So I've been looking at Victoria 2 ever since I bought the Paradox Complete Pack on Steam. I've however always been frightened off by the graphs and data everywhere. After a long love affair with EU3 I think it's time to explore other games as well.
So some questions.
The expansion: is it worth it? Don't really have much intrest in reinacting the American Civil War and I'm wondering if the other features added are worth it for the current price.
Mods: Is there any decent mods out there that improve/fixes the gameplay without changing too much from the game. Something like Miscmods for EU3 would be a prime example. Would the expansion pack mess with some of the "prime" mods?
Gameplay: Any good tutorials that explain the basic concepts of the game/hints? Are there any "bad habits" I should avoid picked up from EU3?
Lastly, for some strange reason, I want to try and a make a highly liberal Arabian country, preferelly Morocco. I want to try to make Islam the centre of rational thought and technology again, is this even remotely possible for a new-comer?
Don't have the DLC, so I couldn't say whether it's worth it or not. Likewise, no mods (other than modding the country files to convert smoothly from EU3).
The main issues with Morocco/random Arab liberal-to-be country are going to be:
1. What political parties are available. For what you're describing, you'd want one something like this:
"Hizb ut-Tahrir"
Trade Policy: Free Trade
Economic Policy: Laissez Faire or Interventionism
Religious Policy: Moralism
Citizenship Policy: Limitied Citizenship or Full Citizenship
War Policy: Any (although if you imagine them as an outgrowth of the Sufis, probably Anti War or Pacifism)
That's going to be a tough order, although the People's Union in the Ottoman Empire comes close. Most liberal parties are going to secular or plural, and most moralist parties are going to be conservative or reactionary. You can always pick a county and edit in a new party like the one above.
2. The other big problem is that your population is likely to be inclined towards conservatism or even reactionary leanings. Lack of industrialization means that your population is divided into two main classes:
--Farmer/laborers, who tend towards conservativism
--Aristocrats/officers, who tend towards conservatism/reactionary.
You'll also have priests, who can run the gamut, and soldiers, who tend to run to the extremes.
In order to liberalize effectively (especially if you want to transition away from an absolute monarchy), you'll need to get capitalists and clerks. Which means factories, which you can't build as an uncivilized nation. If you had some capitalists and tilted your economy to give them as much money as possible (0% Rich taxes, Commerce techs out the wazoo), they could build factories, but that would require you to have State Capitalism in place at bare minimum (Interventionism preferred, and Laissez Faire greatly preferred). Interventionism would actually be the best to get started, because you could subsidize any factories that get built, as they'll likely be operating at a loss until there's enough workers to get them running at a decent clip. You'll also need to spend pretty generously on education in order to get enough of a literate segment of society to be clerks and craftsmen.
Best bet for something like that in the Muslim world would be the Ottomans, but then you're enmeshed in all the Great Game stuff too. Ottomans are *not* easy to play. Persia is another option. The North African states like Algiers and Morocco are going to be difficult because of relatively worthless provinces and Great Powers in France and Spain who are all too happy to cross the water and wreck your shit.