Do Things To Countries

[Radical Rat]

I see.
I'll nominate France as our Great Ally, and propose we begin preparations to prevent the rise of Germany.

Regrettably, we should also probably raise taxes on the poor a bit, to give us more economic flexibility in the years to come.

[Papa Zito]

We could've played as Texas??? Man what a missed opportunity at GREATNESS.

[Zulfy]

Spoiler: this could have been u

[Radical Rat]

Texas is a bit bigger than I remember

[Zulfy]

We'll ally France and Denmark if Denmark asks for our help. Shutting down Prussian acquisition of Schleswig-Holstein shuts down their ability to form Germany.

Keep in mind though that revolutionaries can always form Germany, but without Prussian leadership they should have smaller teeth.
I'll try to move the game along today

[Radical Rat]

Pssssst. Zulfy.

Updaaaaate

[Zulfy]

Excuse me for the long delay. I've been suffering from a general malaise.
Uploading now.

[Radical Rat]

Oh no worries! I thought you just forgot, no need to rush if you're ill

[Zulfy]

Ahh don't worry, I needed a push to remind myself to get it done.

It was... complicated to upload but here it is.

Spoiler: lookit this map

playthrough:
https://aar.li/a/ivuj04

[Radical Rat]

Greece seems to be pretty far away from us. How difficult would it be to support their territorial claims from Scandinavia?

As for policy, let's move to a Censored Press. The other freedoms look like they might interfere with our economy, which means they should probably wait until we're super extra rich

[Papa Zito]

The playthrough link was a really fun read!

[Zulfy]

Glad you liked it!

The UK tends to just hand over Cyprus to Greece, so the only worry would be the Ottomans. Our army is stronger than theirs, so if they don't have allies it shouldn't be exceedingly difficult, just need to build enough transport ships to send our troops there.
There's an event later on where the great powers decide if they should keep the Ottoman empire strong or force them to make the Balkans independent, Greece tends to be made whole after that.

Allies: Ottomans are an option. Spain would probably still be a great power if it hadn't been for the prestige hit they took for going through a revolution. Their army is a lot stronger than ours. If we "sphered" them, influenced them to the point that they basically do whatever we tell them,, they'd be a decent ally, but there's a lot of competition for influence in Spain. To fight Prussia France has to let them through their country.
Speaking of Prussia, the real schleswig war is just 3 years away. In our timeline it might take longer to happen. A French-Prussian conflict and an Austrian-Prussian conflict are inevitable. Depending on which happens first, how should we react?

Colonies: Where would you like to get some? We could take Sinai from Egypt/Panama from Colombia to form the Suez/Panama canal later. We could backstab Persia, or go for East/West/North Africa, or Afghanistan and pre-Pakistan. Since our population is small we need a strong navy to remain in power. We could just take a small strip of coastline for naval bases or form a big chunk of a colony for resource exploitation. After 1870 you can just grab as much of Africa as you want, by the way, with no consequences.

Sphere of Influence: Should we try to obtain more Italian minor states or try for somewhere else? Sphering is nice when you want to have access to the resources of a country but conquering them would be too much of a hassle. The only one that's really not a good idea to sphere is China.

[Papa Zito]

I have no idea how the mechanics work in this game, I've only played EU4 and CK2 so I dunno how to answer any of these questions really. However:

A French-Prussian conflict and an Austrian-Prussian conflict are inevitable. Depending on which happens first, how should we react?

In those other games I like to piggyback other wars, so if either of those happens I'd think it'd be a good time to go aggro.

[Zulfy]

Ah let me worry about the gritty details. I just follow whatever general policies come up in this thread.

[Radical Rat]

I think Spain could be a good target to rumble with if we can find the right opportunity. Wait for them to send their main forces elsewhere and swoop in before they get back. Though I'm also not certain exactly how much control you have over tactics and such in this game so it may not be viable.

Creating/Controlling the Panama Canal sounds like it'd be an excellent boon for us, so put my vote down for colonizing that area.

In any conflict regarding Prussia, I'd like to side with whoever is not Prussia.

The Ottomans could be a solid ally for now, but I worry about what happens if they fall apart later. Though if I'm reading this properly they've recovered from their Sick Man bit?

I'd also like to try setting up spheres of influence in the Americas. Get those exotic resources coming in.

[Zulfy]

uncharacteristically nonintermittent update

Forgot to take a picture of the world map but since it was only like two years of gameplay it shouldn't have changed that much.

[Radical Rat]

Hmmm...

What can we do to help keep King Louie around?

[Zulfy]

We could request military access and send troops to take out the Jacobins.

Btw it seems that the reason Prussia declared war on France was because France claimed the west bank of the Rhine as rightfully French territory and it pissed Friedrich Wilhelm IV* off.

[Zulfy]

Alright so it seems that this concept didn't attract enough attention and I wanna update the game so I'm just gonna drop Sweden.

Does anyone know if the thread concept could be salvaged into something more engaging?

[Radical Rat]

Oh shit, I thought I'd already responded. Sorry about that.

This is a super neat concept though. Perhaps part of the problem drawing a crowd lies in the complexity of the game, and the inability of the audience to browse through the menus on our own.
Civilization may work for this purpose a bit better, with you handling most of the unit management and direct orders while the thread is responsible for research/policies/production/etc., city specializations, and the overall strategy in wars.

But Civ is also a very different game than Victoria seems to be so idk.

[Zulfy]

If it's salvageable, I was thinking the actions that could be taken could be simplified a bunch and then I'd let a bunch of people pick a country, which might get everyone a bit more invested.

At that point though it turns into a mish mash game and I would need to organize it a bunch.
Thoughts?

[Radical Rat]

Well it's a Mish Mash game I'd certainly sign up for.