Forming Italy

since i wanted to test the game with the 1.4beta (last time i playied it was with the 1.1) to see if it was too hard to unify italy i started a game as Piedmont...

first i took the east swiss declaring war on day one... rise tax... researching only culture things that gave boost on education, plurality and research point (exception made for one that gave me some prestige)... right after swiss i went to the tafa region of morocco...
started the construction of one cement factory and a glass factory in piedmont and one cement factory in sardinia

one humiliate war with egypt, one with morocco, one with algeria, one with greece.

i was the most powerfull italian state since then (wich was like one or 2 years after the starting date) and by 58 i finally became a world power and fired an event that must be new (since i didn't remember it from 1.1) wich annexed every other italian nations to me turning me into italy...

seriously, it's painfully easy to form italy... but i must admit is not as easy as it was on 1.0 or 1.1 since it take u some time now.

oh, i never fired cavour's diplomacy decision.

i should see on 1.4beta if i can still play krakow and annex all the central europe by 1890... hope THAT is a bit harder now.

but, seriously guys, not able to form italy and claiming it's hard is.... it just isn't true

So the only way to form Italy is to launch completely unrealistic wars and to take over half switzerland. Needs to be a better way.

By far the easiest and most plausible way to form Italy as Sardinia Piedmont is becoming the top ranking italian state (something very easy after a conquest war against Two Sicilies) and waiting for the Red Shirts to do your work (and pray they raise in a tiny italian state, because that´s the only way they´ll win and will give you the option to form Italy). All quite lame, if you ask me.

u can always be a gp and take everyone into ur sphere.... u can annex people by war... there are many ways. some are faster than others but all of them ar fairly easy as far as i can see it

do u want a chain event that state "u win"?

No idea said:

AFAIK, the unification event is given to the Italian country which ranks higher. No need to be a GP. Only thing you need as S P is being sure you are above the Two Sicilies in the ranks.

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That makes sense. Thanks for the clarification.

Belegurt said:

but, seriously guys, not able to form italy and claiming it's hard is.... it just isn't true.

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Your right, it's not very difficult. It does require some serious patience though.

Male said:

But on a more serious note.

My saviour was Prussia. They were fighting Austria and France on and on like a mad man. So I made a full use of them, attacked Austria. They brought some heavy stacks but my generals were just top-notch. (another lucky thing). Also all Italian minors joined me which helped significantly. So I took Lombardia and one minor in my SOI as a result.

Don't know how but I managed to steal S-P from frances SOI quite easily even though S-P was ranking 9-10 spot. I didn't have the same luck with Papal states. France hold on them so I was just praying to god Prussia might attack france AND THEY DID, so I just declared a war on france, had some badass fightings but finally I managed and won papal states for my SOI.

Then I had another war on Austria (Yes, prussia had another war) for that last SOI of them in Lucca, I succedded yet again, could form Italy.

From then on, I basically just spammed soldiers and no one cared to attack me.

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That is exactly how it worked out historically. S-P with France to get Northern Italy while Austria was preoccupied with Prussia. Then unifying and getting Rome after France started a war with Prussia/Germany in 1870. Without German Unification there would not of been an Italian Unification historically.

I find that by the time you eventually form Italy half the population of the peninsula has already emigrated to the Americas. Even worth it anymore?

Okay maybe im exaggerating but after the series of wars and emigration its impossible to keep a united Italy at a GP status.

Gwax23 said:

I find that by the time you eventually form Italy half the population of the peninsula has already emigrated to the Americas. Even worth it anymore?

Okay maybe im exaggerating but after the series of wars and emigration its impossible to keep a united Italy at a GP status.

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It's a bug. Pop growth is way too low and it cannot match the emmigration. In 1.2 it works fine, actually you can unify italy and don't suffer from pop growth.
Generally speaking 1.2 is still only one playable version of Victoria 2.

I'm just playing my first game as SP in 1.3 and forming italy was incredibly easy...
in a first war I took sicily while their army detroyed papal states (the only one I called for this war)
doing this I pushed them down from great power and when armyless papal state was taken over I was the one who received the crown in the gutter... I took the austrian cores later after building up my army and when I was confident enough France wouldn't help their ally.

other surprising fact from this game is that china became industrial quickly and was number 1 in 1914 (until dreadnought spam by GB using my telephones since I was the first to produce them and I didn't build dreadnought because I thought it was radio I needed and not telephone)

a quick question while I'm here, what are the consequences of militancy and conciousness and which should I choose... and if conciousness is not a good thing how do I reduce it, I've seen it steadily increasing during the whole game

I usually choose militancy since its easier to kill angry rebels than it is to make them stupider (TV hasn't been invented yet). Also militancy helps you to pass reforms.

It's not too difficult to form Italy in 1.3 usually but sometimes it can become quite challanging.

e.g. my last Two Sicilies game:
- Switzerland annexed the Savoy from Sardinia-Piedmont in the early game
- as the Two Sicilies became a GP I saw Austria make an alliance with Britain
- Austria lost its alliance with the UK during a war, but then made another alliance with France
- by the time I sphered most of the Italian minors, Switzerland AND France attacked S-P again to annex the island of Sardinia
- got called by S-P, after some tough battles we managed to obtain a white peace (thank God the French didn't mobilize)
- war against Austria around 1860, France didn't join probably because of the truce, annexed Lombardy and liberated Venetia (ended the war with a huge debt due to the fleet I had to mantain in the Adriatic sea)
- after the war I couldn't unify Italy because the Savoy happens to be an Italian core (the Two Sicilies don't have Cavour's Diplomacy as a decision)
- Switzerland was in France's sphere and ally but it was so silly to attack Sardinia-Piedmont again when the truce expired (this time France dind't join its greedy minion)
- the Swiss got raped by the coalition of all the Italian states and forced to release the Savoy and cede half of their territory
- Italy is formed, #6 GP, colonies, etc.

In this campaign there have been at least 3 times in which the situation appeared almost helpless: Austria getting those mighty allies, then the Italian coalition getting involved in a war with France (as I was replacing infantry with guards, luckily I had stockpiled some liquor and luxury clothes) and finally risking another war with the French over the Savoy.

But then again there have been some lucky moments too because Austria eventually lost its alliance with the UK and the the first war caused by Switzerland protected us by France during the conflict for Lombardy and Venetia, and the second one kept France away again (also, S-P added an "annex Eastern Switzerland" wargoal on its own, thus saving 10 infamy).

So unless you are hopelessly unlucky there's always a chance to turn a difficult situation into an interesting game which can even be more fun than usual.

The Giribaldi event is insane. Playing as Two Sicilies, it seems to happen every 5-10 years when one of the minors get overrun (first time 1839). I have had to cheat myself to military access to defeat the rebels in stupid minors.

In my current game I formed Italy with the Two Sicilies. In the beginning I annexed Tunisia, the Dumyat region and a part of India (I forget the exact country, but it was just above and west of all of GB's land and satelites, and was fairly populous). After becoming a GP I started to sphere all the Italian States, with the exception of Tuscany which I conquered because I needed the population/industry to stay a GP. I managed to grab Lombardia in a war with Austria as it was being attacked by the NGF, and the last thing I had to do in order to unify was to sphere Modena or Parma.

Da-V-Man said:

In my current game I formed Italy with the Two Sicilies. In the beginning I annexed Tunisia, the Dumyat region and a part of India (I forget the exact country, but it was just above and west of all of GB's land and satelites, and was fairly populous). After becoming a GP I started to sphere all the Italian States, with the exception of Tuscany which I conquered because I needed the population/industry to stay a GP. I managed to grab Lombardia in a war with Austria as it was being attacked by the NGF, and the last thing I had to do in order to unify was to sphere Modena or Parma.

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What I miss in my Two Sicilies game is a decision or event for the ambition to unify Italy. It could give CB for putting in sphere or conquering Italian provinces. It should require being a GP and probably being the only Italian GP, and could probably be similar to the Prussian/Austrian hegemony over Germany thing.

Italy is the easiest thing to form. You wait a few years and it's all it takes. In my recent game i do Papal States without forming Italy. It's pretty cool and i am almost done.