Paradox's Afterworld feels like the first grand strategy game I can properly wrap my head around

What happened
I've got a bit of a funny relationship with Paradox's grand strategy games. I love the idea of them, of waging and flirting my way across history on the most granular of levels. But despite my enthusiasm, and despite my best efforts, I've never probably cracked one: it doesn't take long before I'm feeling thoroughly overwhelmed and my attention quickly begins to wane. I bring this up, because my relatively brief han…
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