"The plus four is the worst card in the damn game, they just get to see your hand" My brother in Christ, you've opted in to the worst _optional_ rule in the game.
oh absolutely - but i can't lie, remembering how absolutely confused the guys used to be by the challenge rule makes me respect the decision to keep it
Hearts of Iron 4 is a much simpler game than Crusader Kings at its core but it has accumulated a lot of feature bloat by this point in its lifecycle so I don't know how friendly it would be to a brand new player anymore. I have been enjoying Victoria 3 a lot, it's still relatively new so it's easier to pick up and it's geared towards playing tall.