Newbie: How do I START?

[pmarvin7]

I'm overwhelmed...lots of videos, with mouse flashing around, doing things I don't understand. Guides on Steam not helping.
Any place to go to learn what steps to take AT THE BEGINNING OF THE GAME?

[Lembley42]

I personally learned the game just by playing on my own, checking things out, hovering over them (reveals information).
There's also the wiki : http://www.victoria2wiki.com/Victoria_2_Wiki
The strategy guides are stupid though.

Just ditch in, look around, and ask if you have problems understanding something even after checking the wiki.
Feel free to add me, I can also explain you the game by stream if you want.

If you really just mean the very first steps, post that back and I'll post some stuff in ~3hrs when I am done with what I am doing :P

[IIIIlllIIIII]

Just play the game i guess? I mean you cant really fail... and if so just restart and do sth different :)

[Visi]

Did you play through all the tutorials provided in the game? They should help you get started. One or two are broken due to updates, but it should help anyway.

[pmarvin7]

Thanks folks! I'll do the tutorials again, then just jump in. I plan to start with Prussia, as I would expect to struggle with a larger or more complex economy.
Pete

[Lembley42]

The economical complexity is fairly low in this game (that being said, compared to other game's its through the roof ... but that doesnt really say much).

Prussia is a bad pick if you want to "have less stuff to worry about as a newbie" as it pretty much covers all things in the game (Sphering, Industry, Warfare, Colonization, etc.).
If you dont want to "jump into the cold water", I'd suggest other nations first like Sweden/Brazil for very slow game, France / US for more interesting games.
Also see : http://steamcommunity.com/app/42960/discussions/0/133257324787999787/

[Colorjuice14]

I started as two sicilies... and then cheated my way to Italy XD

[destromath90]

I found looking at Reddit's guide for technology research VERY helpful. It can be deeply confusing choosing which techs work best. Different techs are also more important for different nations.

Here is the subreddit discussing the technology tree:

https://www.reddit.com/r/paradoxplaza/comments/3mjs1a/the_best_guide_for_victoria_2_tech/

and here is my favourite tech guide in graphic form:

http://i.imgur.com/vwd7jUG.png

This one has a pretty good explanation of what techs work and why. Hope it helps :)!

[Lembley42]

Neat guide actually. Don't get why Mechanical Production isnt higher rated though.

Also definetly disagree with not getting Biologism as low-literacy country. It's OP as hell and pushing clergymen is not less a thing because you get it.
Also, Ideological Thought should be double checked for importance :P All dose Techpoints man...

Plus there is this combo of Electricity and Combustion Engine or whatever for those province events that give +50% Farming Effiency twice and +50% Mining (Tractors, Nitro, and I forgot).
Its basically a hidden boost that pays off especially in longterm.

[Zsrai]

Business Banks under Commerce should be higher, it gives one of the +50% farming throughput or whatever inventions. That's a pretty good tech guide, but it's not perfect AND your tech priorities are different depending on your country's starting position. Sweden doesn't need to focus on those Education Efficiency techs at all, but Russia sure does.

[Lembley42]

Who the ♥♥♥♥ gives a ♥♥♥♥ about capitalists or the rests of the people?
Srsly, I mean, you dont need to control them aside from Soldiers obviously. Build your own factories, its alot better anyway. The rest just work mindlessly in front of them, demanding some reforms from time to time or annoy you with stupidly weak rebellions.

That's it with politics & society. That stuff only comes back when you play MP in form of diplomacy.

[Lembley42]

Well then play a democracy. Thats how they are played. Or ofcourse a "normal" and play it that way, dont wanna tell you how to play the game obviously :P I am just saying, that is their thing.

And that the game isnt deep is pretty much established. New players just think it is because they overinterpret things, but its pretty easy, simple and streamlined really.

It's just a shame that there are hardly any deep games out there.

[mortimer778]

A good start is to use the knowledge you learned from the tutorials, and then follow the national decisions as to how to lead your nation. By following those you slowly learn the mechanics. It is impossible to be familiar with everything at the start

[Liberty Prime]

Play USA, it's really hard to mess up unless you really just get unlucky when kicking Mexico's ass (aka the British Intervene or they are able to destroy your rather small armies)

[Yvan]

I'm asuming you got a package with all the DLC as I did, if not, things could be different. This guide helped me when I was begining: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=275750664 I was playing Sweden intermitently while I watched it, I think it helped a lot, I was feeling quite lost trying to figure out the game by playing, but usually, I find videoguides quite boring, so it took some patience.
Choose a good country to learn game mechanics: Sweden worked great for me, some people say Brazil, Sardinia-Piadmont or Belgium are good "tutorial-countries". USA is quite easy, but you may be quite lost due to such a big country, everything just goes ok but you may not have a clue as of WHY. Prussia isn't difficult either but it will force you to pay attention to every aspect of the game, it may be a better choice for a second game.
Anything else in the americas is hard mode, but I find some countries can be also good tutorials to try to grasp some of the deeper mechanics IF you accept that you'll probably do what they did historically: fight some undecisive wars, industrialice late if at all and end as the backyard of some great power (probably the USA). For example: Colombia or Chile, maybe Argentina or Peru.
Japan gets an honorary mention whithin the uncivs: it's a tutorial for unciviliced countries, and once you westernice is quite a powerful and easy nation too.
I would stay clear of great powers for a first playthrough, there are too many things going on at the same time. A small or medium secondary power is better to learn the game. Just don't expect to get to the #1, learning the game should be your first objective.

[Colorjuice14]

Originally posted by butters:

Play USA, it's really hard to mess up unless you really just get unlucky when kicking Mexico's ass (aka the British Intervene or they are able to destroy your rather small armies)

I have the worst luck with that. I was Prussia once and i was wrecking france and then russia comes in and is like NOPE