Economy in general/of Spain specificly

[El Chupacabra]

I have following problem in my current campaign:

Started with Spain 1890. Now 1920. Conquered many provinces, mainly african colonies (becasue I never was aible to choose mainland provinces at peace). But my GDP is (since 1890) always around 10.000.000 - no matter what I do (focus on GDP/Transports). Naval Buddget is like 12% (wartime).

But with the current (expensive) techs, I barely can support more then 100 ships. Lot of them old ones. But I need so many.... I need to Sea Control, or I get blockaded instantly. Then I have to protect Trade, or my funds going down in no time. And this I have to do in the Carribean, at the Phillipines, the Atlantic and the Mediterrean. So basically 5 fleets just to not loose because of economic reasons.

So, of course my ships are far superior to the enemy, but from time to time, I loose some of them. Especially the older (refit) ones.

It's due the expensive techs/modern ships only possible to gather positive funds with tech and training on +-50%... So, how I should replace these casulties? With what money? I can maybe affort to build them, but not in the long term!

Guess my campaign is lost... which is really a shame.

But - to fix the situation or at least my next run:
HOW in the name of god, can you get a competitive economy (with spain)? Something I miss? How can you increase the GDP except with events and transport-capacity?

Can Spain even become competitive to eg the USA? Or this that one beautiful country cursed to stay always a minor power with a much smaller fleet then GB/USA?

[[BFs]Karaya 1]

From my experience, the US/UK/Germany are *ridiculously* stronger than the minor nations. Like..the US grows its GDP (which is by far the largets in my game) by 10%+ each year WHILE AT WAR, while my GDP as china grows by 10% when at peace, and 3-4% at war. With 200% transports... I dont know what else to do. Im winning the battles of course, but they just seem to have so much more cash in all aspects its insane.

[El Chupacabra]

hm alright. So it seems Spain is ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up too... Maybe it's historically accurate that the USA has much more GDP, but shouldn't there some limitation?

Like, unused cash = lesser budget? That would be historically correct too...
Maybe great depression event which works as a "back to 0" reset?
Or just add a fleet limit... no county ever had more then 40 BBs at one time I guess...

Damn. Guess I have to edit the save file to turn down GB/US or turn up myself... Would be a shame to leave the campaign at this point... But I really dont see how to play forth like this.

[Bravo]

Unless they've radically overhauled it all nations can grow their GDP the same. If you're suffering from fairly frequent blockades that might be the source of your troubles. The US *does* naturally have a somewhat higher GDP growth, but that's because it's almost impossible for the US to be blockaded as the AI isn't capable of that level of planning (from my experiences anyway)

[[BFs]Karaya 1]

Ive been at 200% transports almost the entire 30 years of my campaign, and never been blockaded. I simply dont know what else to do to grow faster. Im doing all the things the tooltip tells me to.

[El Chupacabra]

yeah, same here... I got blockade two times, but just for like 1 turn (because I switched my fleet to protect for one turn...)

[Anavel Gato]

- It takes me 6 years of peace to prepare for war from 1890 - 1896.
- Next, form up alliance that will help in in land invasion. Pick USA as #1 priority. Save it for last because once all other nations are gone, you will conquer North America for end game.
- If you are Spain, don't just declare war with France too early, your nation can't stop the land invasion of the French.
- Build up your economy by ... bully China.

Here is how I grew my Germany Second Reich:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2925799593

[El Chupacabra]

hmm, sounds like a plan. Guess I try that next time.

[dulahande]

I feel like the economy is at least partially tied to how certain areas grew RL, no matter who holds them and who is at war.

I've been playing Austria Hungary. Very early on conquered Ukraine, Crimea, Southern Russia, Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan. then by 1905 had NW Italy and Central Italy as well.

Despite that, my GDP just won't keep up with anyone else. Even when I was at peace for a decade after 1905. (My only real war in that period was around 1892-96, and 1900-1905). Yet by 1915 I was lagging behind even France who had been losing ground to Germany. And there's never been a single point of the game I chose an option that damaged by GDP, and any chance I could took the ones that increased GDP the most.

Meanwhile the US has a higher GDP than they ever did at this point in RL. So much it's not even funny.

Likewise, Germany has conquered, um, a lot. Most of the rest of Russia, large chunks of China, almost all of Britain's African Colonies, most of France, half of Spain. "Core State" population in excess of 500 million, still over 500 billion GDP behind the US. The US hasn't really been at peace this entire game.

[godspeedthunder]

I took 60 provinces and my GDP increase only grew by 1%, so it seems like you are pretty stuck with what that nation starts with.

The only thing that makes a difference really is not being at war, which is pretty boring for a war game.

So I would say just don't worry about it and just have fun sinking ships.

[dulahande]

It may well be that too. I am curious how well the US's Economy balloons if the player is in charge though, since I do feel like there's a bit of player bias here too.