True migalhone. Though i havent still understanded how elections in democracies work. And if i am going to become one i got a question. For example how can i get my people to vote for a party with state capitalism? And should i buy the game from paradox store now? Or wait for the sale to come to steam?
- You can use a National Focus in order to increase popular support for parties. I don't recommend going this route because i believe election events are more efficient.
Nevertheless, if you want to try it, first you check what party you want to boost. Say it's the Liberal Party, whose colour is Bright Yellow. Then select a state and on the National Focus button, you select the icon with a ballot and a flag, on the bottom of the National Focus list. Pick the one with the Yellow flag, to increase the popularity of Liberal parties.
The color of the flag indicates the ideology: Light Blue for Conservatives, Bright Yellow for Liberals, Red for Socialists and so on. As with other National Foci, you want to use them in your most populous states.
- To get your people to vote for a party with State Capitalism, when the election events pop up, look which parties have State Capitalism, then choose the option that goes along with the issue being debated. Basically, look at every election event as a debate, where you have to state an opinion, which will influence people. Here's some examples:
Nº1: An election event about economy pops up: You have to choose between Laissez-Faire, Interventionism, State Capitalism and Planned Economy (the four economic policies existent in Victoria 2). Choose the option that has State Capitalism, to influence more people to vote for the parties whose economic policy is State Capitalism.
Nº2: Another election event, this time about religious policy: Let's say you have one party with State Capitalism (let's call it Nationalist Party). To persuade people's votes towards the Nationalist Party, check their religious policy. Assuming it says "Moralism", you choose the event option that increases Moralism and more people will vote for parties with Moralism.
Nº3: Election event about Citizenship policy: You have to choose between Residency, Limited Citizenship or Full Citizenship (The three Citizenship policies of Victoria 2). The Nationalist Party has "Residency" as it's Citizenship policy? Select the option that boosts Residency and more people will vote for parties with "Residency".
A final note: When election events come along, usually you want to influence the population on a certain political issue towards a certain policy, so by choosing an option, there will be more votes on parties who support that specific policy. Why am i hammering this? Because different parties can have the same policies, sometimes you may increase the popular support for parties other than the intended.
Say we have 4 parties: Nationalists, Conservatives, Liberals and Socialists. Nationalists and Socialists have "State Capitalism", while Conservatives and Liberals have "Interventionism". An election event about economy comes along, and you want the Socialists to win the election or at least rise in popular support. So you choose the option that will increase State Capitalism.
By doing this, more people will vote for the Socialists BUT WILL ALSO VOTE FOR THE NATIONALISTS.
Hope you understood the basic principle of elections: When election time comes, treat every event as a debate and steer popular opinion towards your prefered party. This is important to understand even if your government type allows you to pick the ruling party (Prussian Constitutionalism, HM's Monarchy). In a Democracy it's even more important, since you can't cherry pick a part to rule!
As a democracy, if the party you want to put in power doesn't win, you may start new elections before the 4 years pass. Doing this allows you to put your favorite party in power faster, HOWEVER, every time you do this, it increases militancy and with higher militancy, more pissed off people come along, and that means more rebels, and we all know how fun it is to deal with rebels (spoiler alert: It's not fun).
EDIT1: Regarding the question about buying the game: Waiting for a sale or not it's entirely up to you. The only mandatory thing to do, to obtain the full Victoria 2 experience, is to make sure you have the expansions A House Divided and Heart of Darkness. Happy Holidays and enjoy one the best strategy games out there!
EDIT2 : Victoria 2 and all DLC's for -75%! DO IT!
http://store.steampowered.com/sub/29111/
