Not just EU, mind, but HOD, CK, Vicky, anything at all really?

Thanks

For the ones on offer here, I think EU:Rome is probably the most straightforward.

It also has a more modern UI, so that will also make it easier.

That said, EU:Rome almost completely consists of moving your armies & invading or defending against it. The character system is minimal, especially compared to the Crusader Kings series, so don't expect very much interaction there. Diplomacy, trade, etc is likewise not very deep. I always found myself wanting more depth to EU:Rome after a short time playing it. Maybe we'll eventually get a more extensive sequel someday, but it's the most basic of the bunch IMO. It may be the easiest to get into, but at some point you'll find yourself looking to the others for more substance.

After that, it's a matter of whether you want to wrestle with the older, more difficult UIs. I would just skip EU3, if I were you, because EU4 is better in numerous ways without having a steeper learning curve.

Likewise with CK2, perhaps. Although the original CK encompasses less facets, and may be generally easier to learn, it's UI may be frustrating (as with all the other earlier EU1/2 engined titles). The CK series is wonderful because it's so different, being a grand strategy game based as much on family dynasty as geographical administration & conquest. For that same reason, some people have a very difficult time figuring out how to go about doing things, initially, without watching some video tutorials (more so than other Pdox games listed here). In other words, there is often confusion about how what seems to be two separate facets of the game (family & land) interact with each other, or how to best go about doing it. Once it clicks, though, it seems pretty straightforward (and often full of dastardliness of course!).

I wouldn't recommend the EU2-engined titles, early on, simply due to the old UI. But when you eventually want to play an EU game which has far more country-specific historical events than EU4, and therefore more historical flavor, you probably want to go straight to For The Glory since it was the final EU2 "kitchen sink" version that included a bunch of mod extras & fixes. But biting the bullet and jumping straight into EU4 is probably the best first option for the EU series (because it's the best in nearly every category).

Although I've attempted to play the Victoria series, I've always faltered after short starts and went back to the other Pdox games. While I think the period is fascinating, both Vicky 1 & 2 had their oddities. I don't think I'd go back to trying Vicky 1 these days, but it's been so long that I shouldn't say anything about it. Vicky 2 always seemed rather dull & on cruise control for long stretches, although some of the Diplomatic stuff can be interesting once they finally happen. It reportedly improved some with the expansions, notably HoD, but I've still not spent a lot of time with it.

Well, if you have access to GOG titles only, I would recommend you to go for EU2 or For the Glory as first games or maybe Crusader Kings, but they are really complicated. The most logical first game would be EU1, IMO, because, it has lowest number of different rules, and you can get into that game very fast, just by reading the manual, or maybe some interesting FAQs available elsewhere in the Europa Universalis Series thread.

My first Paradox game (as well as Grand Strategy game) was Crusader Kings 1, too, but I have watched probably 60 hours of Let's Play Videos, before I decided to buy that game.

Watching videos really helps with their games.

After long time, I have purchased all of their games and I started with EU1, because it looked lot less complicated than anything else, and I have to say, I have enjoyed it despite being to old engine.

And from my completely newbie view and tryout of the game, do not start with Victoria nor Hearts of Iron, and maybe not with EU3. Although looking back at it, I thing EU3 is less complicated to get into, than Crusader Kings. But you will have to read a lot about various gimmicks (if you decide to start with EU3, do not start with France, IMO they are the most complicated powerful nation to play for newbie, from the "Interesting to Play"options at the start of the Grand Campaign)

so the TL;DR version of how to play the game from the view of complete newbie, such as me, would be:

EU > EU2 > For the Glory > EU: Rome > Crusader Kings > EU3 > every other Paradox grand strategy available on GOG.

EDIT: Oh and if you decide in the end to go directly for EU3, make sure, you purchase the DLC pack as well, because Divine Wind expansion makes the game much much better and more playable, IMHO.

HUMMM That's long as s*it, man!! :P

But thanks a ton for the tips. Not that much of a beginner in here but been trying some EU II and I can guarantee it's somehow a little more easy on the corners than the 1st game.

I find For the Glory not that easy. Read the manual, did almost all tutorials (the colonisation tutorial doesn't work properly though) and still not able to reach the goals. One of them is to have a military alliance with a country. And there was an other to annex an other country. I've played with Friesland and with Crimea khanate. With friesland i got the objective to ally with Bosnia. So i've started to improve relations. When i thought i have the chance to form the alliance i got the message that i failed the objective, while the 5 years weren't over yet. With crimea i ran soon out of money and lowering the military and tech costs didn't help.
I find Crusader Kings II more easy, also because it got a good tutorial and everything is better explained. Probably also because CKII is a different kind of strategygame. It's actually a mix of simulation and turnbased strategy.

Agreed. Had immense issues when running EU1 on modern systems (even under recommended settings, w7 and so on) but it's tons of fun. Nevertheless CKII (and the 1st one, too) is the best option for newcomers to the series.

Missions in FtG:
First of all the in-game missions are optional. That is you can entirely disable missions in the options before starting a new game if you do not like to have missions.
Second is that the game only assigns a mission to you, when you have no mission selected. The game starts paused, so before unpausing SELECT A MISSION THAT YOU WANT (there are usually several to choose from) and then unpause.

The tutorial bug has been fixed in the 1.3 beta patch that is availalbe on the Paradox forum and there is a hotfix availble that fixes only that but in case that you want to stay with the last official patch 1.2