What to do with a small country?

[kunadam]

I'm fairly new to the game, so please excuse my ignorance. I'm also talking about vanilla Vicky2, so no AHD and no mods.

I'm trying a game with Transvaal (in South Africa), which a small civilized country.
My questions

(1) How to get units in early game? By NFing soldiers I have the potential to build more units than the starting 1 regiment of infantry. However, I cannot seem to be able to buy enough small guns to equip new regiments. 6-10 years passes before I can buy enough from the market (autotrade is on).
I need units to conquer uncivs nearby before they fall into the SoI of England and France.

(2) What to do with money? Thanks to 2 diamond mines money is rarely a problem for Transvaal. Unless one maintain a large military the budget is positive. What can I do with the money? There comes a time when I have lowered the taxes to their minimum and even my 1st factory is only half filled with craftsman, so building more do not seem to be a good idea.

(3) When install democracy? Some limited democracy can be installed quite soon. I usually wait for some more political reforms, but I do not know if it is a good idea or not (or even going democratic is a good idea in the first place).

 

[Rangergxi]

Im pretty sure Transvaal starts as a dictatorship. Democracy may be a good idea, to get more immigration, full citizenship(+25 assimilation to minorities) and such.
Ya, to raise more troops you can use your focus and increase the wages for soldiers. Zulu would be a delicious choice, the coastline and of course Orange.

 

[Lexar_kg]

1. The easiest way - to conquer some uncivs. Zulu and Madagascar in Africa can give you some troops.
2. Trust me this situation will end quickly.
3. If you can make yourself full democracy - you should do this as early as you can. You will receive some nice immigrant bonus

 

[GAGA Extrem]

(1) Get prestige.
Prestige determines who is allowed to buy first on the world market. So your gun shortage is caused by low prestige and the effect that others come first in the packing order, buying out almost all the guns. If necessary, build irregulars. They are not as good as infantry, but have much lower ressource requirements.

(2) Spend it.
Lower taxes, set negative tarrifs. This should allow your pops to buy more stuff, which is good for promotion ratio and prevents (at least some) emigration. If they get luxury goods it will also increase CON, which is important to start the desire for social and political change.

(3) Asap.

 

[Fishmalk]

Oranje should be easy to annex early. The extra soldiers Oranje provides should let you take out Zulu. From there, you have all the one-state minors in the arabian peninsula and east indies to keep you busy until N&I, by which point you should be strong enough to take Oman at least.

Getting access to firearms is very difficult early, so go ahead and just build irregulars instead as they only require wool. There is nothing you can do but wait or amass prestige, as the production of small arms increases.

 

[kunadam]

Thank you all for the helpful input. I will try them out now