I've been going too hard on the CORE 0.60 mod for Arsenal of Democracy. Originally got pulled into this genre by Lorgan, who introduced me to Hearts of Iron (I) I think. Spread out to play Hearts of Iron I, II, Doomsday, Armageddon and III although I don't like the third version. Too slow on "extremely fast" and rather heavy on the pc. Europe Universalis 3 (and divine wind) is a recurring game which me and Lorgan often play in LAN. Yes, once, we managed to play the ENTIRE campaign together. Crazy stuff. Oh and there's vicky, yes. I thought there was a new one coming out along with EU4? Not sure.
By the way, did anyone ever try Pride of Nations? Speaking of a heavy game... dayum. Takes up to 10 minutes to process a tick in PoN.
