Victoria II

Victoria II from 2010 is an economic grand strategy set in the industrial 19th century, where the player runs a state not only through military strength and diplomacy but mainly through an economy built on individual groups of the population, so-called pops. They work in factories and fields, consume goods, and depending on their social standing and ideology influence politics, revolutionary sentiment, and the overall stability of the country the player manages – a neglected working class can easily spark an uprising, even while the army is winning on the front.

This system makes Victoria II one of the deepest and at the same time most demanding games in the Paradox catalog – understanding the interconnection of trade, production, and social classes requires much more time and patience than the more militarily oriented entries in the series, where it's enough to manage the army and diplomacy. The reward, however, is a simulation that still has no full equivalent among competitors in terms of similarity and depth, and that's precisely why the game, despite its difficulty, keeps a loyal core of fans who return to it even after years despite the availability of newer titles.

The interface and artificial intelligence have aged, and without community mods and unofficial tweaks to run on modern hardware, the game is today considerably less accessible than newer titles on the market, which puts off many prospective players within the first few hours. Even so, many players consider it unmatched in the depth of its economic simulation, which even its direct successor Victoria 3 hasn't, according to part of the community, fully replaced, even though it made the concept accessible to a much wider audience.

Why play it: For players who enjoy economics more than battles and are willing to put up with a dated interface for a depth no other strategy game offers.