dutchexcalibur: Of the Paradox Interactive strategy games on sale now at Amazon, what would be the best one for a newbie to the grand strategy genre? Victoria II looks interesting, but at the same time overwhelming due to the amount of options available to play. Europa Universalis: Rome also looks cool, but I'm not sure about it. Recommendations?
Vicky 2 has a fully priced expansion and, well, after they release an expansion Paradox stop patching the basic game. So you might want to wait until some pack of V2 with A House Divided goes on sale. Shouldn't be long. Maybe they'll have more add-ons (not DLC!) lined up.
As for Paradox in general, their series are quite different. There's a lot of fighting opportunities in all of them, but... Crusader Kings deals mainly with dynasties and inheritance. Victoria focuses on internal politics and colonialism. Hearts of Iron is war and research. Rome.. is kinda peculiar, since its both a bit of internal politics and a touch of character development. Europa Universalis is the most generic one, with no clear focus on anything and no predetermined alliances. EU3 Chronicles is the complete version of EU3, but the current Amazon deal isn't the best (GamersGate holds regular Paradox sales). The best way do decide if you want EU3 is to read AARs by PrawnStar over at Paradoxplaza, that guy makes incredible conquests a reality, explaining mechanics as he goes. His Golden Horde or Iroquois AARs are just awesome, especially the latter.