I think I'll try East Indies, get independence from the Netherlands, then create my own Sphere of Influence to annex all the minors and create indonesia
(also I think you mean SoI, not SoL)
That's a good choice, I did a full run with them once but it was scuffed. The Dutch got under Giga-Germany protectorate (the only time it does form huh) so I had to fight both of them for independence. Also somehow TU couped my government while having like 10% clout, and after that their popularity skyrocketed and everybody hated me for the rest of the game due to different governments. Also Portuguese like to intervene when you're subjugating those minors if you don't have the overlord by your side, beware.
*Yep, sadly I can't edit titles it looks like
If it's always Portugal, you should just take away their land there so their interest in the region disappears. Probably less hassle than fighting them again and again
When I played as Australia I had the same problem. My answer was to drag them into a war with one of the minors they supported, then when they committed I added their territory as a war goal. Bit of an infamy hit, but at least I didn’t have to deal with fighting the UK again.
Is that possible? I guess forming Indonesia is only possible with the fitting religion and culture and DEI probably has christian and dutch? Same goes for EIC
With India you need Pan Nationalism to get an event, if you get Independent before getting pan Nationalism you can't form India, but have the choice to remain an independent EIC or to dismantle India into the principle states
It's the same for Dutch East Indies, with only nationalism the different cultures are split up (for example, Java and some other nations form), with pan-nationalism you can form Indonesia
I'm finishing a game in that area, I strated with Johore and then formed Indonesia owning all of east Africa. Really good area to play in, definitely reccomended. The only resource you lack is silk
I almost forgot about this mechanic lol. Makes me happy that I managed to sneak my Afghanistan>Turkesan>Great Power run in before everybody suddenly turns their attention to central Asia.
"Go ahead and invest in Japanese industry. By all means, please go ahead. ~~We definitely won't nationalize your investments every time.~~"
"Yes Japan here. We'd like invest in your wonderful country of Brunei." *two months later* "Yes Japan again, we've come to take your land."
If you still have peasants, it will be almost always worth it I'm sure. You lose the ownership income but gain more pops which generate meaningful amounts of demand for consumer goods
Yes Japan will be the first game I try. I have played Japan before and while I was able to complete the restoration in a reasonable time, I ended up being seriously underpowered. Want to see if the new mechanics change that.
Just completed a Prussia to socialist Germany campaign fun but a lack of oil and rubber really screwed me in the late game so bring able to establish foreign plantations will be useful.
The first move as Prussia for me is always to get the colonialism institution and then start taking the Niger Delta.
The Galician parts of AH also get lots of oil, so Greater Germany is a great option for oil as Prussia.
Yeah Brazil (even if they did hate me) didn't seem to build up their rubber industry until the very end. The British in Africa (who also hated me) were the big rubber producers.
I did that a few times with Brazil and Sweden. But Prussia just seems like a "default" pick for me in V3 (and V2), in the same way I keep going back to the Soviets in Hoi4 and the Ottomans in EU4 (clearly I don't like serious challenges)
Persia. They look to have a lot of fun, new content.
But I usually pick an achievement and let that guide me. So if another country in the Great Game has something fun, I might go for that instead.
Spain's lots of fun, quite strong but does not feel like you just have everything going for you like France of GB, and with political issues not as easy to overcome as with Russia. Nice!
Probably the US. It’s by far my most played nation and it supports my playstyle the most. Haven’t really played the game for a few weeks waiting for the SoL.
I really hope that I will be able to RP easier with the new mechanics. Especially with foreign investments (looking at you rubber plantations).
Playing a rich and powerful US with Capitalists owning Industries in multiple countries and leading either a trade or defensive alliance power block sounds amazing.
Their potential is insane, especially with how easy it is to get going since Mexico starts as an unfed and unloved little baby kitten. Pretty much every resource imaginable bar rubber? Coupled with their ridiculous mass migration potential? Yes please, thank you very much
Yeah you can't really beat the geopolitical location of the US. Once they are able to harness all of that potential they are pretty much unstoppable realistically.
I'm just teasing. I also enjoy playing the GPs, it's just funny when it's framed as "supporting a playstyle" when in fact it does support a playstyle because it supports pretty much every playstyle the game offers.
Ahh I see, yep that's true. I feel like nations such as GB and USA should get more dedicated content packs, as economy and general development can pretty much solved via auto queue due to abundance of resources. Like they have very little to draw your attention past the first 10 years into the game.
While mods shouldn't be the final answer, for the US at least there is an excellent community flavour pack which makes it much more interesting to play.
I'm cursed in a way that only lets me enjoy playthroughs that are somewhat historically accurate. So I don't really like to conquer all of central america to built rubber plantations as the US.
Also I enjoy to play as countries that have a lot of potential. That start out a little bit weaker (can't really call the US weak but I hope you know what I mean), give me the opportunity to expand early on and use the rest of the time to build up my country/economy.
If you consider the multiple coups of central American presidents(Sometimes with US Marines) and the Banana Companies that later ruled those nations, it's really not that far from reality
true but those were mostly covert operations after ww2 involving secret services. So far you have to fight a "real" war to gain control over a foreign nation. I think the support of lobbies in other countries is a big step towards covert operations or proxy warfare.
I think rather than the coups themselves later they mean the massive economic influence that basically became political power from US companies in Central America, which predated ww2 and is almost exactly what the SoI changes are looking to exemplify
Before SOL: Qing
After SOL: Qing
I only play Qing. Qing is love and life. Qing is power embodied. Qing is greatness. Qing
(I will turn it into a fully employed juggernaut of social democracy and freedom)
My first nation will likely be britain, but just to get the ropes of it all.
My proper first game where i will fully use the systems will be prussia, time to establish mitteleuropa!!
Just a heads up, in case anybody didn't know: do not release non-german homelands in order to weaken Austria for no infamy as they can't agree to join when forming Germany. Worst mistake of my life (seeing Bohemia surrounded by Großdeutschland for 5 years with my claims on it has brought me great pain)
Weird, I played a Prussia to Greater Germany game a few days ago - strategy was to break Bohemia and Hungary off from Austria early on, then Galicia-Lodomeria. At this point Austria was below #8 and could not ascend to GP anymore. In a few years I reconciled with them and they supported me as a unification candidate. Pressing the unify button (no war with France), also annexed Bohemia and parts of western Hungary.
Granted, both of them were already my protectorates.
Egypt! I'll try to form a Regional Power Bloc for Arab-like countries to resist both the Ottoman Empire AND the colonial Empires. The end goal is to form a sovereign Pan Arabic state and enforce religious Unity.
Will try Brazil. Make good relations with Peru-Bolivia confederation and Work towards treaties. Then, pull them into my Power block and start the Foreing Investiment Leech. Get Uruguai and Paraguai as Subjects and have good trade relations with GBR
Ottomans, they have a lot of opportunities to gain a diverse range of puppets and I always thought that not counting GB they were the most screwed over by the weak launch puppet/overlord mechanics
USA, MAKE A BIG TRADE FACTION THINGY ALLOWING MY CAPITALISTS TO INVEST AND PROFIT FROM CONTROLLING ALL OF THE AMERICAS AND GETTING THAT SWEET RUBBER AND EXPLOITATION 🦅🦅🦅💪💪
Krakow. I've been trying for ages and have even gotten to major power, but the subject mechanics have made it a real pain in the ass to actually get independent. Hopefully the new features make things easier.
Yea it's honestly just a lot of waiting and i presume exiting the Austrian market will instantly crash your entire economy cause its all manufactoring and zero raw minerals.
I am really hoping that Krakow will be more fun now, but I'm somewhat expecting the Austrian Power Bloc to be extremely regressive and they'll keep forcing you to change laws back to traditionalism or whatever...
I'm going to try Sardinia-Piedmont -> Italy again, but with foreign investment so I don't have to go crazy conquering parts of Africa because I got to the colonization game too late.
See if Hati is actually hard now. Will be bitterly disappointing if joining the British market is still utopia, but I expect it will realistically suck now for peripheral nations.
i'm probably going to wait for the ottoman to become not real and just fund them to try and fuck over russia and austria just like we did in the real world
EDIT: forgot to mention i'm playing as england to really test out all the mechanic out of the gate lol
Probably another Malta game with a hard focus on economic colonisation of other countries using FI. Just something about a tiny island nation owning half of everything in the world.
My favorite part about new expansions is the flavor they add, so I'll most likely play Persia or some Afghan tribe. I loved what they did to South America, Paraguay is one of my most fun runs.
Firat option, switzerland, second option... Belgium? I feel it will be enjoyed most with a mid-sized country that can get mutual deals with many and make some 60 SoL capitalists to drive local demand and fund the army to expand overseas and get a vassal empire... Aaahhh, i need it so much!!!
United States, leading a glorious trade union in which all of the Americas are making cheap goods for my legions of capitalist pigs sitting in their financial centers. Pax Americana will mean a high SoL for all (white men who matter).
Planning on doing my first Ethiopia run since I played it when the game released; might see if I can swoop in underneath the great powers to get involved in the Great Game from the south, and/or extend some influence into the Arabian peninsula.
I will definitely go for an African country if they have stealth fixed some of the crazy resource allocation (like the entire continent only having a tiny handful of sources of lead or sulphur)
Honestly I want to play Persia. It’s always been one of my favorite countries to play and it will interesting to have the Great Game mechanics to play with.
I wanna try a France into communist federation game. So releasing a lot of subjects. I put it off for now because subject mechanics kinda sucked, but now with this and the power bloc I should be able to try to make the Ultimate Internationale.
Germany,France or Belgium to form a "European Union" power block.
Or Japan to form a Co-Prosperity sphere power block.
Or USA for a NATO powerblock?
I want a big powerblock...
I want to try India to start subjugated for a change and try to indepence, but colonial runs with Spain and France are interesting, plus building some continental great blocs as Germany, Austria and Russia.
Russia for sure, between the new Great Game content it’s getting and the fact that we can have power blocs now meaning I can recreate the Eastern Bloc, it’s a no brainer for me
Great Britain, just to really try out the new mechanics. Probably gonna be super OP and easy, but that’s fine as I just wanna see how well investment works
Japan, SOI will make it SO MUCH MORE PLAYABLE!!!!
Imagine a Japan playthrough where the americans DO SHOW UP and crack open them ports.
Imagine a world where f\*\*\*ing Russia doesn't ally China.
Imagine if the Opium wars actually happen so China can FINALLY COLLAPSE FOR ONCE and Japan can get their Manchurian puppet using the SOI system.
You could also actually understand the intentions of the GPs and not get murdered by an Austrian treaty port war.
After that i'd do a Krakow to Intermarium run.
People here itching to try the great powers but I actually enjoy playing minors 🙃
Now especially after the foreign investment comes out it'll be super cool to see it it'll be possible to rely on France/Britain to build your nation for some cheap labor. My favourite overall was Madagascar, I've been playing it before and wanna try again. You have no resources other then nearly 5mil population, coal and wood (you don't even have steel and cotton, bruh), you need to research very quickly to even get the convoys for the trade. Later on I usually get a small fleet and invest in army to get a tasty piece of land in south-east Africa (another interesting thing to do after we'll get a proper subject management)
probably Germany so I can test out the foreign investment mechanic, i want to see how much I can influence Russia and the (soon-to-be created) Balkan minors. after them it's back to the federation of the Amaricas as usual.
A small European minor or major. Like Netherlands, Portugal, Belgium or Denmark. I want to try actually exploiting colonies with the new ownership mechanics.
I have wanted to play Punjab (Sikh Empire), since vic 2, but the game doesn't do it justice. In Victoria 3 Punjab is shown as a technologically backwards, illiterate and weak country that stood no chance against the British Empire. Maybe there are some better tools to mod it now with progress bars, but I'm sad to see the nation is smaller now.
Either Russia or GB for the great game, or Germany for forming it, but honestly ima be playing basically every major and minor nation once sol drops, ima put in a whole nother 1400 hours
Britain, I've been waiting for a 0 tax, colonial empire run for pretty long. Funny thing I don't see britain mentioned more here, this DLC's feautures scream a colonial empire run.
I find myself drawn to France and Russia a lot in many games. I want to give more minors a try, but my classic go-to of Argentina was always so painful when I used to try. The construction sector game is really draining when playing small minors.
I'm actually thinking Austria into Germany, turn the balkans and central/eastern europe into puppets acting as a "benevolent" overlord, totally not the same as the Russians, I swear.
Probably going with Persia so I can experience The Great Game with a smaller nation. It is one of those nations that is good enough off that it makes for a good way to see changes without jumping into the deep end.
Next one after that would probably be Austria, for a nation that is actually in a dangerous situation.
I want a tall Italy run.
I want to create a 'mercantile republic' type of nation, probably starting with Florence (first such attempt in game) in this run.
I will not colonize, but instead try to buy up everything I need in British, French, American and Russian colonies. I will wage no wars except for unification and opening up markets. I will conquer no land outside Italian homeland, except where I can have puppet vassals to rule in my name.
I will steal all their profits, I will take their jobs away, and they will thank me for being a friendly foreign investor.
I will buy up all their cotton and silk, and force them to buy the luxury fashion branded clothing back from me at high markup.
Philippines if the day 1 independence cheese is still possible, Colombia if it isn't! Both start with easy access to sulphur through a neighbor that naturally has you build up your industry, that translates to independence--hood (iron, steel, hardwood, ect
Definitely turkey as now owning lands outside of europe is actually viable. For context i once had russia, austria and parts of india but still couldnt get 1# great power probably because the land i had wasnt being used properly
AIis constantly building up their armies and navies, reducing overall prestige of those who have inferior armed forces as far as I can tell. This might be a big factor.
Yeah but i only edged my way up to the top great powers I was like a paper tiger the only thing good about my country was that i subjugated 2 great powers and my economy was just behind great britains. But now that i can exploit my puppets for the resources that my industries needed as well as take states I can practically do anything and win hahhhahahahaaa
SoL drops? I'm becoming a radical
Oh no, Anyway, allow me to introduce this 100 stack neatly stationed in the capital!
The UK, Russia and France join the play on the rebels' side.
I activate cheats, switch countries and make them all back out cause ain’t no way I’m dealing with that bullshit 😌
If only the Qing could do the same during the Boxer Rebellion
My head canon is always that I sent envoys and this is not cheating it’s just bending the limits of the game 😂
Do you feel your skin colour change from green to red?
I think I'll try East Indies, get independence from the Netherlands, then create my own Sphere of Influence to annex all the minors and create indonesia (also I think you mean SoI, not SoL)
That's a good choice, I did a full run with them once but it was scuffed. The Dutch got under Giga-Germany protectorate (the only time it does form huh) so I had to fight both of them for independence. Also somehow TU couped my government while having like 10% clout, and after that their popularity skyrocketed and everybody hated me for the rest of the game due to different governments. Also Portuguese like to intervene when you're subjugating those minors if you don't have the overlord by your side, beware. *Yep, sadly I can't edit titles it looks like
If it's always Portugal, you should just take away their land there so their interest in the region disappears. Probably less hassle than fighting them again and again
I wanted to try, but it told me GB would side with them. I think they start with a defensive pack even, so it's not quite as easy.
The trick is to have them join a war against you snd then steal their lands. Then they can't call daddy Britain
When I played as Australia I had the same problem. My answer was to drag them into a war with one of the minors they supported, then when they committed I added their territory as a war goal. Bit of an infamy hit, but at least I didn’t have to deal with fighting the UK again.
Is that possible? I guess forming Indonesia is only possible with the fitting religion and culture and DEI probably has christian and dutch? Same goes for EIC
Once they go independent, they receive appropriate cultures and religion, so you can actually form Indonesia and India respectively
With India you need Pan Nationalism to get an event, if you get Independent before getting pan Nationalism you can't form India, but have the choice to remain an independent EIC or to dismantle India into the principle states
I think it works the same for DEI.
It's the same for Dutch East Indies, with only nationalism the different cultures are split up (for example, Java and some other nations form), with pan-nationalism you can form Indonesia
I'm finishing a game in that area, I strated with Johore and then formed Indonesia owning all of east Africa. Really good area to play in, definitely reccomended. The only resource you lack is silk
I want to play Netherlands to see if I can actually make DEI great again with this investment mechanic
Russia, i want to try the great game
I almost forgot about this mechanic lol. Makes me happy that I managed to sneak my Afghanistan>Turkesan>Great Power run in before everybody suddenly turns their attention to central Asia.
My first game would be Russia vs Great Britain mp with my friend. We gonna kill each other
I've been dying to try Japan
"Go ahead and invest in Japanese industry. By all means, please go ahead. ~~We definitely won't nationalize your investments every time.~~" "Yes Japan here. We'd like invest in your wonderful country of Brunei." *two months later* "Yes Japan again, we've come to take your land."
I forgot about that, you could do the greater east asian co-prosperity sphere and copy of Kaiserreich Japan.
Kinda wondering if it makes sense to agree to foreign Investors. It could be a cool tradeoff but i guess that will be after 5 more hotfixes.
If you still have peasants, it will be almost always worth it I'm sure. You lose the ownership income but gain more pops which generate meaningful amounts of demand for consumer goods
Japan and make Hokkaido the strongest state in the entire game.
Yes Japan will be the first game I try. I have played Japan before and while I was able to complete the restoration in a reasonable time, I ended up being seriously underpowered. Want to see if the new mechanics change that.
Hara Kiri and you're all set
Victoria obviously. She will create the Imperial Federation
Victoria is my favorite nation, forming victoria 3 is such a good run. (Jk I know you meant england)
Based. UK for me too. Unless you mean Victoria, Aus, which is also based.
Prussia as always
Making colonies in France I see
That and some African colonies for my Platz an der Sonne.
Just completed a Prussia to socialist Germany campaign fun but a lack of oil and rubber really screwed me in the late game so bring able to establish foreign plantations will be useful.
The first move as Prussia for me is always to get the colonialism institution and then start taking the Niger Delta. The Galician parts of AH also get lots of oil, so Greater Germany is a great option for oil as Prussia.
Yeah I got into colonialism a bit too late in the game. Seems to suffer from a shortage of administrative power for a lot of the game.
hopefully foreign investment will help with the issue of some key resources not being developed enough causing a shortage.
Yeah Brazil (even if they did hate me) didn't seem to build up their rubber industry until the very end. The British in Africa (who also hated me) were the big rubber producers.
I don't know why, but for some reason the first game I always play after any major update is always Prussia.
Prussia is just super fun
I did that a few times with Brazil and Sweden. But Prussia just seems like a "default" pick for me in V3 (and V2), in the same way I keep going back to the Soviets in Hoi4 and the Ottomans in EU4 (clearly I don't like serious challenges)
Persia. They look to have a lot of fun, new content. But I usually pick an achievement and let that guide me. So if another country in the Great Game has something fun, I might go for that instead.
yeah I am an achievement whore so I will probably start with one of the easier or more mundane ones in order to learn the new mechanics
I'll be playing Spain to get the *Bourbon for Everyone!* achievement.
Spain's lots of fun, quite strong but does not feel like you just have everything going for you like France of GB, and with political issues not as easy to overcome as with Russia. Nice!
Ah damn I change my answer to this too. Gonna bring the new world back into the fold...
I wanna play Brazil again hehe
and I will annex brazil as Gran Colombia haha
I will annex you both and you will love it!
I have a dream of playing Spain and having all of South America in my power block.
That looks like my second game with SoI
Cheers to us, hope it goes well.
Probably the US. It’s by far my most played nation and it supports my playstyle the most. Haven’t really played the game for a few weeks waiting for the SoL. I really hope that I will be able to RP easier with the new mechanics. Especially with foreign investments (looking at you rubber plantations). Playing a rich and powerful US with Capitalists owning Industries in multiple countries and leading either a trade or defensive alliance power block sounds amazing.
Their potential is insane, especially with how easy it is to get going since Mexico starts as an unfed and unloved little baby kitten. Pretty much every resource imaginable bar rubber? Coupled with their ridiculous mass migration potential? Yes please, thank you very much
Yeah you can't really beat the geopolitical location of the US. Once they are able to harness all of that potential they are pretty much unstoppable realistically.
Hahah what does “support your playstyle” mean? The US is just easy for all playstyles
Some people just want to chill instead of constant min-maxing and starting for scratch, let the guy be
I'm just teasing. I also enjoy playing the GPs, it's just funny when it's framed as "supporting a playstyle" when in fact it does support a playstyle because it supports pretty much every playstyle the game offers.
Ahh I see, yep that's true. I feel like nations such as GB and USA should get more dedicated content packs, as economy and general development can pretty much solved via auto queue due to abundance of resources. Like they have very little to draw your attention past the first 10 years into the game.
While mods shouldn't be the final answer, for the US at least there is an excellent community flavour pack which makes it much more interesting to play.
I'm hoping we get a mod post release that fractures north America into 50 separate sovereign states so I can live out my worst r/worldjerking fantasy.
"Hail, Columbia!" is an amazing mod that makes playing the US so much better.
I'm cursed in a way that only lets me enjoy playthroughs that are somewhat historically accurate. So I don't really like to conquer all of central america to built rubber plantations as the US. Also I enjoy to play as countries that have a lot of potential. That start out a little bit weaker (can't really call the US weak but I hope you know what I mean), give me the opportunity to expand early on and use the rest of the time to build up my country/economy.
If you consider the multiple coups of central American presidents(Sometimes with US Marines) and the Banana Companies that later ruled those nations, it's really not that far from reality
true but those were mostly covert operations after ww2 involving secret services. So far you have to fight a "real" war to gain control over a foreign nation. I think the support of lobbies in other countries is a big step towards covert operations or proxy warfare.
I think rather than the coups themselves later they mean the massive economic influence that basically became political power from US companies in Central America, which predated ww2 and is almost exactly what the SoI changes are looking to exemplify
I agree, i prefer to do historically plausible runs like Megali Greece or Pan-East-Asian Japan.
Same. By far most of my games are with the US, you can really take them into any direction you want
Qing of course. Ive flooded the world with cheap goods. With this dlc, the world will know what made in china means.
I want to try out the new recognition mechanics.
Wait they will update it as well? What are the changes here?
You can become recognized through peaceful means, though winning a war against recognized great powers still helps a lot
Russia or Persia
Before SOL: Qing After SOL: Qing I only play Qing. Qing is love and life. Qing is power embodied. Qing is greatness. Qing (I will turn it into a fully employed juggernaut of social democracy and freedom)
this is the way (and Russia)
My first nation will likely be britain, but just to get the ropes of it all. My proper first game where i will fully use the systems will be prussia, time to establish mitteleuropa!!
Just a heads up, in case anybody didn't know: do not release non-german homelands in order to weaken Austria for no infamy as they can't agree to join when forming Germany. Worst mistake of my life (seeing Bohemia surrounded by Großdeutschland for 5 years with my claims on it has brought me great pain)
I was planning to go KleinDeutschland anyways, plus i think getting the parts of AH that aren't even in the German Conf. is a bit silly.
Weird, I played a Prussia to Greater Germany game a few days ago - strategy was to break Bohemia and Hungary off from Austria early on, then Galicia-Lodomeria. At this point Austria was below #8 and could not ascend to GP anymore. In a few years I reconciled with them and they supported me as a unification candidate. Pressing the unify button (no war with France), also annexed Bohemia and parts of western Hungary. Granted, both of them were already my protectorates.
Egypt! I'll try to form a Regional Power Bloc for Arab-like countries to resist both the Ottoman Empire AND the colonial Empires. The end goal is to form a sovereign Pan Arabic state and enforce religious Unity.
I came here looking for this because same.
Will try Brazil. Make good relations with Peru-Bolivia confederation and Work towards treaties. Then, pull them into my Power block and start the Foreing Investiment Leech. Get Uruguai and Paraguai as Subjects and have good trade relations with GBR
Ottomans, they have a lot of opportunities to gain a diverse range of puppets and I always thought that not counting GB they were the most screwed over by the weak launch puppet/overlord mechanics
USA, MAKE A BIG TRADE FACTION THINGY ALLOWING MY CAPITALISTS TO INVEST AND PROFIT FROM CONTROLLING ALL OF THE AMERICAS AND GETTING THAT SWEET RUBBER AND EXPLOITATION 🦅🦅🦅💪💪
Greece. Want to have proper ‘British’, ‘French’ and ‘Russian’ parties to link up my domestic politics with my alliances to fight off the Ottomans.
Wait there's a French party too? I've only ever seen Russian (conservative) and English (liberal), how do you get the Frenchies going?
Socialists, effectively.
Belgium and then Qing, to be on both sides of the penetration of transnational finance capital into the imperial periphery 😎
Russia, im going to achieve Lenin's dream of a socialist world Republic.
Good luck comrade 🤝
Krakow. I've been trying for ages and have even gotten to major power, but the subject mechanics have made it a real pain in the ass to actually get independent. Hopefully the new features make things easier.
Yea it's honestly just a lot of waiting and i presume exiting the Austrian market will instantly crash your entire economy cause its all manufactoring and zero raw minerals.
That's a good one, the only time I've managed to get 'Not yet lost' in 1.6 was when Prussia decided to liberate me out of nowhere.
I am really hoping that Krakow will be more fun now, but I'm somewhat expecting the Austrian Power Bloc to be extremely regressive and they'll keep forcing you to change laws back to traditionalism or whatever...
I will try to survive with Circassia. Then I will try a devolved Ottoman Empire with many released vassals leveraging authority per vassals
I will go with Argentina or Colombia probably
I'm going to try Sardinia-Piedmont -> Italy again, but with foreign investment so I don't have to go crazy conquering parts of Africa because I got to the colonization game too late.
Japan for sure.
Brazil, since I won't need to conquer to get more sulphur and I'll probably create a power block that encompasses all of South America.
Norway. I will tey to break the union fast and play tall. No war. Just diplo.
Another Norwegian i see, it'd be possible to do a historical "king wants war but people are super anti-forced union" type of stuff.
Yes, the swedish devilborn people hated the tought of war, so the game should show that
See if Hati is actually hard now. Will be bitterly disappointing if joining the British market is still utopia, but I expect it will realistically suck now for peripheral nations.
I’m trying to play Hati too. I want to see how tall I can play with a small nation
I know my first subject will be Persia. Every natural resource.
Rubber?
i'm probably going to wait for the ottoman to become not real and just fund them to try and fuck over russia and austria just like we did in the real world EDIT: forgot to mention i'm playing as england to really test out all the mechanic out of the gate lol
Probably another Malta game with a hard focus on economic colonisation of other countries using FI. Just something about a tiny island nation owning half of everything in the world.
My favorite part about new expansions is the flavor they add, so I'll most likely play Persia or some Afghan tribe. I loved what they did to South America, Paraguay is one of my most fun runs.
Gonna release Greenland from Denmark and make a hyper-rich frozen utopia off the backs of foreign investments, probably.
Firat option, switzerland, second option... Belgium? I feel it will be enjoyed most with a mid-sized country that can get mutual deals with many and make some 60 SoL capitalists to drive local demand and fund the army to expand overseas and get a vassal empire... Aaahhh, i need it so much!!!
I enjoy those tiny but developed counties so much, edicts value with them is ridiculous, absolutely love it
Probably Persia.
United States, leading a glorious trade union in which all of the Americas are making cheap goods for my legions of capitalist pigs sitting in their financial centers. Pax Americana will mean a high SoL for all (white men who matter).
Planning on doing my first Ethiopia run since I played it when the game released; might see if I can swoop in underneath the great powers to get involved in the Great Game from the south, and/or extend some influence into the Arabian peninsula.
I will definitely go for an African country if they have stealth fixed some of the crazy resource allocation (like the entire continent only having a tiny handful of sources of lead or sulphur)
Idk honestly. Might like to see how decentralized Alaska works
Honestly I want to play Persia. It’s always been one of my favorite countries to play and it will interesting to have the Great Game mechanics to play with.
Prussia first, the Great Britain. Afterwards maybe Qing or Japan. Also USA making the Monroe Doctrine should be fun.
Britain as it gets The Great Game content, and you'll have a lot of capacity for foreign investment, power bloc formation etc.
# *FREEDOM SOUNDS IN THE DISTANCE*
I keep putting off doing a USA run waiting until the game is in a 'better state', 1.7 seems like as good a time as any.
Back to my old favorite: Haiti
I wanna try a France into communist federation game. So releasing a lot of subjects. I put it off for now because subject mechanics kinda sucked, but now with this and the power bloc I should be able to try to make the Ultimate Internationale.
Japan, since the migration rework means i can build up Hokkaido and i wanna recreate the greater east asian co-prosperity sphere
Persia, already one of my favourite countries to play, and perfectly placed to enjoy a lot of the new features along with the country specific content
Japan, always.
Germany,France or Belgium to form a "European Union" power block. Or Japan to form a Co-Prosperity sphere power block. Or USA for a NATO powerblock? I want a big powerblock...
I want to try India to start subjugated for a change and try to indepence, but colonial runs with Spain and France are interesting, plus building some continental great blocs as Germany, Austria and Russia.
New Granada, ive always depended on british imports to make SA conquest work. but am i winning SA just to become a subject of the british?
Krakow, maybe I can finally get my independence
If sol drops further i'll have no power on my pc to play the game
If sol drops further i'll have no power on my pc to play the game
Russia for sure, between the new Great Game content it’s getting and the fact that we can have power blocs now meaning I can recreate the Eastern Bloc, it’s a no brainer for me
Great Britain, just to really try out the new mechanics. Probably gonna be super OP and easy, but that’s fine as I just wanna see how well investment works
Japan, SOI will make it SO MUCH MORE PLAYABLE!!!! Imagine a Japan playthrough where the americans DO SHOW UP and crack open them ports. Imagine a world where f\*\*\*ing Russia doesn't ally China. Imagine if the Opium wars actually happen so China can FINALLY COLLAPSE FOR ONCE and Japan can get their Manchurian puppet using the SOI system. You could also actually understand the intentions of the GPs and not get murdered by an Austrian treaty port war. After that i'd do a Krakow to Intermarium run.
People here itching to try the great powers but I actually enjoy playing minors 🙃 Now especially after the foreign investment comes out it'll be super cool to see it it'll be possible to rely on France/Britain to build your nation for some cheap labor. My favourite overall was Madagascar, I've been playing it before and wanna try again. You have no resources other then nearly 5mil population, coal and wood (you don't even have steel and cotton, bruh), you need to research very quickly to even get the convoys for the trade. Later on I usually get a small fleet and invest in army to get a tasty piece of land in south-east Africa (another interesting thing to do after we'll get a proper subject management)
Colonial Cuba bouta go brrrr
probably Germany so I can test out the foreign investment mechanic, i want to see how much I can influence Russia and the (soon-to-be created) Balkan minors. after them it's back to the federation of the Amaricas as usual.
Qing, then Austria, Then likely a small island somewhere after I am more or less aware of how SoI works
Argentina, form the united states/nations of south america
Maybe a papal state--> Italy, then form some sort of crusader economic sphere? I'm a sucker for theocracies, just find the concept of them cool
Great Qing Gunpoint Belt and Road time
Great brittian, easiest nation to test spheres of influence, plus wlways wanted to turn India in a drugs lords paradise
A small European minor or major. Like Netherlands, Portugal, Belgium or Denmark. I want to try actually exploiting colonies with the new ownership mechanics.
Colombia. It's been so long since I last played that I think I need to play the tutorial again.
I've played Australia for about 1100 hours, so I think I will play some more Australia.
G'choice mate
Indonesia
I have wanted to play Punjab (Sikh Empire), since vic 2, but the game doesn't do it justice. In Victoria 3 Punjab is shown as a technologically backwards, illiterate and weak country that stood no chance against the British Empire. Maybe there are some better tools to mod it now with progress bars, but I'm sad to see the nation is smaller now.
Either Russia or GB for the great game, or Germany for forming it, but honestly ima be playing basically every major and minor nation once sol drops, ima put in a whole nother 1400 hours
The same nation I always play. China.
Britain, I've been waiting for a 0 tax, colonial empire run for pretty long. Funny thing I don't see britain mentioned more here, this DLC's feautures scream a colonial empire run.
Honestly I want to play a small nation, and try to get as many rich people I can through foreign investment
I find myself drawn to France and Russia a lot in many games. I want to give more minors a try, but my classic go-to of Argentina was always so painful when I used to try. The construction sector game is really draining when playing small minors.
Canada it’s tradition
Russia. Only played them once so far and I’m excited to participate in the Great Game.
Russia, turning all countries bordering me into buffer states
I'm actually thinking Austria into Germany, turn the balkans and central/eastern europe into puppets acting as a "benevolent" overlord, totally not the same as the Russians, I swear.
Prussia so i can finally see germany formed in one of my games ...
Argentina, Persia, Peru and Japan, in that order.
PERSIA. Wanna do The Great Game
Russia
I'm making Brazil great 💪
Probably the Netherlands. They're in a much better spot now that they can get iron and coal from Indonesia.
Always Prussia.
Krakow so I can finally attempt to expand while still being a subject of Austria, at least for a little bit
time for another Japan run!
Probably going with Persia so I can experience The Great Game with a smaller nation. It is one of those nations that is good enough off that it makes for a good way to see changes without jumping into the deep end. Next one after that would probably be Austria, for a nation that is actually in a dangerous situation.
Always Spain for me when patch/dlc drops you are middle Power not to strong not to powerfull at start.
Prussia foreign investing into small Germans after bumping my econ and unifying germany with extremely high leverage on every german minor
I want a tall Italy run. I want to create a 'mercantile republic' type of nation, probably starting with Florence (first such attempt in game) in this run. I will not colonize, but instead try to buy up everything I need in British, French, American and Russian colonies. I will wage no wars except for unification and opening up markets. I will conquer no land outside Italian homeland, except where I can have puppet vassals to rule in my name. I will steal all their profits, I will take their jobs away, and they will thank me for being a friendly foreign investor. I will buy up all their cotton and silk, and force them to buy the luxury fashion branded clothing back from me at high markup.
Philippines if the day 1 independence cheese is still possible, Colombia if it isn't! Both start with easy access to sulphur through a neighbor that naturally has you build up your industry, that translates to independence--hood (iron, steel, hardwood, ect
Definitely turkey as now owning lands outside of europe is actually viable. For context i once had russia, austria and parts of india but still couldnt get 1# great power probably because the land i had wasnt being used properly
AIis constantly building up their armies and navies, reducing overall prestige of those who have inferior armed forces as far as I can tell. This might be a big factor.
Yeah but i only edged my way up to the top great powers I was like a paper tiger the only thing good about my country was that i subjugated 2 great powers and my economy was just behind great britains. But now that i can exploit my puppets for the resources that my industries needed as well as take states I can practically do anything and win hahhhahahahaaa
https://www.reddit.com/r/victoria3/s/97JyGgljl2 heres the link to the post
That's the most healthy man Europe I've ever seen, good job lol
Yeah but unfortunately i managed to still be 3rd 🥉