Sadly those guides are in the FAQ forum and you have to have bought and registered the game.

They don't let demo users into the forum?

ParadoxianLP has some good Let's Plays. Make sure you don't go too far back, as the ones he made some in the beta that might lead you astray.

Because I haven't bought the game yet, not convinced i'd buy it. As I said above, i'm trying out the demo.

Paradox forums are fucking nuts with their registration. And apparently they are happy with it. Shrug.

Ain't nobody got time for that.

Because RTS has never really been my cup of tea (much more a TBS kind of person), I have so far never purchased a Paradox product. This one, however, has caught my eye, and has been wondering if this might be worth the risk. I have downloaded the demo and so far been somewhat dumbfounded by the tutorials, which seem to hang a bit for me. While I like the idea that there are thousands of tiny little shiny things that may or may not have any sort of impact on the other bits of stuff floating around (much like Dominions, if you know what I mean), the UI for troop management seems incredibly offputting.

Particularly baffling to me is what appears to be a lack of clear goals, at least the lack of mention of them. I'm not really sure what I'm supposed to do (other than have fun discovering stuff). Normally, most strategy games have some sort of victory conditions; I've spent about an hour with the demo and haven't discovered these yet.

While I don't really want to ask the nearly unanswerable question ("Is this game recommendable for a primarily TBS-strategy-type-buff?"), may I ask those familiar with Paradox products how good the company is in supporting the game and putting out patches and updates (e.g. non-DLC-add-ons) and how good the AI is in handling what appears to be a lot of fairly complex interrelations?

Thank you

I'd recommend it if you want something different, where you'd consider what you're doing hours down the road, and especially if you like some degree of roleplaying in your games.  You can go for a domination victory if you'd like . .  .the actual stated goal is your line's total prestige at the end of the game, which is the added prestige from every ruler you've played as until the end of the game in the mid 1400s or when you retire/ everyone dies in your line.  In actual gameplay, its more of a sandbox.  Most of the feeling of accomplishment comes through seeing a long term plan work out.

The AI is pretty good with micro strategy, but once you figure out the gameplay elements that allow you to declare wars or join wars, and how to keep your own lands from revolting, most players can grow into a huge kingdom.  Just depends on how gamey you as the player want to be, and how much you want to roleplay and do things that are seem realistic, but not always smart.

The recent patch needs a bit of hotfixing, but they're pretty good at it.  Patches have a good amount of balance and actual gameplay improvements.  The CK2 team seems like they pay a lot of attention to forum feedback on what they introduce /patch.  Their DLC tends towards small elements that don't make you feel like you're missing much if you don't get them, but are nice if you play a lot.  Which I like better than "mini expansions."

I enjoy it, but you definitely have to weave a bit of a story in your mind, and figure out whats happening in interrelations between characters to get some laughs or to appreciate the sneakyness of the AI.

Alright, thanks much for these helpful replies!

I suppose a part of my worry was that I have not gotten past step 9 of the "war" tutorial, which seems to be the fourth tutorial or so; although I've tried it four times now, the script gets stuck when my little "army" attempts to disembark at an island. Just makes me a bit more apprehensive than I'd normally be.