Victoria 3 is actually happening. I've been joking about it for months, but part of me was ready to be disappointed. Europa Universalis 5 would, technically, have been next in line, and the 19th century doesn't come with the same nostalgia (or baggage) as Ancient Rome. Perhaps Imperator's financial success, regardless of its development woes, made it easier for Paradox to gamble on giving into the meme for a second time.
It's still early days and we were only given a brief glimpse, but there's a lot to unpack. I have a few pages of notes myself, but this Reddit dump from a fellow writer who also covers the grand strategy game circuit just shows how much we can already expect to dig into in this exciting strategy game of economic, social, and political revolutions.
I have too many thoughts for one article, so I've decided to focus on the one feature that I think had the most impact with me - diplomatic plays. This mechanic represents a new layer of interaction that sits between the realms of diplomacy and warfare, but can touch on other aspects.
RELATED LINKS:
This is what the Victoria 3 maps looks like right now
Victoria 3 - release date, beta, and everything else we know
Victoria 3 devs on slavery and colonisation: "we are not confident we got it right"