Anyone who wants to win in the strategy game Victoria 3 (Steam) as Germany must gain control over half of the world’s population. Our author Schuhmann says: It’s possible, but the performance is so poor that even with a good computer, it’s no fun. The game is simply not designed for the dimensions it reaches in the endgame.
How can one “win” Victoria 3? There are 3 different ways to win Victoria 3, depending on the country chosen:
- For example, if you play France, you don’t have to expand at all, but can play “upward”, maximizing the potential of your provinces. Because it’s about the well-being of the population, enjoying all the benefits of a modern society: pension plans, labor protection, high living standards. This is tricky because at some point, the “welfare costs” may ruin you if you’re not careful.
- If you play the USA, you must focus entirely on the economy. This is a relatively relaxed and easy way to win once you understand how the economy works: It’s all about growth, growth, growth. In Victoria 3, this ultimately means owning as many provinces as possible that can produce oil, as this resource is limited in the endgame.
- However, if you want to win with Germany, you must strive for world domination. It’s easier than it sounds, but it’s tedious, so tedious.
In Germany, you play relatively peacefully for 30 years, then the world burns
How does one win as Germany? The game begins as “Prussia”, as “Germany” is fragmented at the start of Victoria 3. The strategy as Prussia is:
- Build the economy in the homeland and modernize the state – while forgoing everything that costs “welfare money”.
- Secure colonies in Africa and Oceania and plan initial military campaigns in Africa. Timing is important: You conquer a country and then hold back until the “infamy” value has decreased, then you grab the next country in Africa.
- In Europe, focus entirely on diplomacy: It’s important to research “nationalism” and then bring all the small states in northern Germany into a customs union and improve relations enough for them to join Prussia until you become the “North German Confederation”.
- A little later, you research “Pan-nationalism” and do the same with southern Germany until you become Germany. Militarily, it’s only about being so nice that neither Austria nor France come up with silly ideas.
This is how it works in practice: This strategy leads to enjoying a relatively calm game for 30, 40 years. You don’t want to risk war with a great power because wars against “strong” nations are incredibly expensive and can quickly escalate into “Germany against England, France, Russia, and Austria”, a scenario you don’t want to face.
Ultimately, it’s not even necessary to fight against the world powers during this phase. In Africa and Oceania, you can get all the resources you need: silk, opium, and rubber. The economy in Prussia grows and flourishes. Society becomes more liberal year by year, which helps with growth and attracts immigrants.
What changes then? After about 30, 40 years in Victoria 3, it’s time to switch to “war industry”, giving up on keeping the “infamy” value low, and the game shifts to the military aspect of Victoria 3: You recruit generals, build barracks, ammunition factories, and weapons factories endlessly.
In this route, sooner or later, you will fight with Germany against the whole world. This is only possible if you expand the military as broadly as possible, commanding the maximum of 20 armies with 100+ units.
The key to winning the game in this situation and controlling more than 50% of the world’s population lies in the populous states in Asia, especially in China and Japan. You can also pick up territories in Africa, South America, and Europe.
Small-scale, Victoria 3 works excellently – large-scale, not anymore
Why is Victoria 3 no longer fun at this point? The game becomes extremely sluggish in the endgame. Instead of expanding individual factories or promoting industries as at the beginning, you now rapidly upgrade 200 factories in a newly conquered Chinese province using the quantity keys Ctrl and Shift because there are 6 million peasants who need to be industrialized somehow. After that, you have to painstakingly build railways, and so on. It’s also annoying to convert the conquered provinces to your own industry: You have to constantly go into the economic sub-tab and make 90 fine adjustments.
Or you can save yourself that. Because by that point, you have outpaced the economy of your opponents by a factor of 10, making the game feel arbitrary in the endgame.
Even on a computer for €3,800 with a Ryzen 9 5900 X, Geforce 3080 TI, and all the bells and whistles, the game slows down and lags.
And the wars work in such a way that you make huge territorial demands, but the opponent ultimately retreats at the last moment and leaves you with only the first demanded province. Simultaneously conducting multiple wars is not possible. You also have to deal with annoying and insignificant rebellions, which your massive army easily crushes.
It is advisable to turn enemy nations into mere puppets right away.
Even if a larger war occurs, Victoria 3 cannot shine: The military aspect is, at best, rudimentary: Because once you have positioned the generals, the rest plays out practically automatically – only with sea invasions can you speed up the war and open new fronts.
Both research and social systems are already decades beyond the end of the game, and there’s simply nothing left that could bring a major change to the game.
Is Paradox aware of the problem? Yes, of course. In the community, Victoria 3 is considered “unplayable” around 1900.
Paradox announced months ago that it apparently lies in the “pop fragmentation”: The game eventually has so many population groups to manage that even modern PCs can’t keep up. They have announced they are working on the problem.
However, the incredibly slow and laggy endgame is something that also hampers other Paradox games even after many years: like Crusader Kings and Stellaris.
Playing with Germany shows Victoria 3’s ugly side
This is what’s behind it: Victoria 3 currently has the problem of many “grand strategy games”. This is particularly noticeable in Paradox games (Crusader Kings, Stellaris), but the Civilization games also suffer from it:
- At the beginning, when everything is uncertain and every decision counts, the game is exciting and fun.
- However, once you are clearly on the winning path and just have to finish the “campaign”, it becomes a true test of patience and a trial.
With different goals and countries like France and the USA, such a campaign can be easily completed, but as Germany, which wants to conquer the world, the weaknesses of Victoria 3 become particularly evident.
By the way, it’s also possible to create the “GDR” from Germany, with a flag and everything:
Steam: In Victoria 3, communism is superior to capitalism – some do not like that
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