Christina y Jorge y Las Malvinas?
For those who know me from the EU3, CK2 or AAR forums, you'll know that I tend to go on and on, so this will be a long post. But here I am in the V2 forums at last! I pray for your patience and hope you'll bear with my rambling.
So, here's my first ever game of Vicky 2 AHD - I got it over the last weekend on the Gamersgate sale. I picked Argentina because people on the forum say it's easy, so I guess I did pretty okay considering that I had no idea what to research or build. I'd really appreciate any comments and suggestions to help improve my gameplay.
I was basically a middle-ranking SP for most of the game. I became GP for a while shortly after the start of the game, then fell and could never catch up. I didn't have a navy at all until past the halfway mark, and I didn't know how to get out of the presidential dictatorship until over 3/4 of the way through. I couldn't into space either, mainly due to not realising the importance of literacy and education efficiency until halfway through the game, but it was pretty fun being the first nation in the world to start building factories producing high-tech goods. I also made sure never to break the infamy limit.
Here are the political maps.
Yes, apparently Britain decided that the Queensland hinterland was absolutely uninhabitable for some reason. And Russia just never colonised the northern tundra. And Sweden took the province on the Russian coast, and Russia didn't mind at all.
As you can see, I didn't attack any uncivs, and my only colony was Easter Island. My first move of the game was to attack Chile, then to reclaim my cores from Bolivia shortly after. Beyond that, it was a slow process of building up, waiting for the chance to attack Brazil when the totally weak and useless Netherlands took them out of France's sphere (which ended with both intervening anyway...), and opportunistic strikes against a newly-rebelled Gran Colombia and defenceless Uruguay and Haiti. Everyone else in the way got puppeted, eventually.
Somehow, I felt that in my game the AI GPs were basically working to preserve the
1836 status quo. Globally there were no significant transfers of territory between the GPs/SPs except the American-Mexican war, and Alsace-Lorraine (and Franche-Comte, more on that later). There were only three Great Wars, and all were between a France-Russia coalition, and the NGF and whichever GP they happened to be allied with at the time. What sort of annoyed me was the sheer amount of slacking the other GPs were doing. The UK did basically nothing interesting except colonise and annex bits of Egypt and India - and a rather strange and inconclusive war over Hawaii with the USA. The USA likewise ignored everything beyond Mexico and Texas. Most irritatingly of all, Austria seriously did absolutely nothing, no wars with NGF, Russia, Ottomans, or anyone else.
The complete lack of interest paid to anything outside Europe and Africa meant that China and Japan simply westernised and became GPs without having to fight a single war. Japan joined the slackers' club, but at least China attacked Russia for Primorye a few times, causing a massive European coalition to go after them which lagged my computer to hell and back. So, on my part, I felt this sheer amount of AI slacking just made it hard for me to get anywhere higher than a mid-ranking SP since none of the big players ever seriously collapsed.
Here's my scoreboard.
I have no idea why Austria got such a high score despite doing absolutely nothing except probably just sitting around and researching Prestige techs. Also note the westernised Korea who was never once attacked by anyone - another product of the AI slacking off.
My difficulty for most of the game was just managing my economy. I have no idea how people manage to rack up thousands and thousands of pounds per day - my treasury never broke £1.5 million and that was essentially a late-game war chest. Taxes were usually 90-95% poor, as low as possible for rich, and as much as needed to keep me in the black for the middle classes. Tariffs were 0% as far as possible, while all government spending sliders were full as long as I could afford it without tariffs. In fact, due to my poor income I spent most of the start of the game researching commerce and industry techs, while slacking off on military spending due to my relatively safe position. My poor income was one reason why I didn't want to sail around the world attacking uncivs, as that would mean I would actually have to pay for a proper navy and army to protect my conquests. However, focusing on commerce and industry basically cut back on my power projection ability which prevented me from ever regaining GP status.
My greatest bugbear was
the imperialist usurpers controlling Las Malvinas the French, thanks to their persistent interest in Brazil. My only wars with GPs were all against the French. Fighting them was a bloody nuisance, as they were obviously stronger - GPs just didn't want to ally with me for the whole game despite max relations, and the only help I got was from my puppets. I managed to get an alliance with the USA at a point when they were weaker, but they would never want to join me in my wars, even against puny countries, and they dishonoured when France attacked. Is VickyII mostly like this?
I fought three wars against France. The first time, they tried to intervene in my war against Brazil, but I gained enough warscore from occupying Brazil to just force my demands through. The third time, they just wanted to take my stuff, and none of their allies joined them, so eventually they gave up. However, the second war came about because they sphered me and caused my economy to crash, so I tried to quit their sphere - and basically brought a giant coalition against me. France, Russia, Italy, Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Portugal, Morocco, Egypt ... even bloody Austria joined, in what was probably the only war to which they actually sent some soldiers! I felt like just reloading, but I wanted to get my economy back, so I fought on...
Here's the problem ... so eventually I killed enough soldiers to get 20 warscore - the 25 from battles, less the warscore from occupying my islands and blockading all my ports as I had only a pathetic navy and naval tech. But they just wouldn't accept white peace. In truth, the AI was doing the smart thing as my country would have eventually collapsed due to war exhaustion, but one would think the loss of a whole stack of 100,000 soldiers, among many, many others, would cause them to rethink their plans. I added the Humiliation wargoal, but France refused to agree despite me having greater warscore than was required to enforce it. Eventually one of my puppets went bankrupt, and France's allies added 'Repay Debts' to their demands, so I agreed to repay debts many times over to end the war. Annoyingly enough, NGF attacked them for the Franche-Comte, only just right after I peaced out. But why was it impossible for me to demand white peace despite my positive warscore?
What do I need to do, or how much warscore do I need to get to force them into white peace?
This particularly irks me as in the third war, when France attacked me with no allies, I was able to fight my way up to that same 20 warscore, then add the Humiliation wargoal and enforce it against them. Why was it possible then? It's true I actually had a decent navy then, but it could not hold off the constant influx of French ships, and I still wasn't able to retake my islands.
Why was I able to enforce my demands the second time, while they kept refusing despite me having enough warscore to do so the first time?
Whew. That's a lot of ranting, but I'm truly seeking advice to get better at the game, including a better understanding of the game mechanics like the above. If you read through all that, I applaud you, thank you for your patience, and hope that you'll be able to provide me with an answer! Such is the tale of a newbie's first foray into the world of Vicky II! Till next time.
TLDR - In retrospect, this was probably my best achievement in the whole game. If it wasn't for me, France would be #2.
*contented smile*
