Question from a beginner playing.

[Cally]

Hello everyone. I first started playing Paradox games with Hearts of Iron 2 last year. Just a few days ago, I decided to go back and try out Victoria I. I am very glad I did. Don't get me wrong, I love HoI2, but it is nice to have a game that isn't completely dedicated to war and conquering the entire world.

I am playing with the Revolutions expansion (have not installed any VIP mods, should I?). I read the wiki thoroughly, and started as Brazil. It took me a while to figure out exactly how RGOs and trading worked, but all in all an easy experience. I sit back, make peace with most of my neighbors, focus on researching Cultural Techs for the Prestige surge, and soon I have highest Prestige in the game and can start buying all the machine parts and other things I need to get going to industrialize. However, though I am buying up machine tools and other things, my government economic policies type makes it so I cannot build any factories by myself. Furthermore, I have no Capitalists! Nor do I know how I upgrade a POP to Capitalist. I am seeing a very difficult road to industrialization, and was wondering if someone more familiar with Vicky could give me advice:

Should I...
1. Promote some POP to capitalist? (Is this possible?)
2. Change my government to a type that can build factories without needed POP to do it. (When I do this, it seems revolt springs up all over the place because 0% of the population support the new people in power.)

Also, I really want to influence my country away from Conservatism. How can I make enough of the country Liberal or something else?
1. Promote POP to Clerks, or another type that is more naturally Liberal? (Can Clerks and Craftworkers run RGOs?)
2. Change the taxes around, like putting more taxes on the rich, with low taxes on the middle class, so the middle class will migrate there and have more opinions. (Or should I do the opposite and put light taxes on the rich and hard taxes on the middle class, so the middle class will become more conscious and militant and try to influence the government more?)

I tried giving full suffrage to everyone to get the Conservatives kicked out, but most of the poor POPs were actually conservative themselves, so it had the exact opposite effect and gave them 95% support.

Haven't had a war yet, because it takes forever to get enough manpower to make a new division. But I am wondering: how many divisions can a specific general command without a penalty? Is there a limit? Maybe I am thinking too much like HoI2, but with that, a Major General could only handle one division, a Lieut. General three, full General nine, and Field Marshall twelve. There doesn't seem to be a Vicky equivalent.

Also on a side note, I want to get rid of slavery in Brazil. Is there any way to do this, beyond random events or maybe kicking out a party with the issue of "slavery" so they don't control the government?

I apologize for all the newbie-ish questions. I understand the main concepts and I have some goals to reach, but I can't figure out how to make it happen in gameplay terms, which makes me hesitant to try the more major powers yet. (Suggestions for other nations good for beginners? )

Thank you for reading so far, apologies if these are all questions the forum has dealt with before.
-Cally

 

[Brettmo]

First of all: Welcome to the wonderful world of Victoria. I hope you're enjoying the game, judging by your post I would say you probably have the right mindset for it. Now, for your questions:

1. Yes, you can promote Capitalists. You can only do so with clerks however so it will be a two step process for you. When promoting capitalists, keep in mind that they can build railroads anywhere within your nation but will only build factories in their own state. Therefore, you need to decide what states to industrialise. Start with one with a large population that can be converted into clerks and craftsmen (from the top of my head, I would say the one around Rio de Janeiro is the most suitable one but you can check that for yourself). Also make sure that your capitalists are making money, reducing rich taxes to a minimum is a good way to get your industrialisation going.

2. I wouldn't try and change your ruling party if I were you, as you've noticed the pops aren't too happy about it and in the early game it's simply so much cheaper to let the capitalists build things for you. Also, if you let the capitalists build your factories for you you don't need any materials so stockpiling machine parts and other goods is not really needed. If you're Interventionist you can use them to build railroads and expand factories you like, if you're Laissez-Faire then you can just let them lay and rust in your stores or sell them back on the market.

3. No, clerks and craftsmen can't work in RGO's.

4.Taxes don't affect POP ideology as far as I know. What you can do is to keep rich taxes low to speed up industrialisation. Once you've got a decent industrial base you could switch voting rights to wealth, hopefully your (mostly) liberal clerks and capitalists should outnumber the conservatives. And once you get a liberal party elected, and you have researched Ideological Thought, you should get several inventions that increase the number of liberals (and your plurality).

5. To get rid of slavery you simply need to elect a party that doesn't have "Slavery" as its minority policy. This should come naturally with your industrialisation/liberalisation since most liberals seem to oppose slavery.

6. As for other nations: Belgium seems to be a popular choice. The beginning might be scary as you start off in a war against the Netherlands but a peace event should fire soon and after that you're ready to go. You have a decent economy, no real enemies and you can even play the colonial game if you wish. If you want some more action then Prussia is a good choice. They have a strong economy, a good army and if you play your cards right you can form Germany which is a total powerhouse.

Finally, I would recommend that you check out the VickyWiki with its manual, Revolutions guide and other tips, guides and info.

 

[Cally]

Thanks for the quick response. I didn't realize Clerks can be Capitalists, and I didn't realize Capitalists would build factories without me needing to manually stockpile materials. Oh well. Does hoarding machine parts from the World Market mean other nations won't be able to get them? Or will they build factories anyway too?

Thank you. I'll give Belgium a shot next.

 

[Talquin]

Japan is a fun nation to play. It's almost too easy after you civilize. Honestly you can't lose as Japan

Belgium is a good one as well. found it a little boring as time went on.

Russia has so many option it's great.

 

[Brettmo]

Thanks for the quick response. I didn't realize Clerks can be Capitalists, and I didn't realize Capitalists would build factories without me needing to manually stockpile materials. Oh well. Does hoarding machine parts from the World Market mean other nations won't be able to get them? Or will they build factories anyway too?

Thank you. I'll give Belgium a shot next.

Well, it's easy to see how you could miss it. There's no way that you could see it without having any clerks and you can't be expected to promote some clerks just for the sake of it. And no, hoarding machine parts probably won't do you alot of good when it comes to preventing others from industrialising. Most (if not all) major industrial powers of this time are either Interventionist or Laissez Faire, so the only thing you can hope to do is mildly annoy Interventionist countries without Machine Part factories of their own. I'm guessing you could try and stockpile coffee since that is a resource that is needed to promote factory workers and Brazil produces almost half of the world supply, but since you really lack any sort of industrialisation at the moment it will probably hurt your economy more than your opponents.

 

[Cally]

From my Brazil game: I promoted a Capitalist who finally made some factories. Only problem was in order to staff them all I had to update all of my laborer POPs to craftsmen (or clerks) so my coffee RGO is only being manned by the slaves who I couldn't promote anyway. What's weird is I'll occasionally get a new POP as immigration from North Germany, but it usually disappears and then reappears in a day.

Here's a question: I thought it'd be good to grab some colonies, so I tried to send an army to Africa. I discovered it wouldn't allow me to construct any buildings unless it has a life rating of 30%... but all of the still-open provinces anywhere seem to have a life rating of 25%. Is there a tech that decreases the threshold, or some other way to raise it? (It is also a little inconvenient that the interface doesn't tell you the life rating for each province, you have to hover the cursor over the darkened 'build' button to learn the life rating is too low.)

 

[Talquin]

Brazil is nice that with a high plurality and a democracy you can get some immigration. Not to sure what would cause them to disappear and then reappear

There are a few tech's that lower the life rating requirement , i think machine guns is one of them.

Hope that helps.

 

[Brettmo]

From my Brazil game: I promoted a Capitalist who finally made some factories. Only problem was in order to staff them all I had to update all of my laborer POPs to craftsmen (or clerks) so my coffee RGO is only being manned by the slaves who I couldn't promote anyway. What's weird is I'll occasionally get a new POP as immigration from North Germany, but it usually disappears and then reappears in a day.

Here's a question: I thought it'd be good to grab some colonies, so I tried to send an army to Africa. I discovered it wouldn't allow me to construct any buildings unless it has a life rating of 30%... but all of the still-open provinces anywhere seem to have a life rating of 25%. Is there a tech that decreases the threshold, or some other way to raise it? (It is also a little inconvenient that the interface doesn't tell you the life rating for each province, you have to hover the cursor over the darkened 'build' button to learn the life rating is too low.)

Well, you should be making more money from the factories than the RGO so that "problem" isn't much of a problem. As for the North Germans, they are not dissapearing but being assimilated into existing pops. Then another one appears to take its place.

Finally, there are two techs and one invention that lower max colonial liferating:
1. Machine Guns in the Land tree
2. Nationalism and Imperialism in the Culture tree
3. Prophylaxis against Malaria, an invention triggered after researching medicine in the Industry tree

Also, if you're going to try and colonize Africa, make sure that you have built a Naval Base. If you don't have one all provinces will be considered "out of colonial range".

 

[EUnderhill]

First of all: Welcome to the wonderful world of Victoria. I hope you're enjoying the game, judging by your post I would say you probably have the right mindset for it. Now, for your questions:

1. Yes, you can promote Capitalists. You can only do so with clerks however so it will be a two step process for you. When promoting capitalists, keep in mind that they can build railroads anywhere within your nation but will only build factories in their own state. Therefore, you need to decide what states to industrialise. Start with one with a large population that can be converted into clerks and craftsmen (from the top of my head, I would say the one around Rio de Janeiro is the most suitable one but you can check that for yourself). Also make sure that your capitalists are making money, reducing rich taxes to a minimum is a good way to get your industrialisation going.

2. I wouldn't try and change your ruling party if I were you, as you've noticed the pops aren't too happy about it and in the early game it's simply so much cheaper to let the capitalists build things for you. Also, if you let the capitalists build your factories for you you don't need any materials so stockpiling machine parts and other goods is not really needed. If you're Interventionist you can use them to build railroads and expand factories you like, if you're Laissez-Faire then you can just let them lay and rust in your stores or sell them back on the market.

3. No, clerks and craftsmen can't work in RGO's.

4.Taxes don't affect POP ideology as far as I know. What you can do is to keep rich taxes low to speed up industrialisation. Once you've got a decent industrial base you could switch voting rights to wealth, hopefully your (mostly) liberal clerks and capitalists should outnumber the conservatives. And once you get a liberal party elected, and you have researched Ideological Thought, you should get several inventions that increase the number of liberals (and your plurality).

5. To get rid of slavery you simply need to elect a party that doesn't have "Slavery" as its minority policy. This should come naturally with your industrialisation/liberalisation since most liberals seem to oppose slavery.

6. As for other nations: Belgium seems to be a popular choice. The beginning might be scary as you start off in a war against the Netherlands but a peace event should fire soon and after that you're ready to go. You have a decent economy, no real enemies and you can even play the colonial game if you wish. If you want some more action then Prussia is a good choice. They have a strong economy, a good army and if you play your cards right you can form Germany which is a total powerhouse.

Finally, I would recommend that you check out the VickyWiki with its manual, Revolutions guide and other tips, guides and info.

Brazil frees slaves by event, not by party. Taxes affect ideology indirectly through the effect on CON. And you will need those MPs for naval bases. Welcome and enjoy.

 

[Cally]

I started a new game as Belgium, this time using the VIP patch. When I played Brazil, I found the hardest thing about it was getting industry afloat, but getting prestige (from techs) and getting money (from exports mainly) was easy. With Belgium, money is a huge concern. I am losing money except for the days the exports go above the threshold and I sell something. Worst, I'm not sure who to tax... no one seems to have any savings. Militancy is hovering around 4 for everyone, but the Clergymen are raising the consciousness of my Aristocrats and Officers, which is annoying because I want the liberals in power (which they are at the moment, although a small 1-2% of the laborers have gone socialist for some reason, despite it being 1837). Honestly not sure what to do... Not nearly powerful enough to win a war with a nearby European power (and I only have three-four divisions anyway), and Africa looks to be too far away.

Immediate questions: What should I do to solve my budget problems? Factories are at full capacity in terms of workforce, though they're not holding a full 50-50 clerks/craftsmen ratio. Is it safer to tax the rich or poor in this case? I'm guessing the poor, since they can't vote and the Clergymen will lower their consciousness.

Long term: Should I be preparing for a European war, or to seize an uncivilized country in Africa? If Europe, is Netherlands or Prussia more of a threat? (Prussia was the only country not to recognize the London Treaty.)

 

[Orm]

I started a new game as Belgium, this time using the VIP patch. When I played Brazil, I found the hardest thing about it was getting industry afloat, but getting prestige (from techs) and getting money (from exports mainly) was easy. With Belgium, money is a huge concern. I am losing money except for the days the exports go above the threshold and I sell something. Worst, I'm not sure who to tax... no one seems to have any savings. Militancy is hovering around 4 for everyone, but the Clergymen are raising the consciousness of my Aristocrats and Officers, which is annoying because I want the liberals in power (which they are at the moment, although a small 1-2% of the laborers have gone socialist for some reason, despite it being 1837). Honestly not sure what to do... Not nearly powerful enough to win a war with a nearby European power (and I only have three-four divisions anyway), and Africa looks to be too far away.

Immediate questions: What should I do to solve my budget problems? Factories are at full capacity in terms of workforce, though they're not holding a full 50-50 clerks/craftsmen ratio. Is it safer to tax the rich or poor in this case? I'm guessing the poor, since they can't vote and the Clergymen will lower their consciousness.

Long term: Should I be preparing for a European war, or to seize an uncivilized country in Africa? If Europe, is Netherlands or Prussia more of a threat? (Prussia was the only country not to recognize the London Treaty.)

The solution to balancing the economy early in the game is often, rather counterintuitively, to close down factories. The problem is that most of the time factories require goods that you have to buy from the world market using your (AKA the State's) money, while at the same time the only profit you get is the taxes. In other words, you're paying full price for the input to the factories, but you only get a fraction of the profit from them. So, my advice is to look at your factories and what input they need, then shut down the ones that need you to import stuff to keep them running. Only keep the factories that use input that you yourself produce enough of in your RGOs.

Threatwise, I find that Belgium and also the Netherlands are usually pretty safe from harm. You don't need to fear unprovoked attacks from the majors.