Below is the first 'serious' game I've played in Vic 2. It's not a particularly impressive attempt, but I am still learning the mechanics. At least I managed to industrialize without causing my economy to crash & burn, though those idiot capitalists certainly made a valiant effort to do so, what with their... artillery factory spam.
My only other possessions are Johore (first conquest, purely for the precious metals) and Brunei. The latter was the result of me prowling around for oil in the early-mid aughts, and Brunei was the only unsphered, unallied unciv w/ oil that I could find. Later, an oil event did fire for Nejd's northern state a few years ago, and I quickly snatched it up.
I westernized around, oh... 1873 or 1874. Could've done it around the turn of the decade, but I had somehow avoided getting sphered by that point, so I waited a few years in the vain hope that someone would sphere me. Half the GPs tried, but... well, they somehow got themselves into an influence stalemate, so I just went ahead and westernized anyway.
Ranks higher because I saved, exited out, then realized I'd forgotten to take the above pic. When I loaded up said save, my rank had gone up. Guess I was tied with someone? Meh.
Highest Rank I achieved was #9 in the 1910s, though only for a few months. At the time, a good chunk of my industry was based on automobiles and, to a lesser extent, aeroplanes. Then, my supply of rubber more or less
stopped, causing a 1/3rd drop in my industrial score, as well as massive amounts of unemployment among craftsmen and clerks.
World Map. Nothing weird, 'cept for the "Swedish Russian Empire" in northern Siberia.