank you that’s a much better description then I would’ve given since it’s been a bit since I’ve been able to play lol
Is there a country you’d recommend starting in that it’s relatively easy to get a revolution?
Dai Nam (Vietnam). The game is challenging and easy to fall into a death spiral. Dai Nam gives you a good start to learn the ropes of the game. It’s one of the tutorial countries, too, because it gives you a good blank start without difficult starting conditions and has been recommended by the community to be used as a first game country (previously it was Korea).
I really hope the next DLC or so will be a communist improvement (this last one fixed a lot of issues but is capitalist focused, and corporate states mechanically are overpowered in the game). It would be nice if command economy was overhauled and expanded.
Victoria 3 is the only paradox game I’ve gotten really into, it’s super heavily focused on economy and internal politics rather than building doom stacks to paint the map. It’s also a lot less intimidating to get into as there’s less micromanagement needed to do well (especially after the recent overhaul to trade). I really enjoy the fact that the majority of the game is focused on improving the internal conditions of your nation rather than on fighting your neighbors. You can become an absolute economic powerhouse with just a few well managed states and good trade deals, simply capturing territory is often a bad thing as you will inherit their problems. You can join (or form) power blocs with friendly nations to get preferential trade deals and prevent other nations from bullying you into submission. There is a well fleshed out system of gradually enacting social progress by manipulating which social groups are in power, you can absolutely transition to a full command economy with universal healthcare, education, and social services but it’s far more involved than just pressing the communism button