Very Frequently Asked Questions
"Italy is only a geographical expression."
-Klemens von Metternich
How do I unify Italy?
Only Sardinia-Piedmont, the Papal States or the Two Sicilies are able to unify Italy. Other minors can conquer the penisula but after that Italy will not form. There is a very complicated event chain for France that decides which of the three will get the French support in the Italian Question. The events in that chain are random but Sardinia-Piedmont has slightly higher chance of getting the support than the remaining two. The support deciding event may appear around 1858 at the earliest. Then the chosen country gets an option to start unification war or to drop the matter. If the first option is taken ("Unify or Die") the country is put to war with all the minors and often with Austria too but gets France as an ally and ten infantry divisions. Other italian countries get an event "Rapid Loss of Authority" that lowers army reliability making it easier to beat them. When all six provinces (Parma, Modena, Massa, Firenze, Torino, Naples and Rome - six of the seven listed here besides the country's capital) are occupied "The Birth of Italy" event will fire ending the unification chain. You will inherit all the remaining italian minors and later get an option to move the capital to Rome. You don't necessarily need to own the provinces, just controlling them is enough.
The chain sometimes doesn't work properly so since 1.03 there is also a way to unify Italy without French intervention. To do this, simply occupy all the necessary provinces in war, just as in the unification chain, and an event will fire creating Italy. This is propably the easiest and the fastest way to unify and it's available right from the beginning.
How do I unify Germany?
- Main article: Unifying Germany
Only Prussia is capable of creating Germany. There are four ways to create Germany, but only three to unite it (excluding outright conquest). For more information please visit the German Unification Guide.
Note that Darkrenown has made a mod that fixes the bugs/problems with how the German unification is set up in Vanilla Vicky.
The Three Hurrahs
The first is the historical route. The only requirement is that you (or some of your allies) control Paris in 1870 or later. It doesn't matter whether you declare war manually or the war is triggered by event. The Three Hurrahs event itself creates Germany and gives 200 prestige. Then German states are offered to join you (they do get a 5% chance to refuse) and France cedes Alsace-Lorraine, as well as German posessions if it has any (basicly all German cores). This, again, is the historical route. Do some research on Bismarck, copy what he did and it should all work out for you.
The proposal of the Frankfurt Assembly
Of all ahistorical ways to unify this is the most historical route. If you are a monarchy and not at war with Frankfurt-am-Main on 2nd July 1849, you get an option to create Germany. This transforms you into a liberal constitutional monarchy but at a hefty prestige hit. North German Federation and South German Federation are created, made satellite of Germany and Austria respectively and German states are offered to join NGF or SGF respectively (they get a 5% chance to refuse). After that you can either conquer them or wait for the Three Hurrahs to unify.
The Conservative Empire
The second ahistorical way to unify Germany is through The Conservative Empire event. As any player playing a German state will know, there are substantial 1848 revolutions in the region. The event might trigger in the second half of 1850. If by that time all of the German states have remained monarchies or constitutional monarchies, then it will unify them in a sort of conservative empire dedicated to preventing liberalism from infecting their governments. There are some additional requirements that need to be met but even then there is only around 1 in 4 chance that the event will trigger at all. These requirements are:
- you must have more prestige than Austria, Hannover and Bavaria
- you must have a stronger army than Austria
- you must be a great power
Though you cannot directly influence the government type of nations without making them your satellites, you can station your troops in the German states' territories, thus protecting them from liberal rebels, or you can send your troops as expeditionary forces. Furthermore, you can always conquer any states that manage to become democracies despite your efforts.
Once the event triggers and you become Germany, other German states are offered to join you (they get a 5% chance to refuse).
Popular Unification
Finally, there is the Popular Unification. If by the end of 1851, as a result of the revolutions of 1848 or through natural progression, all of the German states are democracies or constitutional monarchies, an event will fire where the people demand and vote into power a unified German government. This event turns you into a democratic Germany with equality national value and other German states are offered to join you (they get a 5% chance to refuse). This is quite similar to The Conservative Empire route only that, obviously, the resulting government is different and the event is sure to trigger once the conditions are met (which may be a problem in itself - it is very unlikely that all required countries get a revolution).
What makes this method so unique is that it may include Austria in unification. If Hungary exists and Austria is not at war with Germany, they get an option (again, they get a 5% chance to refuse) to join Germany as well. The only problem is that despite an event helping Hungary to form during the revolutions of 1848, they are unlikely to do so without the help of the player. If Austria says yes, the country created will be a powerhouse, although BB could be a problem.
Of the three unifications in Victoria this is the one that didn't happen in real life history so it's the least probable. Only Denmark and Sweden are able to unify Scandinavia. The unification chain revolves around the conflict for Slesvig. An event "The Slesvig Question" can trigger (from 1847 to 1860) that gives a choice to keep that province or hand it over. Then Sweden gets an option to back Denmark in the war with German states. But only a full support ("Scandinavist Surge") leads to unification later. After that Prussia and Austria decide if they want to start war. That war can be crippling for a small country like Denmark, even with the support from Sweden. The war needs to be ended in a normal way.
If Denmark still owns Slesvig (by surviving the war or if the first part of the chain got interrupted at some point) an event "The German-Danish Crisis" may trigger (from 1863 to 1870) giving a similar choice as earlier, but it can be avoided as long as Denmark is a monarchy. If Denmark decides to keep Slesvig, Sweden gets an option to back Denmark in the war with the German states. Again only a full support ("Scandinavist Surge") leads to unification later. After that Prussia and Austria decide if they want to start war, but the chances they will back down are significantly lower this time. The war needs to be ended in a normal way.
The final set of events in that chain concerns unification itself. "The Scandinavian Union" may trigger after 1863. The conditions for that are: Denmark, Sweden and Prussia/Germany may not be at war with each other, relations between Denmark and Sweden must be over 100, Sweden must choose "Scandinavist Surge" in at least one of the previous conflicts and both countries must own some of their starting provinces. Then the country with greater prestige gets an option to create the union and when the second country agrees to join, it is inherited and Scandinavia is created. Additionaly the unifying country gets all Scandinavian cultures.
I'm playing as an uncivilized country. How do I become civilized?
- Main article: How to bring civilization to the uncivilized
As of 1.03 and 1.04, the way to become civilized is amassing each type of point. Once you have built up one hundred prestige points, fifty industrial points, and at least ten military points, you will become civilized and be able to really play with the big dogs.
Of all these requirements, achieving the ten military points tends to be the most difficult for uncivilized nations. This is because irregulars, which are the only units an uncivilized country can build, are given so little of a weight in the point system.
Also, three nations - Japan, China, and Persia - have event chains that, if followed correctly, lead to civilized status by the end of the game.
In Victoria:Revolutions, the following inventions have to be available as well: Army Professionalism, Naval Professionalism, Market Structure, Ad-Hoc money bill printing, Early railway. Also, the invention "Ministerial Government" must have been triggered.
What country should I play as?
For beginners, Belgium is often suggested as a good starting country. It is small, rich and is in a good position to observe how the European system works. It is also very easy to manage, as long as your goals are not too ambitious. Brazil is also suggested. South America's relative isolation, as far as the rest of the world is concerned, provides the ideal sandbox for new players. There is also a wonderful guide for new players specifically for Brazil available on the forums.
Large empires like the United Kingdom and Russia should be avoided. They are organizational nightmares even for experienced players. Prussia, France, Austria, and Sardinia-Piedmont tend to have too many scripted events to provide a new player with a good feel for how to run the game. But if you're feeling ambitious, go for it anyway, or you can try the United States.
One other option is to play a handsoff game. This means a game where you turn off the autosave, set the speed up, turn off fog of war and just watch the map change colors as people get conquered. It's a good way to get a feeling for how the AI plays the game. Good handsoff countries are Hawaii, Liberia, and Bali.
What factories should I build?
That depends on where in the game you are. Towards the beginning, you ought to focus on two things: first, getting a steady supply of vital resources (ie. steel, lumber, cement), and second, producing cash industries to run your economy (steel, clothing, furniture). The cash-producing industries tend to be much more expensive and harder to maintain, as well as requiring a larger supply of refined goods. Basically, as of 1.03, steel seems to be a safe way to go. It's always in demand on the world market, it's cheap to build in terms of machine parts, and it's necessary for internal infrastructure developments.
Make sure to ration your machine parts if you can, because once you have a basic-level industry, you should look at the factories the game starts you with. Depending on these, you can choose what fields of production (furniture, clothing, arms, foodstuffs, etc) you want to enter into. Just make sure you keep the production chains in mind when constructing factories. Just because luxury clothing costs a lot on the world market doesn't mean you can just build a factory and churn it out (for a detailed description of the production chain, see the fold-out chart that came packaged with the game).
Why can't I get any machine parts (or anything else) off the world market?
Purchases off the world market are made in order of prestige. If you're having trouble getting goods off the world marketÃÂÃÂand you're sure the commodity is for sale try claiming a colony somewhere to boost your prestige.
For machine parts in particular this goes double. There is only one country in the world that can produce machine parts at the beginning of the game;ÃÂÃÂGreat Britain. It will offer these first to the highest prestige player, and then only if it doesn't use them itself. If you are fifth or even fourth down the prestige line, expect to have a very tough time getting your hands on machine parts until the 1850s roll around. About then the discoveries will be made allowing you to build your own machine parts factories, assuming you have discovered Interchangeable Parts.
Also, see Machine Parts 101
The American Civil War
This is an attempt at explaining the conditions and various paths that can lead to the American Civil War.
First, the CSA must secede; there are a number of ways that can happen:
- If you don't choose "Pro-South" in the "Compromise of 1850"-event, and follow it up by choosing "Free States" in the "Kansas-Nebraska"-event that follows, there is a 25% chance that the CSA will secede on Jun 12th 1854. You will have the option of avoiding it.
- Following any variety of the "Kansas-Nebraska"-event, the "Republicans"-party will come into existence in July 1854. If you experience the "Bleeding Kansas"-event in February 1856 (which you must, since there is no random chance for it), and have the Republicans in power in December 1860, the CSA will secede on December 20th 1860.
- If you find yourself facing possible New England secession, but choose "reconciliation" in those events, there is a 50% chance the CSA will secede on December 20th 1860.
If the CSA secedes, the USA is given the choice of accepting it (at the loss of 200 prestige), or declaring war on the CSA. If the USA accepts CSA secession and doesn't start a war, the CSA will remain very small, only encompassing South Carolina. The other states will only join the CSA if USA and CSA are at war. Be aware, though, that if there is no civil war the slaves in the USA will not be freed. When freed, they are converted to Laborers, which are then possible to convert into factory workers. Slaves, on the other hand, are not convertible. Even if there is war, you might still not get the "Reconstruction"-event which frees the slaves (among other things), since the triggers for the event seem to be "buggy".
Note that VIP has redone all this, making the event-chains leading up to the southern secession and possible ACW more flexible and robust. Definitely worth checking out, especially if the vanilla ACW is bugging you.
Can I avoid the Liberal Revolution?
Yes; again, most historical events are avoidable in Victoria depending on what choices you make. As of 1.03, the Liberal Revolution can be entirely avoided in several ways:
- You have an (anarcho-)liberal government in power.
- You are a democracy.
- You allow "socialist" or "all" trade unions.
- You have voting rights set to "wealth" or "suffrage".
- Your press rights aren't "state press only" AND your party rights aren't "none allowed".
As long as you have at least one of these conditions met, you won't get the revolution. At the very least, try to avoid the liberal revolution till Feb 21st 1850, since that's the earliest date that the event that ends it will fire.
But be aware that, if you are playing as Prussia, there is a nasty Counterrevolution event that will fire if you have converted Prussia into anything other than a pure monarchy. Unlike the Liberal Revolution, the Counterrevolution does not have an end date where the Militancy and Consciousness settings revert to their original levels, though the event itself cannot occur after 1851.
Can I avoid the Socialist Revolution?
After February 21st 1890, you can get "The Socialist Revolution", an event that raises the CON and MIL of your lower-classed POPs and gives you a hefty plurality boost (35%).
However, it is possible to steer clear of those pesky commies. If one of the following is true, you'll avoid it:
- You have a socialist or communist party in power.
- You are running a proletarian dictatorship (sort of makes it moot with a socialist revolution, tho ;))
- You allow all trade unions
- Your voting rights are set to "suffrage"
- "Political parties" is set to "right to ban" at the same time as "press rights" is set to "free press".
The danger of a socialist revolution lasts till the game ends in 1920.
How do I get a colony to become a state?
Colonies function just like any other states in Victoria. The only way you can grant the state statehood is if at least one of the provinces in it has a population whose majority group is your National Culture or the colony is on the same continent as your capital (Note: this does not just mean that there is a land connection. Russia, for example, will not be automatically able to grant statehood to Kazakhstan. This is because St. Petersburg, Russia's capital, is in Europe, while Kazakhstan is in Asia). Getting your colony to have a majority population of your national culture will only happen through emigration from your home country. The issue can be forced by leaving Farmer or Laborer POPs unemployed in the motherland while expanding the RGOs in the colony, thus creating an incentive for the out-of-work Farmers and Laborers to go to the colonies. Of course, there's always the chance they'll just go to another country instead.
What is the ledger, where is it, and why should I use it?
The ledger is your key to understanding the world in thirty seconds. The ledger contains many screens worth of data, telling you everything from the number of factories in a country to the number of cavalry divisions in its army to the progress they have made in cultural technologies. Literally everything you want to see about another country can be found here. The ledger can be opened by clicking on the second button from the left at the very bottom of the main task window, right beside the Options button. It can also be opened by pressing F6.
The ledger is descibed in more detail in Guide to the Ledger.
Why can't my pops afford all their needs?
You're probably taxing them too much, the more money you take from them the less they have to spend on themselves. In the early game many pops cannot afford all their goods even when they are untaxed, there just aren't enough being produced worldwide and the price is too high. However, note that upper and lower class may never be able to afford all their goods due to the expensive tastes of the former and low income of the latter.
For more info on this, take a look at the POP Income Formulae and the POP Spending Habits
