What's the best way to rush political/social reforms?

[jaxpac]

So suppose you were playing a game with the goal of rushing all reforms as soon as possible. What do you do? I'd be interested in both general answers as well as specific answers for certain nations if it makes a difference to your strategy.

[gav1230]

One thing you have to keep in mind that the upper class is usually liberal and the lower classes are usually conservative so restricting voting rights can actually be very beneficial. Try to fully allow unions near the start, this will increase demand for social reforms. Raising CON will also make it easier to pass reforms.

[moldeh]

I think gav means upper house, not voting rights, since that doesn't have anything to do with reforms. But yeah, that's correct.

[Klausewitz]

Also nations with the national value 'Freedom' get reforms much faster.

[calvinhobbeslik]

Also nations with the national value 'Freedom' get reforms much faster.

Which basically means USA and Brazil.

[Black_Shade]

Not enacting the reform the pops want is the best way to "rush" reforms. I.e. if the pops want voting rights, enact everything but voting rights and after every policy you enact, they will still clamor for reform, allowing you to pass more reforms. For political reforms it's almost always voting rights that people desire the most, so pass those last. Usually you can get all political reforms passed by the end of the liberal revolution as a European power by doing this.

You can do similar things with social reforms, but they tend to take longer to get going- usually around 1870 is when I am able to start passing them. I usually pump up healthcare first simply for the pop growth, and it has low demand among the pops (usually they want unemployment benefits).

Note that by not passing the reform they want you WILL get insane revolts. I'm talking 30-100 brigades in every province revolts, every single year. But you will get all your reforms passed faster than anyone else.

[Aszhalinde]

If you can reliably pump up militancy, you can pass reforms at certain thresholds. I don't recall what the threshold for political is (possibly 3 militancy?) but once the pops in your nation average out to 6+ militancy, you can automatically pass social reforms, as long as you ignore the possible political reforms along the way, which will unlock first. Liberal revolutions, losing wars, and putting an unpopular party in power are good ways to push militancy up fast. I once got a lucky early and looong liberal revolution as Sardinia-Piedmont and almost fully passed healthcare to the max level in 1840.

[jaxpac]

Not enacting the reform the pops want is the best way to "rush" reforms. I.e. if the pops want voting rights, enact everything but voting rights and after every policy you enact, they will still clamor for reform, allowing you to pass more reforms. For political reforms it's almost always voting rights that people desire the most, so pass those last. Usually you can get all political reforms passed by the end of the liberal revolution as a European power by doing this.

My main problem has always been lack of support in the upper house. Do you mean that I should worry about what the population in general wants, or what the voters want? How do these demands impact the upper house?

[ODaly]

If you can reliably pump up militancy, you can pass reforms at certain thresholds. I don't recall what the threshold for political is (possibly 3 militancy?) but once the pops in your nation average out to 6+ militancy, you can automatically pass social reforms, as long as you ignore the possible political reforms along the way, which will unlock first. Liberal revolutions, losing wars, and putting an unpopular party in power are good ways to push militancy up fast. I once got a lucky early and looong liberal revolution as Sardinia-Piedmont and almost fully passed healthcare to the max level in 1840.

It's not so much a militancy threshold as it is a spectrum. For every 1 point of militancy, 10% of conservatives in the upper house will agree to pass a political reform (10 points of militancy will make all conservatives favor passing a political reform). For example: if you have 3 points of militancy, and your upper house is approximately 20% liberal (depending on the % of reactionaries in the UH), you'll be able to pass a reform. If you have more liberals in the UH, you don't need as many conservatives to swing to a yes vote and so you won't need as much militancy.

[jaxpac]

So what is the best way to increase militancy?

[moldeh]

Add cheap wargoals (humiliate, free people) and don't complete them. Or just take the MIL increasing choices during the liberal revolution.

[jaxpac]

So you're saying start a war but prolong it indefinitely? Or do you deliberately lose the war and concede something?

[moldeh]

You start a war to humiliate a small unciv and then just white peace. You get 2 mil for each wargoal you don't complete. You also lose some prestige, but if you do it early then it's a minor loss.

[ShoGuL]

I always try to maximize militancy in the early parts of the game to enable maximum health care, it can be extremely potent in the mid and late game. I recently had a game as the Two Sicilies that ended up like this: (Right click, view image in new)



I honestly just got lucky and tried for RP reasons not to enact any reforms.. but it does show what it can potentially do if you manage it. In this case, I only united Italy in the late 19th century so my north italian pops haven't had as long to multiply.. but just look at the population in Campania - 3.4 million population in 1917, with maximum healthcare enabled around 1845.

I think it's easier if you only have one or two states because you will be able to push militancy higher during the liberal revolution.

[SuicideBomber]

Aside from numerous early proxy wars, is there any way to get high MIL to push reforms?

[yodaime]

Aside from numerous early proxy wars, is there any way to get high MIL to push reforms?

war exhaustion. Let some lolcountry occupy your provinces and when you got 50%+ war exhaustion, use your armies and win the war. This will get you huge militancy for couple years. Although, it might back-fire

[Scooot]

doesn't increasing militancy increase the chances of rebels revolting?

[rowanquigley]

You can cheat to gain all political and social reforms which I occasionally do to speed up some.

Using event 18000 will get you communists in your upper house which gives you social reforms.

Using event 18030 will get you liberals in your upper house which gives you political reforms.

Don't worry, the Upper house resets at the end of every year to within normal range.

[tdpatriots12]

doesn't increasing militancy increase the chances of rebels revolting?

Yes.

It's a risk/reward thing.

Basically the tactics described here amount to deliberately antagonizing your people so the government will be spooked into passing sweeping reforms before the country collapses into rebellion, more or less.

[SuicideBomber]

Rebellions start at certain point, Mil 8 or so and you can pass reforms at 5-6 Mil. It is sad that for most absolute monarchies common situation is no reforms possible before 1870 or, 1900. The only realistic way to push them is proxy wars.