Forming Italy!!!

[Vercingetorix]

Playing as S-P and I became a GP and have all Italian states under my SOI but I need Lombardia and Austria isnt going to war anytime soon. They have a large standing army and NGF isn't DOW on them, not once and the year is 1868. Not in a good position to colonize, and my economy is crap as my literacy is 65% and no POPs are converting to craftsmen ( I have two factories). Any tips? If I don't form Italy soon, I might lose GP status.

[Lembley42]

if you send the savegame, its easier to point out possibilities & form ideas that are hopefully more helpful :)

Your savegame is in Documents / Paradox Interactive / Victoria II / savegames
and you can upload it to like {LINK REMOVED}http://www.mediafire.com

[Vercingetorix]

Thanks!!! Here it is: {LINK REMOVED}https://www.mediafire.com/?ulvc5tkwepbg5f5

[The Joker]

Try allying France or the German Confederation for sure and use all means necessary to acquire Lombardia from the Austrians.

[Vercingetorix]

France and German Confederation have allies already and won't accept. Besides, they probably won't take little old Sardinia anyways lol. Also my military is complete crap compared to the Austrians.

[Lembley42]

Alright (sorry was busy with other stuff), looked at the savegame and gotta admit : It looks ♥♥♥♥♥♥. No military tech at all, 11 brigades and all great powers are already allied to another Great Power.
I think the only feasible thing is you getting it through a crisis war in which Austria gets on a bad side, or wait for "Great Wars" to happen (it can trigger from 1870 onwards, with countries researching "Revolution & Counterrevolution"), when Great Powers can ally up to two other Great Powers (or rather, the AI will)

P.S. : You can expand your glass factory :P

[Ranger.Danger]

If you need craftsmen then tax the ♥♥♥♥ out of the middle class while lowering taxes on the lower. Reducing your education spending also helps speed up the process along with using your NF

[Vercingetorix]

Yeah it looks bad lol. I am planning to get all the Italian minors allied to me, then build up my economy so I can afford a larger military. This kind of crap happens all the time when I play as Sardinia-Piedmont idk why the wiki says it the easiest choice no not at all Two Sicilies seem better.

[Lembley42]

Reducing education spending would directly lower education effiency, which would lead to way less literacy gains, which is important for gain of research points & faster promotions of craftsmen / clerks / ...

Yeah, Two Sicilies is alot easier when it comes to military and so on. With Sardinia-Piedmont, you can attack some OPM, occupy him until Pan-Nationalists Italian Redshirts spawn, let them win and you should be invited to lead Italy (all countries then join). You dont have Austrian cores, but alot more military to gain them. Though I consider it exploitive, but I heard there are people that dont mind....

[Vercingetorix]

Yeah I was thinking of scrapping my current game, and when I start ally with France then attack a Italian minor under Austria's SOI, then they will either not join or join, so that way I can get Lombardy/Humiliate, then get enough prestige to sphere everyone then I win! IDK if it works but I'll try. My current game looks like a bust...

[gislebertus]

I just unified Italy with SP the other day. I pursued prestige techs and industry, and allied myself with France when they sphered me. Techs and industry turned me into a GP, which provided me with a "War of Unification" casus belli automatically against the Austrians. Declared war, hung behind my forts, let the French do the heavy lifting. After acquiring Lombardy the "March of the Thousand" fired and the rest is history.

[Lembley42]

Yea, though in his savegame France was already allied to Russia, Austria to the UK and Prussia to the Ottomans, and the AI GPs only ally one other GP so...

[Vercingetorix]

Yeah I'll try to do what gislebertus did. But I doubt France would accept an alliance with me after I become a GP because they ally to Russia, then they drop me as an ally because one GP ally rule. So yeah, the chances of keeping an alliance with France (because 9/10 chances they ally with Russia) is pretty low. I know people do it though so I'll keep trying.

[Mr. Mercer]

Really late to the party but I may as well throw in based on my recent experiences.

First download the HFM mod to your game. It adds a few more feautres to the game to make it more interesting and enjoyable. You'll need to have all the DLCs first.

Then play as S-P. Build up relations with Papal States and ally with them FIRST. They have to be first, becuase if you ally with any other Italian minor, you'll get that annoying too many alliances penalty. Once allied, justify puppet CB on Two Sicilies. While that builds up, make some alliances with Modena and Parma.

The resulting war should be easy if you staff your armies correctly. While you hunt down the Sicilian armies, your allies will siege down the country. I was able to puppet the Two Sicilies before Victoria ascended the throne.

Once that nasty business is taken care of, build up army (specifically tactics and dig in) and industry tech (Supply Limit for the mountain provinces) until the Revolutions of 1848 fire off in Austria. Its basically their worst nightmare. Hungary breaks off and declares war of independence, the entire Venitian state will do the same, and Milan province offers to straight up join your country in exchange for fighting for the rest of the state.

Split in all directions and with the Two Sicilies backing you up, its a cake walk to sieze the rest of Lombardy, siege down the mountain province barriers, and add war reps goal. Switzerland will never allow anyone access into their territory, making the probable army paths extremely obvious and narrow. The AI will stupidly attack your small armies in the mountains, so be sure to have your mobilized infantry ready to back them up.

Don't peace out until Venice wins its own war. Without you, they'll be easy meat for the von Hapsburgs under their new autocrat --> Franz Joseph.

Once you achieve your wargoals, events and decisions will fire that will call for Northern Italian Unification. The newly freed Venice and the other northern province minors will join your country and you get a butload of prestige and Liberal waves, making your path to Great Power imminent.

All that's left is the Two Sicilies and the Papal States. The Two Sicilies are your puppet, so Sphering them is easy. You can try to take on France to absorb the Papal States (again thank the Paradox Gods for mountain chokepoints), or simply use your proximity to force them into your sphere.

In the meantime, be sure you have Nationism and Imperialism in the culutre tab. Its a pain to get due to the Military Industrial Complex Tech School, but it is a must have in order to unify.

I was able to unify Italy by 1855 without any Great Power allies and became the 5th Great Power. Austria was weakend to 8th Place, and Prussia was all over me for an alliance.

Next stop, recreating Mare Nostrum...

[Lembley42]

Extremly late to the party haha

What's the upside of your strategy? Because it sounds like alot of Infamy you are building up, although it is of course a nicer way than using the redshirt force :)

[Ape-tier Buffoonery]

If we're talking vanilla, I typically as S-P, establish protectorate on Tunisia asap (You don't need to but I like the foothold in Africa and the extra few troops they provide are nice). Once the war ends you're usually sphered by France. Start justifying for Puppeting Two Sicilies. You should have both France and Papal states as allies by that point.

Papal states dont do much in the war against Two Sicilies but once France starts landing its own troops you'll win eventually. The longer the war goes on while you occupy their provinces you can get lucky and have the red shirts spawn down there. If not it's no big deal.

Once they're puppeted and after a few years of buildup you've got another quite beefy ally in your next fight against Austria. Now you can try to use your create crises or especially if Austria has just come out of a war with Prussia/NGF if France joins you should be able to stomp Austrian armies even with your default military tech.

A mixture of prestige techs, prestige won from battles in the past 3 wars and the population from Lombardia should propel you into Great Power status even with little to no factories. At this point the minute France drops your alliance Prussia/NGF usually wants to be best friends.

Hopefully redshirts spawn in Luca or something and win you the easy unification, if not you should be able to just acquire the last of the Italian miners into your sphere eventually.

Also maybe grab Sinai from Egypt

Edit: I forgot you cant force the crises on Lombardia until after you form Italy but before you get great power status. So sometimes if redshirts unify Italy it might be best to not build factories until you get Lombardy