Surviving as Belgium

[Hmortier]

Longtime PDX fan, just purchased Victoria II from the paradox shop at a discount, with both the DLCs.

I was excited to see Belgium being a good nation to start the game as, because as a Belgian myself, not a lot of Paradox titles make it easy for my tiny little country.

I've read tutorials, watched some replays and messed around a bit and I find myself grasping the basics. My question is; how the hell do you survive as Belgium?

I get declared upon really quickly and am only aided by GB. They don't seem to be able to win against the Dutch, aided by either Prussia or Russia. I've read in multiple threads it is a good idea to ally France or even Prussia itself, but I can never secure such an alliance despite raising their opinion of me whenever I can.

The only thing I haven't tried yet, is trying to get out of the sphere of influence in order to secure alliances with people besides the UK, but I have read that this requires relations to be less than 0 and I would be surprised to be able to reduce relations that fast, and build alliances. My diplomatic points wouldn't allow it and war with the Netherlands happens fast.

Has Belgium changed and is it no longer a good beginner nation? Or am I overlooking something?

Thanks in advance!

Edit; spelling mistake

Edit 2; I just saw a let's play where France intervened on the side of Belgium in this war, giving the playing in question assistance from 2 great powers. Aside from the required opinion, is this RNG? Can this be influenced?

On another note; is it possible to sabotage relations between The Netherlands and Russia/Prussia to prevent the alliance in the first place?

 

[EUnderhill]

You can only have one GP alliance at a time. Belgium is a good country to learn how to industrialize - staying in the GP leagues not so easy once the crisis wars get you crushed.

 

[Thrake]

Edit 2; I just saw a let's play where France intervened on the side of Belgium in this war, giving the playing in question assistance from 2 great powers. Aside from the required opinion, is this RNG? Can this be influenced?

A GP can only intervene if his opinion of you is friendly, you are losing the war (negative WS) and you are the defender. The GP will do it if he is at peace, thinks he can win the war and does not like the attacker. Not much you can do about it other than increasing France's opinion of you and hope for an attempt at sphering you. Usually France likes Russia but does not like Prussia.

Belgium is in a tight spot but the AI regularly survives so there *has* to be a way

 

[Vieras]

Belgium is a quite difficult nation since you will be on the mercy of your bigger neighbors. Your strengths are strong industry in the beginning and a lot of coal. You should focus on building your industry so that you will stay confortably as secondary nation. With a little luck you might even become a great power. Colonizing is a bit difficult since you only have one port. You might want to take another state somewhere like Denmark or Cuba, what ever feels right.

You will still have several chances of beating Netherlands. Netherlands are usually allied with either Germany or France and they will start a war soner or later and you can use this to your advantage. Netherlands will also often end up becoming a great power themselves and when that happens they might lose their allies. Great powers are also draged in to crisises so you can use that to strike.

 

[Kovax]

Whichever of either Germany or France allies with the Netherlands, Belgium can usually ally with the other, and almost always does so as the AI if it's not already allied with the UK. Unfortunately, since you can't ally with 2 GPs at once (unless you ally with them BEFORE they become a GP), that means breaking the alliance with the UK and then taking the chance that either France or Prussia will accept.

 

[Thrake]

since you can't ally with 2 GPs at once (unless you ally with them BEFORE they become a GP)

Technically, if you also receive two alliance offers in close succession (2nd before the 1st offer expires), you can accept both alliances and the AI won't break it afterwards.

 

[EUnderhill]

Technically, if you also receive two alliance offers in close succession (2nd before the 1st offer expires), you can accept both alliances and the AI won't break it afterwards.

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