VICTORIA 3 | MAJOR MISTAKES TO AVOID - Beginner's Guide & Tips (Gameplay Tutorial)

In this beginner's guide video for Victoria 3 we're going to take a look at some easy-to-make mistakes that might be causing you some trouble, or otherwise slowing you down as you play. While these are mostly broad strokes and some should be taken with a grain of salt, these quick tips should help you get a better understanding of how things work opposite to how you might expect sometimes in Victoria 3, and I hope they point out commonly forgotten aspects of the game too.
Watch the Beginner's Guide Playlist here -
• VICTORIA 3 | Beginner'...
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00:00 - Intro
00:31 - Producing Staples
01:47 - Paying for Construction
02:34 - Stagnating Tax Policies
03:52 - Swaying First
04:30 - Abandoning Markets
05:23 - Rushing Production Methods
06:04 - Ignoring Economy of Scale
07:04 - Ignoring Lenses & Decrees
09:40 - Rushing the Wrong Tech
10:44 - Ignoring your Navy
12:22 - Outro
#Victoria3

[@PartyElite]

Almost time for the weekend - if you're finally getting a chance to properly sit down with the game, you might enjoy the full beginner's guide playlist that dives deep into a bunch of topics - kzbin.info/www/bejne/foS7d2aYaJ6HkMk ! There's much more coming soon, too. And for those of you asking if I'll be doing playthroughs - yes! In the midst of planning my first one already. Just trying to normalize my life a bit after the crazy October i've had first lmao =)

[@masahibbhatti4088]

when can we more ck3 content? I love those series

[@_natalie]

Maybe pin this comment?

[@zzooeecastles]

can you give me a small amount of help? ive been trying sulu and it starts small but with clippers and not enough trade to use them they are expensive

[@bettmo7494]

For tip number 1: I recommend building staples in your colonies. Colonial Explotation alongside discriminated pops reduce their wages and you can control your input without worrying about the biggest exporter being at war.

[@bumperbonnie5721]

i was wondering why everything cost more in my factories in my incorporated "homeland" states, and then everything was cheaper in the shittier states

[@RFIKILLER]

I was gonna incorporate my colonies but i saw this tip. Maximum gold mine minting time

[@bettmo7494]

@@RFIKILLER Incorporating the state gives taxable income, but also expenses if you have any social policies. So unless you plan on building factories there: Keep it a filthy colony

[@herp_derpingson]

#HistoricallyAccurate

[@overscoresam948]

#shitvictoriaplayerssay

[@Bevalderon]

Love the comment on leaving customs unions... Wonder if there's a modern example of s country leaving a customs union...

[@MrHellknightimp]

I had a game where a large number of Trade Unionist (300k out of 2mil total pop) left the country when I was enacting Free Trade as Argentina. Hit me pretty hard, Trade Unionist leaving left my factories under staffed so people left Farms from my other states and became new Trade Unionist which meant they would leave the country also. The feedback loop stopped but losing a large number of Core Pop was interesting, I had just conquered Chili and now Chileans out number the Argentinians.

[@michaelsimonsen2017]

I swear the mistakes we make creates some interesting scenarios to navigate trough in Vicky. I'm currently struggling passing new laws and reforms because my power structure in States of Central America resembles the senate and US congress. Two powerfull political parties with strong opposing opinions.

[@MrPauloantoonioo]

I was playing with Argentina just now, and if you don't know how to control spending, your play will basically go down the drain

[@jackmachine9497]

Got any tips for an argentina game?

[@Valkenvr]

@@MrPauloantoonioo pretty much like real argentinian economic history 😅

[@MrPauloantoonioo]

@@jackmachine9497 I believe the biggest tip is: take it easy. build a few things at a time, you don't have enough credits at the beginning of the game to industrialize, start diversifying your economy little by little according to demand, build ports to have more trade routes, and thus start an economy exporting meat, a product with good price and that argentina can produce infinitely

[@dodge33cymru]

"take your time to prepare before leaving a customs union" Britain should have watched this video in 2016...

[@Tetragramix]

Cope

[@dancingrook8553]

I personally like the UI a lot. I find it quite good, the lenses included. Not to take away from other peoples dislikes just my opinion

[@tomxipe]

OMG this is the best guide EVER on this game and I have seen most of them

[@viewerchicken730]

Great vid. Did almost all of these so far 😆

[@Kolokommouna]

Staples can be very profitable for small countries, since providing for majors can lead to very high prices that keep being very high for a long time.

[@trevorbradley3737]

Wanted to report that following a major tip in this video: Focus on builfing industry and importing rural goods, my new Cuba run is going fantastic. Thank you!

[@cesarperezargota]

They're who I'm going to try playing next so good to know haha :)

[@dawnadmin8119]

For taxes, remember that all goods come in categories. You suggest the three luxury goods (porcelain, luxury clothes, luxury furniture) and two of the three intoxicants (liquor, tobacco and opium). The luxury goods are solid choices, but if you tax only one of them, and have all three available, your pops will substitute another one that’s cheaper. I’ve found that a strong choice is to make only one good in a category available, which I can produce domestically. This is most practical for wine, coffee or tea. Then, every well-off pop will spend all their luxury-drinks budget on your farms and plantations, and you can tax that for only 100 authority (but the poorest won’t worry about it). A liquor tax can also work well. especially if your pops are too poor to buy luxury items yet, since pops at all income levels buy liquor and tobacco. Services is another solid choice (pops at all income levels will buy some, but richer pops will buy more, and they can’t switch to buying something else instead). I therefore try to tax the entire category at once. I don’t think I’ve ever deliberately enacted Per-Capita Taxation. I’ve either wanted Proportional (usually the highest revenue) or Graduated (puts less of the tax burden on the poor).

[@dawnadmin8119]

I more often end up enacting decrees by right-clicking on a province than by picking a decree and a province from the lens. (I’m more likely to use the production lens to build buildings.) For small countries, with one or two states, I often run Social Mobility for the entire game. Otherwise, I’ll sometimes run Greener Grass or Encourage Manufacturing on my market capital.

[@wardoge924]

By watching your videos I fixed my 1st attempt at the game by fixing the Greek GDP. As I delve deeper into your videos though, I see why Paradox avoided Vicky 3 so many years. The game's depth must have been a nightmare to program, balance, and bugfix. So far it might be the best at launch PDX game in recent years, in terms of bugs etc.

[@SuperHipsterGamer]

Thank you so much for these videos PE. They are by far the best out on youtube. Simple to understand and very concise and precise in their explanations. You should be very proud of these.

[@hudooguru2]

Great video. Thank you.

[@jimmaynard]

I am so bloody addicted to your channel

[@matteomarelli3780]

I keep seeing people posting tutorials with UK, Japan or always powerful nations. Yes , thanks, it's easy to go build for the long run if your the UK, it's easy to colonize if you're France and already have certain techs. I haven't watched a valid tutorial yet.

[@paulmanning4901]

Great Vid. Thank you

[@dawnadmin8119]

Nice video! Some of these are open to debate. Your tip one is, historically, the debate Britain had over the Corn Laws. They agreed with you that they should import their staple grains from overseas and industrialize-then realized that they’d left themselves vulnerable to starvation if a German submarine blockade could cut off their imported food. To some degree, that same strategic vulnerability exists in the game. I normally build farms, but with a low priority. They’re a good way to get your peasants into real jobs, and can produce valuable wine and fruit. Even if you don’t have a lot of demand for anything, they’ll replace the production of existing subsistence farms, but with higher wages. Even half-empty, they’ll raise wages and attract immigrants. You cannot over-build farms if you’ll be running a Command Economy, though, because then all your empty buildings will be subsidized.

[@jamesdetroit3791]

Thanks for all of the informative videos for an excellent game. Your analysis speeds up the learning process for a fairly complex game. My first sandbox game is with Ecuador since I figure it will not be too complex. Definitely a challenge making progress with a smaller, undeveloped country. Need to liberate some gold mines in Peru.

[@vvkth2500]

as an experienced eu4 player, i find this guide paramount so far! though i simply can't move past building a few businesses. truthfully, i do play Montenegro, which is probably the poorest country in Europe. But after building 1 government admin building, lvl 2 lumber mill, wheat farm, livestock farm, and lvl 2 port, my productivity simply cannot outpace wages enough that i can keep building. so im kind of stuck there.. from what i gathered from your video, i should try enacting per-capita taxation.. it might help. thank you for the guides!

[@Arms2]

Eu4 player here as well. Enacting per capita tax gave me about 1k more ducats revenue as Cape colony.

[@bettmo7494]

Wages are influenced by cost of living. And since you only have one state - you have less room to manuever "Average cost of living". As montenegro ur best bet is to make an industry based on pasture - wheat. Which allows you to make clothing factory and food factory. Both help reduce cost of living for the poor fucks. And pray to god ottomans gets rect so you can invade.

[@bettmo7494]

lol i was bored, so tried montenegro. Actually fun, Gained remainder of montenegro, Albania and Bosnia all in seperate "wars" just giving russia treaty ports in Ottoman territory... and Clothing industry is booming.

[@vvkth2500]

@@bettmo7494 wow! awesome. i actually need to learn all facets of game.. i'm so hyper focusing on economy, diplomacy and war looks kind of confusing.. so, you start a diplomatic play against OE, then give Russia treaty ports there.. But did you reform army or build more regiments? What suffices?

[@vvkth2500]

@@Arms2 damn. gotta rush that then lol

[@Valkenvr]

Regarding production method 2 for the construction, it completely broke my nation. I was playing Argentina, so I'm not part of any market, and any time I was building something my iron and timber prices went to the roof. I had to manually create import trade routes, burning like -5K while building. After I switched back to wooden frames I'm even running a surplus while building.

[@deusvult6920]

Yes you're supposed to import things lol. You can't do everything yourself you'll never get ahead.

[@eveei]

dude use pause construction to balance ur deficits as to not go into too much debt/ stockpile too much money. investment also. also importing is fine. import cheap and increase wood production if its that bad. this way you eventually snowball enough to support your construction infrastructure building full time/ leaving room for expansion

[@Valkenvr]

Even activating 2 or 3 import trades of iron I was -5k. After switching back to timber frames, and upleveling the construction industry to compensate output, I started running 1k surplus while building.

[@MN121MN]

Don't forget to demolish a few construction industry if you change the production method, else you bankrupt yourself.

[@Valkenvr]

Game update, I joined the british market. After that the game turns the easy mode on. Infinity growth, everything is profitable, everything is cheap.

[@m4ack4n]

Fantastic guide! What has happened to the local production bonuses you received in Vic2 for having resources locally produced? For instance having your steel-mill in the same state as your iron and coal mines. Now it seems I can produce iron in Africa and Steel in Europe with no downside.

[@GreenIsTheWayForward]

Yup. You do need ports and convoys to produce in colonies, but otherwise it is the same

[@dima9171]

I think the political diplomatic etc lens should be somewhere up, alongside the manas. It’s just so important and as u said, uninviting down there. The shipping lane info was szper usefull, didn’t even know u can click on a shipping lane lol.

[@kartarsingh9338]

Staple goods are very profitable sprficaly furniture and clothing and sould be a main industry for your playthroughs

[@PPKinguin]

Yup, I felt my Belgium was developing very slowly. Turns out trying to build for my lower stratas every need was the wrong thing to do! Lets give it another go then

[@alexclanton6626]

So should nations produce clothing?

[@sacrieur7899]

Thank you for your many videos, you must have been working hard for the release :)

[@iniudan]

Personally I disagree when it come to staple production. Not producing them locally, if population is high enough, just make you waste ton of convoy on low value item, those convoy would be better spent doing high margin trade, you know something that let your trader make like a £40-50 profit per employees, even through your own protect local supply tariff, like tool to Russia.

[@Runetrantor]

Regarding leaving a Customs Union, is it possible to wrestle leadership of it from the current leader, or is that impossible and you HAVE to leave it to be leader of your own?

[@Njordin2010]

Do you know the answer yet?

[@Runetrantor]

@@Njordin2010 AFAIK you cant, but I have not really looked too deeply, sorry.

[@FakeSchrodingersCat]

My main complaint is that untradeable resources like electricity and transport have their prices determined by the entire market. Meaning if the AIs in the same market as me decide to electrify their industries but don't bother to make any power plants my mines and factories are suddenly all running at a massive loss as the price of electricity goes through the roof leaving me either to go back a tech and hope they eventually build some or build an entire electricity generation economy where half of it is somehow transformed directly into wealth like it is mining crypto.

[@MrMedu7]

Or you build more power plants and make profit

[@utewbd]

@@MrMedu7 That's dumb though. Why would a power plant in Brandenburg affect the price of electricity in Pomerania for example?

[@FakeSchrodingersCat]

@@MrMedu7 Except I don't have a command economy which means I cannot put the power plants as government run so I make only 20% of the profits in taxes but I have to subsidize all my industry resulting in me still loosing money. Sure it is a way to get your GDP through the roof but you would be better off pretending electricity didn't exist.

[@tishafeed8085]

@@utewbd because it's all connected

[@utewbd]

@@tishafeed8085 Not to that degree. Electricity at that time period was very uncommon and localized.

[@stephenchurch1784]

I disagree with tip one. If you push for per-capita tax early, getting your staples covered leads to a massive income boost from income tax initially and more investment from industry because their inputs are cheap

[@donbemont7901]

Thanks for many clarifications here. My biggest area of confusion involves colonization and, especially, the USA dealing with the various Native American tribes. Maybe you or someone here can help: 1. There's a visual to show progress towards colonizing the current micro part of that state, but I have yet to find any way to see my overall progress towards colonizing the entire state. Nor, more importantly, progress made by a foreign rival. 2. As the USA, all the colonizations of Native Americans begun for you as the game start, they always end in a violent uprising. Does it have to go this way, or are there choices I am missing? 3. As the USA, it appears that I am not allowed to begin any other colonizations of other Native American tribal areas -- although I am allowed to colonize in Patagonia and Africa, and I definitely have an interest in the regions of these Native American tribes. Am I missing something here? Is there some special rule? 4. I see Mexico starting diplomatic plays against some of the Native American tribes, but I seem to have no mechanism for doing that as the USA. Again, am I missing something here? Is there some special rule? It's just a practice game to learn the rules, but these things are leaving me mystified for how to handle stuff in a "real" playthrough.

[@derekchristensen1439]

1. You cannot conquer a unorganized state outright. You eat away at it, bit by bit until the unorganized state declares war on you, at which point you can annex the entire region outright if you win the war. If there are multiple states colonizing an unorganized state, the first nation to win a war gets the whole territory. 2. You can prevent colonization by changing your laws (if you do so in a timely manner before you absorb the entire unorganized nation) to no colonial affairs. I accidentally cancelled colonization once as the US, and the Comanches took all of Texas from me, but I forgot how I did that, so I know it's possible otherwise. 3. I think it's the fact that colonization can happen overseas if the unorganized state is on the water, but it can only happen over land if the unorganized state is touching your territory's boundaries. 4. See point #1. I think Mexico was colonizing like you, and the unorganized state just attacked them first, so Mexico gets to do unorganized plays.

[@donbemont7901]

@@derekchristensen1439 Thank you. Although I do not think #4 is quite right. These were diplomatic plays where I could see the typical stages, and then the war. They did not start with war. But you have cleared up a lot.

[@tishafeed8085]

@@donbemont7901 that's exactly what happens. when an unorganised state has had enough of your colonizing, a diplomatic play starts, which will then result in a war. your goals as a colonizer will be to annex them completely, and theirs will be to annex appropriate home/neighbouring regions. also, just like a regular diplomatic play, other nations may support you(never seen that) or them, so be careful, your rival colonizers in a region may support native uprisings to weaken you

[@pauloatanasio7567]

Just... Real Nice

[@corydrichmond]

Would love to see a California playthrough

[@brianvieane3907]

I like to believe that the consumption taxes effect the prices of the goods but I actually don't think they do. It is very unclear, just costs authority. If u set. Also the population happiness/is very unclear I'm general in this game. The UI looks good at first but once u learn the game ur like how do I see that? Is there a graph to show me like production of each good, etc. They need to polish that up a lot actually a lot of things are unclear.

[@talltroll7092]

Consumption taxes don't affect price-to-market, but DO increase the price your pops pay (which you receive as tax)

[@ky-passley4769]

I'm waiting on the let's play.

[@ParikshitBhujbal]

I cant build any Whaling stations or Oil Rigs, help pls

[@Tetragramix]

You need access to the resource.

[@pokechamp3987]

already failed at step 1 as Sweden. now I'm the world's #1 producer of clothes and have the highest living standard after US. now money is getting real tight and I can barely find anyone to fill my lumber mills or steel factories and all states cost me much more than they give back. I tried shutting down a fish building that barely even functioned and ended up with +500 radicals. now I'm too afraid to downgrade anything again. halp.

[@WARGORELORD]

Good stuff!

[@mateuszwajszczak8201]

Here's a simple tip from my Cuba run: if you're going for immigration to grow your pops (egalitarianism, total separation of church and state, then open borders or controlled migration), be careful with welfare payments and keep track of the unemployed. I simply can't seem to build enough to keep all the newcomers employed, paying massive benefits. Still in the green, but it looks like I'll have to close borders / cancel welfare soon or I'll go bankrupt.

[@Njordin2010]

Victorian age nazi detected /s

[@rhubbard4346]

My biggest struggle currently comes from managing construction. I need to find a good ballance on what needs to be built in what order to smoothly progress my nation. It will take practice, but I will eventually figure it out. ¡Viva la Mexico!

[@bondbond8260]

what Perry doing in the thumbnail

[@freerolll]

I play only morocco and so far I have noticed If I dont rush free trade getting any supply for my industry is almost impossible But depening on your country its so hard to get

[@laurynasg9932]

How do you rush for free market? I played as Ethiopia and i just coudnt get away from isolationism even though I had all the necessary research and i had 1 interest group that supported it, i think it was landowners or intelligentsia. The law itself was greyed out.

[@freerolll]

@@laurynasg9932 I have no clue how it actualy works for other countries. But for morocco you start with only landowners in your government and no research to get the law. I have so far just put the industrialist in my government from the start while bolstering their popularity. While I pick stock exchange as my first research because you need it. When the reseach finishes i can switch to it. My guess would be you need the industrialist in your government to chose free trade option. But then You still have very low chance because it does not have much support from other groups. Only industrialists want it and they give like 12% chance with boosting popularity. A couple of games i had bad events happen that made the % change to get the law passed to 0% So I have not found a way to make it happen every playthrough

[@laurynasg9932]

@@freerolll hmmm, passing these laws is so confusing... to get some certain groups like industrialists i have to build more factories?

[@anadventurerlikeyou6412]

@@laurynasg9932 To enact a greyed out law you need to have one or more interest groups that support that law in your government. You also need to make sure all prerequisites are satisfied, e.g. some laws need other laws to be enacted first. And you can boost interest groups by bolstering them (there's a button if you click through to the specific group), passing laws that they like, and choosing options in their favor in events.

[@ChairmanRofImao]

4:30 There's a Brexit joke hiding somewhere around here.

[@caseblue2232]

Wait... Something is not right with the thumbnail art...

[@edinpandzic5838]

Buying this excel spreadsheet of a game was your first mistake

[@Real_SkyRipper]

building and economy is so damn weird and hard, could you make a video about that? when i play it seems i can never build enough to get enough resources, either i run out of workers, money but never have enough for the population demand lol why!!! XD

[@SonnyDK]

sounds like you need to set up import routes

[@digitex3181]

Internal migration is killing my greece game, 20% of population leave peloponnese to attica every fucking year

[@alexandrerocha6265]

I would love to start to play this game, but everytime i watch content about it, I give up, its so complicated it seems i need a degree in economics to start to understand the game.

[@Tetragramix]

Sounds like a personal problem.

[@Njordin2010]

It really isn't that complicated

[@SovietReunionYT]

@@Tetragramix Oh f*ck off with your snide replies already!

[@bdleo300]

The biggest mistake is to waste more than 5 seconds on this terrible game...

[@bruhmoment1363]

Tip #1: installing the game

[@conormurphy5633]

First big mistake, buying the game now instead of when they fix or abandon it lol.

[@Tetragramix]

Cope

[@conormurphy5633]

@@Tetragramix and seethe

[@angelopueyygarcia43]

Mistake number 1: playing victoria 3

[@Tetragramix]

Cope

[@angelopueyygarcia43]

@@Tetragramix seethe

[@Njordin2010]

@@Tetragramix since you write cope x100 times everywhere, i guess you are the one coping hard.

[@harrystevens382]

You forgot #1 Buying the game

[@stephengilmore2741]

The lens concept is genuinely awful. I've played about 10 hours, and watching this video I've only just realised there is such a thing as "decrees" because I found the lens thing so uninviting that I never understood or explored them. The UI needs a massive overhaul - no more massive art/pictures, and easier access to important information. Please cut down on the use of nested tooltips, for the love of god!!

[@RyanJosepher]

A major mistake is buying the game in the first place

[@EscalateWorldOfTanksBlitz]

game is zzzzz

[@Tetragramix]

Cope

[@eldolarescaro676]

the biggest mistake is buying the game

[@michaelsalmon9832]

#1 buying the game

[@Baleur]

TLDW: Dont ignore anything, do everything.

[@Jaiyro]

#1 Mistake to Avoid: Buying or playing this game to begin with 🤢🤮

[@jecko980]

just mass build everything, this game is super simple

[@Zeitgeist2000]

mistake number 1: buying this "game"

[@Alex_FRD]

The biggest mistake you can make is spending money on this soon-to-be DLC money pit instead of getting Victoria 2.

[@arkke7465]

This game is completely different from Victoria 2 as to almost not even be comparable.

[@Njordin2010]

Its a very different game and its ok. 7/10 by now. Potential. Wait for sale

[@SovietReunionYT]

LOL, I've played and modded Vicky 2 for thousands of hours and it's garbage compared to Vicky 3.

[@roflol100]

Buying it is major mistake you should avoid

[@Tetragramix]

Cope

[@JustHereForCatVideos]

The most major mistake you can do in Victoria 3 is actually buying this crap game.

[@franzjoseph1837]

Cry some more lol

[@utewbd]

Careful, all the redditors and paradrones are going to project at you.

[@ehunt244]

I bought it, so far im having fun with it. Didnt play much of Vic2. what makes it so dreadful?

[@franzjoseph1837]

@@ehunt244 its a hard learning good and they dont like that they can't control their armies. It's more of a society stimulator which in reality is pretty realistic. It's a work in progress for sure but I like the framework.

[@somerandobadger]

@@franzjoseph1837 This is precisely the problem with Paradox though. No newly released game should be a 'work in progress'.

[@iogsuc3714]

Vic3 sucks and you know it This video should be just "play Vic2 lmao"

[@tonytaskforce3465]

The worse mistake you can make is shelling out your hard-earned money on this dreadful trashy half-finished monster. If Paradox wants to treat its clientele with this sort of contempt, we should return the favor.

[@Fallout3131]

Tad over dramatic

[@Tetragramix]

Cope

[@tonytaskforce3465]

@@Fallout3131 Tad true.

[@tonytaskforce3465]

@@Tetragramix No, don't buy and tell everyone what rubbish it is.

[@Njordin2010]

Tony i like this game but you are still right. You see cut content everywhere. Huge "insert DLC here" spots.

[@pelace]

Major mistake to avoid: buying the game.

[@Tetragramix]

Cope

[@Zanator1]

Mistake 1: buying the game. A lot of people accidentally do this

[@Tetragramix]

Cope

[@itsrin868]

first major mistake would be buying this game

[@Tetragramix]

Cope

[@altoidss10]

mistake 1 buying the game

[@Tetragramix]

Cope

[@JoaoFerreira-ps2gi]

MAJOR MISTAKE TO AVOID: Buying this Game and Pre-Ordering any Paradox game\dlc from now on!

[@Tetragramix]

Cope

[@Njordin2010]

@@Tetragramix you are coping. Thats why have feel the need to defend this game. I like it btw

[@bathhatingcat8626]

I hear this game is dumbed down trash. I’ve been done with paradox since they abandoned imperator

[@deusvult6920]

Then why are you here kid

[@Valkenvr]

Victoria 1 and 2 were my favourite paradox games. I'm enjoying V3 a lot.

[@Tetragramix]

Cope

[@Draguling]

Avoid playing this game

[@Tetragramix]

Cope

[@Draguling]

@@Tetragramix I think paradox fans are the ones coping

[@corndorn]

Biggest mistake is paying for this game in the first place. Potentially the most boring PDX game in the last 5 years

[@Tetragramix]

Cope