Victoria 3

[Zanza]

I started a game as Brazil, but cannot make sense of combat. Despite significant numerical superiority in regiments, I always lose to Bolivia. 

[Josephus]

Same. Trying to help out France in a war against Revolutionary France or something, so I deployed my one regiment (Swiss) and put it on the front and...now I've lost it.

[The Minsky Moment]

I have a free code for the game to give via the Humble Choice bundle if anyone wants it.

[frunk]

I'll take it if no one else wants it.  It's not high on my list of things to play anytime soon though, so if someone else has a burning desire they can have it.

[Tamas]

Next patch and DLC has been delayed to 24 June. I am sure it's the right decision but it does not bode well to how bug-free it is going to be. Well, still going to be better than if it release in 3 weeks, I guess.

[Syt]

Agreed. It's hard to look at the list of features and not think, "This will be broken and unbalanced AF at release."

[The Minsky Moment]

In a France game, playing 1.06.  The new ledgers and stuff are cool. Pretty stable so far except for one colonial war that spawned with no front.  AI America didn't go after Mexico until the late 1860s but did start a pointless war for Alaska in the late 1850s.  They didn't send an army to the front, but instead fended off some Russian invasions of the east coast until peaceing out. Sardinia made some early moves to unification then chickened ot.

The French choose your own dynasty adventure feature seemed pointless.  The Liberal Revolution however was fun, with lots of unrest, personalities and interest groups to juggle.  Politics generally seems to be working better, with two big party blocs forming, each of which is competitive and alternating in power.  It's the first Vic game I played where the election events seemed to actually matter.

One glitch I noticed - very small POP fragments seem to be stuck at "impoverished" SOL even if their wages are quite high.  The game seems to round down their small fractional consumption to zero.

[Syt]

Been starting a Greece game. Managed to sowly expand my economy without slipping into debt spiral while avoiding getting into customs unions that might wreck my economy. Though I realized later I didn't have any coal. Had a lucky political movement for landed voting, and managed to switch to dedicated police force. Was struggling to find allies to take land from Ottomans, though. Got to 1850s, and then the game had a repeatable crash (only using cosmetic mods & some UI mods).

[Josephus]

Are customs unions good or bad, for a small country? I always accept when it's offered to me.

[Syt]

It depends. It can undercut your industries (if CU owner can produce cheaper), and if they have a revolution you might be cut off from some or all of their trade (depending on whether you can still reach their trade capital). It certainly makes access to certain goods easier, though.

[The Minsky Moment]

What Syt said.  For small country it can be useful redress shortages because your construction and potential labor capacity is limited and you can't just build to import substitute everything. But if the partner is good at producing the same goods you are specializing in, it can be a problem.

[Syt]

Will be interesting to see if they can pull off the change in the DLC - having the building owners separate from the buildings, and potentially siphoning money from your economy to owners abroad (while providing jobs ... ) promises to change that dynamic a lot.

[Josquius]

Well thats scary and bizzare.
I bought humble choice this month and registered vicky 3, haven't played yet though I did install it.
This morning in my spam box is something from paradox.

New Player Guides Part #1: Start Building Your Grand Tomorrow

It is time to start building your grand tomorrow
In order to help you get started with Victoria 3, we will send you a series of resources over the coming days. First up is the Basic Tutorial series, showing you all the basics around the Economy, Pops and Diplomacy.

Already got the Basics? Great! Then start building your society

[Click Here If You Do Not Want To Receive Any Further Beginner Guides]

[Syt]

Some more interesting changes: https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/developer-diary/victoria-3-dev-diary-119-smoergasbord-of-changes-in-1-7.1682513/

So having migration limits will only affect external migration, not internal (finally!).

New diplomatic actions: support independence/guarantee independence.

You can start multiple wars (i.e. you don't have to wait for one war to finish before starting a new diplo play - however you can only start one play at a time).

If you sway countries to join your plays, they will select a war goal for themselves.

As Overlord, you can side with either side of a civil war in your subject country.

Subjects can turn against you if they have high liberty desire, opting to join your enemies in a bid for independence.

Together with catalysts (see OPB's video below) this might make diplomacy a lot more interesting and dynamic in the expansion.

[Tamas]

Wow time flies, new patch and DLC coming out next week on the 24th.

Changelog: https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/developer-diary/victoria-3-dev-diary-122-sphere-of-influence-and-update-1-7-kahwah-changelog.1689255/


I'll accept it being wonky without a hotfix or two, and I expect it'll need One Proud Bavarian's mod to make it truly shine, so that's fine.

But if its a completely broken mess, I might give up on the game.