You can conquer the world as Germany in Victoria 3 – but it’s not fun even on a PC for €3,800

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If you want to win the game as Germany in the strategy game Victoria 3 (Steam), you have to get half of the world’s population under your control. Our author Schuhmann says: It’s fine, but the performance is so bad that it’s no fun even with a good computer. The game just isn’t designed for the dimensions it reaches in the endgame.

How to win Victoria 3 “?There are 3 different ways to win Victoria 3 depending on the country you choose:

  • If you play France, for example, you don’t have to expand at all, but can play “high”, i.e. get the maximum out of your provinces. Because it’s about the population doing well, enjoying all the advantages of a modern society: old-age provision, occupational safety, a high standard of living. This is tricky because eventually the “welfare costs” will ruin you if you’re not careful.
  • If you play with the USA, you have to rely fully on the economy. It’s a relatively relaxed and easy way to win once you understand how the economy works: it’s about growth, growth, growth. In the case of Victoria 3, this ultimately means: owning as many provinces as possible that can produce oil, because the raw material is limited in the endgame.
  • But if you want to win with Germany, you have to strive for world domination. It’s easier than it sounds, but tedious, so tedious.

    • Victoria 3 in the release trailer

    In Germany you play relatively peacefully for 30 years, then the world burns

    How do you win as Germany: The game starts as “Prussia” because “Germany” is fragmented at the start of the game. The strategy as Prussia is:

  • Build up the economy in your home country and make the state “modern” – but you do without everything that costs “welfare money”.
  • Secure colonies in Africa and Oceania and plan your first campaigns of conquest in Africa. Timing is important here: you conquer a country and keep your feet still until the “Infamy” value has dropped again, then you grab the next country in Africa
  • In Europe, one relies completely on diplomacy: It is necessary to research “nationalism” and then bring all the small states in northern Germany into a customs union and improve relations to the point where they join Prussia until one becomes the “Northern German Federation”.
  • A little later you explore “pan-nationalism” and do the same with southern Germany until you are Germany. From a military point of view, it’s just about being so good that neither Austria nor France come up with stupid ideas.

    • Victoria 3: Ever since I’ve been playing the new strategy game on Steam, I understand Olaf Scholz

    This is how it works in practice: This strategy makes it a relatively quiet game for 30, 40 years. You don’t want to risk a war with a major power, because wars against “strong” nations are incredibly expensive and quickly degenerate into “Germany against England, France, Russia and Austria” and you don’t get off well there.

    Ultimately, it is not even necessary to fight against the world powers in this phase. In Africa and Oceania you can get all the raw materials you need: silk, opium and rubber. The economy in Prussia is growing and flourishing.

    This is what the “perfect state” looks like for world conquest: You give all freedoms, but do not implement anything that costs money in any way.

    What then changes? After about 30, 40 years in Victoria 3, it’s time to switch to “war industry”, you give up keeping the “infamy” value low, and Germany moves over to the military aspect of Victoria 3; You recruit generals, build barracks, ammunition factories and weapon forges without end.

    Sooner or later you will fight with Germany against the whole world on this route. This is actually only possible if you expand the military as broadly as possible, i.e. command a maximum of 20 armies with 100+ units.

    The core to win the game in the situation are the populous countries in Asia, especially China and Japan. You can pick out parts in Africa, South America and Europe.

    The game starts with 20 construction points, so you have to think carefully about what you are building. At 15,000 points, it really sucks.

    Small works great for Victoria 3 – huge doesn’t anymore

    Why is Victora 3 no longer fun at this point? The game becomes extremely sluggish at this point. Instead of expanding individual factories or promoting branches of industry as in the beginning, you now use the Ctrl and Shift volume keys to pull up 200 factories in a newly conquered Chinese province, because there are 6 million farmers there who have to be industrialized somehow. After that you have to build railways, which is annoying, and so on.

    Because you have outperformed the opponent’s economy by a factor of 10 at this point, the game seems arbitrary in the endgame.

    Even on a $3,800 PC with Ryzen 9 5900 X, Geforce 3080 TI and all the bells and whistles, the game gets slow and laggy.

    And the wars work in such a way that you make huge space demands, but then the opponent withdraws at the last second and only leaves you with the first required province. It is not possible to wage multiple wars at the same time. To do this you have to deal with annoying and insignificant rebellions, which your own huge army easily crushes.

    It then makes sense to turn opposing nations into pure marionettes.

    Even if there is a major war, Victoria 3 cannot shine: Because the military aspect is considered rudimentary at best, once you have placed the generals, the rest practically unwinds itself – you can only do that with sea invasions accelerate a little and open up new fronts.

    Both research and social systems are gone decades before the end of the game and there is simply nothing left that will turn the game around again.

    A monstrous Germany in the endgame: the key to world domination are the populous states in Asia.

    Playing with Germany, Victoria 3 shows its ugly side

    This is behind it: Victoria 3 has the problem of many “grand strategy games” at the moment. This is particularly noticeable in the games from Paradox (Crusader Kings, Stellaris), but also in the Civilization games:

  • In the beginning, when everything is in limbo and every decision counts, the game is exciting and fun.
  • But once you’re clearly on the road to victory and you just have to play the “campaign” to the end, it develops into a real exercise in patience and agony.

    • With other destinations and countries such as France and the USA, such a campaign can easily be played to the end, but as Germany, which wants to conquer the world, the weaknesses of Victoria 3 are particularly evident.

    By the way, there is also the possibility of making the “GDR” out of Germany, with a flag and everything:

    Steam: Communism is superior to capitalism in Victoria 3 – Some people don’t like that

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