Nikolaj

Apart from the old pre-EU games, I'd say that Rome and Sengoku are the easiest to learn. They're what I consider "filler" games, released between more prominent Paradox games, and they have fewer mechanics to learn and keep track of. Neither is particularly good, though, in my opinion.

Alright, so I realise that I'm responding to a rather old post, but you might want to check out a game called Great Invasions. It was designed by Philippe Thibaut, who later went on to found Ageod Games. The game has a lot of interesting concepts, that I haven't really seen anywhere else. You don't play one nation, but a group of nations. As time progresses, a nation that starts as a barbarian tribe can evolve into a kingdom, then into an empire. Each state has pros and cons, but as a nation ages, it will become more and more difficult to manage, untill it's eventually overrun by barbarians, who then go on to found a new kingdom. Sadly, the game is quite flawed, and never quite received the support it deserved, but it's playable, and quite enjoyable. I'm still hoping that there will be a sequel someday, but I'm not sure how likely that is. Here's a link to an AAR, in case anyone's interested. The game itself can be picked up rather cheaply, in either the Matrix or Ageod store, but it should also be possible to find a physical copy. Be aware that the latest patch is not compatible with the physical copies, but if you PM Philippe at the Ageod forums, and politely ask for help, he can probably help you out with that.

Dominions 3 is definitely 3MA canon, considering that the guys even had a Dom3 AAR going on the podcast, a while ago. It fell apart after a relatively short while, but still. And if there's to be a 3MA canon, I think War in the East needs to be on there, considering how often it's mentioned on the show. Other somewhat obscure games, that I know have been mentioned on the show, and that I personally think more people should know about are (off the top of my head) Armageddon Empires and Field of Glory.

I have it, but I haven't had time to play it as much as I'd like to. I didn't notice any bugs, though, and it definitely does seem worth playing. My impression was that of a more advanced version of TC/SoW, set in the Napoleonic Wars. From what I can tell, there's a very dedicated community, which has produced a number of mods and scenarios, and which runs multiplayer campaign games. I wish I had more time to play it properly. I had been wondering why 3MA hasn't covered this yet, so maybe you should give it a try. Btw, I agree with chouzar that Command Ops is somewhat similar to Take Command, and not just in the way it uses Fog of War. Like Take Command, it also has a proper command chain, as well as order delays, and the individual units have a great deal of autonomy. It's obviously a much different game, but probably the closest you'll get, if you want something similar, but modern (to the extent that WWII can be considered modern). And to all the people who want to play Take Command, but can't find it, or can't get it to run, I recommend getting Scourge of War: Gettysburg instead. It's not quite a sequel, since it's produced by a different company (with only half the original developer team, IIRC), which doesn't hold the rights to Take Command, but it's very similar, and better in a number of ways. It obviously doesn't cover 2nd Manassas, though.

I just signed on to this forum, because I heard that 3MA will be getting a dedicated subforum here. I guess I should probably give this Idle Thumbs thing a listen, now that I'm here.