Victoria II – A House Divided: No Humility in My Start

One of the most difficult moments for someone who is new to A House Divided or the entire concepts of Victoria II (the first game in the series does not qualify as training) is taking the first look at the User Interface and determining what is crucial and what is merely important.

To me personally, quite a lot of the Victoria II experience is linked to the Research tab (its importance varies by nations, for Prussia it is quite crucial) and to how each player prioritizes.

For smaller nations getting Prestige from discoveries is very important, so getting ahead on theoretical concepts is a priority during the first years of the game.

For Prussia, industry and military (where out scientists are most skilled) are the initial core research areas, because we are surrounded by potential enemies that might get greedy (Russia has a tendency to pounce and then draw Austria in) and because we need money to come in as fast as possible early on.

Also at the start of the game, I accept a bunch of alliances from German minors and then look around a bit, trying to see which nations would be interested in an alliance that can help me during the early wars.

Balancing a budget is hard work and I take a rather liberal stance, allowing for deficits to pile up initially in order to push up spending on both education and administration, something that will pay quick dividends and will make my economy much more powerful in the long term.

Rather quickly the entire world creates alliances that pretty much guarantee something like the First World War once one of the involved parties gets a little angry, which is a detriment to me because I failed to secure any big partner while Austria is linked to both Russia and Turkey.

I might be forced to end this game just as it starts.