Hints and Tips for Spain?

[Aachen]

I've decided to do away with my usual RP play style and try to min-max, be gamey, but not go as far as outright cheating.

I've picked Spain as my choice of country to really nail down and I'm wondering what you guys think is a good way to start playing? I've got all the DLCs, no mods.

I've read a few guides and threads and watched a few videos, but I'm open to people's thoughts on early NFs, research priorities and conquest targets.

I'm liking the go after China for manpower and that Gold province in South Zhili tactic, but what are your thoughts on Jahore?

I'm also liking the "Fake War" for militancy to get social reforms tactic, I'm thinking Tunis fits the bill best there. Although, I have been wondering about improving this by having a better suited Upper House for reforms. Now, early game the only two factions that will allow social reforms are Liberals and Conservatives, with militancy of course. Does anyone know the militancy levels the two factions require before they allow social reforms?

My tests show I can get them at 7 militancy with the mixed Upper House you get with the starting Spanish government/Queen. If I let the Carlists win I can have a Ruling Party Upper House, which means I can just pick Liberals or Conservatives. I've assumed the Liberals have a lower militancy threshold.

However if you appoint a Liberal Ruling Party you get an event putting you at appointed Upper House, which swings massively towards Conservative. So, if Liberals are better, is it possible to just stick the Liberals in power just before the Upper House gets rearranged and have 100% Liberal House?

I also watched a tutorial video where it was stated that you can annex Tunis and Madagascar if you sphere them. Is this correct? I think France get an option to annex Madagascar via decision if they are sphered, but I can't find anything for Tunis. Might be a mod thing, but thought I'd ask.

Thanks guys.

 

[Bunnytob]

I've read a few guides and threads and watched a few videos, but I'm open to people's thoughts on early NFs, research priorities and conquest targets.

NFs: Boost clergy to 2% for research. You can go higher if you want for the literacy.
Research: Get the middle three culture techs, with philosophy being key (except for 1870 when you get machineguns instead). The thing with Vicky 2 is that there's a very clear tech hierarchy - the first few techs you should be researching as Spain are Ideological Thought, Idealism, and Medicine. There are very few exceptions.
Conquest: See below.

I'm liking the go after China for manpower and that Gold province in South Zhili tactic, but what are your thoughts on Jahore?

I've never actually considered going after China for their manpower/gold/etc., so that's something that I'll have to try. I find that Johore is a relatively soft target, though it will inevitably lead to conflict with the UK - which might be a good thing, depending on what exactly it is that you want.

I'm also liking the "Fake War" for militancy to get social reforms tactic, I'm thinking Tunis fits the bill best there. Although, I have been wondering about improving this by having a better suited Upper House for reforms. Now, early game the only two factions that will allow social reforms are Liberals and Conservatives, with militancy of course. Does anyone know the militancy levels the two factions require before they allow social reforms?

It's scaled. An upper house with 0% Reactionary/Fascist/AnLib will allow social reforms at 5 militancy, but if you have, say, 20% Reactionary you'll need a mixture of a lot of public support (which is mostly directed at political reforms early on) and up to 7 militancy. (The formula is 10% per rounded down point of militancy. I don't know how public movements work but they need a lot of support, and I think consciousness plays a part too?)
So, short answer: 50% if you have no reactionaries in government, 7 or 8 if you do.

However if you appoint a Liberal Ruling Party you get an event putting you at appointed Upper House, which swings massively towards Conservative. So, if Liberals are better, is it possible to just stick the Liberals in power just before the Upper House gets rearranged and have 100% Liberal House?

Presumably, though getting the Carlists in power (which IIRC removes a bunch of political reforms) and then sticking the liberals in power is sort of counterproductive, especially if it's social reforms that you want. The only parties that will vote for social reforms without militancy are the Socialists (who don't show up until the 1860s), Communists (1870s) and Fascists (when in power; 1905+).

I also watched a tutorial video where it was stated that you can annex Tunis and Madagascar if you sphere them. Is this correct? I think France get an option to annex Madagascar via decision if they are sphered, but I can't find anything for Tunis. Might be a mod thing, but thought I'd ask.

Tunis is always free to be conquered, if you can get there before the Ottomans can sphere it (in which case just bash their head in too) or France eats it (which happens quite often). Madagascar can be annexed by France via event, but only France. What they might have meant is something along the lines of "If you can take Madagascar out of the French Sphere (and get France down to Cordial) then they are open to conquest".

As for other targets of conquest, Morocco is worth trying to annex before the British can sphere them. I have also seen AI Spain go after Arabia in Reconquista 2.0 enough to make it a pattern, with it often taking (Ethiopian) Eritrea and parts of Egypt as collateral damage. It'd definitely help with power projection. I've also seen the AI go after Makran before, though they failed.
Or, if you're ballsy, you can attempt to reclaim your possessions in the Americas. Starting with Florida. Good Luck

 

[Guedes]

Like stated above, NF in clergy for max literacy as possible, higher literacy = more craftsman = more industry = more industry points which are the most difficult to come by. I think 4% clergy is the sweet spot for max literacy gain (you have to check it out, i dont play for some time), so after that just focus on craftsmans.

China = I win button. If you want to trivialize the game go for it. Personally for me its much more satisfactory being the #1 GP at the end of the game without messing with China.

That being said it may be impossible to not take little chunks of china, like Taiwan, since at vanilla they are the almost only world producing RGOS of things like tea and silk, that you may be able to live without, but its very nice to have at least some provinces with. For example if you take just Taiwan you will pretty much satisfy your internal market demand for tea for the whole game. You may want to grab manchuria for coal too.

Speaking of coal: one think to have in mind is to go for coal like a retard since early game, conquering places like Korea and colonizing the coal producing regions in Africa (Nigeria region) is pretty much a must for a country with not so much coal reserves like spain. You will never have too much coal in this game. Seriously its the most important commodity right there with rubber and oil at late game. You could rename Victoria 2 to "Victoria 2: the race for coal game".

Reforms and proxy wars = if you want to do proxy wars (i.e. fake wars) to artificially increase you militancy to pass reforms you should declare wars to unciv nations at the other side of the world (things like Bali or Brunei) and than white piece for the militancy boost (just keep yourself within infamy limit, of course). I dont really remember how many points per conservative vote it gives, but that is easy to check in game, just pump your militancy and keep note of the reform approval.

That being said, you shouldnt be concerned at all to rush pass reforms as an european nation. Early reform rush in important to american nations to attract lots of immigrants early game (mainly outcompeting USA and Brazil with its hidden bonuses for immigration). European nations pops will emigrate to those countries no matter how many reforms you pass. Reforms give some nice bonuses but as an european you will need them to release the pression in mid to late game for the commies/socialists/prettymuchanyonewantingtorevoltfornoreasonatall revolts so just keep your reforms for that otherwise you will be plagued by nonstop revolts at mid/late game.

My advice is go for COAL Rgos around the world and try to grab the most of Africa you can get, giving priority to the coal/rubber provinces of course.

 

[Kovax]

If you're considering land from China, the island of Taiwan gives you a million or so pops, plus a source of tea. It's also a lot easier to hold than a region on the mainland. Johore will likely result in conflict against the UK, so I don't recommend that.

I've taken Atje(?) in a couple of campaigns, then taken the rest of Sumatra from the Netherlands in a later war, giving access to several oil sources once that's researched and discovered.

 

[Dr. Crabnipples]

In my playthrough in spain im actually doing right now, i took some states from mexico, took taiwan, annexed Japan, and took all of gaungxi china. Scramble for africa is over and right now i got wide eyes on conquering france who is listed as #1

 

[brantodb01]

Honestly i don't get why people play without mods.
The base game is so bare, there are mods based off of mods based off of mods that totals to an extra decade of development.

 

[Dr. Crabnipples]

Honestly i don't get why people play without mods.
The base game is so bare, there are mods based off of mods based off of mods that totals to an extra decade of develop

most mods arent perfect, and have flaws. Biggest thing that some people and myself included, might feel as if they are "cheating" or not playing the game as originally intended. Some mods get annoying and are super bloated and add a bunch of things that are unnecisarry. Not only that, its hard to really find the right one since there are so many of them.

 

[brantodb01]

most mods arent perfect, and have flaws. Biggest thing that some people and myself included, might feel as if they are "cheating" or not playing the game as originally intended. Some mods get annoying and are super bloated and add a bunch of things that are unnecisarry. Not only that, its hard to really find the right one since there are so many of them.

Idk, HPM just feels like a straight upgrade of the base game.
Like that's where the game would be if pdx continued development

 

[Aachen]

Honestly i don't get why people play without mods.
The base game is so bare, there are mods based off of mods based off of mods that totals to an extra decade of development.

One day I will give mods a go, I haven't had the game long and I like to give it a go as "Paradox intended" so to say. I mean, surely we all played at least once through Skyrim before Modding it to hell?

 

[Bunnytob]

And as for my 2 cents, I've tried HPM and HFM. I've yet to properly do HPM, but, in my experience, HFM can't even handle the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo correctly, which kinda put me off.

 

[Guedes]

Honestly i don't get why people play without mods.
The base game is so bare, there are mods based off of mods based off of mods that totals to an extra decade of development.

Speaking for me; When i play mods i feel like things only work out because they are more or less streamlined to do so (when they do work out), and not a result of a conscious tactic of messing with several variables to achieve one result like in Vanilla. Mods feel more "artificial" and vanilla feels more "organic", and even so i'm able to achieve better results in vanilla because, even if it is more "organic", i know exactly the results i will achieve with all the variables at hand. because i know pretty much all the variables and the ones that i dont, i also know they dont work as they are supposed to, so i dont mess with them (looking at SoI's). So, after playing all mods that are out there i just kept coming back to vanilla, it just makes much more sense to me while at the same time not feeling streamlined to "work as intended" as they are in mods.

 

[Gurkhal]

I say this. Don't got to war with Portugal. Unless you can obliterate them in one go you'll get, or at least I was, dragged into endless wars or revanchism with Portugal's various allies and you'll never feel secure enough to do anything but wait for the next war with them.

 

[Delterius]

Go For Biologism ASAP. Liberalize ASAP and consider falling to a liberal revolution just to make sure people ask for the Health Care and Education ASAP. Healthcare is most important as its what allows you to bridge the gap with other countries' much bigger and better home populations. Conquer Oyo and Warri to secure Nigeria if you're playing with HPM. Also on HPM is the ability to form Iberia if you enable it in the options but imo its unfinished as you'll have to conquer gibraltar from the UK and they never lose their core on it. Nigeria should be enough to unlock Spain's full industrial potential as you lack coal but have a decent supply of Iron. Conquering Loango and the northern Kongo province should secure you a a lot of rubber but be wary of Congress ultimatum that the Free State belongs to Belgium, Sweden or whatever: ie, have a good to great army ready to fight off France by the 1880s-1890s. Another way to get rubber should be conquering Johore before Britain gets to them and influencing an ottoman free Egypt as they'll eventually annex south sudan. Ideally you should annex Egypt yourself from events.