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Victoria 3 - Dev Diary #48 - Unification

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Hello and welcome to yet another Dev Diary for Victoria 3! Today’s topic will be Unification, aka the process of turning one nation into another, ‘greater’ nation, such as the historical example of the Kingdom of Prussia turning into the German Empire in 1871.

When talking about Unification, there’s two distinct types of Unifications - regular Unifications and Major Unifications, the latter of which have some special mechanics associated with them. We’ll go over the former first.

The Unifications you’re able to form range from small one-region nations like Baluchistan to vast ones like India.
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A Regular Unification is, plain and simple, a particular country that can be formed by other countries. These may be countries that have existed in the past (such as Poland), came into being after 1836 (such as Italy), are alt-history countries that we have deemed plausible or interesting enough to include (such as Arabia) or may even be countries that already exist on the map in 1836 but can be re-formed if they were to break up or be conquered (such as the United Provinces of Central America).

In order for one country to become another, there’s a few conditions that must be met:
  • The forming country must share at least one Primary Culture with the Unification country. For example, any country with either South German or North German Primary Culture can form Germany, which has both.
  • The forming country must have a lower country tier than the Unification country. Country tier is an inherent ‘status’ assigned to each country based on how it was historically perceived, and gives Prestige based on how high the tier is. For example, a country that was historically regarded as a Kingdom gets a bit more Prestige than one that was a mere County. This is a fairly weak effect, as the idea that some countries/titles are simply more inherently prestigious than others was falling out of fashion in the game’s era, but serves as a useful way to determine which countries would realistically strive to change their identities, as it’s quite unlikely that Poland would want to turn itself into just Galicia-Volhynia, while Krakow might jump at that opportunity. There is one exception to this rule - a country may form a Major Unification of the same tier, if they are themselves not already a country that counts as a Major Unification. For example, the Empire of Austria can become the Empire of Germany despite not increasing their tier in the process.
  • The forming country must own or be the suzerain of the owner of a sufficient number of the integral State Regions of the Unification Country. Usually, what a Unification country considers to be its integral State Regions maps directly to the Cultural Homelands of its Primary Cultures - so the integral State Regions of Italy is any State Region that is considered to be the Cultural Homeland of either North Italian or South Italian culture.
  • Certain Unifications may require you to research technologies such as Nationalism or Pan-Nationalism to be available.

Once these conditions are achieved, unification is as simple as the press of a button. Once that button is pressed, the forming country will immediately turn into the Unification country, annexing any subjects of theirs that share a primary culture with the Unification country and own land in its integral State Regions in the process. For this reason, it isn’t necessarily required (or even desirable) to outright conquer other countries that are standing in the way of your unification dreams - subjugating them lets you count their land towards the required goal, and allows you to integrate them into your unified country with less Infamy than you would otherwise get.

With seven of the nine integral Australian State Regions under their control, New South Wales are ready to proclaim themselves as the united Dominion of Australia
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That’s about all there is to know about regular Unifications. So then, how do Major Unifications differ? Quite a bit, actually! Major Unifications are countries such as Germany and Italy, which historically had strong nationalist movements agitating for their creation from the disparate polities they were divided into. At the start of the game, these differ little from regular Unifications, but once any country sharing a primary culture with the Unification Country researches the Nationalism Society tech, new mechanics called Unification Candidates and Unification Diplomatic Plays come into effect.

Unification Candidates are, quite simply, countries that aspire to unify the aforementioned disparate polities under a single flag, the clear historical example here being the Kingdom of Prussia’s ambition to unify Germany. In order for a country to be a Unification Candidate, the country must be at least a Major Power. However, if there are other (potential or current) Unification Candidates that are Great Powers, then Major Powers are not considered to be valid Unification Candidates as they are simply seen as too weak by comparison.

There can be up to 3 Unification Candidates at any given time, and if there are more potential candidates than this, then the 3 with the highest Prestige are chosen. It is also possible for there to simply be no Unification Candidates at all if no potential formant is at least a Major Power. As power rankings change, so do the candidates - any candidate which falls below the rank threshold ceases being a candidate, and any potential candidate that achieves it becomes a candidate (assuming there is a free slot or they can beat out an existing candidate in raw prestige).

Prussia and Austria each have a handful of supporters for their bid to unify Germany, but most of the minor German countries remain uncommitted.
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So then, now that I’ve told you all about how to become a Unification Candidate, what do you do once you actually are one? Well, most importantly, you can now begin to receive the support of non-candidate countries sharing a primary culture with the Unification Country - aka, any country which has the potential to be a candidate but doesn’t make the cut. These countries can instead choose to throw their weight behind one of the existing Candidates, effectively telling the world that they would like to become part of something greater than themselves.

For the purposes of holding the necessary number of integral State Regions, any Unification Candidate gets to hold the land held by countries supporting them, so if both the Mecklenburgian Duchies back Prussia’s candidacy, this means that Prussia gets to count Mecklenburg towards the number of North/South German State Regions they need.

Furthermore, Unification Candidates get access to two special Diplomatic Plays, which can be launched from the Nation Formation panel. These are called ‘National Leadership’ and ‘Unification’, and are modelled largely on the historical process by which Germany came into being.

National Leadership is only relevant if there are multiple Unification Candidates, and is effectively one candidate challenging another for supremacy, as happened in the Austro-Prussian War of 1866. This play always targets another Unification Candidate with both sides having as a primary wargoal to force the other to renounce their candidacy. Supporters come into play here, as any country pledged to support one candidate or the other will automatically back them in the play, and fight on their side should things escalate into war.

Having amassed a large number of supporters, Prussia is poised to challenge Austria for German Leadership and become the sole Unification Candidate remaining
prussialeadershipplay.png

When a Leadership wargoal is enforced, the defeated party will become permanently disqualified as a Unification Candidate, which also lowers the maximum number of candidates for that Unification Country by 1 (to ensure that there is not simply an endless number of new candidates rising up to challenge the dominant candidate). In other words, if Prussia defeats Austria as happened historically, then Austria will no longer be a Unification candidate, and unless another German country such as Bavaria has been able to rise to Great Power status, Prussia will be left as the sole candidate standing.

It’s important to note that Austria being disqualified from candidacy for Germany, does not actually prevent them from ever forming Germany, but it does mean they can no longer use the tools available to candidates and so would have to rely on brute force to achieve that end.

When there is only one Candidate (either because there was only one to begin with, or all others have been defeated), the Unification play can be used. This is a special play that involves every non-Great Power country that shares a primary culture with the Unification Country and owns land in its integral State Regions. As before, any of these countries that support the candidate will automatically be on their side in the play, while all others (regardless of who they might have supported or not supported in the past) will be on the opposing side, with the strongest among them as war leader. Just as with any other Diplomatic Play (including National Leadership) any country with an interest in the region where it’s taking place may butt in.

In a Unification Play, the attacker is angling for no less than the full annexation of all other (non Great Power) countries on the potential target list, including their own supporters (who may end up fighting to be annexed). As such, it may seem like there is little reason for a player country who isn’t a Unification candidate themselves to support a candidate, but (assuming your goal isn't annexation of your own country) there is one valid reason to do so: To play for time. Supporting a unification candidate is very likely to make them friendlier towards you, which means that if you’re playing as Anhalt, surrounded on all sides by Prussia, it can be a valid strategy to throw your support behind them to avoid an ‘intervention’ in your country, and abandon that support once you’ve secured some strong allies.

With Austria now out of the contest, German unification seems within Prussia’s grasp… if they can find a way to avoid or overcome French and Russian intervention
prussiasoleunificationplay.png

That’s all for today! Join us next week as we turn to the topic of Characters with another dev diary by our lead content designer and AAR aficionado, neondt.
 
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What happens to the absorbed interest groups and political parties? Do they merge with their equivalents on a larger scale? What about discrepancy in laws? Can you opt to merge as a unitary/federal state? What about the kings in other German states if you become the German Empire as Prussia?
 
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Looking at the Unify Germany diplomatic play, Luxembourg is in a personal union with the Netherlands at the start of the game, and going by history will remain so until the Netherlands end up with a female ruler or the house of Orange-Nassau is deposed in either country. I'm sure there will be people in Germany and Luxembourg that will want Luxembourg to be part of that unification, but unless the personal union is broken that seems unlikely to happen.

Also, while nations can be removed from candidacy for unifications through diplomatic plays and wars, is it possible for nations who have the right traits (North or South German primary culture, for German unification) to throw their hat in the ring?
 
Is there no option for states to not want to unify at all? IIRC Bavaria really didn't want to for quite a while.

Hyderabad also didn't want to be part of India (and it seems silly that you haven't put India/China into the framework.
 
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1. Is it planned to add some "secret" formables like Babylon in Victoria II?

2. Would there be some USSR-style formables for if you have more than one friendly communist country in the same region? The way of how USSR is just communist Russian Empire in Vicky 2 is a bit odd given that irl USSR was formed by 4 socialist republics on the ashes of Russian Empire. I was wondering if the same thing could happened between several communist countries in Europe, Asia, South America, etc. (E.g., Communist Serbia, Bulgaria, Albania and Greece form a union in the Balkans).
 
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To me it makes sense to include New Zealand in what what *could* be unified into Australia. Historically it was part of New South Wales until 1841, and therefore at the start of Victoria 3. It doesn't mean that you *need* NZ, if you already have enough province without that. And because it is a regular unification you can unify your bit on your side, it won't annex NZ in the process if you don't own NZ (which after 1841 you shouldn't, except if the British Empire refused to make them a separate colony).
For Australasia you should have New Guinea and a few islands as well, but then the problem is that this geographical concept doesn't correspond to a cultural union, while unifications in Victoria 3 seem to be based entirely on cultures.
I would point out NZ wasn't ever really governed by NSW, just claimed. It became British in 1840, under a lieutenant governor of NSW, and became a colony of it's own a year later.
In 1836 Britain didnt have sovereignty over New Zealand. The lawlessness of the would be settlers was part of the reason for the Treaty of Waitangi. The best argument for this setup is what if NZ joined Australia alt history, imo.
IIRC, when Federation was being considered an offer was extended for New Zealand to become part of the Commonwealth of Australia with no change in name on the cards if it were to happen.
Yep, that's right.
Though distance, native policy, NZs Pacific empire dreams, and good old fashioned snobbery meant unification wasn't likely.
Personally I dont mind it, but if the system could change during game, I'd have Australian homeland over NZ be removed at some point.
 
Why didn't PDX choose to make all unifications Major Unifications?
I get that some unifications were more political then others in OTL but isn't that something you have to find out in your run? Maybe the unification of Poland is way more political than the unification of Italy in that universe.
 
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2. Would there be some USSR-style formables for if you have more than one friendly communist country in the same region? The way of how USSR is just communist Russian Empire in Vicky 2 is a bit odd given that irl USSR was formed by 4 socialist republics on the ashes of Russian Empire. I was wondering if the same thing could happened between several communist countries in Europe, Asia, South America, etc. (E.g., Communist Serbia, Bulgaria, Albania and Greece form a union in the Balkans).

This would be neat. Especially if the entire World succumbed to the glorious world revolution and unite the world into communist society. This also means tough the dissolve the state as communism would be a stateless society. So like a game over, you win button :D
 
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2. Would there be some USSR-style formables for if you have more than one friendly communist country in the same region? The way of how USSR is just communist Russian Empire in Vicky 2 is a bit odd given that irl USSR was formed by 4 socialist republics on the ashes of Russian Empire.

That just so happened to have almost identical borders, be run by the same people who had been leading Russia the day before the USSR was declared…

Nope, not a rebranding of Russia, not at all comrade!
 
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Will there be a "re-unification" of Portugal and Brazil?
only through conquest I hope I don't think it should be diplomatic option
 
i've a question : if you make an unification - or play an already unified country at the start- can you 'diplomatically' annex the states you are lacking , if you can sphere them later?
some alt-history of getting some states claimed irl but never achived?
 
That just so happened to have almost identical borders, be run by the same people who had been leading Russia the day before the USSR was declared…

Nope, not a rebranding of Russia, not at all comrade!
Uhm, no? Republics under USSR had completely different legal status compared to Imperial time. They were like states in the USA (less autonomous though), each republic had their own administrative apparatus separate from All-Union administrative apparatus. In its early period USSR was more like a confederacy of sovereign states like moden day European Union. Later on, after the interfaction fightings about the legal status of the republics the Union has been centralized into a federation. So, I guess, you just don't know much about Soviet Union administration given that you really think that it's the same thing as Imperial Russia. It definitely was an entirely different administrative entity. It's like to think Germany is just a rebranding of HRE or New York state is a rebranding of Iroquois Confederacy.
 
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Also, sorry if it was already answered before:

1. Would it be possible to create puppet formables like in Victoria 2? E.g. if you puppet or sphere regions that are required to form Yugoslavia as a non-South Slavic country you can transform all your puppets and spheres into a single puppet Yugoslavia.

2. Would it be possible to create formable colonies in Africa? In some mods in Victoria 2 there are a strict division between pre-colonization era African states that exists from the start (e.g. Ashanti, Sokoto, Dahomey) and African states created after colonization (e.g. Namibia, Sierra-Leone, Chad, Nigeria) which don't exists but can be released.
 
Uhm, no? Republics under USSR had completely different legal status compared to Imperial time. They were like states in the USA (less autonomous though), each republic had their own administrative apparatus separate from All-Union administrative apparatus. In its early period USSR was more like a confederacy of sovereign states like moden day European Union. Later on, after the interfaction fightings about the legal status of the republics the Union has been centralized into a federation. So, I guess, you just don't know much about Soviet Union administration given that you really think that it's the same thing as Imperial Russia. It definitely was an entirely different administrative entity. It's like to think Germany is just a rebranding of HRE or New York state is a rebranding of Iroquois Confederacy.

I never said Imperial Russia, just Russia.

I’m sure its just a coincidence that Lenin was the Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the Russian SFSR and the Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the Soviet Union, right?
 
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How would getting Alsaß Lothringen play out as germany then? I mean Frnace doenst need to intervene in the play (if germany even does a play as it seems likly that you as the player will just annex everyone after Austria falls out as soon as they support you) I would think that you need to start a sepoerate war but that feels a bit off. Also what about lands held by other ex candidates, they dont need to oppose me I would think and they would probably not be annex in a unification play (otherwise austria would always get annexed), so would prussia just gain a permamnent wargoal to get the german lands from austria? can minors later join a major unification tag by asking to be annexed, what happens to lands of minor countrys that are not seen as cultural hearthlands, will they just loose them, will they be a puppet, what happens to great power puppets (if a great power can be the puppet of another great power) and lastly is there a way to force a great power to join the unification (or major if only minors would be annexed)?

sorry for the many questions but the DD is a bit vague at times, I overall think this sounds amazing but I woudl really be interested with these edge cases. Also would it be possible to add nations like India and a EU after Pan nationalism? (maybe with restrictions where everyone that may hold any hearthland needs to have a very positive opinion and be in some sort of economic alliance, idk it would be great for both in my opinion)
 
This is at least partially handled by AI, as the idea is that more nationalist IGs would be more inclined to support unification if in government. I agree that we can do more here though - such as have pro-unification Pops become radical if you refuse to get behind the formation of Germany.
Wouldnt it be smarter to have it as a requirement for a nation to join this major unification event as a participant (be it a candidate or minor) to have this Idiology in power, while having them agigatete if not in power (if the process in under way), with additional agitation but a bit less if they dont support a candidiate once they are in power, lastly it would be cool if rebels spawned from such movements would join the candidate that their country likes more (symbolising their will to join) that way a german republic could be formed if the 1848 rebellions (if tehy are modeled as a journal entry), succed in a few country by spawning a german republic state in the first state that falls, with every other succeeding rebellion adding their land to that new republic (the new state would only be spawning during the 1848 jounral entry for german states), they would also only add german core states, so if austria falls to them they would release all other nations just as puppets or free nations idk the historical plan for that.
 
Why didn't PDX choose to make all unifications Major Unifications?
I get that some unifications were more political then others in OTL but isn't that something you have to find out in your run? Maybe the unification of Poland is way more political than the unification of Italy in that universe.

My guess:

Minor unifications are geographic in nature and a continuation of what's been going on for most of history.

Major unifications are based on nationalist/pan-nationalist developments that generate claims based on bringing all homelands of a people together for self-determination.

In Polish example, Krakow to Galicia-Volhynia would probably include some Ukrainian pop homeland too (a geographic unit irrespective of cultural boundaries), whereas Unification of Poland would include all Polish homeland (culture-based irrespective of current political borders).

Functionally, I suppose, minors/majors need an avenue for expansion prior to the spread of nationalist consciousness (tech/literacy mechanics) before arriving at the greater power politics of nation building and Concert-of-Europe-breaking changes to the world order.

Unless a great power has a declared interest in the region (or allied), their focus is most likely elsewhere.
 
I'm curious about the effects if one made "United Earth" a major unification tag, which covers every province in the world... A big battle royale where the winner takes it all :D
 
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