Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Urist McScoopbeard]

Sphering basically makes it so other nations cannot declare war in your sphere without you getting a casus belli and also prevents them from allying with said nations unless they de-sphere them first, which is nigh impossible in many cases. It protects your potential future assets essentially. At least, that's what i've been picking up.

Woah necroed.  For the steam sale I have no doubt.

Yis.

[Karlito]

The main thing a sphere does is economic. Basically all countries take whatever goods they want from their local markets, and then the surplus goes to the world market, where purchasing is done by higher ranked countries first. Adding a country to your sphere combines its local market with yours, so you buy goods from it (tariff-free) before anyone else can, and they can also buy goods from you or your other spherelings. So, for example, if you're playing Britain with your massive textile industry, you want to have Egypt in your sphere, because that's where all the cotton is.

Anyways, i'm totally baffled on how to go about getting the politcal party I want in to office. I have been screwed over twice now in the late mid-game by getting stuck with either a ridiculously loyal and contrnt pop that keeps a conservative-intervensionist party in power or with a liberal pop that only wants to be reactionary. Both times I was trying to achieve socialist/communist parties/governments.

This is why Constitutional Monarchy is the best government type. You're free to ignore the election results and select  whatever party you want to be in power.

EDIT: Using POP Demands mod.

The Victoria 2 modding scene is a contentious one, being based mostly in 4chan, but a common opinion (that I share), is that PDM makes the game way easy and makes the economy even more broken than it is in vanilla. The player nation will never run out of money but AI countries are constantly going bankrupt.
I've had a lot of fun with Historical Improvement Project, if you just want something that adds more events/decisions/TAGs.

My current game is with Spain.  Its looking pretty inevitable that I'm going to lose great power status.  Spain seems pretty good from the choose your nation screen but what they don't tell you is that your population is super agrarian.  You get left behind going into the industrial age.

Spain will inevitably slip into secondary power status or lower without the guiding hand of the player. The Ottomans are in a similar situation. There's a reason why the United States of 1898 was able to so easily defeat what had been at one point one of the greatest empires on the planet.
From day 1, you need to push super hard to increase your population's literacy, by maxing out your education budget, encouraging clergy up to 4% with your National Foci, and researching Biologism as soon as it becomes available.

[Urist McScoopbeard]

@PDM, really? Huh, I just saw it recommended a ton so I started it up with PDM and haven't played without it since. I'll have to try vanilla more or HIP.

On another note, how is Constitutional Monarchy different from HM's government?

[Karlito]

Same thing really. I guess its only called HM's government in-game? It's been a while since I've actually played

[Rakonas]

I don't think it's really different. There's also "Prussian Constitutionalism" and I haven't noticed anything different about it, maybe it's minor number differences. I play Vickymod though since I still think it's the best.

Playing as Spain I recommend putting reactionaries in power for state capitalism and then building factories in every state as soon as possible. Your population will automatically promote to craftsmen in small numbers when there are factory jobs, so it's best to start early. Just remember the universal benefit of vertical synergy, like putting your liquor factories in your grain state. It's even worth it to build mostly empty factories, like glass in the case of liquor, for the synergy bonus. You should actually have a nice amount of money as Spain so it should work fine.

[Schaep]

There's little difference, prussian constitutionalism is limited to socialist, conservative, liberal or reactionary ruling parties.

[Schaep]

woops

[EnigmaticHat]

So playing as Spain has actually been very fun.  I kept losing great power status; so far I've lost it three times I lost it and then regained it.  I've seen the "we are losing great power status" countless times.  Despite very little combat happening, its really felt like a desperate race for that 8 place slot.

Ironically, my real breakthrough was a war with France.  There was an international crisis over the liberation of Poland; I joined the UK in hopes that they would resolve it quickly and I could go on with my life without losing the 22 prestige.  Turned out that the moment I gain great power status and have to deal with this bullshit is the moment a crisis actually goes hot.  UK+NGF+Belgium+Me Vs Russia+France+Austria.  Although vastly weaker than the other factions, I did have a series of forts across the French border and a cutting-edge navy of commerce raiders.  The few French armies that attacked me I drowned under a sea of regulars, with the reserves standing by in case things got hairy.  The UK helped, although this may have screwed me later in the war as the French committed troops to my meaningless front.

Meanwhile the ocean to my south was a filled with Russian, UK, and NGF navies fighting each other.  I had a mere 13 commerce raiders and 5 older ships but I made them count, darting in to help my allies or fight transports while running from any losing battles.  At one point I picked on 18 Galleons and defeated them with the 13 commerce raiders.  These fights catapulted me up past even the 8th great power slot into the 7th and then the 6th.

Unfortunately the war on the mainland was going badly.  What I hadn't counted on when I picked my side is that none of the allies except the NGF bordered Russia, and the NGF ALSO bordered France.  Their forces were sandwhiched and an occupation began from both sides.  The UK armies using my lands as a beachhead to attack France were defeated, causing larger French forces to to turn on me for occupation.  I found an exposed army and attacked with everything...

...everything died, pretty much.  I want to say that they beat us because of their better tech, or their 3:1 artillery advantage.  Or the fact that they were attacking on plain.  But to be honest, I'm pretty sure its because every time I looked at the fight they had at least a 5 point advantage on the dice rolls.  It was still a decently even fight despite that, I mean we had a huge numbers advantage and the French hadn't completely filled up the front.  Still, no savescumming (except due to the bankruptcy glitch, TAKE OUT A LOAN BEFORE YOU LOSE MONEY TO AN EVENT OPTION), so I rolled with it.

My navy was never destroyed but my armies were looking unlikely to recover to beat even one French stack.  I pulled back and hoped for the best.  The "best" turned out to be the UK surrendering the losing war before their allies were completely annihilated.  They were humiliated, and now have less than 50 prestige.  They dropped down to 2nd and later to 3rd.  Austria was devastated beyond any hope of recovering, the NGF somehow ended up OK despite getting brutalized militarily.  But the real loser was Belgium.  For some reason Russia added a cut down to size wargoal against poor Belgium; they were devastated in the war, lost their entire military and the ability to recruit new regiments, their economy is done for and they lost all their prestige.  And to think they used to be in the running for great power

So, because of our high-profile victories in the ultimately hopeless fight to liberate Poland, Spain is now seen as the 5th most prestigous country in the world.  That combined with Belgium and Austria being taken out of the running for GP means that Spain now has a secure place on the world stage... at least for a few years.  Just in time for Japan to swoop in and take a slot.  My military and industry are both weak (although this improved a bit since the war); I have more prestige then military and industry score combined.  Spain is basically a paper tiger seen as impressive but actually second-rate.  My government has a policy of never losing face, ever, even it means spending large amounts of money.

A decade later, a plan I set in motion a while back to shoot forward in naval tech and then slowly assemble a navy knowing it won't be obslete for a while has paid off and I now have my first ironclad as of 1873, with many more pending.  Unfortunately my plans to improve literacy overshot and I now have .7% more clergy members than the 2% the internet says I need, and massive education spending which I'll have to cut back on.  Hopefully the clergy won't hate me even more than they currently do for that.  I've taken out 63K in loans and that needs to change.  Oh, and Washington was recently taken by anarcho-liberal rebels and the US government now believes in hardcore free trade, atheism, and full citizenship for everyone.  Huh.

[Hetairos]

2% clergy is when the research point gain is maximised. Literacy gain tops out at 4%, and Spain usually needs plenty of it.

Nice story, by the way. I need to finish that EU4 Commonwealth campaign and convert it to V2. I hope it works.

[PanH]

Yeah, I wouldn't always choose the UK side. They're pretty terrible allies. Also, unless you have interest in the crisis (weakening a neighbour, or something like that), wait a bit before choosing a side. Once it gets red, you need to choose but before that I wouldn't recommend.

Also, people dont hate you for wages, or taxes per se. They need to have basic needs met otherwise they'll get some militancy. But if your market has enough to fullfill their needs, you can tax them max and they wont care.

[Karlito]

But the real loser was Belgium.  For some reason Russia added a cut down to size wargoal against poor Belgium; they were devastated in the war, lost their entire military and the ability to recruit new regiments, their economy is done for and they lost all their prestige.  And to think they used to be in the running for great power

You know, Belgium was once called the Spanish Netherlands. Reclaim your lost territories for the glory of your Empire!

[Karnewarrior]

I don't usually grow territorially in Victoria,  much, with the exception of colonies, and even then I usually lose the scramble for africa so I have fewoffensof those.

I also suck at military, but my industry is always booming far ahead of my neighbors, such that they're so dependent on my goods I never need to take offensive to win a war.

I play crusader kings as a core builder, eu as a map painter, and vicky as a economic denominator

[a1s]

Yeah, I wouldn't always choose the UK side. They're pretty terrible allies.

It was often said during this period that the sun never set over the British Empire, because god didn't trust Englishmen in the dark.

[Loud Whispers]

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Awaken slumbering thread, I am thinking of improving Vic2 with a mod that fixes Europe's borders. This is a working concept, any ideas on how I can further improve the world?

[George_Chickens]

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Awaken slumbering thread, I am thinking of improving Vic2 with a mod that fixes Europe's borders. This is a working concept, any ideas on how I can further improve the world?

I have but one request. Please do not fall into the trap of railroading the player like so many major Victoria 2 mods do (*cough* HPM). Also, giving the splinter states (CSA, Heavenly Kingdom, etc) actual armies instead of having them start with nothing may be a good idea.