Just started playing Victoria. might need some tips >>'

[unmerged(120240)]

hi everyone
I started playing Victoria yesterday (installed the mods and revolution) and i got some questions.. I'm a EU3 vet and decided to move to Victoria because i was always doing world conquests and steamrolling through whatever was in the way without challenge...

I started playing Brazil cuz i wanted to learn the basics and didn't want to get dragged into continental wars in europe without any knowledge of how to play the game.

now.. how can i see my badboy? France declared war even if we have "ok" relations (50+)... true.. i ate my neighbors but only 2!! o

-how to make money? and where should i spend it so i can make more?
-what should i focus on in the beginning? im pretty sure there are some technology that are nearly useless for a country like Brazil in the first decades or so..
-since i like to wage war on my neighbors.. should i stick with military technologies?
-i have only 5 divisions so far and i can't create more (need canned food?), then the canned food factory need machine parts.. i can import those or i should completely rely on research to reach them?
-how to speed up research?

i had other questions but i can't remember everything right now.. thnx guys

 

[fbaker4]

heh heh. Set the difficulty higher!

You need all the research; they all interconnect...

But you do need army research to get better armies; you also need bodies - not infinte as in other games...

Armies are very expensive - so you need $; you get money through farmers/laborers growing/mining/harvesting etc. and through factories.

Factories very expensive initially - but Capitalists will build them for you, for free! If they feel like it, of course, and that means a good political enviorment and low taxes...

It's a very careful balancing act between power (Economic & Military) and behavior (Political & Prestige). Not like CK, HoI, EU...a whole new kind of game.

 

[Pal]

now.. how can i see my badboy? France declared war even if we have "ok" relations (50+)... true.. i ate my neighbors but only 2!! o

Open the console and type "badboy" to view your score. Victoria is not a war game, so I wouldn't try to conquer anything in your first games. You can safely win the game by not waging war...

-i have only 5 divisions so far and i can't create more (need canned food?), then the canned food factory need machine parts.. i can import those or i should completely rely on research to reach them?

Why don't you simply buy the canned food then? It surely is much less expensive than machine parts, which you don't get in the first years anyway. Also I'd guess the shortage is not on the food side, but rather the guns are what's missing. Those are much more expensive. My advise would be to simply not wage war in your first games. There's no point to expansion if you cannot manage the few people you already have. In Vicky the conquered provinces are much more of a liability than in EU3 or HoI...

 

[unmerged(120240)]

well the thing is that if i cant conquer anything then why bother playing :rofl:

anyway, im getting the hang of it alot more after i took a quick look at the 40ish+ pages instruction manual... still i want to at least take over the whole south america. i just wish that micromanagement was easier than this... the days i had enough time to sit down and micromanage like crazy are a bit gone o


offtopic: im still playing master of orion 2 here :rofl:

 

[EUnderhill]

well the thing is that if i cant conquer anything then why bother playing :rofl:

anyway, im getting the hang of it alot more after i took a quick look at the 40ish+ pages instruction manual... still i want to at least take over the whole south america. i just wish that micromanagement was easier than this... the days i had enough time to sit down and micromanage like crazy are a bit gone o


offtopic: im still playing master of orion 2 here :rofl:

This is the Balance of Power era; conquering people that look like you was frowned upon. Even conquering people that didn't look like you was often subject to discussion by your neighbors. So yes, gobbling everything in sight will bring down the wrath of God, especially if you share a border with Him.

Excellent game if you like the other aspects of statecraft as well as war.

 

[Capt. Kiwi]

To answer another of your initial questions about speeding up research: Unless you're going absolutely bankrupt (which you shouldn't be), set education funding to max. Literacy is a big determining factor for your research. The other factors are the amount of clerks and clergy you have in your population (clergy start out as more important, but clerks come into their own later).

As for your war-mongering tendencies, Victoria does a fairly good job of making warfare as unpalatable as it should be. Every soldier of yours who dies is a person who can't work in a factory; most wars you declare will actually cost you precious prestige; badboy ensures that the great powers won't let you upset the all important balance (especially important for Brazil and Mexico, second tier powers who border a couple of GPs); it's difficult to achieve outright annexation of most countries; and those provinces that you do get won't be too happy about it. There are plenty of ways to play the game that are exciting and challenging and don't involve firing a shot, but if you still insist you have to be smart about it.

First off, if you just go and declare war on people your prestige is going to plumit. Look out for countries with very low (negative) prestige, either because they've gone bankrupt or been humiliated. This will greatly reduce the prestige cost of declaring war. When you win a war against someone who isn't low on prestige, and if you plan on having a second go later, humiliate them yourself. Secondly, badboy is a major issue, especially if you border someone bigger than you. Unless you want a world war don't let it go too high; and even at moderate levels it will be difficult to make alliances and diplomatic deals. If you still want to fight, pick on uncivilised nations. As long as you don't outright annex them, you don't get any badboy for taking their territory. A common tactic is to humiliate them and get what you can in the first war, then keep coming back till they just have their capital. At that stage you annex them, for a miniscule amount of badboy.

Oh, and welcome. Another soul stolen

 

[unmerged(120240)]

great, ty for the info its very much welcome

i have already maxed literacy since its cheap and give great result but the population thing is sort of something new to me.. it can be a bit troublesome if im not careful with it i guess. About raising armies, i should create soldiers in the highly populated provinces with crappy resources and when i reinforce lets say an army stack from Rio de Janeiro, the mens will be drawn from there.
I do intend to fight alot but im used to the concept of badboy from EU3 and ill be extra careful not to be DOW by 10 countries at a time:rofl:

What you said about prestige is that its alot more important than what i thought.. So instead of taking provinces in the first war with an enemy i first should humiliate, weaken his armies/country and annex in a second war later right.

p.s. Pardon my weird orthograph.. im on a crappy pc and i cant find the question mark....:wacko: my main pc, the one with Ricky on it, crashed yesterday... yea lot of fun >< right when the weekend start!!!!

p.p.s. i still havent recieved my soul back from master of magic.. if i ever get it back that is

 

[unmerged(120240)]

ok i got my pc back and i played a few hours today.

like i said i am playing Brazil.
I annexed the piratini republic for zero BB (i had cores i guess) then waged war on Bolivia, took a iron and precious metal province and humiliated them so i can build up some prestige and keep my BB low.
After that i attacked Peru and made it be my satelite, attacked Bolivia again for their 2 richest provinces wich gave me a land connexion with the 2 previous ones i took and made Paraguay my satelite since it was Bolivia's ally this time.

Now i have 220ish prestige and 110k of $.. year is 1844.
Of course i can now get the machine parts i needed so much since im a GreatPower. ..twas about time.
Now before i rly screw up my industrialisation phase.. i need some tips about pop, industries and railroads... anyone can clarify this a bit?
All the guides i read are fine but i'm still confused:wacko:

ty guys. btw that Krakow AAR is crazy :rofl:

 

[Pal]

Victoria Revolutions: Simply convert one pop of at least 20k people to clerks and then to capitalists. Do this for a few selected regions, like Rio de Janeiro, which have as many "farmers" or "labourers" as possible. Set the rich taxes to zero and watch in amazement.

Capitalists build railroads and factories all by themselves: RR everywhere, F only in the region they're in. You don't even need machine parts, so I wonder why you want those. Actually the capitalist builds factories thing seems too easy to me, compared to regular Victoria.

 

[Orm]

You don't even need machine parts, so I wonder why you want those.

If I'm not completely mistaken you need a small amount of machine parts to convert to a capitalist.

 

[unmerged(173513)]

I would definitely recommend the Victoria:Revolutions guide published on the Vicki Wiki. It should be required reading for most new players. I started playing this game last week and it has helped me immensely. Check it out:

http://www.paradoxian.org/vickywiki/index.php/A_Guide_for_Victoria:Revolutions

As for machine parts and capitalist, yes you need .5 machine parts to convert a clerk to a capitalist, IIRC. Machine parts are not as critical to industrializing as they were in vanilla Vicky, since you can let your capitalist build everything for you. Of course this depends on the political party in power. If they are laize-faire then you cannot build any industry. An interventionist party will allow you to build railroads and expand factories or RGOs, so then you would need some machine parts if you want to pursue that route.

 

[Legosim]

Personally, I find Brazil a bad country to learn the game with, Sweden is what really managed to teach me the ropes. It's out of the way, of most European Wars, save the Prusso-Danish War (if you want to participate), and has a good starting industry, and is rather easy to steal Finland from Russia.

Keep tariffs at about 85-90%, don't do 100% or you will find your capis will not be able to accumulate the cash necessary to build factories and RR's in a decent amount of time. Also, annexing (since you're Brazil) I assume Paraguay and Uruguay, isn't necessarily a bad thing. Just remember that each annexed province is 2 bad boy points, and if you get over 25 BB, you will start to get DoW'd by France, UK, and co. I'd suggest satelliting or going for War Indemnities treaties, since the latter really helps out your economy, and having a permanent nation to call on in a time of war is always a good thing.

 

[unmerged(120240)]

@Pal: great now i know how to get capitalists =P

@beowulf: its a bit hard to figure out what are the differences between the various victoria versions. i downloaded the latest/best version + mods so i will prolly never know. I figured that vanilla / VIP would be like EU3 before / after InNomine. It was the difference between half-botched and near-perfect.

@superalf: i think i got state capitalism right now. I'll have to take a look if i can create capitalists and if they can build anything on their own or not.

@Legosim: Sweden isnt bad but having 2 powerhouse (prussia and russia) so close to me made me think that maybe i'd be better off playing with brazil since i like to wage wars and my neighbors are easy to beat.
About the BB it's around 8 right now and i have 2 satellites so Brazil's stomach is a bit full for now. UK, France and Netherland both have 2-3 provinces north adjacent to me so.. yea.. I'm rly careful about BB.. I have bad memories of being DOW in EU3 by... omg.. over 20 nations or so?

mh btw about the soldiers, i should make other cultures fight while brazilians stay home right?

 

[Orm]

@beowulf: its a bit hard to figure out what are the differences between the various victoria versions. i downloaded the latest/best version + mods so i will prolly never know. I figured that vanilla / VIP would be like EU3 before / after InNomine. It was the difference between half-botched and near-perfect.

Well, near-perfect is pretty subjective. If you like a lot of events possibly.

 

[unmerged(120240)]

don't tell em im just being kind :rofl:
still eu3 gave me hundreds of hours of fun while some ''new'' strategy games totally sux from A to Z. Warlords 4 in mind.

 

[unmerged(173513)]

offtopic: im still playing master of orion 2 here :rofl:

Awesome! MOO 2 was the bomb. I definitely remember playing it for hours on end. Nice to see someone bringing back this gem from the past.

Anyone here played Sid Meier's Colonization? That game was amazing! For me it was the first strategy game that got me into these kinds of games. It spawned hundreds of clones and inspired many to come (like this game!). Boy, those were the days.

 

[Capt. Kiwi]

VIP adds a lot of historical detail to the game, but in part does this through a lot of events that can be a little... constraining. As British India there's no going to war with China or Persia unless the UK does, for example. If you try you'll just get an event forcing you back to peace. I absolutely admire VIP, I contribute anything I can to help out, and it's great to play if you're within the events (which do allow for a fair few ahistorical play routes). But overall I prefer basic Revolutions, because I like having a bit more freedom to play my own way. That's just me though, different people like different things.

 

[unmerged(120240)]

myea by what i red so far VIP follow history a bit more.. freedom of choice is always welcome =p

MOO and MOO2 are unbeatable classics. The time when gameplay was everything. I still play old strategy ms-dos games when i get bored.. ahh good old timeso

 

[Pal]

About the BB it's around 8 right now and i have 2 satellites so Brazil's stomach is a bit full for now. UK, France and Netherland both have 2-3 provinces north adjacent to me so.. yea.. I'm rly careful about BB..

You can easily buy those provinces, though. Research industrial techs (railroads) and build up relations with France to +200. Then trade them one railroad tech (and possibly others) for those two provinces. The British ones are more difficult to obtain, since the Brits usually research much faster than you. If you happen to have one tech they don't have, though, and you can spend ~ 200k cash (no problem with Brazil), then you can easily trade that for the two Provinces (you need +200 relations, though). I found it tricky to chose the "right Georgetown", as there is another one in South Africa. I think the first one in the list is the South American one, but I usually chose the wrong anyway (it has precious metal, though, so it's quite a good accidental purchase). The Netherlands are usually declaring war on me pretty soon, so I find it difficult to buy their provinces, but in theory that should be even easier than the French ones.

mh btw about the soldiers, i should make other cultures fight while brazilians stay home right?

Yes, but you'll only get Full Citizenship in the 1870s, so you'll depend on conquered soldier pops till then.

 

[Orm]

The British ones are more difficult to obtain, since the Brits usually research much faster than you.

It's no so much that they research faster, they start the GC with more techs known than anyone else. Catching up can be done, but it will take a while.