Victoria

[lancelot]

Arrrrgh I just got victoria the other day.

My god its SOOO complicated, I cant do anything

All the graphs and charts seem so dis-jointed nothing I do seems to have any impact.

Help I need assistance, the victoria forums arnt very good either.

can someone suggest a good nation to start with and some tips on how the game fits together.

[Sjakihata]

Try to search for victoria here, you'll find some tips

[SwordsMaster]

I started with Belgium and everything went fine til Russia, Prussia and France all decided to invade me....but that is a different question....

First of all, lower the money you spend on military and put education to the positive range (so it increases even slowly), secondly the tariffs should be in the 33-49% ratio for every class, as if they grow higher, the class would evolve into a lower one, then set your import tariffs almost to the maximum.

After this, you have to find out as fast as you can what does you nation produce that can be sold.
I found that Cement, Iron, timber,coal, Paper and fabric are very good choices from the beginning. You usually dont want to sell weaponry, because you are arming your neighbours, and because it requires a long chain of production (i.e a lot of expensive factories) to be produced.

Then after you know what do you want to produce and sell, get your hands on the raw materials you need for the factory. BTW, dont build your factories in uninhabited regions as ther wont be anyone to actually work there.

Dont try to produce fish/grain, as it is VERY cheap and you might as well use those workers in something more productive.

Tip: ally with UK ASAP, they will protect you at the beginning, if you can ally with Prussia, Russia and France as well as they are all superpowers, and that is always good. Try not to get involved in conflicts, and invest some money in development (in the begining you might need to lower it a little).

DONTS
dont start as the UK. Its hell.Its too enormous and too complex to run.

dont start as Russia. Same reasons.

dont build up an army til you get a good constant flux of money IN your treasury (+200 or so).




Convert pops in what you need at the moment, soldiers, labourers, clerics and craftsmen can be converted with no probs, clerks, and the others are more expensive to train so be careful.

Its a great game, but it is hard, you are right, it took me almost a month to get used to it.

Ah, BTW, Sweden is also a quite good nation to start with, its VERY quiet, and gives you a good opportunity to get used to the mechanics.

Enjoy.

[ShadeFlanders]

Start by installing the latest patch.
Belgium is easy to start with. Accept the peace event with the Netherlands and ally with the UK, nobody will dare to attack you. Next close down all unprofitable factories and start building steel factories in the Flanders. Convert pops from provinces that produce crappy goods like grain or wool into craftsmen and clerks. Don't convert pops that are working in iron mines/sulfur mines or to a lesser extent coal mines (you should produce sufficient amounts coal). Build max railroads everywhere. Tax low class at 70 %, the others at 50% max.
Max your education spending, min your military spending. Make all tech advances towards building up your industry. You should have a killer industry within 20 yrs (dont be afraid to go into debts). Then start to colonise, cameroon is a good place to start. Then you can think about building up military and showing your eighbours not to mess with almighty Belgium.
http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[FesterShinetop]

Also do a search in the Arena for the other Victoria topic. It has some very useful tips in it Also there's a link in there IIRC for sort of a tutorial mission somebody wrote playing as Brazil that I found very useful

[ShadesWolf]

Start with Belgium, they are by far easy.

Once you have won the rebellion, go on the offensive.
- usually I invade the dominican republic and place ships and a LARGE garison, basically because it gives you good resources and you have a large number of men to take andvantage of a war between england and USA. after the smoke settles I usually also have captures Florida http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif
- My second objective is always Madagascer, it might take a little time, but I find it is well worth the effort.
- Thirdly I would invade a province just left of the Indian subcontinent and then work my way into to other independant states.....

Back at home, it depends on what type of game you want to play as to what items you need to research, usually I try to go for an industrial based.....

Build railways and factories where ever possible to match to needs of the homeland provinces...

BTW if you go over to the Victoria forum, you will find links to loads of differnt walkthroughs and advice, they are all very useful and worth a look.

[lancelot]

thx for the tips guys

With regard to converting pops-how exactly do you convert a pop into something more useful? I only ever seem to get the option to turn farmers into labourers.

Also, I can never seem to raise more troop units-anyone know how to fix this?

[SwordsMaster]

You need some resources to convert pops. You can turn farmers int soldiers with no prob IIRC, but to have clerks and craftesmen, you will need some resources (furnitre, paper, clothes, etc) check the details in the window where you convert pops.

The troops depend on manpower. Manpower depends on soldier pops. troops also need weapons, canned food, clothes, etc.

@Shades wolf.

I started with belgium and annexed Netherlands in 2 wars, and then the russians gave me Alaska, the Kuriles, New Guinea, Good african clonies and a bit of madagascar, apart from Livonia.

I was allied to the UK and Prussia, and the russians declared war on the UK.I didnt fight a single battle, let the destroy themselves a little, and then landed troops in S. Petersbourg, took it and won the war. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-toff.gif

But some 5 years later the russians invaded Estonia and Lituania that were mine, so I released them as satellites.
And then took Ireland after they had a civil war with the UK. Then France made war with me, and kicked my butt. and destroyed my fleet.

[SwordsMaster]

Hi all,
I recently lost the hope of defeating France, Prussian and Russia as Belgium,and left that campaign.

Yesterday I started a new one with Spain.

Spain has very little ships, very high militancy everywhere, and the only thing my armies can do is fight off rebels in 80% of my provinces in Iberia. My colonies are also taking arms, but I just cant have soldiers everywhere. Apart from that, my fleet royally sucks, so it takes me ages to get to Manila and back when I finally can ship some troops to the colonies.

Please, can someone help me out as Spain, its way harder than Belgium or Sweden.

[lancelot]

Ok guys, finally getting to grips with the game-sort of..

Only trouble is, as CSA im still gettin my ass kicked.

Does anyone know how to mod the game? (id ask on the vik forums but my account is takin its time to be activated)

specifically-

Mod the game so CSA starts at peace with USA

or

A whole new campaign.

or

a link to real good 'noob' mod guide...

one last thing: even when my army/navy is fully funded I always seem to have a bar underneath on the main screen that is either red/yellow and nearly empty-what is this?


Many thanks Vickies
http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/bigthumb.gif

[SwordsMaster]

The bar is the strength of the army. ie a 60,000 men army will have the bar almost full, while a 10,000 one will be almost empty.

To get peace with whoever you want, just ally with the uk and occupy you foe´s capital (and dont let them get yours even if they get everything else).

They usually become more reasonable after you control their capital.

[alman9898]

I just bought Victoria today too and everything is just confusing. But I know when I get the hang of things, that it's gonna be fun. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/cool.gif

[Shahed]

Play Belgium:

1. Send everything to Brussels ecept the cavalry, send that around the right flank and towards Zwolle.
2. MOBILIZE pick your targets carefully and try ot gain some ground. Hopefully the London Treaty event happens AND UK supports you in that case the war is over.
3. Close everything in Wallonia put everyone to work in Coal and iron.
4. Build Steel factories and derivatives (Steamer, Machine Parts) in Flanders.
5. Taxes to 49% tariffs maximum
6. Colonize Cameroon and Congo and dont turn back till you see the Indian Ocean on the other side of Africa. When you do, attack Oman and take their Kenyan possesions.
7. Prioritize research to culture techs
8. If you are short of Iron and Coal you can annex the North Korean provinces.
9. Check the paradozz forums.....they are VERY good and loads of stuff there...

Check also:

http://victoria.nsen.ch/

Good Luck

[Shahed]

This is what CAN happen ALSO as Belgium, be AWARE

February 19, 1836 : Netherlands went with Refuse them independence in The Recognition of Belgian Independence.
February 19, 1836 : Belgium had The Dutch Refuse Belgian Sovereignity February 19, 1836 : United Kingdom went with Support Belgium in Intervention in the Belgian Conflict.
February 19, 1836 : Belgium entered a Military Alliance with United Kingdom.
February 19, 1836 : United Kingdom joined the war on the same side as Belgium in their war against Netherlands.
February 19, 1836 : France went with Support the Netherlands in Intervention in the Belgian Conflict.
February 19, 1836 : Netherlands entered a Military Alliance with France.
February 19, 1836 : France joined the war on the same side as Netherlands in their war against Belgium and United Kingdom.
February 19, 1836 : Austria went with Support the Netherlands in Intervention in the Belgian Conflict.
February 19, 1836 : Netherlands entered a Military Alliance with Austria.
February 19, 1836 : Austria joined the war on the same side as Netherlands and France in their war against Belgium and United Kingdom.
February 19, 1836 : Prussia went with Support the Netherlands in Intervention in the Belgian Conflict.
February 19, 1836 : Netherlands entered a Military Alliance with Prussia.
February 19, 1836 : Prussia joined the war on the same side as Netherlands, France and Austria in their war against Belgium and United Kingdom.

This means that your game will start as World War One in 1836. the plus side is that if you hold your ground and take some you will gian massively. the down side is that you face annexation, obliteration or becoming a satellite.

[Alrowan]

LOL

i remember my last campagin as france, i think it got to 1870 and we had already had 2 great wars. Prussia certainly paid in one of them, Russia in the other. Both wars hapened in a period of about 15 years of each other.

[Rosacrux]

I abandoned my Belgian campaign, after massively losing money in the 1850s (and being unable to get back on feet) and I've started the banana republic for the incompetent gamer, Brazil.

I am doing pretty well (not too well, but it goes) but I am currently (early 1850s) involved in a South American Great War - everyone south of Mexico fight against eachother and the winner is... the one country allied to UK (no, unfortunately this ain't me, it's Argentina, using about 7 or 8 UK divisions to mop up south america http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/eek.gif )

I haven't lost anything yet (on the contrary, got myself a nice, nifty treaty with Paraguay, that brought in 4 provinces) but if the Argentinian crush Chile and Peru, I feel it's my turn next http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

BTW Brazil if fine and fun to play with... as long as you go through most of the game with Fast speed http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif

[dessa14]

im going to buy the game if i can find it, so what about Holland, could you tell me some strategies for them please.
thanks, desmond

[Rosacrux]

Holland is not a great choice for a first game. I tried them and I got my arse whopped royally... will try them in the near future though (if I find time to play a few more hours, that is) when I get a better understanding of the game mechanics. Problem with Holland is that they start out with a rather large colonial empire, but with poor manpower and industry back home... and they have to accept the Belgian sovereignity event (at least make them satelite) or else they face annihilation by UK very early on... not a good prospect. If you manage to get through the initial years with no big hassle, you can actually become a top-tier power (Netherlands start as a Great Power anyway) but by no means will it be easy. Holland poses an interesting challenge, to get back on feet and try to consolidate the colonial empire at the same time.

If you really wish to start as Holland, try the Paradox forums, there seem to be many relevant threads.