Welcome

Welcome to the Wargamer with Free Time blog.  This blog is centered on “grand strategy” games, in particular those made by Paradox, such as Crusader Kings, Europa Universalis, Victoria, and Hearts of Iron. 

I started gaming in the 1980s, and have fond memories of the early SSI and Sid Meier games.  For better or worse, games like Dune 2, Command and Conquer and Age of Empires came along pretty well killed off turn-based strategy games, and people like me were stuck playing and replaying Panzer General 2.  I was fortunate to find a demo for EU3 several years ago.  It had everything I was looking for in a wargame.  Historical minutiae? Check.   A chance to satisfy my OCD by meticulously naming everything?  Check.  Staggeringly long games that eat up hours a day for months on end?  Check.  What more could I ask for?

So, after playing EU3 to exhaustion, I went on to Hearts of Iron 3, my time sink for the last year and a half.  With HOI 4 due to be released in early 2015, I decided to start up this blog/guide to benefit players who might want to revisit it later, or just to satisfy my micromanaging fix for a few months.