I played a lot of CKII when it came out, but have not bought CK III. I enjoyed CKII enough that I branched out in to other Paradox games, and EU IV became one of my most played (and expensive) games ever, 3500+ hours since 2014 and counting.
EU IV shares some similarities of course, but lacks the dynastic side, which is where I think it's easy to feel lost. Is it good, or bad, that this bloke is plotting against me? Who knows, right?
In EU IV it's easier to see a valid path forward I think.
Everything you need to know from a mechanical or informational viewpoint is in the tooltips, but what these games do not have is any real structure or framework to guide a wayward noob along. For some the free form sandbox vibe is too loose, and I get it.
For me these games like CKII and EU IV were compelling enough when I was lost that I forged ahead until the strategical side became clearer. I could begin to see what was needed to be done, to identify short and long term goals and have enough knowledge of the finer points in order to have success.
The OP seems to have moved on, nothing wrong with that, but I think folks new to Paradox games would do fine by starting a game and setting a goal, whatever it might be, like expand by a certain size, hit demense limit, win a war, and so on and just figure out how to accomplish that. Then start a new game with a different goal. Each of these mini-runs would add a new arrow to your quiver and sooner or later it would all begin to tie in for a proper run at a long game.
For me, the sandbox style in these games is one of their greatest strengths, the variability I see in outcomes through all those thousands of hours is brilliant really, and is what keeps me coming back. But this also means the structure must be provided by the player. He must set his own goals to be achieved, and this takes time to reach the point where you understand what is possible and how it could be done.
Interestingly the achievements have become my main compass with EU IV. This gives me my long term goal, for example the Baltic Crusader achievement, where I had to take all of Russia and convert it to Catholic, while being Teutonic or Livonian Orders. I mean, that's just nuts right? But with a long term goal in place I can then work backwards, in a sense, to plot the path to reach it.
And the result can be glorious
