Victoria II impressions.

[Vaarna_Aarne]

Brazil campaign going nicely. Conquered myself a lot of lebensraum, and thanks to Machine Guns I even ended up taking British and French Guyana when they tried to contain me. However, it's pretty clear that you're boned as a lesser country should you share border with anything French and NOT have an important military tech before them. And of course, you need to prepare to having to wait till 1870s or less for your expansion really to start if you want to conquer due to reasons of economy and technology. And you really need to prioritize encouraging Clergymen over attracting immigrants.

 

[Demnogonis Saastuttaja]

What's still bothering me is that there's no diplomacy to speak of, no negotiations of any kind. I'd wish to have some kind of tool to decide with your allies what to do in a war, or even with your enemies - yeah, you take that while I take that. Now it's just sort of dickery simulator, who stuffs the biggest dick in who's asshole.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

Yea, since there are no Great Power alliances either (though I do have witnessed several Great War type engagements, with people joining on both sides to beat the living shit out of everyone). It would be really nice if you could negotiate for provinces in some way to settle matters without resorting to dickery.

Anyway, my Brazil campaign reached 1900. I've managed to become #3 Great Power in the world, with good chances of becoming #2 in the near future. The British are actually deceptively weak in land combat, since they don't specialize in military tech. The French on the other hand are monsters. It's also nice that the AI doesn't bother declaring Containment wars against you non-stop should they lose one or two and lack adjacent provinces. Really helped with taking lebensraum in South America, which is 70% owned by Brazilian Emperor. I also noticed the Reactionaries were getting free-for-all membership, so I fixed it.

 

[Demnogonis Saastuttaja]

I finished my Sardinia-Piedmont campaign, or rather I'm done with it. I can't ever form Italy because France wants to influence Two Sicilies and there's no way to counterdo that in any other way than beating them in a war, and since I can't ally with anyone worthwhile, it's not going to happen. Most other countries have been under rebel control the whole game and have taken infinite loans the whole time, then again I have been making infinite money the whole time, now I have more ships than UK.

Also Scandinavia is steamrolling SU, but otherwise it's been an entirely uneventful game. I think most of the stuff you still do is busywork, building units in different provinces (why?), ordering them to converge somewhere (why?) and transporting indians to your mainland armies (why?). No shortcuts or autofunctions for any of this stuff, you know, rally points, that kind of thing.

It is as if they realized there's nothing else to do in a realtime format like this than busywork.

 

[Malakal]

Well then go beat France and take their SoI, it aint hard. Research machine guns and/or gas attack before they do and slaughter some frogs. Too late for that? Then how about some strategy? Fortify Your borders with max level forts (not really necessarily but helps with the odds) and create some armies - 15 guard regiments/15 artillery ones. Due to how frontage works only so many units can fight at the same time. Declare war, lure frenchies into Your territory with dug in troops (few regiments as bait) and +def general and then reinforce to 15/15. Watch as France pours its entire land army to this battle while You rotate Your forces (they can retreat as long as one army fights) and slaughter them with artillery and guard elite troops. Could take a bit long to massacre all of their forces but ultimately it will happen, giving You 25 warscore. For added manliness use some cavalry to surrround their armies so they cant retreat and get captured after the battle. 700k POWs? Sure.

Seriously right now AI is a cakewalk.

BTW download fanmade fixes for rebels and economy and enjoy this gem. I reccomend Rebel fix and Victoria reworked POP needs to stimulate demands: http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/sho ... p?t=492619 or Victoria 2 realism and rebalance project http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/sho ... p?t=495255 .

I dont know why players use vanilla Paradox games right after their release, its masochistic.

 

[Monocause]

Brazil campaign going nicely. Conquered myself a lot of lebensraum, and thanks to Machine Guns I even ended up taking British and French Guyana when they tried to contain me. However, it's pretty clear that you're boned as a lesser country should you share border with anything French and NOT have an important military tech before them. And of course, you need to prepare to having to wait till 1870s or less for your expansion really to start if you want to conquer due to reasons of economy and technology. And you really need to prioritize encouraging Clergymen over attracting immigrants.

Tried playing Brazil too. Annexed Paraguay, annexed Uruguay, annexed Bolivia - then the British, Dutch and French declared war of containment on me, with the US joining in after a year or two. Dunno, my infamy wasn't that high, perhaps the AI doesn't like you annexing regardless of infamy?

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

Annexing a civilized country is worth 20 points of infamy, and the limit for a Containment was is 25 infamy. Add to it that you need to demand states from Bolivia and Paraguay, which is 10 infamy a state, and you'll have everyone up your ass.

I've also started a campaign as Two Sicilies, where I decided to screw the whole Avanti Italia business and stay Sicilian. Annexed Egypt to get a healthy base of production, and my first European project of annexing the Papal States has succeeded as well, though it was hard to get the French influence out of there. Naturally, I avoided getting over 25 infamy this time due to uncomfortable proximity to France and United Kingdom. A more interesting thing is that I haven't had a single rebel faction in decades, ever since my Wealth voting resulted in massive socialist Upper House, which I've happily used to get Good Healthcare in order to have many little Sicilians. Currently ranked #6.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

I tried the CSA. It was fucking impossible. The only hope you have is that Great Britain declares war on the USA early into the Civil War, but that's not going to happen even with King Cotton, which forces you to save switch to get Great Britain involved following King Cotton.

HOWEVER. After this, you're still guaranteed to lose with leveling the playing field, for you start with 0% Plurality and no inventions, you have shit for population even if you used Immigration focus when you were the USA, and you have two much larger hostile neighbours (USA and Mexico) with far larger armies than you can even wield. In the Civil War, you can probably wield 10 brigades at best while the USA will (even if you evened the odds by not having a standing US Army during your reign there) soon enough steamroll you with 40 brigades or so. And of course, you are happily living in motherfucking plains and farmland (though you could theoretically hold Atlanta-Raleigh line long, since it's in the mountains). You also have no leadership to speak of.

Oh yeah, and most your political parties have Laissez Faire as well.

Overall though, it's really fun if you cheat a little at the start to even the odds.

 

[Demnogonis Saastuttaja]

Well then go beat France and take their SoI, it aint hard. <snip>

Yeah, I didn't bother to research how combat in this game works, I only thought about the massively superior numbers of France, but I wasn't planning to fight France, I planned to be friends with France from the start until I saw how the SoI mechanic actually works and also that you can't ally with another Great Power.

I dont know why players use vanilla Paradox games right after their release, its masochistic.

Well that's how I always try any game? I wasn't about to start actually playing it anyway.

Oh, and what the fuck is up with the random unpausing? I just wish Paradox would realize that turn-based is the only way to make strategy games like this progress smoothly.

 

[MasterSmithFandango]

Actually, I'm fine with how Paradox handles real-time. Before I tried it, the real time was a big turnoff, but it's handled fine.

 

[Quilty]

Been playing Victoria 2 some more and the bugs in later years are becoming more prominent now. Shame, but it's still better than any other vanilla Paradox strategy game I've tried.

Do Paradox guys sell their games in boxes? Because I'd pay good money for a Vicky collector's edition with maps and other goodies.

 

[MasterSmithFandango]

One question: Is it possible to make the CSA into a great power? If so, SIGN ME UP! THE SOUTH SHALL RISE AGAIN!

 

[Malakal]

One question: Is it possible to make the CSA into a great power? If so, SIGN ME UP! THE SOUTH SHALL RISE AGAIN!

It is but its hard. Due to issues with getting tech/money when seceding (You get none). And even if You win the initial war You face two more powerful nations that hate You, have lower population than them and US declare war on You every five years. But some people did it so its possible.
Luckily ACW right now starts in the 40s so US isnt all that powerful yet.

 

[oscar]

I remember there being some big Civil War mod for the first game that "fixed" things for the South. They might of converted it to the second.

 

[MasterSmithFandango]

So you just can't spend the time before the secession building up the south and ignoring the North? I know that's a bit gamey, but do you lose all of the improvements (railroads and such)?

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

See my post in regards to my experiences with the CSA. If you survive your first war with Mexico and second war with the USA, you'll be fine.

EDIT: Also the USA being a democracy, you can't even create Southern industrial base with State Capitalism. Luckily New America Party is a prominent one in the South, and if you don't have Jefferson method (this game really highlights how retarded it is) you'll have a good chance of making Brothers of the Revolution your primary party in the late 19th century and onwards.

 

[MasterSmithFandango]

I'm struggling a bit getting into it, so I don't think CSA should be my first game. I hear Belgium or the Netherlands is good for a first timer. The game is about 3x more complex than EU3, at least at first glance.

 

[Malakal]

I'm struggling a bit getting into it, so I don't think CSA should be my first game. I hear Belgium or the Netherlands is good for a first timer. The game is about 3x more complex than EU3, at least at first glance.

Belgium likes to be bumrushed by Netherlands and is in UK SoI which is a double edged sword. Try Prussia or Sweden for first games. Or Two Sicilies but creating Italy is hard for new players right now.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

I think Austria is a much better newcomer choice than Prussia, since they don't share a border with France and have considerable advantage in their province selection and population size.

 

[commie]

Been playing as Krakow, but am having trouble developing enough of anything with my one province so am stagnating. What's a good early plan for a small shitty nation?

 

[Malakal]

Been playing as Krakow, but am having trouble developing enough of anything with my one province so am stagnating. What's a good early plan for a small shitty nation?

Build a cement factory (since You have a lot of coal) to build up industry and then start electing parties until You get huge liberal higher house due to events. Get all political reforms and become a true democracy to invite immigrants and then switch back to conservatism.

Tech Ideological Thought as first tech and after that go for military (most important) and industrial techs.

After that two paths: hard one and borderline exploity one.

Easy one: depending on which SoI You are in (most likely Russia or Austria, pray for Prussia tho) declare war on either Austria or Russia and go for Polish territories. Countries in SoI get alliances with their great powers for free, so You can have no army at all and still get Your wargoals in wars - as long as they dont have their own goals that is or if Yours are cheaper in warscore. It is unlikely that any AI will add annexing You as their wargoal in war since it costs 10 infamy and You have but a one province - not worth it! Depending on luck You will grow or not.

Hard way: get immigration and later healthcare to grow population, convert most of Your population to soldiers and field as much as advanced troops as You can. Guards regiments split eith artillery preferred. Find an opportunity to declare war on Austria or Russia and crush them with machine guns/gas attack. Russia usually underperforms in tech so Your troops should be able to win at 20 to 1 odds (fortify Krakow and fight defensively).

Anyway after getting either Silesia or Congress Poland You are powerful enough (with tech) to shoot for Great Power status and for reconqering the rest of ancestral Polish lands.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

With Machine Guns, if you immediately attack once you get them, you should be able to go on the offensive as well. Russia is an easy target, since they suck at tech, but Austria needs to be dealt with asap after Machine Guns so you can grab Galicia.

Also, you should have two armies as close to 30,000 men each as possible, guard and artillery only as said before. One should occupy territory, the other should kill everything that moves.

And keep in mind, the warscore cost of gaining a state gets cheaper if you occupy that state and over time (I think). Going for two states with both Russia and Austria is a good idea. Prussia is a bit tougher, since they prioritize army tech almost every time and they have huge armies. However, France likes to buttfuck them, so wait for your chance.

 

[MasterSmithFandango]

So I just got to 1895 with Japan and they're the 4th Great Power, yadda yadda, but it's all from military and prestige. I may have fucked up by allowing the Liberals to get into power, but my Industrial score is like... 32 or something. Was Laissez-Faire a mistake? I can't seem to get enough craftsmen to go to factories, and I only have like 7 factories running. I'm loving the game, though.

 

[Malakal]

So I just got to 1895 with Japan and they're the 4th Great Power, yadda yadda, but it's all from military and prestige. I may have fucked up by allowing the Liberals to get into power, but my Industrial score is like... 32 or something. Was Laissez-Faire a mistake? I can't seem to get enough craftsmen to go to factories, and I only have like 7 factories running. I'm loving the game, though.

Yes, L-F right now is not the best choice. Since Capitalists base their decisions on demand of supplies but actual demand is different (PoPs demand luxuries or fertilizer but cant afford it). Use state capitalism to build and subsidize factories or they will bankrupt. Or use mods.

 

[MasterSmithFandango]

Damn, the game keeps crashing right after A House Divided whenever I try to open the tech screen.