Some Questions.

[McLovin28]

Hello! I have just recently purchased this game so mind me if I seem like a noob. I started a campaign as Brazil and managed to annex Paraguay and I started another game. Here are some questions I have:

1) I just allied with Bolivia, and I have marched my army to the Paraguayan border but I don't have enough diplomacy points to declare war on them. Is there a way to gain more diplomacy points or gain them at a faster rate?

2) How do I build a strong army? I have a decent income, but whenever I recruit more units my income goes way, way down and I have to stop recruiting them and lower the taxes. I am just wondering on any tips on how to build a strong military.

That's all for now. I was wondering if there was any beginner guides and which nation is the easiest to start off as? Thank you in advance.

 

[McLovin28]

Actually, I have some other questions about military. When I am annexing cities, it takes ages to capture a city without anyone in (118 days to capture a province where there was nobody in). Is there a way to capture certain provinces quicker?

Can I get more unit types? For now I only have normal Infantry and Irregular units. Is there a way to get more variety of different unit types?

 

[Savolainen5]

1) I just allied with Bolivia, and I have marched my army to the Paraguayan border but I don't have enough diplomacy points to declare war on them. Is there a way to gain more diplomacy points or gain them at a faster rate?

You just have to wait, unfortunately.

2) How do I build a strong army? I have a decent income, but whenever I recruit more units my income goes way, way down and I have to stop recruiting them and lower the taxes. I am just wondering on any tips on how to build a strong military.

The income immediately drops because your nation has to buy the materials to produce the unit. After they're all bought, it should go back to normal, and when then unit is built, you'll have to be buying supplies for that unit, which will negatively impact your income a bit. Basically, you just need to have enough income to balance out the military. Factories are a nice way to get better tax income - liquor is one of the best, and Brazil has a lot of grain for it (though not much coal, unfortunately, for the glass.).

I was wondering if there was any beginner guides and which nation is the easiest to start off as?

I don't know of any guides per se, but you could take a look at the tutorials, the wikis, and some let's plays.

When I am annexing cities, it takes ages to capture a city without anyone in (118 days to capture a province where there was nobody in). Is there a way to capture certain provinces quicker?

What you're actually doing is occupying territory and bringing it under your control, which takes time. Having your army have high reconnaissance, high siege, or a lot of troops will speed up the process. Later in the game, with stacks of 30k troops or more, you can occupy a province in 10 days or less.

Can I get more unit types? For now I only have normal Infantry and Irregular units. Is there a way to get more variety of different unit types?

They're unlocked with technologies in the army technology tab. If you click on or hover over any of them, you'll be able to see what you can unlock. In fact, the first five techs in the tab will give you basically all the troop types you need for the first 60ish years of the game (well, also Breech-Loaded Rifles, IIRC, which gives you Engineers.)

 

[McLovin28]

Thank you. I've started to form the North German Confederation, and I've started sphering Hannover, and it says that I am ready to allow them to enter my Sphere of Influence, but I don't see a button to do this?

 

[McLovin28]

Sorry for the bombardment of questions, but in some provinces there is rising unemployment, how do I fix that? There is also bankrupcy in other provinces, how do I fix that?

And there are rebel factions, how do I eliminate them? They are just forming but I want to get rid of them before they become a threat.

 

[qwertzuiop]

About sphering: if you click at the country in the diplomacy tab, where the "Offer Alliance" option is, you'll see "Add To Sphere" on the right side among other things.

About rebels: They will go away when the militancy of your population goes down. This can be achieved by taking the right choices if you get an event. Also, if your people can afford the goods they want they will be more peaceful. However, rebels are not strictly your enemies in Victoria 2. It's easier to do reforms when your population is militant, so they may become useful.

About unemployment: Don't worry, it's not really a problem in most cases. If there are unemployed craftsmen in your provinces, it means that either some people became craftsmen although there is no work available (this happens especially at the start of the game), or there is an unprofitable factory that had to sack some workers. If there is no work available, you can change this by looking at the factory list and upgrading all the factories which are full and profitable. Also, you can build factories yourself if you have a party with 'State Capitalism' or 'Planned Economy' in power.

If you have bankrupt factories, it's usually the best thing just to leave them closed because they were either not efficient enough (at the start of the game, some factories can be kind of useless in terms of efficiency) or there was not enough demand for the goods they produced. I'd recommend to reopen a closed factory if there is a high demand for its goods. You can check the number of imports as well as the needs of your government in the Market tab. For example, if there is a closed Liquor factory, you have no other factories of this type, and you see that your people are importing a lot of liquor, it may be a good decision to open the factory again.

 

[MajorHeartfire]

Unemployment is something you will just have to be used to in the beginning of the game. It will persist until the late-game probably. Brazil is lucky that it has access to some really good resources, but all of South America lacks coal - so you should always expect a rough go-of-it for your factories.

If you are looking to play a good beginner nation, you can play as the United States. Brazil is probably not the best nation to start with. You can become a really powerful country with Brazil though! If you don't care about staying in the Americas, then Prussia is another good starting nation. France as well. It all depends on what you want to learn.

Prussia is good to learn to fight wars and build industry. France is good for colonization and fighting wars. Learning to diplomatically balance against your enemies is a key part of both of those games. Russia may not be too bad of a game for you to try as well, it is like a much larger Brazil in Victoria 2. Hopefully those options are good enough!

 

[McLovin28]

Thanks! I will use this advice to try and unite all of South America under one flag!

Last question, is there a way to add 'Conquest' into the options when declaring a war? I really just want to conquer them.

 

[qwertzuiop]

Thanks! I will use this advice to try and unite all of South America under one flag!

Last question, is there a way to add 'Conquest' into the options when declaring a war? I really just want to conquer them.

Unfortunately, you can only completely conquer another country if they have no more than one state (for example, if you try justifying a war against Uruguay this option should be available). It also costs a huge amount of infamy so it's usually not worth it. Later in the game however, it is possible to annex non-westernized countries for a low infamy cost even if they own more than one state. In general, Victoria 2 is not designed for mass conquest - it's possible to expand very well by enacting historical decisions (like unifying Germany or Italy as Prussia or Sardinia-Piedmont), by attacking non-western countries (especially once 'Nationalism and Imperialism' is researched) or by winning a Great War later on in the game. All other means of expansion are often, but not always, very inefficient.

That's why I would not recommend to try conquering the whole continent as Brazil, especially as the provinces are mostly empty and will become useful only if you get a lot of immigrants. If you manage to become a Great Power later in the game (not that easy as Brazil), you can take the other countries to your sphere of influence anyway so you will get them as permanent allies as well as access to their resources.

 

[McLovin28]

Sounds good. Thanks for the help!

 

[MajorHeartfire]

Yes, adding nations to your sphere is a lot like a modern conquest. You get their resources, and their military in times of war (although you can't control it). However, there are also some weaknesses. Their military might be really weak by comparison, they might not coordinate well with you, you have to keep their rebels down for them sometimes, and I don't believe their industry score is factored into yours - but you get first access to their goods before they hit the market.

 

[McLovin28]

I'll be bumping this, I have a few new questions.

When I annexed Morocco, Algeria and Tunis I happened to acquire a large amount of infamy. So much infact, that Russia and Britain decided to declare war on me. I signed a peace treaty with them and the restraints were so unfair. I have no navy, and only 21,000 men in France, 9,000 in Madagascar and another 9,000 in Algeria. I can't recruit armies or navies now either. Is there a way to stop this treaty without going to war? And how do you reduce the amount of your infamy?

Also, how do I recruit larger armies? When I recruit in one province, I can usually only recruit 1 unit. So I end up having to recruit from about 15/20 French provinces and forming an army. Is there a way to recruit more soldiers in a single province?

 

[austrianemporer]

I'll be bumping this, I have a few new questions.

When I annexed Morocco, Algeria and Tunis I happened to acquire a large amount of infamy. So much infact, that Russia and Britain decided to declare war on me. I signed a peace treaty with them and the restraints were so unfair. I have no navy, and only 21,000 men in France, 9,000 in Madagascar and another 9,000 in Algeria. I can't recruit armies or navies now either. Is there a way to stop this treaty without going to war? And how do you reduce the amount of your infamy?

Also, how do I recruit larger armies? When I recruit in one province, I can usually only recruit 1 unit. So I end up having to recruit from about 15/20 French provinces and forming an army. Is there a way to recruit more soldiers in a single province?

Simply put, DON'T CONQUER SO MUCH LAND IN SUCH A SMALL AMOUNT OF TIME. Time will steadily reduce infamy, you cannot stop that treaty.

For the second question, that is both realistic and intentional. It is unlikely that a province of 80k combat age males is able to form 10 brigades of 3k troops each.

 

[MajorHeartfire]

McLovin, you can only recruit a certain amount of brigades in each province as Victoria is a game about population management as much as economic management. You can see all of your possible brigades in the army menu by clicking that last section of the UI at the top. But, you will have to group them all together yourself after they finish being built.

It is, unfortunately, not like EU4 where you can just continue to build brigades in a single province and have it count against a national manpower pool.

 

[Fishy101]

You don't want to go above 25 infamy. If you have more than 20 infamy don't send your diplomat to justify a war. When you have 25 or more infamy, the rest of the world gets a free CB against you. Your allies will also break their alliance with you. And you cannot gain new allies because of your high infamy. When you have the biggest military, you can get away with high infamy. Until then, you need to stay under 25 infamy.