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VinceDN

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Jun 22, 2007
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With the €5 pack on sale I decided to jump on the Victoria bandwagon after playing it on and off at friends for a few times the past year. For whatever reason, whenever I try a campaign in this game I get absolutely destroyed by liberal rebels & friends before 1845 :wacko:

I just don't get it anymore. Atm I'm playing Sweden facing +- 135 partisan regiments facing off against my 0 regiment army (that was deleted by the 60 pan scandinavian rebels that came before them). Right now I can do nothing but sit by idly as my country is being occupied by an insane Norwegian rebel army that about 7x the amount of regiments i could possibly field at this point in the game. I haven't even been playing for more than two hours. What am I doing wrong?

This was current strategy:
1. Started off with massive red numbers so cranked taxes to 100% for poor, 90% for middle, 50% for rich.
2. 100% in education, all the rest had to be cut to stay around +2 income, meaning my army is next to useless at 0% funding
3. Waited until my economy stabilised while NF'ing a crisis in Finland and researched cultural techs to ride the inventions to Great Power Status
4. Got destroyed by rebels

That's it. Where did I go wrong? If the guides are right I need to play more passively until industrialising around 1860, so the earlygame is mostly about securing a good base for future industries. But none of that matters if I can't even survive the liberal revolutions - any ideas?
 
Did you pass any political reforms? On the summary box for Politics at the top there's an icon of a gavel: when it's lit up, your militancy is high enough for you to pass some kind of reform. Passing one will lower your militancy, staving off a great revolution.
 
No I haven't passed any reforms. When I look at my POP's issues it's very split between a variety of problems so theres not really one reform I can do that would please everyone. Which should I put in first? Censored Press seems to be highest on their priority list now
 
Don't please every one, I fact I pass the reform nobody wants and keep going to get more reforms done. Than I give them their reform
 
Odd, because I can survive the start with Sweden just fine with no Reforms at all, I usually play my countries like a Conservative/Reactionary Autocrat the longest I can just like in real life. Do you have AHD and HoD Expansions?

First, it is perfectly normal to run into red the first turns as the economy AI sets itself up. Do not panic! Sweden starts with a very large surplus fund, so you can last a few years in deficit as you tinker your economy. Even if you do run into debt it won't hit bankrupcy until you cannot even afford your interest payment. It's allright to accumulate some level of debt early if it is for good purposes.

Putting your Education at 100% a completely useless budget drain. Sweden is very educated from the start. Contrarily to EU you do not need to put all your sliders at 100%. Use your NF to increase Clergymen until it reaches around 2% for each state. For Sweden this percentage is quite enough. Education and Administration sliders should be increased just enough that it steadily increases your percentage over the long term, but if there are too many Clergymen and Bureaucrats these will be a budget drain because their income is provided by the State (which means you). Both of them I'd set at 51-55% at the most until you reach the desired goal (1% for Bureaucrats), than decrease it back to 50% and keep it there. Decrease your Land and Navy Expenditures to 50% (NEVER lower than that) to save money in peacetime, and with this surplus decrease your POPs taxation. Ideally, Rich and Middle should be taxed the lowest, but you can tax your Poors just enough (with enough tariffs to compensate) that you maintain surplus; if it means taxing these proletarians to the max from the start, so be it. But your short term would be to find money so you can decrease it steadily. The right balance is taxing them so that it brings enough money for your budget while they have enough funds to fulfill at least their Everyday needs.

Do you build any sustainable industry? Just because you can build lots of lumber mills in Sweden doesn't mean that these are profitable to build just yet. Go in your Trade tab and slide your mouse arrow over the different goods to see if they are in high demand or not. Down at the left you can also see which goods are in demand from your industries and your POPs. Concentrate on goods in high demand, either domestic or foreign, and fulfill this demand. Check whether these factories make a profit, then click off the green mark underneath to remove subsidies. People do not revolt with a filled stomach and cushioned furniture.

As soon as you hit the pause button Craftsmen will start to appear, and these will need jobs that pay. No jobs means no pay, and no pay means they are dissatisfied. Good pay means they can buy goods domestically (if produced) OR import them (if not produced). The more needs POPs do fill, the less likely their MIL will increase. Plus the profits from your industries should be fueling money into your budget enough that the taxes should be lower even for Poor stratas. Hell, by 1850 I can even go into negative tariffs and still keep a surplus.
 
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I did the exact same thing as you and tried Sweden for my first game (and then tried a few years as Belgium). Liberals get way out of hand too fast and staying a conservative absolute monarchy seems to be a really bad idea as far as I can tell. I also can't see how to get up to Great Power Status. I seem to be stuck in some kind of purgatory around 10th or 11th place.

Does anyone have any advice?
 
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Passing political reforms will reduce the consciousness and militancy, even if just a small part of the population wants that reform.
So you can always do that if mil gets too high.

Always max you army maintaince slider if you get rebells and wait until the organization is max before you attack them.

Dont be afraid to tax everyone 100% in the beggining.

You start with a litteracy of 80% or something like that with sweden so there is no need to max education spending. Just leave that at 50% that will save money.

If you want to become a great power you can research the prestigetechs and build some ships and conquer some colonies in africa or asia.
Also look at the decision to become scandinavia. It is kind of the goal as Sweden, then you will get Denmark for free.

Dont use the make crisis in Finland if its your first game.
There is a proverb "never fight a landwar in Russia" or something like that.
 
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