A couple of questions about Mexico

[unmerged(157031)]

I've been playing Victoria for about 9 months now, so I'd say that I have a pretty good grasp of the game. Mind you, there are a couple of things that still get past me, which came apparent when I decided to play as Mexico for the first time (and yes, I chose to play as Mexico because RDR came out the other day).

Firstly, there's the issue of Mexico's historical borders. I want to at least keep the Northern border historical. I tried holding on to and selling the 'colonies' (for lack of a better word) of Mexico, but the U.S simply invaded at a later date (1861) and utterly decimated me. I lost a good deal of industry in California, so I too the "bugger this nonsense" approach to the game, and started again. What I want to know is this: If you invade Texas at the historical date with U.S intervention, is there an event that reshuffles the border to it's historical shape? If not, will the U.S only ask for land that they have cores on?

Secondly there's the question of the ever obscure mechanic, immigration. I know that this gets asked a hell of a lot on here, but with a country like Mexico it's kind of essential that I know exactly how to get as much immigration as I need. I can usually get some immigration, but not nearly in the quantities that I need. From what I understand, people will only come if you have at least some minor social reforms, low taxes and certain resources that POPs like (e.g. precious metal).Am i right here? How can I get people to flood to the country with at least one very small POP per province (to work the RGO's while the Mexicans work the factories) ?

I'm sure that there's a couple of other things that I want to know that i can't remember right now, so I will keep this thread updated. Any and all help would, as usual, be appreciated.

 

[Dyranum]

Er, having a liberal full citizenship party with pluralism as religious issue (I think) in power should help.
Having a high plurality should also help in getting immigrants.

On a side note: the computer US has some weird cheat-event that gets them their historical borders if they win a war vs mexico.

 

[unmerged(157031)]

Having a liberal full citizenship party with pluralism as religious issue (I think) in power should help.
Having a high plurality should also help in getting immigrants.

On a side note: the computer US has some weird cheat-event that gets them their historical borders if they win a war vs mexico.

That could be problematic then; the only party with full citizenship is socialist...

Also, does that 'cheat event' fire under any U.S victory? Could I give them considerably more/less land than the historical treaty and still have them form their 'real' borders?

 

[Dyranum]

That could be problematic then; the only party with full citizenship is socialist...

Also, does that 'cheat event' fire under any U.S victory? Could I give them considerably more/less land than the historical treaty and still have them form their 'real' borders?

I don't know how much socialist parties affect it, but a conservative party is a definite no, they ain't good for immigration.

If US wins against Mexico (both computers) then it will fire, no matter how much land the US actually got.
Since I've never played Mexico, I have no real idea if the cheat-event fires against humans (it doesn't fire if the US is a human player, that's for sure).
I would guess that it works against a human Mexico but I'm not sure.

 

[Demon_son]

i know from playing Mexico you can turn down the event that allows the US to purchase a large section of Mexico, but since they will declare war on you repeatedly to get their cores, it might be worth just gradually selling land off to them, mainly for tech?
Mexico has got some gold provinces (later) that allow a large amount of immigration if managed properly, at least i managed to get a very large population in those states when i annexed Mexico as Texas

 

[pizza de oveja]

Well IMHO if you play mexico you need to accept that you will loose the northern frontier to US expansion.

Every country has somethings that the player wont like, like the netherlands will probably be invaded by this or that empire, France will get DOW'ed by prussia no matter what they do, Japan will get into an eternal war with Russia if they anex Korea, Prussia will get in a war with russia after creating germany...

Most players I suppose use cheats and exploits to deal with these issues. In my glorious prussian campaing I clearly got advantage of the poor combat ai and lured those 70+ MEGAstacks of russian troops so they would fall into encirclements that a 5 year player would have avoided thus satelitazing Russia after a few years (allowed by the fact that shockingly enough france and/or britain didnt attack me at the same time due to the fact that a country cannot be DOWed if its already at war, and the ai is very poor in diplomacy to form unstopable alliances).

That was un imposible historical outcome, so it would be really unfair for a player to complain about russia declaring war, or any other historical constraint for the player's country to do as he wishes, when you have so many advantages against the ai.

Im currently preparing my econmy for the prussian war that will trigger in the 1860. Luckily for me I have a computer oponent that runs on predictable scripts, if I was in a multiplayer game I would be already fighting a coalition of three empires! oh that would really hurt

 

[Neslepaks]

The US will only get stronger over time, so you have to strike early. I would suggest going into debt, maybe even bankrupt, for a bunch of hussar cavalry to rush them as early as possible. Making the US a sattelite is the safest option, but might be hard to justify role-play-wise. Trying to decimate their industrial base is another option, take new england and new york, then release them or sell them to the UK. The latter might be sounder as that would probably result in a long, ugly war between the US and UK, to your benefit.

 

[unmerged(157031)]

Well, like I said, I originally intended to lose the northern territory. Like all people though I am naturally greedy and proud, and simply couldn't bare to purposefully lose a war or to sell off all of the northern land. I found out the oh so hard way that the U.S doesn't stay with a meager army of about 6 divisions after the civil war. This time around I intend to stick to my plan and just sell it off. The first time I sold a small part of California and a couple of Yankee infested 'colonies' for a solid £100,000, so I expect that selling it all off could make me a tidy profit indeed...

As for immigration, I will go liberal early and use my now ridiculous cash reserves to start up the various social reforms. Any other advice on immigration though?

 

[Neslepaks]

As for immigration, I will go liberal early and use my now ridiculous cash reserves to start up the various social reforms. Any other advice on immigration though?

I find that THE most important thing regarding immigration (aside from being in the americas) is having high plurality, after that having a liberal or socialist party in power (altough liberal is slightly better I think), then that party's immigrant policy, then reforms. Keep in mind that immigration bonus from reforms are disregarded if you are in debt.

I've had a good amount of immigration with a conservative party as long as I had a higher plurality than anyone else, but being a democracy with a liberal party in power should at least get you some immigration, even with low plurality.

EDIT: Oh, and save some of that money for that nasty event where you get gang-banged by the europeans if you don't pay them off. Can't remember exactly how that worked, but have a look in the event file.

 

[unmerged(157031)]

EDIT: Oh, and save some of that money for that nasty event where you get gang-banged by the europeans if you don't pay them off. Can't remember exactly how that worked, but have a look in the event file.

If you don't pay them off, your relations with the European great powers plummet. If you do pay, then you must pay £100,000. To me this is incredibly stupid; you can bee in a very favorable position with a healthy income and no revolt risk, yet the event will still tell you that you are in fact on the brink of civil war and living in the poor house.

I had no idea that socialist was favorable for immigration. The socialist party is the only one with full citizenship, but it also has planned economy. I thin that I'll use a liberal party to get immigration and socialist to put the immigrants to work in my capitalist built factories. It shouldn't be too hard to sway the populous to these ideals on universal suffrage. (It costs a merge £1000 for Mexico.)

 

[pizza de oveja]

Well the game is after all done by sweedish programers...

Apparently people love to emigrate to socialist dictatorships and would never go to a conservative liberal (not in the anglosaxon meaning of the term) country where you have freedoms, property rights and stuff

 

[MannheimCouncil]

Socialists work fine for immigration and that's not that surprising as they don't form dictatorships.

Concerning the US: If you play on normal or easier you'll be able to hold your own without cheating or bankrupting yourself. The "Manifest Destiny" event which in 90% of the case will give the US cores on all your northern provinces is annoying, but pre-civil war you'll be able to hold out, if you get a bunch of cavalry, some infantry and a powerful ally (UK works fine). You'll go into debt, but you'll be able to climb out again by researching the correct industrial techs quickly (you need some army techs first, though). To make things a bit sensible from a roleplaying point of view you should go for Texan provinces and war reparations in the first war. You won't get these without occupying D.C., which is unrealistic, but there you go.

During the Civil War you've got a choice:

Ally with the C.S.A. (better guarantee them as soon as they appear, but before the US declares on them) and fight the North to a stalemate. In VIP you might avoid the recurring US/CS wars, but in Vanilla you'll be dragged into one every five years, if you keep allying them (and if you don't they'll be annexed in no time). Roleplaying-wise you might justify satelliting the US after one or two wars in this case.

Ally with the U.S.A. (or just declare war on the CSA independently) and occupy the CSA from the South except for their capital. When the event for their surrender fires you'll get everything you occupied badboy-free. This is totally gamey, but works quite well, if you want to wipe the US and their immigration-bonus from the map.