Victoria 3: BEST Places to EXPAND

[@sezione]

Actually once you`re past 500 barracks you absolutely want higher infamy. It`s the fastest way to expand, you will actually pray for other major powers to join wars against you (all you have to do is be patient with the war goals until they all join). It makes it so much easier to break them apart early on (as early as you can field 500+ military units and a bunch of good 8-10 generals and good military tech as well). As far as Africa goes, I`ve noticed you`re better off ignoring it and let the other powers dish it out over it while you scoop up Vietnam, provinces in China, Oceania and South America.

[@generalistgaming]

A bit to respond to here, so I'll go in chunks: I didn't want to talk too much about infamy, since that was my last tutorial, but you're right - there is a point where you want to go full bad guy. I do think that that point is probably later than you seem to. I might not have mentioned it in the video (I think I say generally you want to be under 25, which I believe) but I think the second half of the strategy is that, once you decide to go high infamy, you just don't care anymore. It's under 25 or full 1k - nothing in between is very good, because the benefit of low infamy (big market) is often negated after 25. But you can stay under 25 and slowly annex huge powers like Brazil, Mexico, and the USA. I think when you can fight 3 great powers comfortably that in some sense you've "won" or w/e, and any metric you have for "good" depends on whatever your goal is. If you're trying to map paint as fast as possible, then yeah, I think going high infamy as soon as you can is good. But if you're trying to maximize GDP or global pop, it might be better to hold off until a majority of the world pop is in your market - the economic engagement you lose when you go high infamy, because of a bunch of embargos, has value. People joining in your native uprisings because of high infamy is (generally) also incredibly annoying, because the war always pops off. I think you prefer that people back down tho in general, since a back down takes 1-3 months, and at most I think you can puppet 4 countries (assuming 4 join) so it's much more time efficient to get 4 back downs than it is to fight a full war because it takes so long to decay from 100 warscore to -100 (assuming you occupy them instantly, which you can't, especially if there is a landing to be done, and they decay 12 support a week, then it will take over 4 months for them to capitulate). So the fastest a war can be is around 7 months (3 months for play plus 4 mo decay after full occupy) and they will often take over 10 months (the time for 4x relatively late back downs). Unless ofc you have wargoals that require them not backing down (liberate country or w/e). I definitely think going after Africa is good (I guess you can make an argument that native uprisings bricking your wars is a reason not to) because it feels relatively free (if you mean colonizing). Also Transvaal is an insane state (re conquest) - it gets like 15 gold, has 60 iron and 100 coal (with a throughput bonus). Definitely a useful take. Two wars to take Zululand and Transvaal vs two wars to puppet then annex a S. American country (which I think is decent) lead to a similar amount of infamy and same wars. I def think it's just better to go for China provinces than puppet/annexing S. E. Asia tho. The biggest one of them still has about half the pop and arable land (most of what they provide) of a single Chinese province (I guess you take Guangdong (I think?) if you want dyes - but not being able to make Opium is a reason to go for S.E. Asia). Also the Forbidden City is insane. Also, it's important to note that, because of how great power status is calculated (vs no 1 power or vs avg global power), annexing a ton of tiny countries will also decay the great powers considerably (it increases the global avg a lot), making it easier to puppet former great powers. This means fewer wars overall (less need to break up GP with wars), which, if your goal is a world conquest, is a very good thing.

[@sezione]

@@generalistgaming right, a bloody novel... well back at you, kind sir, back at you! so just to be more clear, when I said above 500 barracks (military units) I didn`t necessarily mean you would be in a position to walk over all great powers combined (ideally you should though), I meant you could fight effectively against one power (consistently beating it or successfully invading it) and defend against another 2 or even 3 (this would mean you don`t ask for goals against the later joining enemy powers). However, the smart play would be that you do ask for goals against those powers, always splitting them up, thus your playstyle should follow a strategy of being able to dominate multiple great powers in war or taking them one by one, killing one while defending against the others in a successful and efficient manner (that`s a fancy way of saying ''fast''). This ''above'' 500 military units is obviously somewhat situational since 500 units from the Great Ching aren`t exactly the same as 500 units of the prussian army (I know I don`t have to explain it to you, I`m doing it for whoever is wasting a day of his life reading this), so the point I was making was very general (it worked for me as USA, France, even Russia although I did had to play a bit of catch up). What do I mean by ignoring Africa. What I do every game is let the other great powers go for Africa while I go for the same resources in Africa minus the malaria in South America (both the south tip and Panama area), Vietnam, the democracy craving Middle East (especially east of Persia) and Australia/Oceania. Now I`m not saying you shouldn`t conquer Africa at all, ever, what I am saying is in the beginning of the game, a lot of the time great powers will get distracted with wars over African provinces while you`ll pretty much get ignored scooping all sorts of provinces that have no malaria or are easy targets and pretty much have the same resources. Once you`re done with those, THEN you go for Africa. Ideally, while you`re scooping those uninteresting provinces (uninteresting for other great powers - for instance in Oceania if you get there first, no one usually follows up, same for Hokaido area although sometimes Russia gets stubborn and joins the colonization effort) you`d also be engaging in the tactics discussed above, making all great powers small again (as much as possible). So far it worked for me as a strategy to the point where I had France for instance, split up in 4 countries but with a large colonial base in Africa. It costs so much less infamy to get the provinces there once most of the coast line has been colonized by the great powers and if you applied the strategy from my first point by now great powers shouldn`t be able to put much of a fight anyway (it should be a situation where their economies are wrecked by your partitioning and their troops would take a long time to get to the colonies you`re trying to swoop - once they do move their troops there, their capital state should generally be undefended and easily taken - add to that the fact that their population drops so they`ll have a hard time maintaining momentum in colonizing and having a decent army or a proper economy).

[@andrasfogarasi5014]

@@generalistgaming I like to call it "Napoleon mode".

[@richard1493]

I’m glad you started with the La Plata / Argentina region, it’s a really promising area and underrated imo. I’d love to see you do one of your starting steps videos with Argentina!

[@generalistgaming]

I think I might be doing a Brazil one soon! The strategy might be a little similar, but not sure yet

[@robbiecee2]

You should try shorter videos or timestamps

[@cyrusol]

You kinda have to redo this video with 1.2. Migration towards the new world is now much higher because empty jobs directly increase migration attraction instead of first raising the wages which would take longer. Also a lot of colonization locations like La Plata and Hokkaido now have claims for Argentina/Japan etc. It's pretty much only Africa that is left unlciamed. The Pacific islands now have Severe Malaria. Kenya really is S tier now. Also Dominions now yield less infamy but they become annoying at >100 infamy (they join the enemy side, but you can set the conquer wargoal and receive the same infamy reduction as with annex).

[@generalistgaming]

I'll probably redo it eventually, but a lot of the information is still good, and if I redo this every patch I won't have time for other projects. For the most part, all the best locations are the same. New world provinces are a lot better, but I still think the soft/good spots there are still Chile, Argentina, Venezuala, and Columbia, which is what I recommend going for in the video. There's a bit of an argument for going for Cali and Texas now, as well as NY (which tbh, the buffs didn't help much - electricity and Statue are just super good), but I don't think the strategy changes too much (just the evaluation). Chinese provinces are also worse, but they're still super good (and more about the pop). I think being able to pull China into your customs union is probably more important than the arable land nerf when it comes to not wanting to take Chinese provinces now, tbh. I do recommend going for Kenya in the video, but yes, claims mechanic. Dominions giving less infamy (and the subjects modifier for infamy going from .1 to .25) is still the biggest change, but I don't think this really justifies a new video. I trust that my viewers are smart enough to recognize that the best spots are largely the same, just that most of the time you dominion instead of vassalize now.

[@besacciaesteban]

It's better to puppet small,😮 non-economically significant areas early on. Each puppet gets 5 free construction points that can be use to improve the area. Annex once there are few peasants left.

[@generalistgaming]

Yes, this is a strong effect, but as of mid 1.2ish it seems to be the case that having unrecognized powers as subjects will really encourage GPs to join in plays vs you to take the subject/open their market/ban slavery, etc.

[@Themrlol2]

I don't get the idea of getting everybody to your custom union. IMO the only thing that matters is : 1. Access to lot of resource deposits (especially oil, coal and dyes) 2. Having a lot of workers (you need ppl directly in your empire border) 3. Building a lot of factories that are filled with many workers manufacturing stuff from plentiful resources. 4. Opening markets by taking treaty ports. I only conquest for resource deposits and more population.

[@generalistgaming]

A bigger customs union lets you use their demand to specialize in industry more, allows you to siphon off pops with migration, they'll build (some) resources, and lets you expand a whole lot more while keeping infamy low by going customs union -> protectorate -> dominion/puppet -> annex.

[@Themrlol2]

@@generalistgaming yeah. Just recently i realized that migration works within single market not empire borders in particular. I could avoid those painful me vs China and UK wars...

[@generalistgaming]

@@Themrlol2 yeah, meta seems to be either pulling China into the customs union, or conquering Chinese provinces.

[@shadowbliss5589]

You make GREAT content about Vic 3 brother. Love your videos. Please considering putting timestamps in your videos. It would really help the viewers and your views. Cheers!

[@generalistgaming]

Thank you! I'm not sure if I'm going to go back and include stamps, but on all new tutorials over 6 mins I'll be having stamps

[@shadowbliss5589]

@@generalistgaming I'm keeping up with your videos and thank you so much for putting the stamps in the new ones. I'll support your content in every way I can! Best of luck.

[@luvslogistics1725]

Finally a journal entry to peacefully unify Romania. It is now mid-1850s, and wondering if I should try to colonize.

[@lordtimothy19]

I know im late to the party and some stuff is already oudated due to new patches but man are these some good ass in depth guides!

[@mattbowdenuh]

you skipped over senegal/eastern mali. That region has both rubber and opium (this and egypt are the only opium spots thats outside of asia), but thats for mid-game. I usually try to get transvaal/oranje, especially if i start a minor thats gonna have coal/iron issues. the gold mines are a nice bonus to help pay for cons costs early game. borneo is usually where i go if i need sulphur, plus the gold is nice. kanak (new calendonia) is a great island as it has a modifier for increased lead production, if you need lead. Also, I usually vassalize cb Haiti day 1, because it's $2-3k in income and they almost always give in. plus, its a free interest to where you can trade with the usa.

[@generalistgaming]

I think the biggest plus there is the Mosque of Djenne, which I was unaware of at the time of making this video. I think that generally central asia is a little bit better for expanding for the opium, but that's kinda because of ai aggression/market adjacancy reasons more than thinking the provinces better. I believe that area also has fewer pop per arable land (and thus less infamy), but I'm not entirely sure. Transvaal/Oranje is extremely strong. The Haiti strat is interesting. Is there a particular modifier they have that makes them give you more gold? I think I still like going for Zulu into Transvaal or Peru/Argentina early.

[@mattbowdenuh]

@@generalistgaming for the haiti vassal, there's nothing special. it's just they have decent gdp for their size, which means the 20% comes out to a bit over $2k in income from diplo pacts. its low infamy and free income. but the big plus is being able to trade with the usa without using an interest. plus, the dutch are there in the carribbean, too, if you need dyes or wood pretty bad.

[@iansoaresdosantos7199]

is there a way to expand economy being a good guy without exploring other countries like a evil guy?

[@generalistgaming]

I'm not sure what you mean by "without exploring," but yeah, you can peacefully expand. I generally prefer staying under 25 infamy, but you can do a zero infamy run as well.

[@safarijon]

Great overview! If I don't have multiculturalism, just Supremacy, does your Market Capital siphon pops from puppets? Is there siphon enhancement with each step toward multiculturalism? Have you played with creating a large country out of a bunch of small ones, other than Germany or Italy? I was looking at Ethiopia as a European power. To hold all those little tribes as puppets takes a lot of influence. Conquering / Annexing the lot gets them all together, but I would like to create Ethiopia. Same with the little nations on Borneo. Putting split counties back together seems like an interesting objective, just for fun. Can I create Ethiopia as a third party, or can it only be created by unifying with one of the Ethiopian or Eritrean culture nation as the core foundation?

[@generalistgaming]

You're right - you need multiculturalism. I kinda assumed that as a given, because it's considerably better than Nat. Supremacy, but I probably should have mentioned it. Without it you will rely more on mass migration (which doesn't need to be in customs union) and your equilibrium SoL for attracting migrants will be much higher. I did! This is my Wallachia run where I formed Romania, and then the Danubian State: kzbin.info/aero/PLL3Li_R8P-orHrzkrJQS6GnaClYEl3Uhg . I think you can annex them all and then release Ethiopia if you wanted as a European Power? Generally Ethiopia seems like a not very good place to expand. Not much resources and decent pops (that are well below cap) make it expensive as far as infamy goes, as well as in terms of how much you're getting per war. Doing a run as an Ethiopian country seems pretty interesting - something I'll probably do at some point since there is an achievement for it, but so far no one (except you) has requested or asked about Ethiopia. I've also done a couple runs where I form Arabia (one as Egypt and a current one as Syria [uh, spoiler on the ending I guess]). Not sure if there is a Borneo formable (there isn't from Lanfeng which I checked), but someone requested Indonesia. I didn't want to check every culture by hand, but this might be a thing.

[@erikfrisk9061]

I don't know if you've mentioned this in another video, but how are you supposed to reduce radicals and turmoil in conquered colonial states? I recently started playing Victoria 3 and started out with Sweden. My colonies in Benin and conquered states in Sokoto have around 50% turmoil, which makes developing them for coal really hard.

[@generalistgaming]

There is an edict that reduces these effects - you can put the edict down, build the coal, then lift the edict if you don't mind microing that. You can also just wait. Construction centers can offset the malus as well.

[@VisElectra]

What is the advantage of turning them into Protectorates? Also is there another reason why bankrolling countries is better than just forcing them in, other than infamy?

[@generalistgaming]

When they are a protectorate they are considered a subject, so you get a lot less infamy from puppeting/dominioning them. It's just the infamy, yeah, which has a lot of negative effects tied to it. I generally try to stay low infamy for longer than I think is "theoretically" correct, which to some extent informs my tutorials.

[@victorkwan]

Aceh - it's pronounced A-cheh

[@generalistgaming]

Thank you for letting me know! Pronunciation is hard haha

[@elscientist]

@@generalistgaming also the C in Celebes is pronounced like S.

[@melange78]

DUDE, West Africa is one of the best colonizing places in the game because opium.

[@generalistgaming]

This was before the 1.2 nerf to places you can go; I def think that the gold provinces are better than the Sengal ones. Though, notably, I'd also recorded this before I knew how important Eastern Mali is as a province, so I think that is perhaps the biggest reason to go in that area. Opium was also nerfed in 1.2, since you don't need it for the first medical pm anymore

[@pawek4042]

31:42 Poland 🇵🇱 with capital in Wrocław .