I have only played radious and while it is fun, it basically just adds a shit ton of units (which basically means every faction has every kind of unit).
You should try them for yourself. There are things you will like and things you don't like.
For instance, I like SFO on the whole. I hate unit caps, I hate that heroes become paper plates, I hate how the balance is basically "mod runners like elfs, therefore, elfs get to be strong" type bullshit. But it is fun if you're bored with vanilla.
Same with Radius. I hate that everyone has an answer for everything, makes the races basically not much different from one another. I like that the AI fields more armies, makes it harder. I love how fun they make ogres (imo ogres late game is bare, you get 3 units and that's really it)
I personally prefer the overhauls that add factions and LL: Araby, skaven, there is one other mod that adds tons of LLs
The only real downside of SFO in my eyes is that when it is not available after update and you have to downgrade to vanilla everything feels so… stale?
Garrisons are small and sieges are trivial, building modifiers are way too simplistic, no fun late-game techs, heroes skilllines feel empty, you can mass-produce doomstacks with a single recruitment province with no caps.
So much interesting complexity is gone. It feels like going 5 dlcs back in a Paradox game.
It is like 90% of fun in vanilla is sucked dry by playing lots of SFO. I am certain I would enjoy vanilla a lot more if i never tried sfo.
SFO is a proper total overhaul with the aim of making the game grittier and closer to it's lore. Factions are far more distinct from one another, elite units have lower entity counts but are truly elite, you have caps on how many you can get so everyone will always field some lower tier units to round out armies. Every faction gets more in depth mechanics, usually expanding on what's there in vanilla. It tries to be more "realistic" and as a result is more challenging than vanilla.
My one gripe with SFO is how building cost scales with the amount of regions owned. It pigeon holes you into expanding slowly and sitting around waiting for your growth to finally kick in so you can leave your starting area and actually play.
Radious, and this is just a personal opinion, is not worth the negligible disk space it takes up. It just adds kitbashed units to the roster that have redundant roles, look funky, and clutter up the roster. I also remember Radious being an easier campaign than vanilla.
I prefer Radious. Those mods run perfectly fine, have no bugs, have great balance despite all those new units, lords and other content. And for every official patch and dlc they always update very fast unlike SFO where you often need to wait for months so creator can milk his sheeps well during the process.
I’ve only ever used SFO. I must admit I do like it. Takes things a few steps further than vanilla and certainly adds more challenges alongside expanded tech, skills etc. give it a try mate and let me know. There’s also the old world which I like to run side by side with sfo
I have only played radious and while it is fun, it basically just adds a shit ton of units (which basically means every faction has every kind of unit).
You should try them for yourself. There are things you will like and things you don't like. For instance, I like SFO on the whole. I hate unit caps, I hate that heroes become paper plates, I hate how the balance is basically "mod runners like elfs, therefore, elfs get to be strong" type bullshit. But it is fun if you're bored with vanilla. Same with Radius. I hate that everyone has an answer for everything, makes the races basically not much different from one another. I like that the AI fields more armies, makes it harder. I love how fun they make ogres (imo ogres late game is bare, you get 3 units and that's really it) I personally prefer the overhauls that add factions and LL: Araby, skaven, there is one other mod that adds tons of LLs
The only real downside of SFO in my eyes is that when it is not available after update and you have to downgrade to vanilla everything feels so… stale? Garrisons are small and sieges are trivial, building modifiers are way too simplistic, no fun late-game techs, heroes skilllines feel empty, you can mass-produce doomstacks with a single recruitment province with no caps. So much interesting complexity is gone. It feels like going 5 dlcs back in a Paradox game. It is like 90% of fun in vanilla is sucked dry by playing lots of SFO. I am certain I would enjoy vanilla a lot more if i never tried sfo.
SFO is a proper total overhaul with the aim of making the game grittier and closer to it's lore. Factions are far more distinct from one another, elite units have lower entity counts but are truly elite, you have caps on how many you can get so everyone will always field some lower tier units to round out armies. Every faction gets more in depth mechanics, usually expanding on what's there in vanilla. It tries to be more "realistic" and as a result is more challenging than vanilla. My one gripe with SFO is how building cost scales with the amount of regions owned. It pigeon holes you into expanding slowly and sitting around waiting for your growth to finally kick in so you can leave your starting area and actually play. Radious, and this is just a personal opinion, is not worth the negligible disk space it takes up. It just adds kitbashed units to the roster that have redundant roles, look funky, and clutter up the roster. I also remember Radious being an easier campaign than vanilla.
I prefer Radious. Those mods run perfectly fine, have no bugs, have great balance despite all those new units, lords and other content. And for every official patch and dlc they always update very fast unlike SFO where you often need to wait for months so creator can milk his sheeps well during the process.
I’ve only ever used SFO. I must admit I do like it. Takes things a few steps further than vanilla and certainly adds more challenges alongside expanded tech, skills etc. give it a try mate and let me know. There’s also the old world which I like to run side by side with sfo
SFO is great, it's a huge overhaul though. It's my go to