Staying ahead

[unmerged(112237)]

Hello there, first post and what not.

I've been playing my first proper (and successful) game as the UK, but am having trouble staying ahead industrially. Prestige and militarily I'm fine: I'm nearly at 1000 prestige and my closest neighbour is only 367. However, my industry power is only 449, whereas Prussia is coming up fast with 399. What could I do to make sure I stay ahead? I'm trying to colonise most of Africa (against Prussia) and Canada whilst fighting wars with Burma and Irish rebels. I'm also doing my best to make sure my steel mills and railways are fully expanded.

Thanks,

Matt

 

[RELee]

The Prussians have everything. They have the population, the resources and the land. They are hard to suppress. It might be worth it to crush them militarily early in the game, perhaps after getting up an alliance to help out.

I'm just supposing here. I've never played as the UK.

 

[unmerged(112237)]

Hrm, I suppose it could work. I'm trying to avoid major wars if I can for now though. Though I don't see why not, I have some saves to revert to if it goes pearshaped.

 

[Draigh]

As the UK I find the biggest challenge isn't holding on to what you have, but improving it faster than the rest of the world. You can't just sit there and enjoy the view of your world-spanning empire, since much smaller countries like Prussia will catch up really quickly - don't even think what's going to happen once Germany has been formed. So you'll have to do everything possible to keep expanding. Keep colonising and don't be afraid to start colonial wars - as Britain, your military score is usually far higher than that of your opponents, so they'll be less inclined to start badboy wars. Build railroads everywhere, so you maximise your industrial output. You'll be seeing plenty of rebels, of course, but they shouldn't be too hard to suppress with what you can muster.

Don't forget: spend, spend, spend. Every penny in your treasury is a penny that isn't making more. Keep a healthy buffer, but don't stack hundreds of thousands of pounds. If you have plenty, build troops and ships, they're always useful even if only as a badboy buffer. If you're interventionist, keep expanding factories, building railroads, expanding ports, do whatever might give you even the slightest advantage. In the end, however, perhaps the only way to keep ahead of everyone else is immigration. Try to become a democracy, as liberal as possible, and watch the immigrants flock. If you get a decent stream of immigrants, you'll be able to power an industry large enough to contend with anyone else.


If not, well, say bye then.

 

[unmerged(112237)]

What about debt? I have nearly 100,000 pounds of debt (I think it was, anyway, it's something very high). The game manual, the printed version that came with the CD, says that taking loans causes my prestige to lower. However, the only time this has happened was through an event. Apart from ever increasing interest payments, which force me to raise taxes and lower spending to compensate (at least I think that's what's happening), are there any other effects of debt?

 

[Orm]

Having debts will not lower your prestige that I'm aware of, but it will lower your industrial score. You often see AI uncivs with negative industrial score, it's because they have no industry and a big debt.

 

[Aethis]

Yeh you have to beat up on Prussia, they will always catch you, as happened historically.

 

[unmerged(112237)]

Well I forced them to stop colonising Africa, and I'm managing to stay almost 100 points ahead now, simply by building loads of railroads and ensuring all my factories are in good supply. Still have major cash flow issues, but meh, I seem to be doing OK for my first go.

 

[kbromer]

Having debts will not lower your prestige that I'm aware of, but it will lower your industrial score. You often see AI uncivs with negative industrial score, it's because they have no industry and a big debt.

I thought taking a loan lowered your prestige?? Isn't that why all the backwoods uncivs that can't generate income have a negative prestige (aka: I can conquer Madagascar for the cost of ONE prestige point??? Yippee!)

 

[JoeGiavani]

As the UK you should have a larger national population than Prussia/Germany for most of the game, if you go for the right techs and have national healthcare at full early on.
With the right economic policy I've never had much problems keeping far ahead of the Prussians. If you're strapped for places to expand in, try beating up on China a bit.

 

[Orm]

I thought taking a loan lowered your prestige?? Isn't that why all the backwoods uncivs that can't generate income have a negative prestige (aka: I can conquer Madagascar for the cost of ONE prestige point??? Yippee!)

That's not taking a loan, that's going bancrupt.

 

[lizardo]

Pay off that loan, ASPA, it not only lowers you Ind score but stops immigration. Plus the ungodly interest you'll be paying.

Do the colonial war thing and use your fleet to prevent the opposition from defending their colonies, and destroy their fleets.

Do a real war and occupy their territories, that cuts off their income and unemploys the pops in the occupied provinces, who will migrate.

Capture some factories.

Satellite some great powers, then they can't tech trade.

Edit the save file.

Wikki