Country suggestion

[nordstern]

hi,

i was playing now 3 times prussia and i am looking for a new country i can play.

But i am not sure. My intention is to build up and expand without blocking other great powers from expanding and building up. Also i do not want to be to far from the "action". So brasil, japan or the usa is not an option.

France ist very strong and can expand to spain and italy without blocking to much. But prussia is a Problem here. It feels that my existance blocks prussia from getting strong or into wars. Even if i cancel the rivality. And also i need prussian territory for the rhine border.

British are isolated on an island. That makes it a bit boring. I also do not want to manage the colonies and fight for them every rebellion. Also administration of an Empire from the island to the continental europe seems unrealistic on the long term.

russia looks great on the first spot. On the second not. Its to great and you can not expand because you have qing, prussia, ottomans and austria as borders or nothing to get their. So if you wanr to expand in "good" areas, you must crash other great powers or potencial great powers.

Currently i think maybe austria. I can go a bit against russia without weaken them, because they have so much. I also can go to the balkans and crush the ottomans. The ottoman AI will not increase their power much, so i must not let them alive. maybe i can feed the egyts a bit. I also can go for Italy.
But their are two problems: First: I united germans as prussia so often, i do not want unite germany as austria. But i want that prussia do it. But they can only do it, if they win at least two wars against me. Because i have not seen an option were i can reject as unification candidate by myself peacefully. But when the prussians want the leadership, they also want territory... bohemia, etc and i can not give this to them. They are to importent for austra. So i can not reject the diplomatic play.

On the other hand: the austrian army is all but not historic. I mean the with 1.5 coming war system we can see soldiers and uniforms. And they are standard colored with the generic colors of the flags. So the russians are not green, they are yellow. The usa is white not blue and the austrians are not white with red, they are black-yellow. That kills a bit immersion and i did not found an option i can change the colors. Austria was NEVER black-yellow in uniforms.
Also Founding Austria-Hungary... i want the laws and trigger it, but i do not want the name.

Any suggestions i have not checked? Sweden is to less populated and isolated by germany and russia. Spain has a really, really bad flag as iberia.. its aweful. And its potencial is weak on the iberian side and you can not beat france.

Thanks for suggestions and ideas

nordstern

[Menkerot]

Portugal. Why not? it has great potential, doesn't have enemies per se, isn't very easy but not very hard either and can expand without messing up with other powers (save for Africa, that is).

[Alex]

Try Japan. You will be left alone for a few decades and can develop in relative peace. Also, there are interesting journal quests and flavor events.

[Xemawth]

Upon reading all the nations you aren't willing to play, basically the only nation you didn't mention as being "awful", or "boring" and yet still fulfills your restrictive criteria are Italy or Portugal...

Italy or Spain were my go-to's back in Vic 2 when wanting to get in on the action in Europe, yet maintain the balance of power. With either nation you're on the fringes of being an influential power, and both can be rewarding to guide them there.

Italy/Sardinia-Piedmont/Two Sicilies can be a fun choice if forming a powerful European nation that is "late to the party" is an appealing option. Back in Vic 2, creating early shenanigans in Africa as Sardinia-Piedmont to expand was highly rewarding.

Spain is an interesting choice, as historically they are in the process of losing the final pieces of the Spanish empire, and being the pragmatic hand to hold it together and weather the storm is extremely rewarding, to me at least.

[nordstern]

i could change the units color. So austria is an option.

I can expand to the south and to italy and i can get 2-3 regions from russia without weaken them to much.

But can i make prussia create germany without giving them a victory or two. Can i resign the unification?

[Castiel]

Russia is the only one I play for now. You can expand in China and to the Persian Gulf. I've gotten Ruler of the East. The Great Game, and make Persia and Afghanistan puppets the annex them after reducing their autonomy.

[nordstern]

maybe next game. I like games were i can build up and expand in my speed, not rushing. And do not limit, block or weaken the great powers to early. because in Paradox games the AI has problems to increase power like the player or even grow properly. So the only way to have a endgame enemy is, to feed them, buff them, cheat for them and let them alone as long as possible.
That works with all paradoxgames... but not with Vic3. Because modifiers like difficulty, fraction specific buffs or country specific modifiers are not in the game.

I am currently using a mod which adds buffs for historic correct population growth to give the great power different buffs. The mod has only germany, russia and 4 france buffs. I changed it so, that i can use them for 6 great powers... currently germany (NGF, PRU, GER), Russia, France, Austria, Britain and the Ottomans. USA gets buffs through the monument. But i would like i could give qing, japan, india more buffs. The buffs are: more gold, more construction points and more railroad capacity.

But when, will i change their uniforms.

Btw:
changing the color-scheme of the uniform is not possible. You must change the coats of uniforms which the same the flag has. So changing it for austria into white-red-black (3rd color is for hat, 1st color for the chest, 2nd color for the legs) will change the flag too. So i have no more the black-yellow flag of austria with the eagle. Now i have the white-red flag with the eagle. Yes not red white wich would make more sence.

That means changing the color of the usa from white to blue is only possible if you change the flag of the usa. Thats a stupid design.

But for russia changing from yellow to dark green it should work.