Victoria 3 Is A Perfectly Balanced Game With No Exploits

[@thespiffingbrit]

*A huge thanks to paradox for yet again being the greatest company to sponsor videos!* You can look at the game here: play.victoria3game.com/SpiffingBrit Anyway I hope you all liked todays video and if you want to see a VIC 3 Britain Secures the tea live stream then let me know Also because I could not feature it in todays video my current favourite vic 3 exploit is teleport hacks by double assigning troops to front lines. It allows you to literally teleport behind the enemy in a 1000 IQ move!

[@hecker2485]

yes

[@EEEEEEEE]

E

[@acodplayer2956]

Hii

[@shader1xderp778]

mashallah

[@dinosirbone]

Drink Yorkshire tea

[@stalkingtiger777]

Gotta give Victoria credit, they recognized Spiff as a threat immediately.

[@ordo_draigo_assault_ham]

The machines are learning...from Spiff. Oh well, reality wasn't unpleasant while it lasted.

[@retroficient]

Same with Russia and Britain lol

[@ArturHedlund]

777 for the win amen

[@thesteelrodent1796]

Vicky got nervous the moment Spiff entered the game

[@randomdoomer8549]

It is too late because he's already in...

[@CordovaMage]

I can just picture a Jan Mayen leaving his home to head to the factory for work, he opens his front door and walks to the train station that sits in his front yard. He gets on the train. Then the train then moves about 20 meters and stops. He then gets off and heads into the factory.

[@BSm2919]

Around the end there they had ~670,000 people on that island....Only around 4,000 people per square mile. Not bad at all!

[@pnutz_2]

it's like lining the roads with bus stations in sim city

[@BasileosHerodou]

@Martial Cabo at that point they probably just imported massive amounts of dirt, stone and clay to artificially expand the island

[@lifeofentropy]

@Martial Cabo actually only a little over half the density of hong kong

[@lifeofentropy]

@Martial Cabo Yeah, orders of magnitude in difference. 4000 per square mile vs over a million.

[@hellfiresquid]

sure a rock in the middle of nowhere might not be a potential threat, but a rock in the middle of nowhere being lead by spiff is a legitimate threat

[@Kernwadi]

[̷T̴h̴i̵s̵ ̸c̸o̸m̷m̵e̸n̵t̵ ̶c̸o̵n̴t̷a̷i̸n̵e̵d̵ ̶m̷a̵n̴y̸ ̴e̴r̵r̵o̴r̶s̷,̵ ̶t̸h̵e̶ ̶P̶e̷o̸p̴l̶e̴'̷s̵ ̴R̶e̸p̷u̷b̸l̷i̴c̵ ̵o̷f̴ ̸C̵h̸i̶n̸a̷ ̵c̷o̵r̶r̵e̷c̷t̶e̵d̶ ̷t̴h̸i̸s̸ ̷m̵i̸s̶t̸a̵k̷e̷.̸]̷

[@AndrewMitchell123]

yes, truly thats the case... but isnt it just beautiful, majestic and above all, perfectly balanced? I think it truly is!

[@theteleportedbread8803]

Everything that is under spiff management should count as worldwide threat

[@jaisummons2304]

AI Britain and India: Spiff just looks threatening even if he's on an island Me: I'm scared of the British as well hopefully they don't come back to America

[@AndrewMitchell123]

@@jaisummons2304 oh, you didnt notice? THE TEA, I mean its everywhere, even in the heretical coffee drinking boston tea partying country as the US of A and by god and Spiff, isnt it just majestic? Lord, save us all

[@hfar_in_the_sky]

15:50 Ironically this is exactly the plot from one of the stories from Issac Asimov’s first Foundation novel. Literally one of the merchant princes starts selling goods to a hostile planet in great quantities. Then when they finally did invade, he stalled them in a lengthy siege and eventually the local populace of the hostile planet overthrew the government because they were tired of laying siege to a rock and wanted their creature comforts and washing machines back

[@Hatypus]

Something to point out is that between 1640 and the 1882 polar expeditions, Jan Mayen was completely abandoned, 0 people. So those 5 thousand people were presumably kidnapped, dumped there, and then whoever took them there left.

[@kabobawsome]

If I were to guess, the game can't really process a totally empty state, so it's just a relatively small population.

[@thespiffingbrit]

@@kabobawsome It can! I have seen state populations drop to as low as 4 before.

[@kabobawsome]

@@thespiffingbrit Huh. Weird that it starts so big then lol

[@thespiffingbrit]

@@kabobawsome it is a split state with the northern part of Norway so it gets a % of that regions population when it is released. Hence the higher than expected starting number

[@kabobawsome]

@@thespiffingbrit Ahhh, didn't realize it was part of the same state region as that northern part. That makes sense.

[@lorenzomartorellinilsson3332]

Once again, spiff breaks a paradox game before it’s even released. Beautiful.

[@EEEEEEEE]

E

[@thespiffingbrit]

a perfectly balanced business relationship

[@Huzam001]

@@thespiffingbrit with no exploits I’m sure

[@williamdory4375]

At this point he's QC.

[@descuddlebat]

Paradox paying for an influencer and receiving a QA on top

[@paradoxinteractive]

We never saw this coming 👀

[@EEEEEEEE]

E

[@thespiffingbrit]

you get what you pay for!

[@dailypositivity6659]

Holy shit it's them

[@LocalSinkPisser]

Who need an empire with tea bags already when you can start from dirt and then make more tea bags then the British empire -Spiff's logic

[@lupusalbus3795]

How did you not expect this? Are you the Spanish Inquisition?

[@ronanmaguire1015]

To show how many people live in Jan Mayen: A preschool classroom has more people than in Jan Mayen 40% of people in UK have dated more people then the people on Jan Mayen You see more people in a day then you would the population of Jan Mayen You would actually matter if you lived on Jan Mayen.

[@drew17210]

Dang that last one was good

[@psymar]

most days I see maybe one person delivering my doordash unless you count the internet

[@BoxOfToasters]

To be fair, you wouldn't matter if you lived on Jan Mayen either.

[@erkho2668]

"Why is women's suffrage important? Well it's incredibly important because it gives us money!" Never change

[@MarcusTalks1]

I mean it’s not completely inaccurate. Just like most other organizations, they usually end up profiting for someone.

[@godofsquirrels494]

Thats a bit more real than one would think.

[@boomerix]

@@godofsquirrels494 The bit about not caring about birth rates, because immigration will fix it could have been straight out of Brussels.

[@WuCSquad]

Well it was the reason for it. More people in the workplace, suppressing wages and more output.

[@boomerix]

@@WuCSquad For the most part of Human history most women had to work as well. The short period of time in the western hemisphere in which women did not have to earn any income and a Husband could support his entire family on only one income was probably one of the most privileged time to be a woman. The fairy tale that being a wage slave as a "strong independent woman" is far more profitable. Also most pro mass immigration arguments are essentially exploitative, as they are always seen and are used as cheap labour whose first generation is grateful for being underpaid. The best part in all of that, it is the "left" that always whinge about evil capitalism, who nowadays constantly promote the worst aspects of it. The big corporations have perfectly spun the social narrative into their favour. Just fun to see that we essentially got to see that in this video. (PS: Not saying immigration in General is bad, also Women should be free to work if they want to. Just the current elite in many western countries are overdoing it and it is harmful to society. Healthy families produce healthy people, strong communal bonds and are the backbone of society. This get's sacrificed for the holy GDP and get's spun into the narrative that it is actual good to be destructive towards families and young workers are as replaceable as cattle. Okay I've got way too political, I'll stop here, maybe I'll even delete this comment later)

[@terrardwhey281]

I like how spiff describes how the global economy works irl as an exploit

[@7fatrats]

To be fair, is he wrong?

[@ThePiprian]

Because it is.

[@LipziG3R]

I mean the entire "first world" is completely built on exploitation of "lesser" Nations. It is the biggest exploit we have ...

[@ThePiprian]

@@LipziG3R And their own lower class people.

[@talinpeacy7222]

I'd say the starting resources were well overblown and the island's surface area and climate would hard cap the number of people willing to even live there even if they had well paying jobs.

[@Dynahazzar3]

That tiny island in the middle of nowhere is such a paradise. For the time, the litteracy rate is astounding, standards of living are very high and there is full employment. I just imagine they excavated the island's underground, using the rocks and dirt to extend their landmass, with building rising high and digging deep, like some steampunk megacity. Absolutely glorious.

[@GiblixStudio]

spiff didn't trade with The Netherlands for that landmass expansion technology. unlike the chinese who are taking over the world currently in a more rapid pace then ever before...

[@neenm4299]

I imagined that they dug out the ground to build more of their factories!

[@martinb4272]

Jan Mayen is literally an active volcano.

[@jasonblalock4429]

Meanwhile IRL, less than 50 people are ever on the island, and the idea of trying to cram more than 800,000 people into 144 square miles before the invention of skyscrapers is, frankly, terrifying. My guess is that they're actually subterranean, and everyone lives and works in well-appointed caverns while topside is devoted entirely to transportation infrastructure.

[@notreallyhere67]

@@jasonblalock4429 so they're the ancestors of the Morloks? :D

[@taltamir]

20:40 "out of 151k residents, 750k voted for The Party" Seems highly realistic to me.

[@YourLocalMairaaboo]

With wealth voting, rich guys got more votes. And since everyone is so wealthy, vote counts had some inflation even without rigging.

[@MrMan-np9jg]

Average communist voting system

[@DylanHabibi]

@@YourLocalMairaaboo interesting, thanks for an actual explanation!

[@user-cu9rb9cx6m]

Ik it's true but bro each civi must then have a minimum of 4000 VOTES I THINK. IDK MAYBE MORE

[@booshmcfadden7638]

Just like USA in 2020!

[@SjurSkur]

Fun Fact: In addition to being a barely inhabitet rock, Jan Mayen also is consistently the highest scoring commune on Norway's biggest "quiz" show: Alle mot 1.

[@Runningfromtheredqueen]

To be fair, Jan Mayen has *the* highest average academic status in Norway, with a whopping 100% of its inhabitants (4 meterologists, 14 soldiers and intelligence officers from the norwegian military) having some form of higher education, easily leaving the rest of us dum-dums (36%) in the dust.

[@anonymous71207]

@@Runningfromtheredqueen an uneducated rube needs to go there and lower the score Or they could have babies

[@generalchAOS]

Spiff *discovers the reason that trade exists* Also Spiff: This is an Exploit

[@user-td3yi1mq7p]

Well the exploit is enjoying the benefits of a powerful empire's large market without any of the drawbacks like, having to keep up and defend a powerful empire. And also the part where he won a war by being an island that the AI failed to invade even though no one was even defending it

[@Tanuvein]

It's just a matter of days before Puerto Rico collapses the US and takes all their GDP

[@poilk91]

I think an issue is he was able to import super cheap goods from far as hell away. There should probably be a distance modifier to goods to represent global shipping

[@samuelskinner7704]

@@poilk91 Distance affecting trade wouldn't change much; England imported tea from China in this time and Jan Mayen isn't significantly more distant.

[@Kikori_Fanri]

@@samuelskinner7704 Britain had the resources and navy for that shipping... they had the infrastructure so it would cost less by proxy... imagine a country of 35 doing global shipping...

[@TheEldritchGod]

I imagine that the population was so high and you had so many steel mills that the island heated up and became tropical.

[@shorewall]

The residual body heat and industry made it tropical! :D :D :D That's hilarious!

[@lucascurio8345]

That profile pic gives me bad vibes

[@TheEldritchGod]

@@lucascurio8345 - I am a Media-American. I am being oppressed. I simply want my right to spread lies and fear everywhere. SINESTRO DID NOTHING WRONG

[@Pop013]

@@lucascurio8345 Are you allergic to wasps?

[@DrZaius3141]

For anyone interested in reference: The area and population of Jan Mayen (in this playthrough) ended up somewhere around modern day Malta, so the population density is not THAT outlandish. (though to be fair, Malta doesn't have a big-ass mountain on it)

[@jtdiomond1]

Nor does Malta have nearly as many factories on it. The *factories* must be skyscrapers.

[@stepmi]

@@jtdiomond1 wait a minute, a place near the Northern Pole that is just one giant factory, that produces everything, that is led by a bearded communist man. Why does it sound familiar?

[@supercellodude]

It should be noted that Jan Mayen is (1) a volcanic island formed by a hotspot like Hawai'i (2) it's land area is about 373 km² (compare New York City with all boroughs is 778km² just by land area) (3) some of the land is covered by glaciers and, you know, *a volcano*

[@SephirothRyu]

The volcano merely means they need less coal for smelting all that steel!

[@tadx6184]

Great! Free heating

[@benwest2112]

@@tadx6184 yeah thermal heating would work great there! And with this country’s money, literacy and innovativeness. They will probably invent the technology much quicker than we did.

[@noahworcester9320]

I just imagine they are building up their buildings into the sky like Coruscant.

[@shadowyzephyr]

If 8 and a half million people can fit into NYC, 600K can fit into Jan Mayen reasonably without overpopulation, in terms of size. The fact that it's so isolated is the real problem.

[@candiman4243]

I did the math. Based off the size of Jan Mayen, at the end of the video you had 20% the population density of modern New York City. On a tiny rock in the arctic.

[@bensoncheung2801]

🧠🧠🧠

[@Runetrantor]

Without the technology for the tall buildings that tend to allow for such densities.

[@kineticsyntax]

In other words, there are 2.16 people per meter squared living on a rock

[@gm2407]

@@kineticsyntax Worse than that. As there needs to be space for industry they must be living in greater density or they have recovered land from the ocean. Which they will need to have done since all the heat and polution from the metal works will be melting the icecaps.

[@nguyengary3780]

He basically made Singapore in 1800s

[@Apoc2K]

At this point I imagine the factories just being build over cliffs, mighty pillars jutting from the seafloor propping up these massive structures overlooking an endless flotilla of every flag imaginable.

[@stalfithrildi5366]

Would you kindly vote for the Radical Peoples Party again?

[@Jebu911]

Maybe they just built some oil rig like structures near the coastline

[@kasperstergaard1592]

I envision this in glorious Steampunk now.

[@lifeofentropy]

Actually less dense than Hong Kong weirdly enough and less than a quarter as dense as new york.

[@glenmcgillivray4707]

I think instead it's a steampunk Pagoda tower. Built to protect the subsistence farmland that surrounds it. Which only a few hungry children operate to keep themselves fed as their parents labour to make money to pay for imported food.

[@lollertoaster]

I was waiting for the world conquest. But I love how the "exploit" is just doing things that worked in the real world before the AI figures it out at its own pace.

[@josephleebob3828]

no

[@Sewblon]

Is it though? I am pretty sure that the states that had the highest standard of living in the 19th and 20th century were not council Republics.

[@popepiusxv]

@@Sewblon the highest standard of living for who? those who owned businesses and were good with the government had access to everything they wanted, but 90% of the people (even today!) couldn't afford basic needs and were often in debt. In contrast, the other Union-State of the 20th century transformed a backwater peasant country into one that rivaled the US in its size of economy, sent the first satellite and man into space, improved literacy, fed the hungry, made education mandatory, expanded womens suffrage, gave everyone a roof over their head a job to work all while keeping standard of living relatively well. Oh, and do I have to say? Also while recovering from three wars (WW1, Russian civil war and the incredibly destructive second world war, which they even won)

[@Sewblon]

@@popepiusxv " In contrast, the other Union-State of the 20th century transformed a backwater peasant country into one that rivaled the US in its size of economy" That isn't true. The Soviet Union's GNP only ever reached 58% of America's GNP, in 1975. "all while keeping standard of living relatively well. " What exactly do you mean by relatively well? I ask, because in 1945, even the best paid workers in the U.S.S.R. didn't have access to goods that their equivalents in the U.S.A. had access to. Also, anecdotally, from Edward Frenkel, food was easier to get in the U.S.A. in the 90s than it was in the Soviet Union when it collapsed.

[@le_meme_man8983]

@@Sewblon No shit food was easier to get in US than in a dying country

[@festethephule7553]

Honestly, most of this didn't even come across as exploits. You really did just seem quite skilled at the game, and I can't wait to play it.

[@deidyomega]

One could argue that, that island can't support the pop size he had. And in the "real world" wouldn't have worked.

[@5Andysalive]

The game exploited itself by assuming a population that is literally impossible for that island.

[@HermesHall]

@@deidyomega Well, think of Singapur. It has twice the size, but 5.68 million inhabitants (2020). The Spiffin Brits made them very rich, a trade powerhouse, they can import food (grain, rice etc) & basic resource. Also have so much uncontested ocean surrounding the island for fish/whales. So just for population size its not impossible, just highly unlikely

[@eduardonunomarques]

@@5Andysalive He ended up with 700k people on an island of 353km2 (Jan Mayen is actually fairly large as ice-covered rocks in the middle of nowhere are concerned). That's roughly 2000 people per km2. Macau and Monaco have densities of 19000/km2. The Maldives have over 1800/km2 and people go there to enjoy nature and uncrowded beaches (yes, that's because the actual population is crowded on other islands, but still, there is plenty of room for that population on Jan Mayen). The "exploit" would be how horrendous the prices of food would've been when every single bean and grain of rice or wheat needs to be shipped in across a barely navigable Arctic Ocean, and in how many immigrants he's attracting when literally the only thing the place has going for it is high wages (which should've been eaten up by shipping costs anyway).

[@Fulgrim88]

I think the game doesn't factor in import/export costs. You can't just put a factory anywhere on the planet with access to a big market and expect it to be uber profitable. How would a factory that has to ship every single good through a thousand miles of freezing water compete with anyone on the continent

[@myopiniongoodyouropinionbad]

Ive actually heard of this Island. I was playing Uboat and crashed into it while fast travelling

[@jeremylackey6587]

Also the setting of an isolation horror podcast called The White Vault. Fantastic story.

[@jamiekamihachi3135]

Honestly that’s the best reason I’ve ever heard to know about an obscure place in the world.

[@matsv201]

My parrents went on vacation there once becasue they love unpopulated cold barren wastlands. They also been to swalbard, greenland an iceland 3 times... and Namibia for some reason, the odd one out

[@Skee_J]

@@matsv201 are your parents’ names Jeremy, James and Richard?

[@matsv201]

@@Skee_J no... aparentlly this is a fairly large turist industry. And also, when they want to greenland they where working. So that might not count. But they specificlly looked for short term job there.

[@TheCyberGoblin]

When Spiff revealed that he was playing Jan Mayen, I assumed it was because it had something similar to Vic2’s Jan Mayen where you can replace the human population with polar bears

[@Tekisasubakani]

Right? Where mah polar bears!?

[@DBZVelena]

that would explain the voting situation though.

[@AmUnRA256]

@DBZ most underrated comment here

[@MrToberton]

@@DBZVelena 🐻‍❄️🐻‍❄️🗳️

[@TcheQ]

History lesson for people who didn't know Singapore exists

[@ALT0_768]

ah yes. except we didnt process the goods: we just repacked it and sold it for higher price

[@BrahmaDBA]

Spif Kuan Yew if you may lol.

[@fish7598]

Yeah it's really funny because this doesn't even really feel like an exploit, just min-maxing. The main problem with something like this is that the moment you're not part of a customs union your economy WILL explode, meaning that there's a hard celling on how powerful you can ever become, as if you grow too big you'll end up being kicked out. It doesn't make it a bad strat, just one with legitimate consequences. I'm honestly amazed the run survived the war with Russia in all honesty - if they embargoed you the economy would be instantly vaporised, though with how large it ended up getting it'd probably also crash Russia

[@mrbrown7668]

goods from Indonesia and Malaysia

[@Alb410]

singapore is a bit bigger than this

[@honooryu5374]

I love how the AI recognises Spiff as a threat immediately.

[@Thatguy5606]

Britain: Hee-hee! I'm in danger!

[@Wertsir]

PROTECT THE TEA RESERVES!

[@Slipte]

That's quite funny

[@rosalindchapman9035]

To be honest other than jan mayen's starting population and maybe some immigration maluses it ought to have for being an inhospitable frozen rock the only thing that struck me as a problem that needs to be solved is the AI when waging war on tiny countries should probably do more limited troop mobilizations. It would make way more sense in a situation like this for Russia to send like 5000 guys rather than seemingly attempt a full mobilization and crash their own economy for no reason.

[@theantagonist801]

Nah that's just Russia's thought process.

[@theKashConnoisseur]

You'd think that but Ukraine.

[@sintua]

And also the whole... 400% of the population voting thing. And having space for all that industry and people. The malus for overpopulation is capped at -100% but the population itself has no cap!

[@ed6705]

@@sintua I suspect that's individuals getting to vote for multiple positions, rather than a massive stock of mystery votes.

[@aminulhussain2277]

@@theKashConnoisseur Putin wasn't in power in the 1800s

[@jamiekamihachi3135]

Honestly I think Spiff is actually playing the game as intended.

[@Cheesblenders4all]

Yes this id basically how small successful economies function in real life. Lichtenstein is the best example of this

[@RanEncounter]

@@Cheesblenders4all I did not know Lichtenstein was a communist utopia.

[@jonnymur3808]

@@Cheesblenders4all Rather Singapore. Liechtenstein has no people and pretty much no economy ^^

[@fico1557]

@@jonnymur3808 no offense, but you are incedibly wrong, it has about 7 bilion gdp, 37k population and half of its economy is INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTION, if I had to pick a country most similar to the spiffs economy, it would be Lichtenstein

[@fico1557]

just for comparison ukraine has had 183 bilion gdp, with 44 MILLION population, the Lichtenstein gdp per capita is 20x higher than ukraine

[@MadisonRamanamabangbang]

I like how the exploit for it is just... a normal supply chain

[@mrlingshaun6269]

I think he wanted us to just watch him play the game lol

[@masterdeetectiv9520]

it is an exploit cuz in reality russia wouldnt draft 300k people to invade a tiny island

[@AaronCorr]

@@masterdeetectiv9520 honestly surprised this comment didn't get a ton of answers from people who do not get it

[@GreatestManfromRokiskis]

@@masterdeetectiv9520 ukraine rn 💀💀💀💀💀

[@beniaminpalgan2501]

@@GreatestManfromRokiskis I dont know if you’ve looked at a map recently but Ukraine aint exactly a 2 square metre rock off the coast of iceland

[@gottejos4896]

Fun fact: In the norvegian tv-show Alle mot 1 (Everyone against 1) where everyone could quiz on stuff via an app. And in the show they rank the municipalitys on who did best and Jan Mayen has bean almost all of the time on top.

[@EEEEEEEE]

E‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎

[@megastizz]

That is the most perfectly broken norwegian english sentence I have ever read.

[@miser2570]

​@@megastizz I dont know much norwegian at all, but beyond some typos i think he is just mixing two ways of phrasing what he wants to say, so seems more like he lost his train of thought midway writting it,

[@MikaelLV]

@@megastizz 🤣🤣🤣

[@Orthanderis]

15-35 people are most likely all scientists if its that far north

[@slayerone1226]

Spiff exists on a rock in the middle of nowhere Brittish empire "hes too powerful to be allowed to live!"

[@skygard49]

It's too much like beta england

[@sergeysukhov635]

Too realistic!

[@ФедяКрюков-в6ь]

Anyone exists on a rock in the middle of nowhere British Empire: Why the hell it isn't our colony still?!

[@klausstock8020]

At 1:00, I thought "wow, that's a lot of British humor crammed into one minute!" At 4:11 I was convinced that Victoria 3 is the epitome of British humor.

[@mikkoharjulinna8743]

Wow, in the end the population had ~0,45m2 of space per person. I can only imagine the glorious lighthouse-style Victorian-era steel skyscrapers they had to build to fit in there.

[@kringle7804]

Imagine New York but less dense The country is dense but its not impossible

[@sandearcubus9299]

With a population of about 800000 in the end and Jan Mayem having about 373 km2 that'd be about 2145 inhabitants per km2 (or 0.00215 per m2). New York has about 10000 per km2, so there's room for improvememt.

[@bachvandals3259]

@@kringle7804 you cant build houses like ours back in those days... Some of Victorian house still have wooden pillars and stuff.

[@kringle7804]

@@bachvandals3259 by the time he ended the run I'm sure they'd be able to figure it out

[@connorbarton4308]

@@bachvandals3259look into world fairs the empire of tartery and the old world

[@QueenLizby]

That reaction to going to war with a rock... Just... Wow.. I could actually HEAR old men going "what's the point in invading a rock? You won't get any land out of it!"

[@crusadercameron353]

British say otherwise

[@Xiborg1]

I mean, it is an uncolonized island with little to no people, the Brits love it

[@hawwaulya326]

"We can get a live empire founding brit"

[@2d20kobolds3]

I gotta be honest. This is the first time Spiff has ever made a nice place to live.

[@stevenn1940]

I think we've seen spiff actually trancend capitalism; the best way to make money... is to not exploit your people

[@reverendofwar2796]

It’s also the first time a communist country had any sort of standard of living.

[@Martin-df4xk]

@@stevenn1940 except the woman suffering...

[@Stevonicus]

@@Martin-df4xk but the women wanted to suffer

[@normieloser6969]

@@stevenn1940 IT'S TO EXPLOIT OTHER PEOPLE AND THEIR CHEAP RAW GOODS!

[@thestigsdutchcousin]

Spiff is just Paradox Interactive's unofficial beta-tester.

[@thespiffingbrit]

Its great they even pay me in tea bags!

[@EEEEEEEE]

E‎‎‎‎‎‎‎

[@Mazereaugh]

@@thespiffingbrit phrasing.

[@somethingelseidk1035]

@@thespiffingbrit Will you ever make a 1 hour long video where you just make tea and drink it???????

[@Orthanderis]

@@somethingelseidk1035 why woulsd he DRINK TEA when he can HAVE TEA and NOT drink it. Drinking tea uses the tea. Unacceptable.

[@emilyeatsramen332]

The fact that the tiny island almost has more money than the entire of the British Empire is hilarious

[@blackjak4185]

That’s unfair, currently Britain barely has an economy to speak of

[@emilyeatsramen332]

@@blackjak4185 true lmfao

[@samreid6010]

It’s like the South Sea Company, an economy built on the base of nothing that keeps expanding. Spiff created the North Sea Company

[@theendersmirk5851]

I mean, when you think about it, there's probably an alternate reality where people talk about the idea of Britain being a global power relative to the great Jan Mayen empire is ridiculous in as many words. I mean, Britain happens to also be this one rock in the middle of the ocean after all, it's just slightly taller.

[@ruukinen]

@@theendersmirk5851 "Slightly", a casual 500x landmass. I'd say moderately larger.

[@vogelmr2681]

That island popularity just spiked 467% after this vid💀💀💀💀

[@Nevir202]

Just out of curiosity, I checked google trends, looks like it only tripled at most lol.

[@allanlt1]

When the video began and Victoria recognized the tiny Island as a threat I thought to myself "ha, Spiff is going for the Cuba playthrough", little did I know that he was going for the PERFECTLY BALANCED Cuba playthrough.

[@thiagets]

Jan Mayen skipped the underdevelopment phase and jumped straight to Nespresso phase: buy cheap raw materials, sell overpriced capsules

[@Jamlord2061]

don’t think that is the technical term. then again i don’t know the objectively correct term.

[@SebHaarfagre]

@@Jamlord2061 Espresso capsules are the perfect metaphor, though! I can't think of a worse waste of money off the top of my head. Hotel shampoo bottles if they were sold at retail markets maybe? Selling individual rice grains, each wrapped in plastic?

[@raggedvagabond7537]

"Last time a British person raised taxes on tea" And we witness first hand Spiffs actual /fear/ of Coffee drinkers...

[@bensoncheung2801]

They tossed crates upon crates of it into the ocean! The fish drank deeply of the resulting concoction that day. 🎩🎩🎩 🐟🐟🐟

[@gm2407]

@@bensoncheung2801 Aquaman's ancestors drunk tea. In fact they breathed tea. What could be more British than that?

[@DrBunnyMedicinal]

Ahh, but the triggering event *wasn't* that Parliament raised taxes on Tea, it was that they LOWERED them. (For the East India Company, anyway.) This would have severely cut into the profits of those smuggling in untaxed Dutch tea and then selling it as if it was taxed. Limit our profits! HOW DARE! Into the harbour with it all! 😁

[@KopperNeoman]

@D R Bunny And then the soldiers get attacked for investigating the terrorist attack, defend themselves, and the rest is history.

[@garlottos]

You can type _ on each side of the word to _italicize_ it

[@RhelrahneTheIdiot]

I can just imagine a interstellar humanity from this timeline 400 years later seeing Jan Mayen as the case study whilst turning all of Earth or a different planet into one massive Ecumenpolis.

[@irishwristwatch2487]

I love Paradox just outsourcing their QA for Spiff content. Its a perfectly balanced relationship, those geniuses!

[@enjoythestruggle]

So you survived the war with Russia by... not having an army and not doing anything? This game is amazing.

[@enriktigasna]

Also it's pretty realistic, since the army irl would also likely just mutiny and not understand why they are invading

[@fearedjames]

It's pretty much just non-sci fi Foundation at this point

[@Nik072WarpDancer]

- Так, собираемся и идём войной на Ян-Майен! - Кудаблин? - Ян-Майен! - Это где вообще?! Покажи на карте! - Вот. - ...Так. Ты собрал триста тыщщ человек чтобы идти войной на голый камень посередь нихрена?! - Да они там офигели! - Да ты сам офигел, не пойдем мы никуда! Нафиг надо! As a Russian, I just imagine this dialogue. It's kinda anachronistic (and a bit polished in terms of swearing 😁) but anyway😂

[@TwoTonTaft]

Imagine the skyscrapers on that little island. They'd be gloriously huge!

[@the-letter_s]

or gloriously deep into the earth, considering skyscrapers are a unique invention in the game.

[@runforitman]

it is terrifying how fast this guy must be able to learn

[@mikesrandomchannel]

Well said. Every time Spiff says "And this is important because..." I hear the sound of rulebooks being riffled through for hours. Meanwhile, I'm the kind of gamer who gets into a fight by mistake in Divinity II and clicks desperately on the first available potion in the hotbar only to find out I just made my character drink poison...

[@cloudtaker633]

You make yourself sound like if you played Minecraft, you would craft a hoe when trying to craft a pickaxe, or misclick on the crafting book and make 16 axes

[@killer-ll4pn]

Major powers: Ah a small island is no threat to us. Major powers: Oh, spiff is leading it. Probably fine he might be doing a normal or challenge run. Major powers: OH HELL NO HE BROUGHT A FACTORY THAT SEEMINGLY NEGATIVELY IMPACTS HIS ECONOIMY! I NEED PROTECTION! HES GONNA EXPLOIT!

[@pamelasmith4230]

I would start to worry if Spiff was leading a leading it

[@tylermech66]

I'm just imagining that island entirely covered in an industrial city, with the coasts lines with docks and smokestacks never out of sight. I actually love it.

[@TrueLimeyhoney]

Jan Mayen is actually quite a large rock. The population density is relatively low. Well it’s actually incredibly high considering it’s a rock in the Arctic, but compared to other industrial cities in the world, very low.

[@wisecrack4545]

I'm imagining that, plus the island is secretly a hollowed out rock full of subterranean caves that house entire underground city districts, inhabited by a sizable population of cave people which in turn accounts for all those extra votes.

[@chazchoo99]

It's about half the size of Singapore, and roughly a third of it's total area is covered by glaciers. That leaves ~259 sq km (or ~161 sq mi) of hypothetically settleable land. Singapore's population is about 5.6 mil, so assuming Jan Mayen had the same population density, that's about 2.8 mil. Fun fact, the population density of Manhattan, NY, is roughly 3.5 times higher than Singapore. So hypothetically, you could almost fit 10 mil people on Jan Mayen and it be about as densely populated as Manhattan! P.S., sorry if my math is off. I'm not normally a math person. I just had an ADHD need to churn out some numbers😅

[@not_that_person]

@@chazchoo99 I think we should factor in that this game is in the Victorian era, so they wouldn't have high-rise buildings like Manhatten. Also the enormous amount of factories would take up more space than office buildings.

[@chazchoo99]

@@not_that_person very true! Do you think even 1 mil would be a bit of a stretch?

[@renjoker5442]

ah yes, playing the most remote and undeveloped place on Earth in a map game. My favorite playstyle!

[@gingerinajacket8519]

27:00 it should probably be elaborated that by unemploying half of the workforce in an industry, that frees them up to work somewhere else, effectively removing unnecessary jobs to make way for money makers. Very useful if you have a particularly small population but you want to fully staff something that is only partially staffed.

[@quantemwensday]

"you will produce nothing and consume nothing" and be happy -the spiffing brit

[@capnolivbeard8217]

Sponsoring Spiff is just an advanced way to check if your game has exploits. (It does, and he will find them.)

[@agustiomaitimu144]

no game is safe

[@thesultryhippo9184]

The answer is always "yes"

[@lucijanoiveljic2179]

*spiff enters the game* *england: starts sweating nervously Only a tea drinker can beat the tea drinkers

[@habilterserah4075]

Of course

[@sonofthebearking3335]

😂

[@lolHyperactive]

most advanced AI i has ever seen, great britain smell your tea power just at the beginning of the game xDD

[@haan2747]

The John cena intro to Karl Marx honestly had me rolling and I laughed even harder when Russia got mad about it 😂

[@caad5258]

haters gonna hate

[@FwendlyMushwoom]

Gotta love absolute god Norwegian Karl Marx turning a frozen rock in the north sea into an industrial powerhouse where the workers keep all their massive surplus value

[@npcperson2158]

Technically correct.

[@mossdwellers114]

Imagine a collab between The Spiffing Brit and LetsGameItOut. Absolute mayhem

[@EffieTM]

The poshest, most chaotic world ending Event imaginable

[@slandshark]

There's not enough imagination in the world to understand what might become of that combination.

[@ethanstyant9704]

Spif will analyse the game to find out what makes it work LetsGameItOut will brute force every aspect of it until his computer hire a hitman

[@BuilderB08]

@@ethanstyant9704 And the game will (if it fits to Paradox “lore”) end in an invasion by the Prethoryn Swarm because it took so long. The Prethoryn Swarm is a Stellaris Endgame Crisis if you did not know.

[@rainmannoodles]

Spiff: "Perfectly balanced!" Josh: "Hold, please!"

[@bigfudge2031]

Gotta hand it to Paradox they really nailed the AI for Russia, it almost feels too realistic...

[@FreedInPieces]

As the actual Governor of Jan Mayen, I'd like to say thank you - you've increased our tourism by an infinite percent.

[@ciphergacha9100]

You fool, Jan Mayen doesn’t even have a govener

[@Libium]

According to wikipedia, Jan Mayen has an aera of 377 square km, so in the end, Jan Mayen has a population density of ~2,100 inhabitants per square km. It means Jan Mayen ended up being a rival to the world most powerful empires with the population density equivalent of Renfrewshire.

[@legostarwarsfan1662]

Also Jan Mayen has no permanent residents nowadays.

[@tbotalpha8133]

The island of Jan Mayen is one giant Hive City.

[@dragonace119]

@@Paden-k7f Look up Warhammer 40k Imperial Hive Cities. If want a rough idea of what it looks like, imagine Coruscant but if it was compressed into several US states yet could fit from near 10 billion to over 100 billion people. Now imagine several dozen being built along the surface of a planet, thats when you call it a Hive World of which each of the Hive Cities are essentially a massive industrial production center.

[@beatooze8025]

@@Paden-k7f Judge Dredd's Mega City. Buildings that house a million people. But yes... Warhammer 40k nightmare city's.

[@tj-co9go]

Also the whole island is probably just filled to the brim with skyscrapers and industrial areas. It is one giant city

[@BedrockGateBreaker]

4:08 looks like somebody realised spiff is a treat no matter what tiny rock he is on. Smartest game character(s) to exist

[@JKSSubstandard]

If you've never actually seen the island if Jan Mayen.... It's roughly the size of a large town and half of it is a volcano.

[@SebHaarfagre]

It's 55 km long and 373 km². If anything, it doesn't sound like _you_ have seen it lol. For comparison, Paris city is 102 km². So no, it is not "roughly the size of a large town".

[@Rybakov22]

@@SebHaarfagre 55 km sounds like a little city for me. But then, I live in a country that considers a half-day trip on 90kmh a _local_ trip.

[@Killerwale-hk4wy]

I imagine San Mayen as a city that mostly sits on water, standing on poles and made out of boats. An entire state that's half afloat like that is pretty cool.

[@fikec]

Perfectly balanced as it should be.

[@Kernwadi]

[̷T̴h̴i̵s̵ ̸c̸o̸m̷m̵e̸n̵t̵ ̶c̸o̵n̴t̷a̷i̸n̵e̵d̵ ̶m̷a̵n̴y̸ ̴e̴r̵r̵o̴r̶s̷,̵ ̶t̸h̵e̶ ̶P̶e̷o̸p̴l̶e̴'̷s̵ ̴R̶e̸p̷u̷b̸l̷i̴c̵ ̵o̷f̴ ̸C̵h̸i̶n̸a̷ ̵c̷o̵r̶r̵e̷c̷t̶e̵d̶ ̷t̴h̸i̸s̸ ̷m̵i̸s̶t̸a̵k̷e̷.̸]̷

[@EEEEEEEE]

E

[@Kernwadi]

@@EEEEEEEE That's a good E.

[@blackchoas]

sick campaign, kinda looks like being a vassal to a larger market is like playing with training wheels on, you get all the base resources you could ever need without effort and have a massive market for luxuries, and Russia may be the absolute best power to do this with since their own resource base is so large and their industrialization is so low. I'm considering doing an early campaign like this in either Canada or Australia.

[@es68951]

“Luxury clothes are in high demand in Russia” “They want to turn us into a vassal state, or maybe just invade us to conquer our lands" “When Russia goes to war, they bugger their economy” 🤣🤣🤣🤣 Paradox did their homework, what can I say?

[@VaSabi_RUS]

What do you mean?

[@evryatis9231]

That applies to lots of countries ngl

[@namethathasntbeentakenyetm3682]

Not to mention the Russian puppet of Jan Mayen haing fraudulent elections

[@blizyon30fps86]

@@VaSabi_RUS the war in Ukraine

[@ze_baronkrigler7611]

Every country is like this you are just blinded by propaganda, Stop bringing Politics into everything especially video games, Its for fun not hate

[@ArtificialQT]

“Women’s Suffrage is incredibly important because it GIVES US MORE MONEY!” I love how earnest he is in his pursuit of money 🤣

[@jimtalbott9535]

“Drafted 300,000 people to invade a rock….” Heh….TOPICAL.

[@kinagrill]

And then get flipped off by a soldier.

[@Gradysmokestoomuch]

And crash their economy.

[@jimtalbott9535]

@@kinagrill topical…..

[@jimtalbott9535]

@@Gradysmokestoomuch TOPICAL!

[@elainetamika4822]

I burst out laughing at the Karl Marx part, "Please Marx come over!" 🤣🤣🤣 And the John Cena music match perfectly balanced with the moment.

[@fugitiveunknown7806]

Jr: "OH man gawd king. THATS KARL MARX's MUSIC!!!!!" King: *abdicates*

[@carcharoclesmegalodon6904]

Zhong Xina moment

[@dopesickdog]

@@carcharoclesmegalodon6904 HA

[@majorursaminor4434]

Spiff: “I don’t know how we got about 700k people to live in sub zero temperatures” me …. The Brit’s forgot about Canada.

[@EnverHalilHoxha1917]

I think Canada is a lot bigger than that rock island in the middle of the ocean thats the difference

[@mohammedabdul4832]

@@EnverHalilHoxha1917 🤓

[@EnverHalilHoxha1917]

@@mohammedabdul4832 Counter🤓

[@DragonReaver]

@@EnverHalilHoxha1917 Well if we are being nerdy that is only 2000 people per km which is nowhere near the densest population per kilometer of a country.

[@EnverHalilHoxha1917]

@@DragonReaver 🤓

[@TeeQueueSA]

I appreciate the John Cena music hitting when Marx showed up.

[@dwaters6274]

Thank you friend. Our glorious overlord spiff uses this in the Skyrim video and I could not for the life of me place it! Thank you sir!

[@timothydavis8388]

Spiff recreating basically modern globalism on a tiny rock. Pretty sure that’s how Dubai makes money. Also I love how by starting out as such a small economy and building it up from scratch you can get a good handle on how stuff works

[@kajamiletic3223]

Except Dubai started off by having a shitton of natural resources, whereas Jan Mayen had jack shit

[@yappingfornothing]

it's more like singapore instead of dubai tbh

[@101jir]

I love the fact that Paradox recognized Spiff for his ability to stress test their mechanics After watching the first part, reminds me of Venetian geopolitics, though without the strategic location (which is kindof a big deal).

[@allisongretsinger322]

Spiff defeated Russia the exact same way Hober Mallow defeated Korell in Foundation and I love that it works

[@thetypicalweed6770]

Currently studying economics and darn this is more helpfull than reading books about theory and more xD

[@idontknoq4813]

What kinds of theory do you read?

[@ntenhoum]

​@@idontknoq4813 Karl Marx

[@idontknoq4813]

@@ntenhoum Based.

[@s7robin105]

I love that you were able to make this tiny nothing island actually viable for a game. That’s amazing lol

[@MrMysteryman00]

Love that the sponsor allowed you to include the bug on the number of voters and you just played it off as a joke.

[@jasonreed7522]

It may not be a vote, depending on what voting law he has. I know several of them like wealth based voting mention that some people get multiple votes. Its still hilarious to see more votes than people exist in your nation.

[@ChaoticNeutralMatt]

Seconded on that it was probably a voting law thing. Also they wouldn't really mind.

[@iwatchwithnoads7480]

@@jasonreed7522 what wealth it's a communist nation lol

[@AtakenSmith]

@@ChaoticNeutralMatt I had this too and I have universal suffrage and they still manage to vote 15 times more than my population _:D It's just stupid...

[@OnboardG1]

Weirdly, this is an actual real-life strategy of some nations. Singapore comes to mind (or the City of London). Actually, getting access to the Russian Market and selling high-end services was pretty much exactly the City of London's strategy for thirty years until... erm, some things happened.

[@epicnesssss]

Communism or Crimea War?

[@johndododoe1411]

@@epicnesssss Current Crimea war...

[@OnboardG1]

History repeats, first as tragedy and then farce.

[@SponsoredDuck]

I was thinking more post war Japan before the 90’s

[@tomgjgj]

Glad I'm not the only one who thought Singapore.

[@ArnieStein]

Spiff, HILARIOUS! I actually sailed past Jan Mayen in 1978 when I was working on a research ship (little did I know it was a covert operation for Paradox Interactive). All Hail Karl!

[@Anderes1248]

To be honest i'd also be scared and threatned by a tiny rock the span of 5 kilometers That's able to somehow reach the gdp of great powers and hold a million people

[@duphasdan]

4:09 Perhaps the devs hard coded the game to know whenever The Spiffing Brit is playing the game, and the surrounding countries are just reacting normally.

[@Skynet_01]

"Last time a British person raised taxes on tea things went very very wrong"- you sir just earned an American subscriber

[@cheasball1088]

As an american, i love every time you reference america the ways you do. 32 freedom units and boston tea party references specifically

[@DatShadyGuy]

Paradox: We need to see if our new game can be broken. Spiff: Hold my tea.

[@NickKrige]

even though the exploiter and exploitee are switched, taking raw resources from someone and selling them back produced goods at vastly inflated prices is a pretty accurate exploit for this time period.

[@pbonfanti]

Living in 3rd world means you sell the raw resources, like we sell crude oil and buy back refined at high price, it is how works since forever, is not something relative to a period. Same happens with food, metals, etc.

[@adhesiveregex1720]

Nothing more British than owning a rock in the middle of the ocean

[@scragar]

Makes sense at the time because a rock you could restock on meant you could sail further and "discover" more stuff.

[@miguelpadeiro762]

@@scragarMost of the world, save for Oceania, was already discovered by the time the English ever went beyond Ireland

[@thesultryhippo9184]

Say hello to the Falklands!

[@JJK10293]

I've learned from this video that the smaller the island a British person is on, the more powerful they become.

[@emmybm15]

As a half British half Norwegian you keep mixing up Jan Mayen with Svalbard was a bit hilarious not going to lie 😅

[@Avetho]

I choose to believe this version of Jan Mayen had a localized dimensional anomaly where you have an infinite amount of Jan Mayens to build in and name each frequency of island as a district or something XD Just imagine a circle where trains loop around but each time they pass by a station they enter a portal and pass by another station in another Jan Mayen and then another portal and it keeps on going from Jan Mayen to Jan Mayen and there is Unlimited Powaaaaaa!

[@danieljames1868]

Doesn't even need that much. The island was probably entirely city, though. Which is less impressive than it sounds, because jan mayen is smaller than NYC, but is at the same time more impressive, because it was all done with late 19th century architectural know-how.

[@RupertMDoc]

An infinite number of Jan Mayens? Way better than the strict limit of only 8 Jan Michael Vincents imposed elsewhere.

[@tonnentonie2767]

The backmayens

[@autisonm]

Seems like Great Britain figured out you were playing pretty early on. The AI seems pretty impressive if they can tell that its you playing!

[@patriciobonatti1677]

The British see a tiny rock as a threat, *Falklands intensifies*

[@alimohammad1934]

'Glorious little parasite" had me laughing😂😂

[@wellsilver3972]

I like how spiff didnt even do any glitches, he just used his brilliant war and economic strategy to bring the rock to victory

[@onebear6504]

You have to continue this! I'm very curious to the future of Gen Meyen!

[@agoatwithnonamd]

"Were gonna be buying the cheap resources from russia and make them into endgame goods, then resell them" Ah yes, the Germany playthrough

[@mrdryst7265]

I bet this flew over many people's heads lol

[@BradTheAmerican]

@@mrdryst7265 Fill me up with that German lore flying over my head pls

[@Kernwadi]

Every 60 seconds in Africa, a minute passes. But together we can stop that...

[@thespiffingbrit]

*British Empire Intensifies*

[@Kernwadi]

@@thespiffingbrit Africa had it's chance...

[@Kernwadi]

@@thespiffingbrit By the way, I admire your work very much.

[@EEEEEEEE]

‎‎‎‎‎‎E

[@Kernwadi]

@@EEEEEEEE That's a good E...

[@raptormaster666]

Spiff, putting almost a million people and a significant percentage of the game's industrial heartland on an active volcanic island. Also with THAT density of people and industry, one wonders if there's just a military port on the island's spit, then a dystopian Cube of metal rising 50 metres high around the entire island.

[@drunkenrobot7061]

23:50 - my favorite clip of this whole video. I laughed so hard I had trouble breathing - that's always an indicator of a great video!

[@Jacob-ce7nh]

“I’m not going to play as Britain” *chooses a tiny cold island with only like 7 people on it*

[@DestructivelyPhased]

I was worried about the state of Vicky 3, but now I can rest east knowing it’s been through the *most* rigorous QA process in the games industry.

[@romanboi3115]

Consider this, the QA team had to be purged after the leak.

[@zjanez2868]

to be fair abusing the AI in a pve game is part of the fun

[@eoozy2617]

@@zjanez2868 Its fun for two games and then gets boring because ur abusing an already stupid AI.

[@zjanez2868]

@@eoozy2617 when it gets boring you can just stop using the super cheesy strats

[@finnb2318]

Consider the fact that a russian blockade would have lead to the starvation of the entire island's population in due time. They wouldn't even have needed to mobilize or make use of a single unit

[@venmis137]

An exploit so good that it's regularly used by IRL economies!

[@XykonOverlord]

If only more countries would use the communism exploit.

[@Ashley-lm4nv]

"We are going to buy the cheap resources, make goods from them and sell them back." Indian cotton and textile industry: "Yeah we have seen that one before."

[@twistedtachyon5877]

And spiff wonders why they see him as a threat...