Let's Play Victoria II: An Experiment In Colonization and Gunboats

What?

So, uh, this is a Let's Play of Victoria 2.

What?

Victoria 2 is a strategy game made by Paradox Interactive. The premise is that you direct a nation, controlling aspects like its economy, military, and politics. I've described the game as an imperialism simulator, which is pretty accurate. The game itself starts on January 1st, 1836, and ends in 1936, a century afterwards. This period is probably one of the most historically influential ones, and a lot happened during this time. The game tries to cover industrialization, nationalism, imperialism, the emergence of socialism and fascism as ideologies, colonialism and the scramble for Africa, and probably more besides. It, uh, it kind of succeeds, but it's still mired in a confusing and outright bizarre interpretation of the events of the nineteenth century.

What?

It's also a really, really hard game to get into, which is why I'm doing this. Paradox games generally have a really steep difficulty curve and feature numerous nigh-incomprehensible mechanics that combine together. Victoria 2 is a worse offender than most, with mechanics that the developers themselves don't even fully understand. The game's more or less a mess of stapled-together algorithms that maybe simulates a nineteenth-century economy, with an empire builder balanced precariously on top. While it gives you a lot of tools, it doesn't tell you how to use any of them, and grappling with the counter-intuitive mechanics is a struggle in itself. Despite this, though, I'm really into it and think it's actually kinda fun! And it definitely can provide some entertaining adventures.

I'll be playing with all of the major available DLC and the New Nations Mod, which adds more nations in certain regions (most notably Africa, which is incredibly barren in vanilla) and has some gameplay changes, like new events and decisions.

What?

In terms of how I'll be telling this story, I'm going to be balancing story and gameplay. There'll be screenshots, and I'll explain mechanics as best I can to contextualize what I'm showing, but I won't be exclusively focused on gameplay. If something shows up and makes no sense, ask and I'll do my best to tell you what it means.

I won't be ruthlessly powergaming, and I'm going to avoid savescumming as best I can. If we get horribly beaten in a war or annexed, that's it. I might end up saving and quitting to periodically reload as other nations, in order to get a better idea as to how the world's shaping up outside of our part of it.

It's worth noting that the period the game covers has some kinda serious shit. It was historically the period where the great powers were most undeniably villainous, regardless of how nice their empire was, and living in this period really sucked for a lot of people. I'm going to do my best to avoid whitewashing over things and try to approach whatever comes up as tactfully as I can.

What?

There's also going to be reader participation! Sorta! The big choice you guys get to make is which nation I'm going to start with, but there might be other choices later on.

Compared to the other Paradox games I'm not super great at Victoria, and I haven't played all of the nations listed, but I know they're mostly viable and I can probably survive as them. Nations in Victoria 2 are divided up into several categories. At the top are the Great Powers, who can colonize and influence other nations, incorporating them into their economic sphere. After them are the Secondary Powers, with only the ability to colonize. After that are other Civilized Nations, and at the very bottom are Uncivilized Nations, who need to Westernize to truly start playing the game.

The options available are divided between easy nations and hard ones. The easy nations will generally have an easier time being able to influence world politics, while the harder nations will require me to play much more aggressively and there's much less of a change of reaching Great Power status.

In terms of how voting'll work, I'll probably ad-hoc it and choose whichever is the majority thing after there's been what looks like sufficient votes. Assuming anyone like, actually decides to read this.

Easy:

A. Two Sicilies



After the downfall of Napoleon, the Congress of Vienna united the formerly separate territories of Naples and Sicily into the Kingdom of Two Sicilies, restoring King Ferdinand of the Bourbon dynasty to his throne. In spite of everything it had going for it in the nineteenth century, it also had an arch-reactionary government that violently suppressed liberals and separatists. The kingdom was eventually annexed into the Kingdom of Italy and became an economic backwater, compared to the prosperous north.

In 1836, however, the future isn't looking bad for the Two Sicilies. Italy is begging for unification, and the Bourbons just might be the ones to do it.

Pros:

• Largest army of the Italian nations, as well as the largest population.
  
• Huge industrial potential as we develop-- we have the resources for wine and liquor, two valuable consumer goods.
  
• Doesn't start in a sphere of influence, allowing us to extract revenue from tariffs and build ourselves up.

Cons:

• Starts as an absolute monarchy with reactionaries in charge.
  
• Europe's going to be hit by a wave of liberalism and nationalism, which goes doubly so for Italy. We have to either ride the wave of nationalism or sink beneath it.
  
• Low starting literacy and an agrarian population, no initial industrialization.

B. Japan



Japan in 1836 was an isolationist feudal monarchy, but not for long-- by 1854 it had been forcibly been opened to the outside world. The resulting turmoil led to a conflict that ended the centuries-old Tokugawa shogunate, replacing it with a monarchy nominally controlled by the emperor. Europe has regarded Asia as a primitive land to be exploited-- can we prove them wrong and defend Asia from (outside) colonial predation? Can we manage to not engage in the super shitty imperialism actual Japan engaged in during this period?

Pros:

• Surprisingly good resource base, with other things we need within conquering distance.
  
• Large, culturally homogenous population base, high literacy. Of the nations available as choices, Japan's got the largest population.
  
• Lots of easy conquest targets, with Korea being the closest, but also the dying empires of the Netherlands and Spain. Assuming conquest is the direction we go in.

Cons:

• Starts as an uncivilized nation. In order to become civilized, we have to adopt a series of reforms to our military and economy, bringing us to equal status with Western nations. I'll talk more about this mechanic and my contentions with it if you choose Japan or one of the other uncivilized nations.
  
• Deeply isolationist and divided into substate daimyos, which we'll need to unite to become a real power.
  
• If China modernizes, they'll be a fierce rival for any ambitions we have in Asia-- as will the existing imperial powers, like Great Britain and Russia.

C. Portugal



Portugal used to rule the world-- it had an extensive mercantile empire, stretching from Brazil to China. That empire's gradually been whittled away, however, with the only major holdings left being in Africa. Portugal's steadily had less and less of a presence on the world stage-- but with the scramble for Africa approaching, that all might change.

Pros:

• Starts with a colonial empire in Africa, as well as outposts in China and India.
  
• That's, uh, that's honestly the only advantage.
  
• It's a really big advantage though.

Cons:

• Fairly low starting literacy, little to no industry built up.
  
• Other nations might want to take our colonies, and if they're certain nations (like Great Britain) we won't be in a position to fight back.
  
• Starts with liberals in charge, who will gladly refuse to help bolster our nonexistent industry because of their adamant insistence on laissez-faire economics.

Hard:

D. United States of Central America



In 1823, the United States of Central America declared independence from Mexico, Spain, and any other foreign nation, creating a new republican government. Right from the start the nation had problems. It had an inefficient bureaucracy, a lack of transportation or communication, a small and impoverished population (only some of whom were Spanish-descended criollos), and division between liberals and conservative landowners over control of the government. By 1840 the union had disintegrated, torn apart by civil war. The successor states had no chance of resisting foreign exploitation and neocolonialism, eventually becoming puppets for American business interests in Central America.

The game starts with most of the country in open rebellion, agitating for dissolution of the fragile union. Can we hold together the fragile republic, or will we be as doomed as the USCA was historically?

Pros:

• Plentiful supply of fruit and coffee, which are solid exports. Tobacco, another good export, is within conquering distance. Gets some rubber in the late game, which is used for the electric industry.
  
• Is a democracy in the Americas, which means we'll attract a lot of immigrants trying to escape Europe and Asia.
  
• If we somehow become a Great Power and take Panama, we can build and own the Panama Canal and become the gateway between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. This is very difficult.
  
• We can also purchase Belize from the British, if our impoverished economy somehow improves enough to afford the astronomical cost.

Cons:

• Literally starts with most of the country in open separatist rebellion.
  
• Starts out dirt-poor and with an incredibly small population-- the smallest of the nations available, I think. Bloody wars can utterly wreck our country, and even victory is likely to be brutally costly.
  
• Incredibly low literacy and limited starting technologies, which make research and industrializing our nation difficult.
  
• Liberals start out in charge.

E. Afghanistan



The Emirate of Afghanistan emerged from the remains of the Durrani Empire, after Dost Muhammad Khan seized power from the last Durrani shahs. The former territories of the empire had almost entirely been lost, but Dost Mohammed managed to be the first to reunite the region we consider modern-day Afghanistan. Historically, the Emirate very quickly found itself caught in the middle of a conflict over Central Asia called the Great Game between Russia and Great Britain, and the country was eventually incorporated into the British Raj as a protectorate. While Afghanistan eventually achieved independence, it never regained anywhere near imperial status. Can we somehow navigate our way between the several nations that want to conquer us and make Afghanistan the great power of Central Asia?

Pros:

• Surprisingly high starting literacy, which will help our research and progression towards becoming a civilized nation.
  
• Large starting army and good commanders, as well as some initial reforms to give us professional infantry.
  
• A plethora of conquest targets nearby, which we can use to fuel our rise to modernity.

Cons:

• Starts as an uncivilized nation.
  
• Powerful enemies in all directions, as we expand beyond our initial borders. The British Raj and Russia are the biggest enemies, but there's also the Sikh Empire (who vastly outnumber us), Persia (who vastly outnumbers us),
  
• Not a lot of resources available to us in our core territory, few inputs for industry besides timber and some cotton. Survival depends on taking other people's stuff.
  
• Pashtun culture has super high radicalism, meaning they absolutely love rebelling against things like Western influences, or our absolute monarchy, or anything really.
  
• Seriously, fuck the Sikh Empire.

F. Dai Nam



Dai Nam was the name of the Vietnamese state under the Nguyen dynasty. Historically, Dai Nam ended up gradually under the control of France, which intervened in the country to supposedly protect Catholic missionaries. Dai Nam became a protectorate, and saw its resources and people used to further French aims across the world. It only really recovered from imperialism by 1976, when the two Vietnamese states were reunified and independent of foreign powers. Let's see if we can do better than what happened historically.

Pros:

• Culturally homogenous, reasonably sized population base to work from. We're the most populous of the nations in Southeast Asia.
  
• Small but reliable ally in Cambodia, our vassal state. Burma is also a potential ally, and sometimes even China is willing to help us.
  
• Has some valuable resources-- tropical wood in the early game, rubber in the late game. Precious metals and oil are within conquest distance, if we can somehow get boats.

Cons:

• Starts as an uncivilized nation, like Afghanistan and Japan.
  
• Impoverished population, low starting literacy.
  
• Scarcity of some resources, most notably coal, iron, and sulphur. Industrialization's hard without these.
  
• High radicalism, just like Afghanistan. Might even be higher.
  
• As we expand we'll run into a lot of powerful enemies-- Britain to the west, the Dutch and Spanish to the south, China and Japan to the north, and the United States on the other side of the Pacific. All of them may want to take a bite out of us.
  
• As an addendum to that, France explicitly will want to build a colonial empire in Southeast Asia out of us, and if we're uncivilized they'll be free to do so. We have to either modernize or die, and modernize fast.