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I have finally succeeded in finishing a game of Victoria II! Now to try to piece together an AAR on pure memory on the last month... or have I been playing for two months as Canada? I forget...

Without a doubt, this was the craziest campaign of Victoria II I have ever played through. Several countries went through MULTIPLE government changes, some as quickly as the second-to-last year of the game. Maybe I'll attach some screenshots to this map later on (especially the ledger which was hilarious)

Remembering my successes as France and Transvaal, I wanted a country with lots of iron deposits, somewhere up north so I can invade European countries more efficiently (which didn't even come in useful since I never did), and something that will really mess up history, so I decided to free Canada and play as it. I set the economic sliders as I always do with an emphasis on education, and set the focus to colonize the western bits of the continent. Alright.

But, of course, this is Victoria II, and no Victoria II campaign is complete without colonizing Africa! But look at where Canada is, you can't colonize Africa from there... which is why I needed to invade a poor country as always when colonizing Africa. However, since I was playing with AHD, the Great Powers were feeling less like invading and more like adding the countries necessary to their spheres, so that was not an option. The only way was to invade something no one expects, and the only choice for that was Portugal. I was fortunate since Portugal was not in anyone's sphere, and Portugal was far away from its African possessions to not be a challenge. I rallied my troops at the border of Portuguese Mozambique, and invaded some time in 1846 with absolutely no allies to help me. However, everything went according to plan and by 1854 I have succeeded in securing the northern part of Angola from the Portuguese. Just in time for the Scramble for Africa, yes?

As soon as 1870 came around, I mashed the “Machine Guns” button so I can get as much of Africa for myself as possible. I was ranked #4 at that time, and my literacy rate was around 50%, so I could very well had pulled it off. And soon enough, machine guns had been researched, and I had a choice to make: Should I colonize to the north of Angola and prevent France from becoming a giant, or should I expand south and prevent the British and Portuguese from making much of an impact? Remembering how Russia managed to colonize all of Alaska and Yukon before I could even though it was ranked #8 and falling, I decided to go south because of the chances of discovering precious metals as well as an opportunity to invade Transvaal later on and secure the gold-rich Johannesburg to compensate for losing Yukon to the Russians. At the time France hasn’t began colonizing West Africa either, so I thought that I could colonize the south first, then quickly colonize the north and get most of Africa for myself. Alas, I was wrong, for Britain was having quite a bit of trouble in this particular game, and I overestimated Portugal’s capabilities a bit, and France colonized Ivory Coast and friends waaay faster than anticipated because of their very high population, and thus the Scramble for Africa quickly became a race to see how fast one could colonize all the way up to the east coast of Africa.

The race was on! The southern part of Africa has already been colonized by me, with Britain too busy stuck in 4th place on the ledger to do anything about it, and thus all efforts were shifted to getting as far north as possible to block the French. Remembering how I failed to get Congo in a previous campaign as Transvall, I made acquiring the Congo a top priority because 1) No one will get it if that one event happens that makes Congo Free State a country, and 2) Rubber trees. The French were very quick in catching up, since they had 3 National Focus points and I only had one, and managed to get Gabon faster than I could, so I ended up with less iron reserves than I wanted. However, in the end I did manage to get Congo, so the supply of rubber trees was mine for the taking. At that time it was 1889. Getting Congo increased my population greatly, and allowed me to have extra National Focus points so that I could colonize Africa faster and get more resources, so I ended up getting all the land between Angola and Mozambique. Present-day Tanzania yielded iron reserves, which made me happy since I lost so many opportunities to get iron. However, in the end I lost the race eastward, with France making it to Somalia before I did the only thing I could do was prevent them from going south, which I managed to accomplish. However, I really wanted a piece of the east coast of Africa, and only two options were available: I could either invade Portugal again and take all of Mozambique, or I could get what little colonies Oman possessed in Africa. Unfortunately for Oman, Portugal was in the British sphere of influence, and I was not about to fight the British for a little plot of land in Africa. One easy victory on my behalf later (Oman had no armies so it was cakewalk), and France had absolutely no way to move any further south than they already have. The year was 1900.

It was around this time that the game gave up at being accurate and started screwing up. I was focusing entirely on colonizing Africa for 30 years, and not really paying much attention to the rest of the world, which made things all the more amusing when I finally got around to doing so. South Africa managed to declare independence from Transvaal, leaving it with just one province to do its business in, reducing it to a mere enclave inside of South Africa. The British, apparently frustrated with not being able to get any of Africa except for small bits around Ethiopia, invaded and got the northern part of Siam, as well as colonizing the inland portions of Borneo and the other Indonesian islands that had gaps. But most incredibly – and I only noticed this after finishing the game and going back through the save files and screenshots – tiny Sindh that no one cares about managed to annex 75% of Luang Prabang, the most unexpected thing ever. Fascinating! But the thing I remember the most is when in 1903, Germany managed to form without Bavaria or Hamburg, and what’s more it formed not as the German Empire, but as simply Germany, with a republican flag even though the government form was HM’s Government. I found this absolutely unacceptable, but a quick mosey around on the interwebs has told me that it was because of the Crown From The Gutter event, but I didn’t even know that the German states could even get that. Odd...

By 1908, Canada was the #1 country in the world, with the largest military, second-largest prestige, and fourth-largest industry. Both the Panama and Suez canals have been constructed by Canada, and the USA and Empire of Mexico (which I wasn’t as surprised about since this particular configuration of Mexico also occurred during my previous game as Transvaal) were my close allies. The Russian Empire somehow managed to lose Great Power status, and eventually found its way into my sphere, though it was a long struggle between Austria-Hungary that continued even twenty years after the fact. Germany was still down on its luck, however. By 1918, not only was a significant part of it under Austro-Hungarian control, but several small states including Hesse-Kassel, Württemberg, Anhalt, and Mecklenberg have been freed for some ungodly reason. Britain, having long suffered throughout the game with being #4 in the world rankings, finally succumbed to revolution and became an absolute monarchy, changing its name from United Kingdom to British Empire. Uruguay has become South America’s first Communist state, and perhaps for that matter, the world’s first Communist state. It was at this time that I considered testing out my number-one military in combat, but the question was in deciding the opponent. Two options presented themselves, both yielded profit. The first choice was conquering all of Portugal (all of my plans seem to circle attacking Portugal for some reason during this game...), since Britain had a revolution they lost cores on everything, and thus Portugal was ripe for the taking, and if I conquered it I would not only get a second port in Europe besides Suez but also acquire its remaining African possessions and would have a really large coast with which I can expand my navy faster. However, the second choice, Japan, was more of a challenge since they had a better military, and securing a portion of it would mean I’d have naval bases all around the world. The choice was difficult, but in the end Japan ended up being my choice because animus. Using my strong alliance with Russia, I rallied my four brigades that were on the Canadian mainland in Vladivostock, and by 1920 I was able to launch my offensive, around the same time that communist Germany was about to be gang-raped by Russia, Austro-Hungary, Hesse-Kassel, and Bavaria, all for separate Casus Bellis.

The war with Japan was the climax of this particular game since Japan actually had a competent army whose numbers made up for their lack of good weapons and I actually had allies to make the war interesting. Surprisingly enough, the USA and Empire of Mexico were very willing to help me in the war, with Russia chiming in because they’re in my sphere. They were not very useful, however, as all they did was blockade, leaving all the major fighting to me. The fierce battles that took place in Hokkaido were a marvel to behold, with me having to continuously pump troops out of every available place including my brigades left in Oman and Africa to defeat the 400,000-man behemoth that Japan set up for me. In the end, the Battle of Ishikari was a victory for me simply out of weapon supremacy, although it was a large effort that in the end got me the majority of the warscore. More fighting continued afterwards, but none was as fierce as Ishikari since it was mostly my remaining 80,000 troops having to clean up the scattered Japanese army. Though after joining the war the US and Mexico both stated separate war goals that would have split Japan into an unrecognizable mess, in the end I decided to end the war quickly to avoid losing and secured the northern portion of Honshu, rich in long sought-after iron deposits. A staggering war debt of over £700,000 waited for me when the troops got home. It was February 12, 1924.

The years following my conquest of northern Japan saw a staggering amount of revolutions around the world. A large coalition of communist rebels took arms at the end of 1924, but thankfully my strong army was able to hold them off. Some of the other countries weren’t so lucky, however – by 1928, Argentina, Bolivia, Württemberg, and Germany all were claimed by the Proletariat. By the early 1930’s, Austria-Hungary joined their ranks, while South Africa from earlier became Fascist.

Unfortunately, this story does not have a happy ending for Canada. After 1930, severe economic decline including monthly deficits of £5,000 nearly crippled our Canadian empire. All spending was cut as much as possible: the stockpile, education, and everything else was entirely cut while the people and tariffs were taxed as much as possible. Towards 1934, over half of the middle class was getting none of their needs. It was clear that Canada has entered the Great Depression, though I don’t know for certain whether that was intended to be part of the game or not. By late 1935, Canada was over £2,000,000 in debt, with the game becoming a race against the clock to see whether the game ends before Canada bankrupts, since bankrupting yourself means losing a lot of prestige which I don’t want because I’m #2 in the world and my entire game is run on pure prestige. However, in the end I was victorious, and the game ended before I became completely bankrupt. While this seems like pure luck, it was actually thanks to the gigantic amount of capitalists I had that invested in the country that I was able to survive so long on debt, since they owned about 70% of the entire debt.

...and that’s how the west was won.

Description
I have finally succeeded in finishing a game of Victoria II! Now to try to piece together an AAR on pure memory on the last month... or have I been playing for two months as Canada? I forget...

Without a doubt, this was the craziest campaign of Victoria II I have ever played through. Several countries went through MULTIPLE government changes, some as quickly as the second-to-last year of the game. Maybe I'll attach some screenshots to this map later on (especially the ledger which was hilarious)

Remembering my successes as France and Transvaal, I wanted a country with lots of iron deposits, somewhere up north so I can invade European countries more efficiently (which didn't even come in useful since I never did), and something that will really mess up history, so I decided to free Canada and play as it. I set the economic sliders as I always do with an emphasis on education, and set the focus to colonize the western bits of the continent. Alright.

But, of course, this is Victoria II, and no Victoria II campaign is complete without colonizing Africa! But look at where Canada is, you can't colonize Africa from there... which is why I needed to invade a poor country as always when colonizing Africa. However, since I was playing with AHD, the Great Powers were feeling less like invading and more like adding the countries necessary to their spheres, so that was not an option. The only way was to invade something no one expects, and the only choice for that was Portugal. I was fortunate since Portugal was not in anyone's sphere, and Portugal was far away from its African possessions to not be a challenge. I rallied my troops at the border of Portuguese Mozambique, and invaded some time in 1846 with absolutely no allies to help me. However, everything went according to plan and by 1854 I have succeeded in securing the northern part of Angola from the Portuguese. Just in time for the Scramble for Africa, yes?

As soon as 1870 came around, I mashed the “Machine Guns” button so I can get as much of Africa for myself as possible. I was ranked #4 at that time, and my literacy rate was around 50%, so I could very well had pulled it off. And soon enough, machine guns had been researched, and I had a choice to make: Should I colonize to the north of Angola and prevent France from becoming a giant, or should I expand south and prevent the British and Portuguese from making much of an impact? Remembering how Russia managed to colonize all of Alaska and Yukon before I could even though it was ranked #8 and falling, I decided to go south because of the chances of discovering precious metals as well as an opportunity to invade Transvaal later on and secure the gold-rich Johannesburg to compensate for losing Yukon to the Russians. At the time France hasn’t began colonizing West Africa either, so I thought that I could colonize the south first, then quickly colonize the north and get most of Africa for myself. Alas, I was wrong, for Britain was having quite a bit of trouble in this particular game, and I overestimated Portugal’s capabilities a bit, and France colonized Ivory Coast and friends waaay faster than anticipated because of their very high population, and thus the Scramble for Africa quickly became a race to see how fast one could colonize all the way up to the east coast of Africa.

The race was on! The southern part of Africa has already been colonized by me, with Britain too busy stuck in 4th place on the ledger to do anything about it, and thus all efforts were shifted to getting as far north as possible to block the French. Remembering how I failed to get Congo in a previous campaign as Transvall, I made acquiring the Congo a top priority because 1) No one will get it if that one event happens that makes Congo Free State a country, and 2) Rubber trees. The French were very quick in catching up, since they had 3 National Focus points and I only had one, and managed to get Gabon faster than I could, so I ended up with less iron reserves than I wanted. However, in the end I did manage to get Congo, so the supply of rubber trees was mine for the taking. At that time it was 1889. Getting Congo increased my population greatly, and allowed me to have extra National Focus points so that I could colonize Africa faster and get more resources, so I ended up getting all the land between Angola and Mozambique. Present-day Tanzania yielded iron reserves, which made me happy since I lost so many opportunities to get iron. However, in the end I lost the race eastward, with France making it to Somalia before I did the only thing I could do was prevent them from going south, which I managed to accomplish. However, I really wanted a piece of the east coast of Africa, and only two options were available: I could either invade Portugal again and take all of Mozambique, or I could get what little colonies Oman possessed in Africa. Unfortunately for Oman, Portugal was in the British sphere of influence, and I was not about to fight the British for a little plot of land in Africa. One easy victory on my behalf later (Oman had no armies so it was cakewalk), and France had absolutely no way to move any further south than they already have. The year was 1900.

It was around this time that the game gave up at being accurate and started screwing up. I was focusing entirely on colonizing Africa for 30 years, and not really paying much attention to the rest of the world, which made things all the more amusing when I finally got around to doing so. South Africa managed to declare independence from Transvaal, leaving it with just one province to do its business in, reducing it to a mere enclave inside of South Africa. The British, apparently frustrated with not being able to get any of Africa except for small bits around Ethiopia, invaded and got the northern part of Siam, as well as colonizing the inland portions of Borneo and the other Indonesian islands that had gaps. But most incredibly – and I only noticed this after finishing the game and going back through the save files and screenshots – tiny Sindh that no one cares about managed to annex 75% of Luang Prabang, the most unexpected thing ever. Fascinating! But the thing I remember the most is when in 1903, Germany managed to form without Bavaria or Hamburg, and what’s more it formed not as the German Empire, but as simply Germany, with a republican flag even though the government form was HM’s Government. I found this absolutely unacceptable, but a quick mosey around on the interwebs has told me that it was because of the Crown From The Gutter event, but I didn’t even know that the German states could even get that. Odd...

By 1908, Canada was the #1 country in the world, with the largest military, second-largest prestige, and fourth-largest industry. Both the Panama and Suez canals have been constructed by Canada, and the USA and Empire of Mexico (which I wasn’t as surprised about since this particular configuration of Mexico also occurred during my previous game as Transvaal) were my close allies. The Russian Empire somehow managed to lose Great Power status, and eventually found its way into my sphere, though it was a long struggle between Austria-Hungary that continued even twenty years after the fact. Germany was still down on its luck, however. By 1918, not only was a significant part of it under Austro-Hungarian control, but several small states including Hesse-Kassel, Württemberg, Anhalt, and Mecklenberg have been freed for some ungodly reason. Britain, having long suffered throughout the game with being #4 in the world rankings, finally succumbed to revolution and became an absolute monarchy, changing its name from United Kingdom to British Empire. Uruguay has become South America’s first Communist state, and perhaps for that matter, the world’s first Communist state. It was at this time that I considered testing out my number-one military in combat, but the question was in deciding the opponent. Two options presented themselves, both yielded profit. The first choice was conquering all of Portugal (all of my plans seem to circle attacking Portugal for some reason during this game...), since Britain had a revolution they lost cores on everything, and thus Portugal was ripe for the taking, and if I conquered it I would not only get a second port in Europe besides Suez but also acquire its remaining African possessions and would have a really large coast with which I can expand my navy faster. However, the second choice, Japan, was more of a challenge since they had a better military, and securing a portion of it would mean I’d have naval bases all around the world. The choice was difficult, but in the end Japan ended up being my choice because animus. Using my strong alliance with Russia, I rallied my four brigades that were on the Canadian mainland in Vladivostock, and by 1920 I was able to launch my offensive, around the same time that communist Germany was about to be gang-raped by Russia, Austro-Hungary, Hesse-Kassel, and Bavaria, all for separate Casus Bellis.

The war with Japan was the climax of this particular game since Japan actually had a competent army whose numbers made up for their lack of good weapons and I actually had allies to make the war interesting. Surprisingly enough, the USA and Empire of Mexico were very willing to help me in the war, with Russia chiming in because they’re in my sphere. They were not very useful, however, as all they did was blockade, leaving all the major fighting to me. The fierce battles that took place in Hokkaido were a marvel to behold, with me having to continuously pump troops out of every available place including my brigades left in Oman and Africa to defeat the 400,000-man behemoth that Japan set up for me. In the end, the Battle of Ishikari was a victory for me simply out of weapon supremacy, although it was a large effort that in the end got me the majority of the warscore. More fighting continued afterwards, but none was as fierce as Ishikari since it was mostly my remaining 80,000 troops having to clean up the scattered Japanese army. Though after joining the war the US and Mexico both stated separate war goals that would have split Japan into an unrecognizable mess, in the end I decided to end the war quickly to avoid losing and secured the northern portion of Honshu, rich in long sought-after iron deposits. A staggering war debt of over £700,000 waited for me when the troops got home. It was February 12, 1924.

The years following my conquest of northern Japan saw a staggering amount of revolutions around the world. A large coalition of communist rebels took arms at the end of 1924, but thankfully my strong army was able to hold them off. Some of the other countries weren’t so lucky, however – by 1928, Argentina, Bolivia, Württemberg, and Germany all were claimed by the Proletariat. By the early 1930’s, Austria-Hungary joined their ranks, while South Africa from earlier became Fascist.

Unfortunately, this story does not have a happy ending for Canada. After 1930, severe economic decline including monthly deficits of £5,000 nearly crippled our Canadian empire. All spending was cut as much as possible: the stockpile, education, and everything else was entirely cut while the people and tariffs were taxed as much as possible. Towards 1934, over half of the middle class was getting none of their needs. It was clear that Canada has entered the Great Depression, though I don’t know for certain whether that was intended to be part of the game or not. By late 1935, Canada was over £2,000,000 in debt, with the game becoming a race against the clock to see whether the game ends before Canada bankrupts, since bankrupting yourself means losing a lot of prestige which I don’t want because I’m #2 in the world and my entire game is run on pure prestige. However, in the end I was victorious, and the game ended before I became completely bankrupt. While this seems like pure luck, it was actually thanks to the gigantic amount of capitalists I had that invested in the country that I was able to survive so long on debt, since they owned about 70% of the entire debt.

...and that’s how the west was won.