Are we doomed to be Britain b*tch?

[numba9]

Every game i play, and i often play as France, i'am steamrolling on every opponent. I colonise africa an vassalize south america fast, have quickly an highest gdp than britain and by 1870 have more GDP than RAJ.
When i'am at war with england, i demolish them in fight, even in navy.

But england colonise faster (like, twice fast, and i have the corrects institutions), have three time my armies even if they are weak af, and ARE NEVER IN REVOLUTION. Never once i saw Raj or canada being rebelious.
They have twice as much loss in war, but never forfeit, never seems to be in financial crisis.

People that are good at this buggy mess of a game, how do you do to shut england down?
I highly suppose that there is something i didnt understood, but cant figure out what, so feel free to talk to me like i'am 5
(yeah i might be raging)

[numba9]

I might add, the only time i can win fair and square against england is when i side with Qing during the opium war. I send a 60stack troop near bejing to stop the naval invasion, and invade england. And even then, it doesnt seems to bother them, as they continue to be clear top 1 in the game. Like no impact at all, it just make me steal one of their vassal, who appear to be useless all game.
They also very often have a lot of agitation in their counties, but are NEVER EVER in revolution. It's literally the only country that are never in shamble. Can someone explain me how come?

[SaD-82]

Originally posted by numba9:

Can someone explain me how come?

Well, this game is called "Victoria" for a reason...

[Desmond Fr]

Whenever I play France, I usually declare war on GB on the first day to liberate the Raj.

Then every time they try to intervene in my plays I make them release a subject or Ireland/Scotland.

That neuters them pretty good, I find.

[endymionologist]

Britain is the end boss of the game. If you start as France you usually have the forces to take their capital at the beginning, distracting their navy with low-power invasions elsewhere and/or landing from the North Sea if they're trying to invade Normandy. I second the suggestion to Liberate India but it is also crucial to prevent the establishment of British East Africa by conquering Kenya and the neighboring State that they are colonizing before they unlock the decision to create a colonial subject; that is the only part of Africa they have access to that colonizes at full speed from the start of the game. If you hesitate they will form the subject during the war, invalidating your occupation of Kenya and the wargoal completely, and they'll end up colonizing over a quarter of Africa before you can finish annexing Algeria.

If you pick any two countries before starting and say, "I want to play as this country and out-do that country" it's mostly possible to achieve that by growing and industrializing and fairly simple play. This is not possible if your chosen adversary is Britain. To out-do Britain you still have to do all of the nation and empire building, but also at the same time take every opportunity to cut parts of the British Empire away from day one.

[Dragow]

Having 100mln by 1970 is like really bad for GPs
Quinine, rush Niger Delta and cut them of from Kenya
You have enough economy to focus your construction exclusively around construction goods and expansion of construction sectors
by 1970 you can crash any coalition without any problems, the only problems will be 1 frame per hour

[numba9]

Thanks for the answers guys, i admit i never think to just force them to release EIC.

I will try that in my run rn. If you have any other tips, i'll gladly take them.

[numba9]

Originally posted by Dragow:

Having 100mln by 1970 is like really bad for GPs
Quinine, rush Niger Delta and cut them of from Kenya
You have enough economy to focus your construction exclusively around construction goods and expansion of construction sectors
by 1970 you can crash any coalition without any problems, the only problems will be 1 frame per hour

What do you mean bad for GP? Not sure i understand the meaning (not english native sorry)

[numba9]

privyet comrad

[SolGuardian]

I was playing as the East Indian Company, it took a long time to be able to declare war, but when I did I was able to support pretty much all of Britain's subjects independence. I was outproducing Britain on most goods and developed an army. With the help of USA there was a big war against Britain. Most of the subjects lost due to war score including Canada (they don't seem to need to be invaded which is unfair).

I won in the end barely because USA managed to naval invade northern England and we put our forces towards the capital, before USA was going to peace out.

Sadly in a later war I found out nationalisation is bugged and only let me take 100 of their 700 investments...


Tip: Release Scotland and make them your subject and they can be used to get a foot hold against Britian in later wars.

[Elenjo [Ger]]

Originally posted by numba9:

Every game i play, and i often play as France, i'am steamrolling on every opponent. I colonise africa an vassalize south america fast, have quickly an highest gdp than britain and by 1870 have more GDP than RAJ.
When i'am at war with england, i demolish them in fight, even in navy.

But england colonise faster (like, twice fast, and i have the corrects institutions), have three time my armies even if they are weak af, and ARE NEVER IN REVOLUTION. Never once i saw Raj or canada being rebelious.
They have twice as much loss in war, but never forfeit, never seems to be in financial crisis.

People that are good at this buggy mess of a game, how do you do to shut england down?
I highly suppose that there is something i didnt understood, but cant figure out what, so feel free to talk to me like i'am 5
(yeah i might be raging)

did you read the Flavor text for the colonial Growth? it depends on your incorperate Pops and the most important part, how many colonies you are growing at the same time
Colonise less and you grow faster, but the cap on growth is 2%

are you really sure that Raj, canada or any Subject dont Rebel?
in a complete Run they always do that, maybe more maybe less depending on the Run itself

They recently changed how to "win" a fight, you need to hold or "occupy" whatever Wargoal you have on them , if you want War Reperations, you need to hold their Capital, if you want a subject, you need that subject completly, and so on..
So dont go and add too much what you cant handle

The next thing, the most "OP" thing in War is speed, i guess you saw the "mobilisation" tab, the last thing on the right side is the formation speed, the faster they are the faster they can travel around, so when you push the frontline, and are faster then your enemy you can "overrun" them because they cant keep up and when no one is at the Frontline it ticks very fast in your favor well unless you dont have 4 Generals in your Army, they decide how fast your advance is and how many battles you can fight simuntainusly

Oh and at overseas Warfare, the big thing is Supply, raid their convoys on the cost, when you raid the convoys they lose the organisation, and then they are very easy to beat
But i must say that it doesnt really work for me.. sadly

the financial situation i really dont get myself, especially on how big their armys and navies are, but as soon as you capture vital industry or shut off their imports they normaly should spiral down

You need to be at the top of Research but that should be clear from the start

If you want to hurt them, try to liberate subjects , or countrys, dont take much yourself because when you go for too much (especially when it takes much infamy) you can get many enemys in the wars
i mostly try to liberate Wales , ireland, Scotland, or MAYBE even the colonies

Thats for the "fighting" part
___________________________

You can always try to befriend them, at long last they SHOULD be friendly at some point, but as long as you arent in a Alliance with them they can always go in the enemy side on wars

Thats the Advice i can give you what is on the top of my head, i hope it gives you tips

Oh and , dont get frustrated, every Round you do is different

And sorry for my bad English

[Doe_36]

Shouldn't England become weaker in the late game with limited access to oil. Their navy in the late game needs oil yer?

[Elenjo [Ger]]

not really, they normaly get enough because of canada i think, also the weaker states usually gives foreign investments to great powers , so they can build their oil there

[John Hadley]

I think a good move if you are France is to become allies with United States of America at the start of the game and declare an interest in North Sea, then when Britain goes to the opium war against Qing you start a war to liberate Ireland. If you win that war you will deprive Britain of about 8 million population, so they will lose a lot of poll taxes immediately and a lot of consumers in their market in the long term. If they keep their troops at home to defend against you then you can just defend your beaches to prevent them from landing and get a white peace but you might cause them to lose the war against Great Qing which would cost them reparations for 5 years.

Ireland has about 8 million people in it so it will be a loss of significant income over time if it is liberated from Britain and it will make Britain's army smaller so they are less threatening. It'll also give you a chance to take a shot at Prussia and/or Netherlands to weaken them if you want to because Britain will be on peace treaty with you for five years after that.

[endymionologist]

Originally posted by Doe_36:

Shouldn't England become weaker in the late game with limited access to oil. Their navy in the late game needs oil yer?

Canada as previously mentioned (plus before the current patch the British dominions were nearly the only subjects who could reliably discover oil so it was even more unfair than it is now), and Britain starts with the Trucial States as a subject in Arabia trending them towards ahistorical direct conquest in the area; Australia almost always puts their first Interest in Indonesia, and if that leads to them getting territory there then Britain gets a free Interest in the region too, and there is some oil there.
Britain is the natural protector of any version of the Netherlands that does not want to join Prussia...

[numba9]

Well i followed the advises of the previous comment and it helped a lot.

I think my worst mistake was me getting to try hardy on the same tactics. I was always trying to take their colonies for myself instead of just making them weak by freeing their subjects little by little.

So what i did was, rushing africa, and declare war on most countries that are border to the sea, and make everything possible so they cant colonise.
I also tried to be less aggressive, not declaring war to them but hoping on the enemies side when they were powerful enough to make it a 2v1.
I did only focus my building on construction materials, bureaucracy and military. So my GDP is lower than usual, but my armies and country stability are far better.

Now i'am in 1880, still 2nd cuz i left prussia create a fat ass germany, but i have Canada, almost all south america is my vassal, and took africa all for myself, so they are all depending on me on oil and rubber. Wich make me rich and really stable during big wars.
England is third cur i freed all their vassals, EIC included.

It's by far my best game so thanks a lot guys, i needed some fresh eyes :)