New to Victoria II, any advice or tips?

[dulcamara]

Hey all,

I've got a fair amount of experience with Paradox games (EU3, HOI3 [meh], CK2) but never have tried out the Vicky series - just took the plunge however and picked up V2 and both expansions! Been hankering for some 19th century grand strategy.

Just wanted to check in with some of you veterans about your overall impressions and the differences compared to the above games far as playstyle and game flow goes (especially CK2, which I played the hell out of this past year) and get some advice on what y'all think are the more entertaining nations to use. I'm far from a strategy genius, not at all a min-maxer "paint the map your color" type of player - I generally prefer to find an interesting corner of the world and mess around with mid-level historical What Ifs along with watching empires and all their dramas unfold around me. Basically more interested in the narrative and storylines rather than any power tripping (though an occasional conquering binge is sometimes what the doctor ordered).

Any basic newb-ish tips or general best practices would be welcome too. And while I intend to start out with what vanilla's got to offer, if anyone's got indispensable mods to recommend feel free...

Thanks in advance.

 

[unmerged(46341)]

Well my first tip is that you need to set your goals from the start. EU is more about being opportunistic and slowly gaining ground, but Vicky2 is about the perfectly executed plan. You only have 100 years, but every single day matters. Lots of CBs and tools for war and conquest only become available later on, so Vicky2 is alot about setting yourself up for success at a specific moment in time. Vicky2 is actually a lot less deterministic than it seems on the surface, but there are a few geopolitical events that absolutely will happen and need to be planned for (The Franco-Prussian War, the US Civil War, the Mexican-American War(s), Texas, Japan and China civilizing, the Scramble for Africa, and so forth). Similarly, there are less deterministic but equally important things that happen in the late game which will also affect how you should play right from the start, like Great Wars (which are a whole different ball game), the nature of global Industry (its really quite different every time, though there are certain goods that are always better, like Liquor), and of course the economic crash that usually happens at the end of the game.

You can't really paint the map effectively in this, unless you have specific plans and know what you're doing. There's a lot of different CBs and they're mostly pretty situational, and good to know. Hopefully others will expand on that, but I will add that if you want to map painting the best way to do it is against uncivilized nations. It costs much less Infamy, and is just much easier. European conquests are small and costly at the start of the game, but by the end of the game Great Wars allow you to take much more in a successful war involving two great powers on either side. Great Wars, while awesome (and also very random, I've had games where none happened and I've had games where six happened!), are still very very costly, not least because when you kill soldiers in Vicky2 you actually lose people from your economy. A really bad great war can just cripple your nation. It can also be very hard to get the AI to work with you, diplomatically, which is actually a big deal since Great Wars involve lots of people on either side, invariably, and you may not be the war leader!

*The best way to learn, though, is to jump right in. Just pick a country! Brazil, Belgium, Spain, France, maybe the Ottomans if you're feeling brave--these are all good beginner countries. Spain is a really fun one, you mostly get to pick your battles, its small enough for you to keep sight of all the moving parts, and big enough to see the parts in action. USA is a good one too, but its a special country in a lot of ways and might be a bit overwhelming for a first pick.

 

[dulcamara]

Thanks for the detailed response GC, the more I read about this game the more excited I am about playing it! Just to clarify (maybe my phrasing was unclear and came out opposite of intended) as it seems you were addressing the "paint the map" stuff - that's definitely not my playstyle. I'm all for some semblance of realism and usually will limit any expansion to within reasonable limits.

I didn't realize that those above events you mention are scripted - I'm very curious to see how this works in practice...

 

[unmerged(46341)]

Thanks for the detailed response GC, the more I read about this game the more excited I am about playing it! Just to clarify (maybe my phrasing was unclear and came out opposite of intended) as it seems you were addressing the "paint the map" stuff - that's definitely not my playstyle. I'm all for some semblance of realism and usually will limit any expansion to within reasonable limits.

I didn't realize that those above events you mention are scripted - I'm very curious to see how this works in practice...

Scripted might be a bit harsh, but its definitely more deterministic than Eu4. The US almost always annexes texas and gets cores on the western US, and Mexico almost always loses. 99.9999% of the time, they lose! Sometimes it takes a few wars, though. The US Civil War can be avoided, but its very hard and the AI usually doesn't pull it off. It can start any time from the early 1840s to the 1870s, and depends on some number or another that you can find in the political screen. Forget what its called. China doesn't always civilize, but if it does it will certainly change the global market. Which nations build which factories, and thus which goods are available at what rates, often depends on which nations colonize which parts of Africa and Asia, and thus it varies a lot from game to game--which is a big part of why the economy is a little different each game. Wars can also absolutely devastate economies, which can have radical secondary effects regarding a nation's economy, government, and geo-political situation, so that also varies a lot from game to game. The Franco-Prussian war almost always happens, but not always. When it does happen, Prussia almost always wins. I'd say in most games they form Germany successfully, but that's as far as it goes. How successful and warlike Germany is really varies from game to game.

The only thing I can think of that is just blatantly scripted is the Russian sale of Alaska. It fires around the turn of the century, and you either have to sell Alaska to the USA or they get cores on it--which could lead to a really crappy war if you're playing Russia. Still, that's a minor quibble. Hopefully someone else can come and answer more of your questions. There's also a lot of mods, of which I know nothing.

:ninja:

 

[Owl Raider]

Firstly, being a sandbox game, you have to make your own goals. As you said, painting the map isn't your style, and that's fine. You can set your goals to be whatever you want them to be. Whether it's taking an uncivilized nation to becoming a great power or taking a great power and dominating all the others. You have many options and many choices. There are also many paths to victory, seeing that there are 3 metrics that the game counts: prestige, industry and military, you can choose to focus on either of them or all of them, and there are multiple ways to increase each of them. Once you've set up your goals it's up to you to choose a nation to achieve those goals with. Whether it's predetermined like say taking Prussia and forming Germany like it was in history(so no Greater Germany and excessive colonization) or a more general goal like taking any minor power and bringing them to greatness. Once you've chosen your nation you need to craft a detailed strategy on how to achieve your goals. You need to do this before you start the game as 100 years isn't a very long time, so you can't afford to waste any of it by being indecisive and not working towards your goals. Well, technically you can afford to do it, but it won't get you to where you want to be.

As far as what goals to set and what nations to pick, firstly I must tell you that going for historical scenarios is pretty boring as the Victorian era was pretty stale as far as military and wars go. Sure you had the Franco-Prussian War which was pretty big, but even that war ended in just a single province: Alsace-Lorraine, changing hands. Most wars during this era were bloody but didn't result in significant strategic results. So I wouldn't recommend sticking strictly to historical paths as they'll end up pretty boring, and not to mention awfully inefficient in the game's terms as you won't be conquering Chinese territories for their precious resources for example and will inevitably crash the entire world's economy due to massive coal shortage. Also diverging from history can simply be fun, or even repeating history from different eras like recreating the Byzantine Empire from Greece or the Roman Empire from any of the Italian minors. Still, history can be a solid guideline if that's what you choose, just don't be too strict about it and do diverge from it from time to time. Secondly, some goals are easier than others, so don't try something too complex as a beginner, go for simpler things first than challenge yourself further.

Great Powers are obviously easier to play than others, so they're a good place for a beginner. Still, The Ottomans and Spain are on their way down so keeping them as Great Powers and succeeding with them takes some skill and knowledge, so they aren't recommended for beginners. Russia with its vast lands can be overwhelming for a rookie and requires a lot of work bringing literacy up to speed, but other than that it's hard to fail as Russia as you're simply that big and powerful. Similar to Russia, the UK can also be overwhelming for a new player, this time not because of a massive land mass but rather because of your plentiful colonies across the globe. Like with Russia, it's pretty hard to fail as the UK but because you start as #1 and will generally maintain this position even if you don't do anything other than maintaining what you already have and keep a Laizzes Faire party in power to take care of your economy. Thus without clear goals in mind the UK will just be boring, and with clear goals it can be a bit tough for rookies. France and Prussia are great for beginners, big and powerful without too many colonies(France) or non at all(Prussia) to worry about too much. Austria is also alright, you do have some literacy problems but much less than Russia, and you start pretty big and powerful in your own right. AI Austria usually fails because it's bad at fixing its literacy issues and can't handle the Prussian army once the inevitable Prussian-Austrian brother wars begin. As a player you can handle Prussia better and you can easily fix your literacy and actually get worthwhile allies(AI Austria is usually isolated with only its spherelings as allies) to at least get a stalemate with Prussia if not outright defeat them. The US is far enough from everyone else and gets massive amount of immigrants regardless of what you do(barring a successful Communist revolution or something) so it's pretty easy as well. Also the Civil War in itself isn't that difficult to win(as the Union, not Confederacy) and can be manipulated to be even easier(keep all new states free from slavery and release all of your Dixie troops and only recruits Yankees). Other nations that are good for beginners are Belgium(especially for a peaceful game focusing strictly on industry with some minor colonization), Sweden(isolated enough, can pick and choose your battles according to how much you can handle), Netherlands(the easiest nation to build as a Maritime power and focus more on your colonies in the far east than mainland Europe) and Japan(for a taste of westernization and again being isolated so you can pick and choose your battles).

Regardless of which nation you pick, don't set too challenging or too many goals. Stick to simple things at first and try to not bite more than you can chew. With some experience and practice you can take more onto yourself and have some very fun and challenging games.

 

[unmerged(46341)]

Oh, yeah, I forgot about Sweden, good call. Very good choice for a first game. You can form Scandinavia pretty easily, which is fun. You can even colonize or (if you're brave) try and formulate a strategy to get Finland back from Russia. I'd say Sweden -> Scandinavia is probably the best choice for a new player who is familiar with other paradox games.

 

[El Jojo]

Events are not scripted, it's just that there are incentives in game and the AI will usually try to achieve its goal. As common in Paradox games, there's the "core" system in provinces. A core province is a province you fully enjoy so most players and the AI will try to conquer provinces they have a core on, Germany and France have cores on Alsace-Lorraine, that's why you can expect a franco-prussian war, but if France happens to be super strong, Germany won't try anything.

On the basic tips, I'd say do not forget about administrative efficiency in your country, it has many areas of impact, you get to 100% admin efficiency in a state by having 0.7-0.9 % bureaucrats. Then Literacy is very important, having high literacy is key to being able to keep up.
Finally, imperialism is often necessary, the 19th was about finding the resources to fuel your economy and industry. Most countries do not have enough resources on their land so colonization of Africa and Asia really help your raw materials situation. Still, it's also possible to play a prosperous agricultural nation but it's much more complicated than having some industry.
Other than that, asking questions on the forum as you go will help you navigate your first few games.

 

[Ivashanko]

I just started playing too! I picked the Dutch for my first game and did very well (number 2 in the world, in a World War against the British, who are absurdly strong in my game).

My second game as Greece isn't going as well. You only really learn a lot about the intricacies of this game when you play as a nation too weak to ignore them.

 

[Wizard12]

You'll probably really enjoy this game as a person who doesn't like map painting. I'm not the best player but heres my tips.

Research:
- Research points comes from clergy, literacy, plurality and techs mostly. You want 2% clergy for the max RP gain from them and you want to focus on the cultural techs which give you extra research points and plurality. Additionally, educational efficiency techs are also really important up to Darwinism.
- You can save RP for a head start on techs. Say for example, you want to grab empiricism (more tech points) and your a year or so from its unlock date. You can save RP until it locks and get a bit headstart on researching it. This can also be useful for grabbing machine guns or gas attack earlier than your enemies.
- There are some super techs like darwinism, machine guns, freedom of trade (?: first one in the second to last economic tree, some people don't start with it) and, to an extent medicine that give really good boosts.

Military:
- War... urgh... what is it good for? Yeah, try to avoid wars unless you know you can win without crashing your economy. It should really be your last resort.
- Learn how to properly compose an army, a thread on that comes up fairly often so you'll get plenty of advise on that from around here.
- Learn how to fight defensive and rotate stacks. Stack rotation won't always save you but it helps fighting militarily superior foes.
- If you've got a good navy as an Island/Asian nation don't be afraid to take on European great powers. As Japan you can really punch above you weight thanks o local superiority and ticking war score.
- Don't bother fighting occupation wars in Africa/colonial areas. Take out or avoid your opponents combat stacks and leave that ground as it's not really worth any warscore.
- Once people have machine guns don't attack. Seriously. Just. Don't. Do. It. Bait your enemy onto a small mobilized stack and reinforce.

Economy:
- Tax this dude into space... In the early game, your tax and admin efficiency means you can just stick taxes at 100% safely. Same this with tariffs. A lot of people will tell you tariffs are bad but, if your not industrializing (eg: early game) tariffs are a great money earner. Just pay attention if your POPs can afford their life need.s
- The best way to learn about industrializing is to play a small country, select a State Capitalist party and go nuts... well, don't do that but play around a bit. Serbia, Wallacia, Greece, Sardinia-Piedmont are all good options in this regard. Try and build factories in places with high population, good literacy and resources they consume (this gives a throughput bonus that helps beat AI countries with better techs).
- Research the input and output efficiency techs in the commerce tab to make your factories better. The Power line in industry simply increases the amount you make (so it amplifies bot profits and losses), although it does unlock some good, useful factories.
- Cement, Glass, Liquor, Steel and later on, Machine Parts are great places to start. In the late game, if you grabbed some rubber electronics and oil/fuel are your big money makes.

Diplomacy:
- The act of saying 'nice doggy' until your sniper's found his aim... You can get access to a countries resources by sphereing them. This is a bit of an annoying minigame but its a refreshing change from EU where you always have to conquer stuff. As a great power, you can assign a priority to certain nations to gain influence. Relations, neighboring borders of yourself or your sphere, investment through railroads and factories can all help you get the edge over opposing GP's.
- Some countries, like Germany, require you to have the cultural minors in your sphere. Playing Prussia is a great way to learn how the sphereing game works. you will need Saxony, Denmark, Holstein (or free Holstein from Denmark's control) and Hanover in addition to your starting sphere to form the North German Federation and them you can use Assert Hegemony on Austria to get the south German countries in your sphere. From here just take Alsace-Lorraine and boom - Everyone can into Ansluss!
- As a minor, I find it helps to keep relations high with everyone one whose bigger than you. Even as a major, spend those diplopoints on improving relations with your neighbors as I have a feeling (don't quote me though) that this influences who'll support you in a crisis.

Managing your POPs:
- 'We're the peoples front of Judea!' Managing your POP's is basically what Vicky is about. At some level or another you'll be focusing on this. For a beginner, just try and keep MIL/CON as low as possible. Later on, you'll want to manipulate these stats to pass certain political/social reforms but don't worry right now.
- MIL is affected by things like life needs, political persuasion and culture. If you tax people and they can't by bread, they'll hate you. If you have a political party they don't agree with in power, they'll hate you (even in a complete democracy). If they're of a non-accepted culture, they'll (probably) hate you. Just have a decent army around and try not to piss the peasants off too much.
- CON is affected by literacy and social reform desire. It represents how 'selfish' your POPs are. Clergy help keep this value low.
- POP promotions are affected by admin efficiency. A basic game opener is to use you national focus on all your sates to get bureaucrats to 1% and to raise admin efficiency to 100% . Non-accepted culture pops cannot become bureaucrats so don't waste too long with places like, for example, Bosnia as the Ottoman Empire.
- After this get you clergy to 2%. If you have low literacy, consider raising this to 4% as this will increase your literacy gain.

Once you've got the basics down, pick a few challenges for yourself. Good ones early on are;
- Form Germany as Prussia.
- Form Italy as Sardinia-Piedmont.
- Stay an absolute monarchy with Russia, Ottomans, Austria or Germany. Or go communist/fascist, still very fun.
- Own most of Africa.
- Play Japan and conquer Korea and chunks of China/Southeast Asia.

Something else you might want to consider is mods like PDM or for a more vanilla experience, NNM.



I hope this helps and I don't know if any of the above was covered by previous posters, I've tried to format the post so its a little easier on the eyes than walls of text.

Ivashanko
I just started playing too! I picked the Dutch for my first game and did very well (number 2 in the world, in a World War against the British, who are absurdly strong in my game).

My second game as Greece isn't going as well. You only really learn a lot about the intricacies of this game when you play as a nation too weak to ignore them.

Well done with the Dutch! It's so true about really only learning when you need to do it. Playing some minors can be a really fun way of getting an indepth understanding of the game. One of my favorite things with Vicky is that you don't need to know all the complex mechanics to enjoy it, but knowing some of the under the hood stuff can really make the game more interesting.

Edit: Sorry for the long post

 

[unmerged(46341)]

You'll probably really enjoy this game as a person who doesn't like map painting. I'm not the best player but heres my tips.

Research:
- Research points comes from clergy, literacy, plurality and techs mostly. You want 2% clergy for the max RP gain from them and you want to focus on the cultural techs which give you extra research points and plurality. Additionally, educational efficiency techs are also really important up to Darwinism.
- You can save RP for a head start on techs. Say for example, you want to grab empiricism (more tech points) and your a year or so from its unlock date. You can save RP until it locks and get a bit headstart on researching it. This can also be useful for grabbing machine guns or gas attack earlier than your enemies.
- There are some super techs like darwinism, machine guns, freedom of trade (?: first one in the second to last economic tree, some people don't start with it) and, to an extent medicine that give really good boosts.

Military:
- War... urgh... what is it good for? Yeah, try to avoid wars unless you know you can win without crashing your economy. It should really be your last resort.
- Learn how to properly compose an army, a thread on that comes up fairly often so you'll get plenty of advise on that from around here.
- Learn how to fight defensive and rotate stacks. Stack rotation won't always save you but it helps fighting militarily superior foes.
- If you've got a good navy as an Island/Asian nation don't be afraid to take on European great powers. As Japan you can really punch above you weight thanks o local superiority and ticking war score.
- Don't bother fighting occupation wars in Africa/colonial areas. Take out or avoid your opponents combat stacks and leave that ground as it's not really worth any warscore.
- Once people have machine guns don't attack. Seriously. Just. Don't. Do. It. Bait your enemy onto a small mobilized stack and reinforce.

Economy:
- Tax this dude into space... In the early game, your tax and admin efficiency means you can just stick taxes at 100% safely. Same this with tariffs. A lot of people will tell you tariffs are bad but, if your not industrializing (eg: early game) tariffs are a great money earner. Just pay attention if your POPs can afford their life need.s
- The best way to learn about industrializing is to play a small country, select a State Capitalist party and go nuts... well, don't do that but play around a bit. Serbia, Wallacia, Greece, Sardinia-Piedmont are all good options in this regard. Try and build factories in places with high population, good literacy and resources they consume (this gives a throughput bonus that helps beat AI countries with better techs).
- Research the input and output efficiency techs in the commerce tab to make your factories better. The Power line in industry simply increases the amount you make (so it amplifies bot profits and losses), although it does unlock some good, useful factories.
- Cement, Glass, Liquor, Steel and later on, Machine Parts are great places to start. In the late game, if you grabbed some rubber electronics and oil/fuel are your big money makes.

Diplomacy:
- The act of saying 'nice doggy' until your sniper's found his aim... You can get access to a countries resources by sphereing them. This is a bit of an annoying minigame but its a refreshing change from EU where you always have to conquer stuff. As a great power, you can assign a priority to certain nations to gain influence. Relations, neighboring borders of yourself or your sphere, investment through railroads and factories can all help you get the edge over opposing GP's.
- Some countries, like Germany, require you to have the cultural minors in your sphere. Playing Prussia is a great way to learn how the sphereing game works. you will need Saxony, Denmark, Holstein (or free Holstein from Denmark's control) and Hanover in addition to your starting sphere to form the North German Federation and them you can use Assert Hegemony on Austria to get the south German countries in your sphere. From here just take Alsace-Lorraine and boom - Everyone can into Ansluss!
- As a minor, I find it helps to keep relations high with everyone one whose bigger than you. Even as a major, spend those diplopoints on improving relations with your neighbors as I have a feeling (don't quote me though) that this influences who'll support you in a crisis.

Managing your POPs:
- 'We're the peoples front of Judea!' Managing your POP's is basically what Vicky is about. At some level or another you'll be focusing on this. For a beginner, just try and keep MIL/CON as low as possible. Later on, you'll want to manipulate these stats to pass certain political/social reforms but don't worry right now.
- MIL is affected by things like life needs, political persuasion and culture. If you tax people and they can't by bread, they'll hate you. If you have a political party they don't agree with in power, they'll hate you (even in a complete democracy). If they're of a non-accepted culture, they'll (probably) hate you. Just have a decent army around and try not to piss the peasants off too much.
- CON is affected by literacy and social reform desire. It represents how 'selfish' your POPs are. Clergy help keep this value low.
- POP promotions are affected by admin efficiency. A basic game opener is to use you national focus on all your sates to get bureaucrats to 1% and to raise admin efficiency to 100% . Non-accepted culture pops cannot become bureaucrats so don't waste too long with places like, for example, Bosnia as the Ottoman Empire.
- After this get you clergy to 2%. If you have low literacy, consider raising this to 4% as this will increase your literacy gain.

Once you've got the basics down, pick a few challenges for yourself. Good ones early on are;
- Form Germany as Prussia.
- Form Italy as Sardinia-Piedmont.
- Stay an absolute monarchy with Russia, Ottomans, Austria or Germany. Or go communist/fascist, still very fun.
- Own most of Africa.
- Play Japan and conquer Korea and chunks of China/Southeast Asia.

Something else you might want to consider is mods like PDM or for a more vanilla experience, NNM.



I hope this helps and I don't know if any of the above was covered by previous posters, I've tried to format the post so its a little easier on the eyes than walls of text.



Well done with the Dutch! It's so true about really only learning when you need to do it. Playing some minors can be a really fun way of getting an indepth understanding of the game. One of my favorite things with Vicky is that you don't need to know all the complex mechanics to enjoy it, but knowing some of the under the hood stuff can really make the game more interesting.

Edit: Sorry for the long post

These are all splendid tips, and I second them! I would add that, unless I'm mistaken, Clerks also add to your RP somewhat. Clerks in general are super important, but the game generally fails to warn you that you won't get any until you've got something like 50% literacy.

 

[dulcamara]

Wow Wizard12, that is above & beyond. Those are exactly the sort of tips I was looking for - general conceptual nudges without giving away specific strategy - but I didn't expect them in such detail. Great stuff.

To follow this up, I'm one of the dying breed who reads the manuals front to back before playing. I read the original Vicky 2 manual posted somewhere on this forum, plus the shorter AHD and HoD PDFs that came with my installation. The original manual however keeps referencing a complimentary "strategy guide" that I don't have, saying it will include rule details and post-release errata in addition to gameplay tips. The manual is also missing stuff like descriptions of the different resources, factory types, and other specifics, saying refer to this guide. Is that found somewhere here? Any other recommended reading before firing up a game?

Also, a lot of these descriptions of sphere of influence and Great Power crisis mediation really really make me wistful for the vaporware of East vs West - Clausewitz could really do wonders with the Cold War IMO.

 

[unmerged(46341)]

Wow Wizard12, that is above & beyond. Those are exactly the sort of tips I was looking for - general conceptual nudges without giving away specific strategy - but I didn't expect them in such detail. Great stuff.

To follow this up, I'm one of the dying breed who reads the manuals front to back before playing. I read the original Vicky 2 manual posted somewhere on this forum, plus the shorter AHD and HoD PDFs that came with my installation. The original manual however keeps referencing a complimentary "strategy guide" that I don't have, saying it will include rule details and post-release errata in addition to gameplay tips. The manual is also missing stuff like descriptions of the different resources, factory types, and other specifics, saying refer to this guide. Is that found somewhere here? Any other recommended reading before firing up a game?

Also, a lot of these descriptions of sphere of influence and Great Power crisis mediation really really make me wistful for the vaporware of East vs West - Clausewitz could really do wonders with the Cold War IMO.

Ya, a Cold War total conversion for Vicky2 would be fantastic. Probably more shallow than the East vs. West crowd would want, but still a super fun Cold War game that I'd totally pay for. :ninja:

As to the manual, there is a wicky but its not all that good. The original Vicky has a better wiki! The best way to get answers to things you don't know is often a mixture of trial and error and asking here on the forums.

 

[Wizard12]

Nice things...

Don't worry, I'm sure the other posters had most of that stuff but think that new players shouldn't have to struggle with walls of text . That stuff is basically how I enjoy the game but by no means is that the most in-depth description of mechanics and by no means do you need to use it all. One of the greatest things about vicky is that specific strategies aren't needed on the most part (unless you want to do something crazy like forming Poland as Krakow) - it kind of feels like you're learning to play the game itself, rather than play a specific strategy within the game

I wouldn't hold out on a strategy guide or the manual revealing much of use. The best thing you can do (in my opinion) is come to the forums and ask, which is good to do because it helps other new people find out about the game (I learnt mostly through lurking) and keeps the forum a bit more lively - and considering that the Vicky forums are the nicest on PDX's boards (the HOI boards excepted but their a bit more for people into hardcore histroy) its greats to seek new topics.

While there is no cold war mod there is a Modern Times mod which begins after the fall of the soviet union which may be worth playing if you're interested

 

[dulcamara]

Thanks again for the advice.

I did just play thru all the tutorials and start up a game as Sweden (per the recommendations) last night. To a point though, I just feel like I'm missing something - especially regarding production and trade, which just hums along without any seeming input from myself. Should I be interfering here, or just let the AI buy and sell according to my requirements? At first I thought building factories would be the way to go, but on further reading it looks like early industrialization usually causes problems.

I'm wondering if, as mentioned above, it might be more rewarding for me to start as an even smaller country like Greece so I can experience how all the nuts & bolts really fit together and interact. Or maybe Sweden is fine and I really just need to get used to the game's flow. I'm just kinda wondering what to "do" early on - suggestions above were to use National Focus to get first my admin efficiency up to speed, then clergy/literacy, but beyond that...

Again, I think it's more that a decent percentage of the mechanics & player options in this game can be safely somewhat ignored, but I'm not entirely sure which ones those are. And a part of me would really like to learn how they work and pay attention to them anyhow, as you say "under the hood stuff can really make the game more interesting."

Far as the Modern Times mod, intriguing but it looks like it was abandoned by the original creator? Concept aside, how is the gameplay?

 

[El Jojo]

Well Sweden is good for a first game because nothing happens, there's no threat etc, so it allows to goof around without dire consequences. Up to a point, Sweden can be put on autopilot and you end up with democratic high-tech peaceful monarchy with reasonnable industry relative to its size.
If you want to do more with Sweden you have to set some objectives for you, things that will stretch your capacities and force you to tweak the mechanisms. What could be a semi-historical goal for Sweden ? Forming Scandinavia and retaking Finland are classic goals. Being a leader in high-tech industries etc.
I once did a "King in the North" game where I took all the northernmost provinces of the map, but that's much further from semi-historical possibilities.

Greece is fun but it's great leap in terms of difficulty, low pop, low literacy, very poor tech etc, but you're right that you'll have to get a better understanding of the game if you want to achieve anything

 

[dulcamara]

Can you recommend any countries that are midway between Sweden and Greece far as challenge goes? I'd like to have an experience where I'm forced to *react* to external stuff - again, with Sweden that feeling that I can just coast is giving me the impression I'm not learning many of the game's mechanics.

I think part of the deal here too, is the adjustment from playing so much CK2 - that games throws a series of challenges & crises at you no matter what, if nothing else at least when a new heir takes the throne. V2 seems more about setting goals for yourself and trying to achieve them, overall emphasized more on "progress" than "survival".

 

[Owl Raider]

Can you recommend any countries that are midway between Sweden and Greece far as challenge goes? I'd like to have an experience where I'm forced to *react* to external stuff - again, with Sweden that feeling that I can just coast is giving me the impression I'm not learning many of the game's mechanics.

I think part of the deal here too, is the adjustment from playing so much CK2 - that games throws a series of challenges & crises at you no matter what, if nothing else at least when a new heir takes the throne. V2 seems more about setting goals for yourself and trying to achieve them, overall emphasized more on "progress" than "survival".

To be honest, most of the game's mechanics don't evolve around wars, so even if "nothing happens" as you put it, you can still learn a lot if you pay attention to the various screens available to you. For example the population screen will tell you precisely what each type of pop needs from each culture in each of your provinces, and if you keep track of it you can see how your actions(fulfilling those needs or neglecting them) affect these pops(in terms of consciousness and militancy) and your economy(the buying power of your population). You can also try to create a booming industry, and if you do it wrong it will eventually collapse, even if you don't get involved in any wars.

Also, if you find Sweden to be too easy for you than perhaps you should do more with it. Taking Finland is nice, keeping it against the angry Russian bear is a challenge, especially if you're still new and not comfortable in tough warfare, as the Russians will send hordes of troops at you and will have similar military technology to you. If that's not enough than after you form Scandinavia you should try to keep Schwelig Holstein from Prussia/NGF as they will be fighting you for it tooth and nail until they get it or until you break their will to fight. Prussia/NGF will have slightly less troops than Russia but more military tech. If you want to make things even tougher than take other core provinces away from Russia and Prussia to make them really angry and declare war on you every 5 years and try to time it so they both attack you together for an added challenge, not that I think you'll get that far but still.

Vicky 2 in general doesn't push you around like CK2 does, so whether a nation is challenging or not depends entirely on the goals you set for yourself. Even Greece can be easy if you're content with their starting territories and just educating your population and eventually industrializing a bit. Now if you want to recreate the Byzantine Empire from Greece, now that will be a challenge. But again, the game won't push you in any direction, you have to do the pushing yourself, and that's true for all countries.

 

[dulcamara]

Thanks, that does kinda give me a better idea what to expect from a Sweden playthrough.

How do people feel about playing the USA? That has some appeal to me being my home country (I've got a pretty detailed background in its history to fill in the imaginative gaps the game doesn't cover) and from the looks of it AHD really fleshed out its gameplay with a ton of events. I'd wonder though - is it more railroad-y than others because of this, where you're trying to duplicate the historical American path instead of embarking on what-ifs?

 

[Lwantssugar]

Thanks, that does kinda give me a better idea what to expect from a Sweden playthrough.

How do people feel about playing the USA? That has some appeal to me being my home country (I've got a pretty detailed background in its history to fill in the imaginative gaps the game doesn't cover) and from the looks of it AHD really fleshed out its gameplay with a ton of events. I'd wonder though - is it more railroad-y than others because of this, where you're trying to duplicate the historical American path instead of embarking on what-ifs?

It's more railroaded than the German rail network, Texas will always win the revolution, if not on their own then through American intervention, the US gets free cores on all 50 states through events, it will always win the Mexican American war even though historically the US army at the start of the conflict was smaller than the state militias they maintained. The Civil War is all but a scripted event, it always starts and ends around the same time, the North always wins in unless the confederacy is player controled and even then it's an uphill battle.

After this America starts behaving more like a normal great power in the game, it usually stays out of the race for Africa and colonizes the Pacific, it typically spheres Japan as well

 

[El Jojo]

In my opinion, the USA is a bit boring, you start with in a strong position and thanks to migration you'll rise to be an industrial and military behemoth. There'll be a few hiccups that could destabilize a beginner though. As for railroading, well it's tough to avoid the civil war, so you'll have to fight that and should get ready for it. Otherwise, after incorporating Texas you can enact a decision giving you cores on the northern part of Mexico. Since Mexico is usually weak, poor and unstable, it's a cakewalk to gain these territories.
Mexico makes for a very interesting game, but it's also quite hard to pull.
A nice compromise would be Two-Sicilies. You have some literacy, your economy is not great but at least you're in the green and you have the formation of Italy to strive for, which means you'll have to become a Great Power, learn the influence game to dominate the italian states and manage to get a strong economic base to support an army able to defeat Austria.