Starting out advice

[Aotrs Commander]

I bought Vicky II in the Steam sale (on the last day - yeah, I know the price increase gubbins, we'll see how that all pans out, but whatever, less than £9 was still pretty good). (Vicky 1 too, for that matter, since it came in the bundle...)

(I had sort of helf off for a while, since i was half-expecting Vicky 3 might be announced ovcer the convention period.)

I have heard legends tell of the complexity and whatnot of Vicky II spoken of in hushed whispers on the boards of the other games - and prior experience has suggested the tutorial is likely... Of questionable value.

I've played CK2, EUIV (with almost all/all the bells and whistles) and from the very brief look I've given Vicky II, it appears a fair bit of it is familiar territory.

But I would welcome some suggestions as to where might be good places to start.

(I started EU with Portugal, and CK2 with Bazantium=> Rome, because i am insane (and also a scrub who plays on easy and reloads lots) for comparison.)

Kind of largely an inveterate map-painter (as I am in still my first game of CK2 and second of EUIV[1], the novelty has not worn off).

I am very definitely the sort of person who will play with a tab open on the wiki, but it would be nice to have a first-order magnitude place to start from.



Edit: Off to a grand start - the advanced diplomatic tutorial is impossible to complete (it says "select France, click declare war, pick a war goal and okay" except there is no war goal. And it had locked out all of the buttons (including escape). Alt-tabbing did not seem to work well (the mouse pointed wouldn't change from the V2 pointer until I used the windows button to get into a position to right-click close (sice I couldn't use even task manager). I mean, I expected the tutorial to be a bit pants, but I'm quite impressed that it managed to get broken, even with the like, couple of expansions V2 got.



[1]I play large stretches and then go long periods without playing at all - though obviously, patch-breaks are not something Vicky 2 is likely to suffer from...!

 

[mergele]

My recommendation: Pick sweden, set the alarm to 5 minutes, explore menues to your hearts content and when the alarm rings hit unpause. One of the great things about Vicky 2 is that it's pretty hard to actually die. Get your budget sorted out (usually by defunding the army) and then just sit and observe how the things develop. You'll learn so much just from observing all the moving parts in action. A general idea of most mechanics is very easy to obtain and sufficient for doing things, reading up specifics about individual mechanics comes into play once you know how the leveres roughly work and interplay.

On map-painting. Vicky isn't really suited for map-painting. But you can lead portugal to number 4 worldpower with taking only a single province from spain (and admittedly a big colony in central africa.)

 

[Aotrs Commander]

The legends were true.

After the tutorial crashed the second time, I gave up and tried starting as Sweden.

And, apparently the only way to get the budget not to be insanely negative (like -167) right out of the gate is to completely kill all spending (to the minimum it will let you) and maximise all taxes. Wut.

So, apparently, havin' to read the wiki/watch tutorials before I even attempt anything.



And it does occur to me that conquest is going to be... Challenging when I remember I'm only dealing with a hundred year period (which, if the truces I presume exist are anything like the other games, means an absolute maximum cap of six wars against any one target (and probably about that in practise overall in the speed or warfare is vaguely similar to either CK2 or EUIV). On the other hand, since we can't even get out the gate yet, perhaps World Domination probably is not a thing we should be considering yet...

Edit: So it is the wiki that is the first thing to explain what "RGO" stands for. Good going, the tutorial. You had ONE JOB...

 

[Sebastian Jarl]

I've played it on and off since release, and tbh I'm not sure if I know what RGO stands for. (Resource gathering operation?)

Regardless, if your preference is map painting, may I suggest Brazil instead of Sweden? It is far easier to build an industrialised economy as Sweden because of the superior literacy, but Brazil has the advantage of being much stronger than its neighbours. In the early game you'll mainly have to focus on the following:

Use your national focus on promoting clergymen and bureaucrats. Prioritise culture techs (especially the ones that gives extra research and literacy) and industry techs that increases RGO production. Early opportunities for conquest is also good to take advantage of, if your budget allows for it.

By the mid/late game, you should hopefully find yourself being one of the weaker great powers.

 

[jdavis86]

I think one of the best ways to learn is to watch a youtube let's play and replicate their play as you go.

It may sound kind of funny, but it is a great way to learn mechanics of the game.

Azsunes' Japan and Mexico let's plays were wonderful for this. Probably better to start with Japan, though Mexico is totally doable.

Japan:

Mexico:

 

[Kovax]

In the beginning, most countries will be heavily dependent on Resource Gathering Operations (RGOs: mines, farms, timber, etc.) and Artisans to produce goods for their citizens to buy, and hopefully have some excess to sell on the world market. At the start, you may need to boost taxes to absurd levels, or set your tariffs higher, just to balance the budget. Set your National Focus (of Foci, if you have more than one) on a high-value region with low Administrative Efficiency to boost the hiring of Administrators, which should gradually bring the abysmal income from the region up to something reasonable over a couple of years. I shoot for around 80%, since increased Administrative hiring and research will take it up over 100% soon enough, and anything beyond that is wasted salaries for Administrators you don't actually need. As the market settles, and as your Administrative Efficiency increases (giving your central government a higher percentage of the taxes which are owed or collected at the local level), you should find yourself with some surplus, and can start increasing both Educational and Military spending, the exact mix of Admin/Edu/Mil being dependent upon your country and goals. Eventually, as Tax Efficiency improves through research, you should be able to reduce taxes and tariffs, allowing your populace to buy more of the goods you produce, increasing profitability of the RGOs, Artisans, and factories.

Once you've got some surplus cash (as in 10-20K), you might consider building an industry. Depending on your laws and government, either you can build, upgrade, subsidize, and close factories, or else some or all of those options will be handed over to private investors, over whom you have next to no control (other than a National Focus to increase the odds of them building one category of factory over another). If the region where you build the factory has at least one of the required inputs for that type of factory (such as Coal for a Glass or Cement factory, or Cotton for a Cloth factory), it gives a substantial increase in profitability. Note that private investors tend to ignore that, and will build factories in some of the worst possible places for that type if industry; having control over "what" and "where" allows for a much healthier industrial base. Once you have some factories to produce the intermediate products that other factories require as inputs, you can sometimes start turning more of the market over to your private entrepreneurs, allowing you to invest your government funds into more Education or Military spending. The Capitalists are also good for building Railroads to increase the profitability of both RGOs and Factories. Note that salary investments can take several years to show a return; don't expect to bump up military spending and see an increase in recruitment in the next couple of weeks or months. Gradually, your Artisans will be supplanted by Craftsmen working in your factories, churning out larger volumes of product for a lower cost. I can't recommend what to build or where, because every game tends to vary widely depending on the country you select and what the other countries build in terms of competition for your own industries.

After that, the game is more about rising to Great Power status (one of the top 8 ranked countries), and then building a "Sphere of Influence" by enticing or coercing countries away from your opponents' Spheres and into your own. Wars happen, and your Spherelings can't war against you, plus they are easier to ally. The more allies you have, the less likely "bigger fish" are to consider you as a tasty morsel.

As suggested by Sebastian Jarl, Brazil makes a good enough "learning experience", but is fundamentally short on Coal (it has none), and therefore is entirely dependent upon foreign imports for a large part of its industrial base. It's got a good local situation compared to its neighbors, and can easily leverage that up to Secondary Power status, or even creep into the bottom of the Great Powers, but the total lack of certain key resources can be a major hurdle preventing it from rising any higher.

"Painting the map" is probably easier with Prussia or France, which are mainly pitted against each other and against Austria, and the UK starts out with a sizable portion of the map already within its sphere of influence, and can conquer a lot more of it due to an abundance of "excuses" for colonial wars. Enjoy.

 

[Shinkuro Yukinari]

Tip 1: Don't be afraid to maximize tariffs if needed, try to have bureaucrats and clergymen at max funding
Tip 2: Rush techs like Medicine, Research point techs, and the three techs that help with colonization, assuming you go there
Tip 3: Screw Anarcho-Liberals
Tip 4: Be careful with Laissez-Faire governments, as they can ruin your economy easily(much like IRL, the accuracy is astounding)
Tip 5: The best governments would most often be Conservative/Reactionary early game, Socialist mid-game, Communist/Fascist late game
Tip 6: Be careful with Planned Economies as Russia for example, so tedious
Tip 7: Serbia is a fun nation for a beginner, given its small size and possibility to properly explore almost all aspects of Vicky 2
Tip 8: As Sweden, rush prestige techs to get Great Power and form Scandinavia
Enjoy this gem and post your game when you do

 

[mergele]

Tip 6: Be careful with Planned Economies as Russia for example, so tedious

If you happen to end up in such a situation take a book from real world and manage your economy in 4 year cycles.

 

[Aotrs Commander]

Okay - after reading guides, watching videos and taking suggestions from a few other folks, I have decided to start with France. And we'll see how this goes.


I'm ear-marking one later game for using the EUIV=>Vicky2 mod to convert my first EUIV game with Portugal (in 1.16-1.17), because that might be neat.

 

[Aotrs Commander]

Okay. I've done some hours (and got about five years, largely ecause I was going very slowly to start with.)

Soem queries.

Does it matter where you put factories? I.e., if I have coal in one province, does it make a difference if I put a cement factory in that state or the one next to it?

What effect does changing the ruling party have? Because when they elected a party I didn't want, I was able to just change the ruling government back to the one I did. Does that have some sort of price?

Do you get rebels in newly-colonised areas a la EUIV? (I.e. as I march through Siam ad whatnot, do I need to be worrie about stationg troops behind to mop up or something?)

How does the stockpile work. Explain it to me like i'm an idiot. I tried using it last night, but when I turned off automate and went to do the next one (since with automate on it appeared to totally ignore the sliders) and came back to it, it had moved the sliders to stuipd high, apparently at random. Turning automatic back on did not help. In the end I gave up and reloaded the save. Relatedly, when is a good point to be using the stockpile and what for? (I was lookig at stocking up military supplies for quicker unit creation, for example.)

 

[JonStryker]

- If you put a cement factory in a province with coal you would get a bonus. That should show in the menu where you can build these factories. But that doesn't mean that a cement factory cannot be profitable in a province without coal.

- Changing the ruling party would increase militancy. But it is a helpful thing to do that is usually worth that price.

- It is usually enough to raise troops in the colonies to put down rebellions that start there. Since consciousness and militancy are rather low there rebellions are usually rather weak in colonies. And rebels will first rise up years/decades after the colony was acquired.

- For the most part the stockpile-mechanic can be totally ignored. It might be possible to earn some money with these and help having your army fully supplied when there's a shortage on the world market. But not really worth spending too much time on. http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum...onal-stockpile-question.834931/#post-19618955

 

[mergele]

- The bonus to factories because of local production is to factory throughtput. It does not only apply to RGO produced resources, but if also if you already have a cloth factory clothes factories will also get a throughput bounus

- Regarding stockpile: Do you have the expansions or not?

 

[Aotrs Commander]

- If you put a cement factory in a province with coal you would get a bonus. That should show in the menu where you can build these factories. But that doesn't mean that a cement factory cannot be profitable in a province without coal.

- Changing the ruling party would increase militancy. But it is a helpful thing to do that is usually worth that price.

- It is usually enough to raise troops in the colonies to put down rebellions that start there. Since consciousness and militancy are rather low there rebellions are usually rather weak in colonies. And rebels will first rise up years/decades after the colony was acquired.

- For the most part the stockpile-mechanic can be totally ignored. It might be possible to earn some money with these and help having your army fully supplied when there's a shortage on the world market. But not really worth spending too much time on. https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/foru...onal-stockpile-question.834931/#post-19618955

Right. So noted.

I finally found something that mentioned about getting a 25% bonus for having the input in the same state. I figured their mnust be a bonus from reading around, but I couldn't find what it was.

- The bonus to factories because of local production is to factory throughtput. It does not only apply to RGO produced resources, but if also if you already have a cloth factory clothes factories will also get a throughput bounus

- Regarding stockpile: Do you have the expansions or not?

Yeah, I picked up the collection, so I have both.



I must admit, in some ways, this definitely feels more backward on the QoL aspects, showing that the extended support - for all the flack it gives, has made a lot fo differece to the later games! I miss CK2-onwards highlighting of provinces, the names of the states showing up at higher zoom - the lack of a hot key for the search. And little things, like it remembering what map mode and speed you were at last (CK2 only got that pretty late thought!)

Also, the notification system is a bit irritatingly shy in some areas. I spent AGES fabricating cassus belli only to keep finding they were gone when I was in position... Because nowhere did it say anything about them only lasting a year (so that one national decision for the one on Germant was a total wrote-off), as its hard enough to FIND them (since they appear to be only listed on the nation you have them on, not yours, let alone no warning when they expire! That has been the largest pain in my arse so far...

I even eclipsed Britain onde, but then they seem to be accelerating away from me, despite my best efforts (and I'm at my military cap, more or less!)

 

[JonStryker]

As long as Britain holds India it'll be hard to get ahead of them. Unless you are somthing like the unified Germany.

 

[mergele]

I must admit I was not able to reproduce the behaviour you described. So stockpile from scratch:
Stockpile represents assets owned by the state. Any state owned demand for resources has to be fulfilled from the stockpile of that nation. Building a fort, the resources for recruiting units, the upkeep in resources for said units etc.
Now how does the state get those resources? He simply buys them from the market like POPs do. I do not know if you get first dibs on everything before your POPs do or not, but think it is highly likely.

You can automate the stockpile, if you do so the AI will each tick try to buy as many resources of any one type as required to satisfy the demand of that exact day completly.
Example1: You have a stockpile of 0 ammunition, your military requires 9 ammunition upkeep a day, so it will try to buy ammunition from the market.
Example2: You have a stockpile of 5 concrete, you just ordered the construction of a fort, which requires 100 cement in total, so it will try to buy 95 concrete from the market. There are only 85 concrete available on the market, so the next day it tries to buy the remaining 10 concrete demand.

You can also manually manage stockpiles.
1: You have the "buy" option active (default, arrow to the left IIRC):
The state buys as much of the resources as available on the market until it reaches the specified amount. Ordering the stockpile of 2k artillery is a good way to go into dept really fast. Coming back to the example of building a fort. You set the max.threshold to 10 concrete. Your stockpile sits nice and steady at 10 concrete. Then you order the construction of a fort which requires 100 concrete.You got a tockpile of then so the project gets 10 concrete. Since you are now at 0 concrete you buy 10 concrete the next day, which again get eaten up by the construction project. After 10 days the fort has all it's required concrete and your stockpile sits nice and steadily at 10 concrete again.

2: You have the "sell" option active (arrow to the right IIRC):
Honestly I don't have much experience with this, I had read that this had been disabled in one of the expansions and my understanding of it comes purely from testing just for this post. It seems like you simply sell to the market again. So you got a stockpile of 500 fish, then you set the minimum threshhold to 50 fish, so now your nation tries to sell fish to the market until it hits a stockpile of 50 fish. You get the profit directly to your treasury. Note that it does NOT bus to hold that threshold, so if you sell stuff with an upkeep (like ammunition) you need to watch out and either set to buy, or automate again, otherwise you WILL run out of the resource.

The only time the slider moves on it's own in my experience is when "automate trade" is active, and even then only if you have never unticked that box before. In that case the slider should match the amount that was bought automatically last tick. Maybe you have to hit the confirm button below the slider at least once to really diable automation?

 

[Aotrs Commander]

I must admit I was not able to reproduce the behaviour you described. So stockpile from scratch:
Stockpile represents assets owned by the state. Any state owned demand for resources has to be fulfilled from the stockpile of that nation. Building a fort, the resources for recruiting units, the upkeep in resources for said units etc.
Now how does the state get those resources? He simply buys them from the market like POPs do. I do not know if you get first dibs on everything before your POPs do or not, but think it is highly likely.

You can automate the stockpile, if you do so the AI will each tick try to buy as many resources of any one type as required to satisfy the demand of that exact day completly.
Example1: You have a stockpile of 0 ammunition, your military requires 9 ammunition upkeep a day, so it will try to buy ammunition from the market.
Example2: You have a stockpile of 5 concrete, you just ordered the construction of a fort, which requires 100 cement in total, so it will try to buy 95 concrete from the market. There are only 85 concrete available on the market, so the next day it tries to buy the remaining 10 concrete demand.

You can also manually manage stockpiles.
1: You have the "buy" option active (default, arrow to the left IIRC):
The state buys as much of the resources as available on the market until it reaches the specified amount. Ordering the stockpile of 2k artillery is a good way to go into dept really fast. Coming back to the example of building a fort. You set the max.threshold to 10 concrete. Your stockpile sits nice and steady at 10 concrete. Then you order the construction of a fort which requires 100 concrete.You got a tockpile of then so the project gets 10 concrete. Since you are now at 0 concrete you buy 10 concrete the next day, which again get eaten up by the construction project. After 10 days the fort has all it's required concrete and your stockpile sits nice and steadily at 10 concrete again.

2: You have the "sell" option active (arrow to the right IIRC):
Honestly I don't have much experience with this, I had read that this had been disabled in one of the expansions and my understanding of it comes purely from testing just for this post. It seems like you simply sell to the market again. So you got a stockpile of 500 fish, then you set the minimum threshhold to 50 fish, so now your nation tries to sell fish to the market until it hits a stockpile of 50 fish. You get the profit directly to your treasury. Note that it does NOT bus to hold that threshold, so if you sell stuff with an upkeep (like ammunition) you need to watch out and either set to buy, or automate again, otherwise you WILL run out of the resource.

The only time the slider moves on it's own in my experience is when "automate trade" is active, and even then only if you have never unticked that box before. In that case the slider should match the amount that was bought automatically last tick. Maybe you have to hit the confirm button below the slider at least once to really diable automation?

I've tried setting some of the stuff to "buy", manual for a low stock pile of a few bits. It seems to be behaving. However, I noticed that if you click "automate" again, it goes a bit berserk with the quanitiy. Something to be careful of, I guess, when you unpause.



I just abandoned a war against Prussia I got into. For some reason, Prussia seemd to have an endless supply of troops, and despite me winning every single battle, eventually, I was going to lose my entire set of troops. At which point I aborted. I don't know what the hell happened there. I didn't get a notification that had mobilised, I don't think...? Maybe the did right away and I didn't notice. I think for this run, I'm just going to have to abandon ever being able to fight then, since the seem to cream me despite my best efforts. I'm not sure my troops in the colony woud have helped, though the interface on the ships is definitely inferior to CK2 and EUIV as my navy spent the time going backwards and forward because I couldn't work out which transports were actually loaded with troops.

I'll stick to crushing colonial powers... MAYBE have a go at the Netherlands, seeing as the seem to have few allies.

 

[mergele]

If a nation has mobilised their military power icon (the 2 swords) turn red. And yeah, Unless you are france and beating up switzerland or are very late into the game a mobilised civilized nation can't be beaten without mobilizing yourself.

 

[Aotrs Commander]

If a nation has mobilised their military power icon (the 2 swords) turn red. And yeah, Unless you are france and beating up switzerland or are very late into the game a mobilised civilized nation can't be beaten without mobilizing yourself.

Evidently. I fought just Spain and mobilised and... That was an excessive amount of troops. Heck, I didn't actually need any of them, since my main army did most of the fighting, but woah.

Guess I'll know for next time.

 

[elektrizikekswerk]

Some random tidbits from the thread so far:

1. Not being able to finish the tutorial: I think I finished the tutorial but that was before buying any DLC (but after the DLC were released). And I remember some weird behaviour in regard to CB without DLC. So I guess the tutorial only works without DLC and wasn't updated since.

2. Buying goods: I tend to always buy everything. Of course I don't buy everything at once, but increase my stockpile step by step, starting with goods important for war (esp. tanks and planes in late game, clothes, canned food, ammo, artillery and small arms earlier on). In peace time it's not relevant but if you happen to be at war with the number 1 producer of any given good and you have high demands in that good it's a good idea to have some of them in stock.

3. Mobilisation: I think I never hit that button. So I can't tell how severe the impact on economy actually is, but I guess it's a valid "emergency help" button in case of losing a war badly.

4. Some random general advices:
- Try to keep railroads at maximum level (in most cases your capitalists care for that if your government allows it). And forts (at least at border provinces). And naval bases. They don't cost any maintenance, so who cares...
- With some luck and planning you may find yourself in a situation where your are the only producer of some high tech goods (e.g. tanks). Or at least the number one producer by far. If that is the case DON'T stop producing tank regiments until you hit the limit where your production is barely sufficient to satisfy the maintenance of said regiments. Otherwise your precious tanks are exported. You don't want your potential enemies to buy them and eventually fight you with your own tanks This rule applies for many goods, but according to my experience controling the tank market is quite easy in compariosn to other goods. Remember: Every good used somewhere on the world has to be produced somewhere. If you are the only producer and don't export there's no way for anybody else to get his hands on that good.
- Don't send your troops to war without granting them full maintenance. Paying them as good as possible helps, too.
- A bit tedious but I always try to prevent my bad generals/admirals from leading troops. Ofc, a bad leader is better than no leader, so in early game you may have to employ bad ones but later on you can try to replace them with better ones. Take a look into that section every now and then... I don't try to assign single leaders to specific armies, though.
- If you happen to control a large empire have your armies spread out. Nothing is worse than rebels pressing their demands because your army was too far away and didn't get there in time... happened to me once. Won't happen again...