Victoria II
- Thread starter Tellus
- Start date
Italy didn’t need German allies as a crutch. Germany need Italian allies as a crutch. I had to send my army north to prevent the Germany army from being destroyed.
Vietnam? That's a surprising country to see on the list. Do they have any special advantages compared to other uncivs?
It's amazing how badly the AI can mess up with a country that's essentially unbeatable in player hands, isn't it?
I know right? You would think with half of Austria/Frances armies on the Italian border Germany would have an easy time of it. But nope. The French doomstack destroyed all of the troops that Germany split off to individually siege provinces.
Has anyone played as the UK? I've owned this game for six years now and still can't bring myself to play them. Managing all that empire on day one just seems like too much of a chore.
One thing that does help are the oodles of puppet states which help in India that help you keep the region under control. Though, particularly, it depends on the route you wish to go. The hardest thing is balancing your SoI and knowing who you really want in it, and who you're willing to give up. It's really that kinda deal, honestly, as well as how much you want to keep up with and how much you want to handle.
Let's look at the Americas:
The easy route is to not take anymore territories in North America so you have no conflicts with the US - while you can lose Canada in a war, you don't want the US in a war with them launching war objectives to take Canadian states. Oh, sure, taking Panama is a good idea, along with maintaining your territory there, but that's not so terribly difficult. You don't really need anymore - taking one of the Guyanas isn't really necessary. Sphereing a large portion of South America isn't a bad idea, especially Colombia/Venezuela/Brazil, as you'll have a land border with all three due to Guyana and the Canal. That is easy enough to maintain - just be careful of butting heads with the US and you'll be fine. Basically, here, this is easy mode - don't stick your neck out too much, and take what is easy, and don't provoke the US and you won't need to put much in the way of the forces here.
The hard route in the Americas is to try and break the USA. Ally with Mexico before they are invaded and lose the west and use your superior resources to eliminate their armies early on. Take a few of their major cores, and constantly invade afterwards to take colonial states on the cheap. Make sure to occupy the country - also, only take states in the North, naturally. You can take New England or force its release as an independent nation (or conquer and release as a puppet). Make sure that, when the CSA is released, that you invade as soon as possible to support them in their war. That way, you reduce the US to a minimal power - eventually forcing to secondary if you're successful, and you're able to sphere a stronger Mexico and the CSA as well as the remainder of the Americas.
Mind, keeping the US down will be a bit of an investment - you could be exercising this later on. It's fairly easy to use that time to expand elsewhere.
Asia is always a tempting choice. Johore isn't a bad idea, as it secures your possessions in Malaya and allows you to position just one army there. It might be a good target at the start of the game. Locking up more of East Asia isn't a bad idea either - Brunei, Bali Lombok, and Indochina also give you more and more states for you to take advantage of. It's, of course, an option to start taking provinces from China as well. If you so desire, it isn't impossible at all to take all of China, Indochina, and India. That is, if you want to game your war declarations to get the minimal amount of infamy for taking colonial land. Save and reload is your friend.
At the least, do secure Malaya, Burma and other neighboring possessions so your territory is completely contiguous. If you want to recover the various princely states, never take the Empress of India so that the Doctrine of Lapse event keeps triggering. The more you lose of the princely states, the slightly stronger your interior states and, more importantly, the fewer nations you have to worry about managing the SoI for.
Another option is to start planning to lock up as much of Africa as possible. In general wars against the various European states that you're liable to wander into, start nabbing colonial provinces to reduce their colonial range - it'll make it easier for you to secure the continent and to prevent the Europeans from getting into the initial colonization rush. Take the native states on the exterior first before France poaches Algeria, etc. Either support Egypt and keep it strong or conquer it as well. Continue to build ports and make sure to build as many ironclads as possible in order to support a colonial expansion in Africa the moment you can. Take Sokoto as well, as the US seems to be fond of claiming it in their SOI by my experience.
Eventually, you should get an event to conquer the Boer states (I say should; I never got it, and it is random). So that should be a focus as well - those territories are a good location to become states late game. If you're patient and have the time, you can always justify a casus beli to conquer them, and just reload until you can take for minimal infamy. It'll take a long time, however, but it is possible. Other tha
Basically, for Britain, you need to decide who you are ok with growing and expanding, and who you are going to make a point in neutering from the start. They are the nation that is least dependent upon good events or things just falling in place - you can plow through your plan. Say you want to keep Greece in your SOI - you're gonna need to fight off Italy it and never take any Greek cores, such as Cyprus or Crete. Realize that, without a land border with most of Europe, you're gonna be having trouble maintaining SoI against a committed continental foe. Spain (Gibraltar) and Portugal (only borders Spain) are good continental spherelings, mind - unless you decide you want their colonies instead. It's very hard to maintain Belgium, for example, and the Netherlands. So, unless you want to get tied up in Europe...
Granted, you could always try and chomp off a bit in land in Europe as well and go hog wild as well - but remember, your economic strength will be overseas, and you have to do enough to preserve that.
As for the question of releasing Canada/Australia/New Zealand/etc, that's up to you as the player. Mind, if you're efficient with saving/reloading, you might not need it - even then, you should only need it if you're taking a lot of land. All of those regions easily become states, which does help your industry significantly. On the flip side, the regions would likely be stronger if you let them go (more immigration, if I have my mechanics correct), but then you have the issue of other nations taking them from your SOI (principally the US) so you have to make that decision. Still, it isn't really necessary.
Admiral Halsey
Banned
Eh you don't need to worry about the US taking Canada from you SoI so long as it's still a puppet. The AI never tries to influence puppets from what I've seen while playing unless they already had some influence in the nation before you puppeted it.
I've seen it happen before, myself, especially once nations get their initial targets in, and you start having excess influence bleeding everywhere. It's happened to me late game, when I've maxed out everyone I try to influence and then I randomly start having enough points to become cordial with a nation halfway around the globe.
Regardless, it is a consideration, as the AI is sometimes weird. I find that Canada is actually easy enough to integrate, so it's better to keep them. Without any US cores, and if you keep US relations high, that takes an entire hemisphere of headaches away. Typically worth it.
Does anybody have an unedited copy of the text.csv file?
I ask because as of late I've been experiencing issues with countries and provinces having completely wrong names. Not only that but often times the descriptions of the different types of tech are visible on the actual tabs instead of in the description box at the bottom of the screen.
I ask because as of late I've been experiencing issues with countries and provinces having completely wrong names. Not only that but often times the descriptions of the different types of tech are visible on the actual tabs instead of in the description box at the bottom of the screen.
It’s really frustrating sometimes how hard it is to get the Victoria II AI to accept a peace.
Fighting the American Civil War? You’ll have to keep every single province in the entire South occupied for a year before they’ll surrender.
Fighting the Austro-Prussian War? You’ll need to individually defeat every pro-Austrian German minor and then occupy all of Bohemia before rolling into Vienna, and only then will they give up their hegemony.
Fighting off Britain as an Indian state like the Mughals or the EIC? You can crush multiple 60K-strong armies and occupy vast swathes of land and they won’t break a sweat.
Fighting the American Civil War? You’ll have to keep every single province in the entire South occupied for a year before they’ll surrender.
Fighting the Austro-Prussian War? You’ll need to individually defeat every pro-Austrian German minor and then occupy all of Bohemia before rolling into Vienna, and only then will they give up their hegemony.
Fighting off Britain as an Indian state like the Mughals or the EIC? You can crush multiple 60K-strong armies and occupy vast swathes of land and they won’t break a sweat.
That and it means my Men will have Access to the Best Chocolate in Europe. No Shortages on the Confectionary Front! ;-)
How many of my Default Armies should I leave in the British Home Islands to Deter the AI from Invading? I was going to leave some of my Men in newly-Conquered Madagascar as a Garrison and send another lot [Three Infantry and a Cannon] to South Africa for similar Reasons.
I always found the CK2 AI to be the easiest to force to terms (capturing the King or just bludgeoning his counties to death), but anything beyond that is terrible.
Vicky 2 feels really weird to go back to after sinking a ton of time in HOI4. I miss my front lines :,( But I do like the POPs detail and demographic info.
I've found that the AI is actually quite easy to convince as long as your wargoals aren't too nasty. It makes sense; the AI knows that if it agrees to your nastier terms, it will often essentially be out of the game forever, so might as well fight to the last man and make you pay.
The alt-history mod Divergences of Darkness has been ported to HPM.
https://www.reddit.com/r/victoria2/comments/a9yist/divergences_of_darkness_hpm_port_initial_release/
https://www.reddit.com/r/victoria2/comments/a9yist/divergences_of_darkness_hpm_port_initial_release/
The HPM port of Divergences of Darkness mod has became the official beta version and was uploaded to Github.
https://www.reddit.com/r/victoria2/comments/acw2oh/divergences_hpm_port_official_beta/
https://www.reddit.com/r/victoria2/comments/acw2oh/divergences_hpm_port_official_beta/
Justinianus
Banned
I've never had that happen to me. Once I've got 100% war score (usually once I've occupied most of the country) they surrender.
Well, the problem is that it doesn’t get to 100% war score even with ridiculously high numbers of occupations, and they won’t sue for peace at any less than 80% or so.