Search Results
6/30/2025, 7:19:34 AM
>>2081261
I long came to conclusion that grand strategy is a cursed concept.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uE6-vIi1rQ
Power fantasy of becoming the top dog VS conquest getting harder — a problem that cannot be resolved without changing the nature of the game.
Some ways to change the game:
- replace sandbox conquest with clear objectives. You achieved X — you won, game finished, further slog impossible.
- reduce the scope of your control. E.g. instead of controlling your entire country you control only some "frontier" portion of it, essentially you play the entire game as a 5/10/whatever-province minor, while the previously conquered land becomes your "metropole". You keep expanding "your" country, you just don't get involved into its politics that much, and you get limited benefits from it so you don't get too strong.
- switch from direct control to gardening, from strategy to management sim and story generator. Imagine Rimworld, but grander.
- redefine "top dog" to make it more varied/ambiguous. Like in Civ games you have culture/religion/science/etc victory conditions, so in your strategy game you can have multiple parallel planes of "conquest". You conquer land in political map mode, but somebody else dominates the trade map, while a third player has successfully painted the religious map, and to be a true victor you need to make these parallel authorities submit to you. It's like NG+ within the same game.
I long came to conclusion that grand strategy is a cursed concept.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uE6-vIi1rQ
Power fantasy of becoming the top dog VS conquest getting harder — a problem that cannot be resolved without changing the nature of the game.
Some ways to change the game:
- replace sandbox conquest with clear objectives. You achieved X — you won, game finished, further slog impossible.
- reduce the scope of your control. E.g. instead of controlling your entire country you control only some "frontier" portion of it, essentially you play the entire game as a 5/10/whatever-province minor, while the previously conquered land becomes your "metropole". You keep expanding "your" country, you just don't get involved into its politics that much, and you get limited benefits from it so you don't get too strong.
- switch from direct control to gardening, from strategy to management sim and story generator. Imagine Rimworld, but grander.
- redefine "top dog" to make it more varied/ambiguous. Like in Civ games you have culture/religion/science/etc victory conditions, so in your strategy game you can have multiple parallel planes of "conquest". You conquer land in political map mode, but somebody else dominates the trade map, while a third player has successfully painted the religious map, and to be a true victor you need to make these parallel authorities submit to you. It's like NG+ within the same game.
Page 1