I think that Victoria 2 and CK2 are definitely some of the hardest to learn pdx games, but HOI4 is close to the top.
this post was submitted on 30 Jul 2023
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I can definitely play Stellaris, but I don't think I can win Stellaris. It's a pattern for me with long-running strategy games that have definite win conditions - I can often play competently enough to comfortably avoid defeat well into a game, but when it comes down to sealing the deal in the endgame, there's some crucial mistake I made or aspect I've neglected that leaves me in an unwinnable position.
It's part of why I never really got into Civilization. More recently it happened to me when I tried playing Terra Invicta, when it turned out I had needed to seriously scale up my combat capabilities far, far earlier than I had been.
Ironically I think it's made games like EU and CK easier for me to pick up. Simply surviving counts as a success state, so it doesn't actively punish the player as much for playing suboptimally (at least past the point of absolute basic competency), which lets me get a feel for the mechanics and strategies at my own pace.