1845-1850
So, I fire up Victoria II and get an immediate education. See, in my current games in EU4 and Stellaris I am playing Ironman, and my most recent HoI4 game was in Ironman. What do you not have to do in Ironman? Save the game before you exit. What do you have to do in Victoria II?
In short, when I finished my previous play session I didn’t save my game, so I have to start again from my autosave of 1st January 1845. A bit annoying, but no great shakes if I have to replay a few years. I finish building two regiments, place the army in Norway, complete Positivism and start Early Railroad. Along the way I also get a few more railroad jobs to start via investing in Projects, and I start a few more manually. Mostly those stall however, needing Timber - which I am producing loads of. I try to fiddle with the trade window so I only sell above 300 Timber, but this does not see to work. I must confess I have no idea really what the issue there is. Early Railroad is completed in May 1846, when I suddenly realise my militancy - which had gone down to just over 1 following the revolution, has gone back up to 4. Oh, and the Norwegians have revolted again.
I check the screen and it looks like the Scandinavian Pan-Nationalists are at it again. Which is so annoying. Still, nothing to see here. I research Functionalist in June 1847, and then in July the same year the newspaper says Sweden is afraid of Russia. Which I find amusing because our relations are +150ish and are described as being “friendly”. No, I am not especially worried about Russia just now, who is fighting again in Central Asia. Meanwhile I chose to research Steamers since I figure it will be useful down the line.
Life continues relatively quietly, if truth be told. I am wary of the militancy, but no actual rebels yet. The Norwegians remain unhappy, but there just aren’t that many of them. I manage to invest in a Liquor Distillery that starts building, and I manually go for a Steel Mill, which gets stuck on a lack of coal. Both my National Foci are now going for capitalists who seem to be mostly going for an Artillery Factory. I expand the army by another two regiments. A non-crisis happens in Bulgaria (no one cares apparently). Steamers got completed, and then in due course so did State & Government. Clean Coal begins research, since I figure coal is good. It is July 3 1849, and then election results are in:
What does this mean? Well, to begin with my economy tanks. I go from a balance that hovers usually between +30 and +50 £ a day, even with full defence expenditure to a deficit of -20 to -40 £ a day, with 50% defence expenditure. It makes a moment to work out why, and then I realise it. Konservitiva Partiet was State Capitalist. Liberala Partiet is Laissez Faire. My tariff drops from 70% to 50% and my taxes are slashed. Almost immediately two of my factories go bankrupt (my industrial score goes from 12 to 4). There is a reason why I said I hate liberals.
The first Pan-Scandinavian revolt fires, which I clear up quite quickly. Clean Coal completes, and then I wait a few days for 1850 to tick over to start Impressionism. But to make matters even more lovely as 1849 ends I realise that Prussia has formed the North German Federation and has sphered Denmark. Just brilliant.
Which makes a good time to quick check in the rest of the world.
I don’t suppose the Great Powers are that much of a surprise, with the possible exception of Belgium Spain and the Ottoman Empire have competed for the 8th slot most of the 1840s as far as I have been aware. The USA is currently at war with Japan (USA has sphered Korea). North America has a slight case of border gore, but no worse than a player necessarily would.
In South America Chile has gotten worse for war from the various wars, and there is more war ongoing.
Meanwhile Tunis, Algeria, and Morocco are getting some interest from France and Spain. Just of interest France has sphered the remains of Algeria and the Papal States.
Finally, this is me in 1850. Russia and the UK clearly view me as a country of interest. In terms of their own endeavours earlier in the 1840s Russia and France had an alliance, but they broke this off and seem to spend a lot of time discrediting each other in Greece. Otherwise I must say I am not entirely sure of the relations between the other Great Powers. What this means for any chance of my getting Denmark now that the NGF has sphered them I do not know.
Anyway, back to my situation. I have two issues - revolts and the economy. On the revolt side, when I was looking around today I realised that nearly 50% of my population's wants Weighted Universal. I figure accepting that reform might reduce the militancy quite a bit. Perhaps further reforms will as well. Otherwise I can try and play whack-a-revolt for a time, or if it seems massive just let the revolution happen again. Time will tell. As for the Norwegians - I must confess they don’t especially bother me yet.
But the economy has me scratching my head. I just don’t think it is possible for me, at this time, to have a successful economy under Laissez Faire. I also don’t think the factories that closed were wholly unprofitable either, they were just somewhat volatile. They needed support to smooth out their cash flow, as it were. Of course, I could appoint my own government but somehow I think that might make the rebel problem worse. Oh, and I still can’t work out why my railroads won’t build when I should have a timber stockpile from my own production. Am I missing something very stupid?
All in all I must admit I am a bit stumped.
