Oh man, I've sunk countless hours into CK2. Such a rich game and I highly recommend it.<p>This post pretty much lays out a facet of what I love and alludes to the bigger picture: start with a historical setting and run with it, often diverging.<p>One game I became the king of Ireland and then somehow the king of Britanny. I then only had female child heirs. They got overthrown and ended up cast out of Ireland.<p>I was intrigued by that so I started a game as a count in Britanny. Worked my way up to the petty king of Britanny. Somehow engineered inheritance of another duchy - became a proper king of Britanny and then somehow became king of Aquitaine (so the king of half of modern day France).<p>EU4 is another fantastic game based on the same engine. Less focused on dynasties and more geopolitics/colonisation, this also throws you into historical settings. As Portugal, I became holy Roman emperor - they got into a fluff where no one liked each other so I was the only choice even though I wasn't in the HRE.<p>I'd love for Paradox to officially "link up" all the games so you can go from ancient Rome all the way to say the modern world. That would mean EU: Rome and Victoria on the new engine and also a new cold war era game they definitely need to make (focusing on modern geopolitics).<p>Clearly a secret Paradox fanboy!