Victoria 3

[garbon]

I started with Chile which was likely a bad choice as most of the journal lessons then wanted you to pass 5+ years. I'll try tutorial again but pick Sweden.

[Tamas]

I started with Chile which was likely a bad choice as most of the journal lessons then wanted you to pass 5+ years. I'll try tutorial again but pick Sweden.

Watch that video linked above, its time-stamped so you can skip the bits you already know, very useful.

[Syt]

So the natives in Congo are preparing an uprising which plays out as diplomatic play - fair enough. However, I can see that if it comes to war, there'd be two fronts. I have one general in Congo HQ, one in Niger, two in Belgium. I'd like to move one from Belgium to Congo, but it seems there's no option to do that?

[Tamas]

[Tamas]

Anyways started an Austria game, I want to try turning it into a multicultural paradise see how the game handles that.

But first I thought I'd try being aggressive against Ottomans, starting a Play to grab their 3 Balkan vassals (to make them my vassals). Britain joined in on the Ottoman side so I convinced Russia with promises to join mine. Wallachia conquered, stalemate against British troops in Bosnia, I check the war summary, I have had 150k dead so far, what is even the point with those vassals? This is noted as a bad idea, reload.

[Valmy]

My respect for the game that Paradox designed is increasing with every whiny, cringe-inducing post from so-called hardcore high-APM gamerz.

Politics and economy are boring!!! Where my army men??????

I mean maybe they are right that Paradox's new military system sucks. But Paradox's military systems have always sucked. I am all for them trying something new. And maybe it will be garbage. But let's play it for awhile and see what we can do with it.

But I guess I will say despite that being a totally garbage military simulator people do like Hearts of Iron. So there is that.

[Barrister]

I cracked and bought the game.

I'm working from home so I have no time to actually play but just wanted to take a look - but now I get an error message trying to start it?

Any ideas?

[Crazy_Ivan80]

Just managed to play some, and with play I actually mean staring at the interface, clicking some buttons and generally feeling overwhelmed...

[FunkMonk]

Paradox games attract some of the weirdest people.

[Syt]

My Belgium game got into the 1860s. Turned the country into a parliamentary democracy, enacted social reforms etc. Getting the right majorities and making sure I don't piss off too many groups made for an interesting balancing act.

My main issue is that I can't expand my army. I have the law that only allows for 5 barracks per state. I have two states, plus a few colonies. Any other military law (mass conscription, professional army ... ) will piss off 2/3 of my interest groups.

I got early into ironclads and am the first one to build them. So I started ramping up my shipyards for major profits while I'm the only manufacturer of steamers and ironclads. My attempts at colonizing Africa were hit and miss. I tried to get a treaty port on the Horn of Africa. It escalated to a war - me against three tiny states. I took the one on the coast and enforced my treaty port. However, the other two were landlocked and I had no way of getting to them. I could violate the sovereignty of the country in between (which is a new, separate diplomatic play ... ). I decided to befriend them instead (bankrolled them, improved relations, forgave obligations ... ) and signed a defensive pact. Which was a dead end, because I can't cross their territory to get to my enemies AND I can't violate their sovereignty anymore. Lesson learned, I guess? The mobilized armies were expensive, and my opponents refused white peace after two years or so and still had strong war support, so eventually I backed down and had to pay them 12k ongoing reparations.

One thing I started paying attention to rather late was the investment pool which you can see in the assets tab of your budget. It's getting filled with excess money from the owners of your various businesses: if the cash reserves bar under the operation in the buildings overview is full they start paying into your investment budget. Depending on your economic policy (interventionist, laissez-faire ... ) you can use this money to fund various investment, e.g. agricultural businesses, infrastructure, manufacturing etc. Helps pace expansion and managing your budget.

[Syt]

Oh, and my game crashed. The crash log is not very helpful except that it may have to do with the tutorial? I will start a new game tomorrow, I think (though I don't like abandoning games that are underway).

[Tamas]

They really need to focus on the neverending wars. I had another one where Russia came to the defense of some German minor against Prussia, the minor got annexed fairly soon so Prussia had zero wargoals left, the Russians had one: treaty port in danzig. And for THAT they fought until Prussia almost reached Moscow and St. Petersburg, lost close to a million people and had a lot of provinces devastated.

[Syt]

Agreed, that needs tweaking. Also, limited colonial wars would be most welcome. I don't want to go to war with half of Europe because of a small backwater in Africa (it should still be possible that they escalate to full wars).

Also, in my game Prussia, while trying to make Germany, was at war with France, Russia, and Austria in varying constellations almost every other year over some German minors, and all of Germany was covered in turmoil by the 1860s. Most notably, none of the combatants had progressed beyond line infantry.

Maybe it's some wonkiness because of the tutorial's default settings that gimp the AI nations a bit. Guess I will see.

I thought it was funny, though, how after Prussia took Holstein from Denmark Scandinavia was formed between Sweden, Norway and Denmark. Oh, and they AGAIN put the Kiel Canal in the wrong spot (same as HOI4). More worryingly, they added it, even though it wasn't opened till 1895 ... 

[Tamas]

Agreed, that needs tweaking. Also, limited colonial wars would be most welcome. I don't want to go to war with half of Europe because of a small backwater in Africa (it should still be possible that they escalate to full wars).

Also, in my game Prussia, while trying to make Germany, was at war with France, Russia, and Austria in varying constellations almost every other year over some German minors, and all of Germany was covered in turmoil by the 1860s. Most notably, none of the combatants had progressed beyond line infantry.

Maybe it's some wonkiness because of the tutorial's default settings that gimp the AI nations a bit. Guess I will see.

I thought it was funny, though, how after Prussia took Holstein from Denmark Scandinavia was formed between Sweden, Norway and Denmark. Oh, and they AGAIN put the Kiel Canal in the wrong spot (same as HOI4). More worryingly, they added it, even though it wasn't opened till 1895 ... 

The berserk Prussia thing has been happening in both my games.

[Josephus]

Ok, so first question. How do you move peasants into better lines of work?
For instance, in Switzerland I have a lot of peasants living on substinance farms. I thought if I build some lumber yards, they would move to labour positions; but instead my new lumber yard is just attracting labourers from other industryies...which defeats the purpose if there's a lot of lateral movement. So how to get them peasants off the farms?