Anyways, started a game as Prussia. In V2, because of the way population growth works, the best first research is almost always Medicine. I didn't see that here, but knowing how German unification works in V3 (kind of) I decided to beeline for Nationalism / Pan-Nationalism in the hopes of scooping up various minors by event & being in a better position versus Austria. My other goals are hopefully to acquire treaty ports, and of course, to build up industry. I assume pop growth may be somewhat similar to V2 so I do want to buff my healthcare system eventually, which means I'll research Pharmaceuticals later, but I need some political reforms before I can do that, so I'm researching Nationalism first.
I added an import route for Iron from Austria, export route for Fertilizer to a few of my neighbours, and declared interest routes in a few parts of Africa. Fairly early on Shewa asked for my backing in a diplomatic play against Wello; no idea what the play is (I'd assume annexation since they're Ethiopia and the whole zemene mesafint thing was going on back then) but decided to accept. I couldn't figure out a way to send forces and perhaps it's not allowed, but I did bankroll them. Also, apparently you can't... demobilize a mobilized general? What? I don't know if I was missing a button somewhere but looking it up online I couldn't find anything either. So I had to reload. The game showed Shewa at a disadvantage but they eventually won. Decided to keep bankrolling and improving relations, will see if I can help them unite Ethiopia and then either vassalize it or get it into my customs union.
Also moved one of my interests to North Africa to try to nab some treaty ports from Morocco, and started buttering up France. If I can get away with unifying Germany without taking Elsaß-Lothringen, I'll do it. They currently have a Conciliatory attitude towards me, so hopefully I can be friends with them. I also don't want them interfering in my (planned) aggression against Morocco, of course.
Trying Vic 2 a bit, but is the great power AI supposed to be passive? I am just playing to just get things through and process but it seems the UK, Nederland, Russia, and other are just chilling starting from 1850 - 1880ish. Like literally no big war happening. Even if they get in a fight, it is over in 2 month, back to peace and just there is not much conflict at all unless the player is driving it.
Somewhat. They'll be more aggressive later on as techs unlock cheaper CBs against uncivs, the Scramble for Africa happens, etc. If you have mods most of them also disable crises until 1870. The early portions of Vicky 2's time period were relatively peaceful and stable. Vanilla might be a bit fucked.
