Historical conquer ’em up Europa Universalis IV got its newest expansion yesterday, Dharma, which adds elephants, monsoons, trade company shenanigans, and an overhaul to the Indian nations. Basically, it lets European nations engage in their traditional love of colonial economic browbeating, but also gives smaller individual Indian states more attention, with new missions and national ideas of their own. You should come and read more. Not for the expanso-chat, but for the ridiculous patch notes that always accompany these big war game updates.

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Don t you go to Goa, a wise band once sang. Well, eat my dust, Alabama 3. I ll go wherever I please, up to and including Goa. But fair enough, I can t afford the airplane ticket. I ll have to just play strategy game Europa Universalis IV s upcoming Dharma expansion, which is reworking the Indian provinces on September 6. It s adding ruthless European charter companies to the region, as well as monsoons, the caste system and a bunch of scornful insults . (more…)

The Vikings have long ago invaded the coasts of pop culture on their dragon-headed longships and carved out their own Danelaw in the realm of video games. In recent years, they ve grown even bolder, taking over most genres from RTS to RPG, classic point and click adventure to action, with an utter disregard towards distinctions between AAA and indie. They ve settled in Hellblade and Frostrune, Dead in Vinland and The Witcher 3, God of War and Crusader Kings 2, and of course, The Banner Saga trilogy. Luckily, it s easy to spot a Viking. Horned helmets, mead-filled drinking horns, bloody battle axes and grim miens are a dead giveaway. When in doubt, tempt the suspected Viking with loot, then wait and see whether or not they can resist the urge to pillage.

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We’ve just passed the half-way point of 2018, so Ian Gatekeeper and all his fabulously wealthy chums over at Valve have revealed which hundred games have sold best on Steam over the past six months. It’s a list dominated by pre-2018 names, to be frank, a great many of which you’ll be expected, but there are a few surprises in there.

2018 releases Jurassic World Evolution, Far Cry 5 Kingdom Come: Deliverance and Warhammer: Vermintide II are wearing some spectacular money-hats, for example, while the relatively lesser-known likes of Raft, Eco and Deep Rock Galactic have made themselves heard above the din of triple-A marketing budgets. (more…)

An entirely objective ranking of the 50 best PC strategy games ever made, now freshened up to include everything from 2017 and 2018. From intricate, global-scale wargames to the tight thrills of guerrilla squads, the broad expanse of the genre contains something for everyone, and we’ve gathered the best of the best.

The vast majority are available to buy digitally, a few are free to download and play forever. They’re all brilliant.

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Yesterday, things got a little weird for fans of historical sandbox Crusader Kings II, as a screenshot of the game used in a Bosnian newspaper led to a flurry of interest in the history of forks>, of all things. CKII fans confirmed that the newspaper’s article on the history of the now-ubiquitous cutlery was inaccurate, and it didn’t actually originate with an obscure Venetian Doge’s wife.

Today, Paradox threw down the gauntlet and asked players to engage in a little tine travel. Players have been challenged to take control of Doge Domenico III of Venice and correct the history books by conquering the world in the name of forks, and claim a community achievement named “This fork of mine”.

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Tee hee hee. A newspaper has used the portrait of a character from Crusader Kings II to illustrate a small article about the history of the fork as an eating utensil. The article is in Bosnian newspaper Dnevni Avaz and shows a picture of everyone s favourite 11th century Doge of Venice, Domenico Selvo. Don t you know him? He s a cool guy. He s humble, shy, just, stubborn and a tough soldier. But, uh, he has nothing whatsoever to do with forks. (more…)

The Paradox DLC factory continues to diligently extend the lives of its myriad grand strategy romps, with all but Stellaris getting new DLC announcements at PDXCON last month. We re getting restless pagan warriors, war elephants and even some sharks. If you can match the feature to the game, you get a polite nod of respect.

Rather than tiring you out, making you click on three articles like a thoughtless task master, I ve gathered all the sizzling deets in one place. Rest those fingers and direct your eyes below to find out what s changing in Hearts of Iron 4, Europa Universalis 4 and Crusader Kings 2.

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Power-hungry Europa Universalis IV players in capes and funny hats will stalk the halls of a Polish castle when the historical grand strategy game’s four-day LAN-o-LARP event ‘The Grandest LAN Party’ returns in November. We sent our boy Brendy to last year’s forty-person rumble, and his two–part report on the intrigue and drama of diplomats skulking around a castle and holding secret talks while their teammates played the video game still delights me. What a strange and wonderful event. EU4 devs Paradox and event organisers Dziobak LARP Studios today opened ticket sales, and if you’re crafty and loaded you might fancy a look. (more…)

As part of this avalanche of Paradox Interactive material today, you’ll be excited to hear that the hyper-specific bread and butter of their strategy games, Crusader Kings II, is getting an expansion born of pure hellfire. The Holy Fury add-on will be changing the way crusades are waged, from starting in a randomly generated map to raiding something called “Pagan Warrior Lodges” to using special powers to antagonize or control your neighbors. Exactly as Jesus would have wanted.

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