I've been playing Victoria since about two days after it came out in the U.S. Overall, I've been enjoying this game immensely. But, a few items are subtracting from my enjoyment. First of all, the POPs system is driving me nuts. Especially with the new 1.02 economic rules, production is often low, and the world market is a joke sometimes.
But, on the subject of this thread, I've had problems trying to get peace. Sometimes, everything seems to work fine, and peace treaties go easily. After you and your allies have conquered the entire country and the enemy is begging for peace.
But, in the last game I played, I was unable to get a peace treaty until I offered to give one province up. That sounds reasonable, and yet, the build-up to it was insane. First off, Britain decided to declare a colonial war on me against my African colonies. Fine, I could understand their actions. I was able to quickly take a few colonial provinces, and hold them back on the rest of the front. Why try for white peace when I can get something out of it? Then Egypt declares Colonial War. I had no hope, especially with the British fleet blockading me, and then the Egyptians joining in.
But, things improved over time. I had a fleet of ironclads on the way at the start of the war, with England still using MW and FR. Our first battle was inconclusive, as they had VASTLY superior numbers. But, after doing some quick repairs, we sailed out again. To our surprise, the English were gone. I quickly loaded up as many divisions as I could and set off for the African coast. Egypt promptly gave me a Peace Treaty giving them all the provinces I had that shared their border. Oh well, I'll get 'em later. Britain held on. Or didn't, as it ended up.
I ended up controlling all of Britain's African possessions. I destroyed almost every ship in the British Navy. Britain, at the time fighting China, had weariness at around 59%. My War Score was at 34%. And they refused any White Peace. I had to GIVE them something to end the war. (I ended it because my weariness was, likewise, exceptionally high and I was sick of the entire affair)
Certainly, I ended up using my concentrated forces to cream Egypt in a lightning style advance up the Nile, but you'd think Britain would've been more interested in signing a simple White Peace, let alone giving up a province or two. Maybe they were just waiting for their hidden 100 or so divisions of partisans to pop up piece meal, and mysteriously take over provinces in record times (another beef I have with 1.02). The only thing that I can think of that would lead to this result was that, Army wise, we were still tied in strength, though said Army was locked in a war with China (with 379 irregular divs). And, after the peace treaty with Britain, I gained 200 prestige and they lost a likewise amount. But still they refused to surrender without me ceding land.
