How to practice for MP?

[unmerged(23946)]

I've never played Vicky MP (Lots of EU2 MP though), but looking forward to do some. With EU2 experience, this statement looks very strange to me.

In EU2, a smaller ally is still a good ally. It can commit an army or two where needed, and most importantly it can draw your enemys attention, and make him engage in a two-front war. A small ally can thus easily tip the balance in an even war. In a Vicky setup, if I were to fight Germany with France, I would be happy to have Sweden helping me, even if they only fielded 40 divisions or so. That is still a major distraction for the German high command. So I would appreciate a small ally very much, and certainly trade lots with them.

Are regular Vicky MP players just diplomatically very different or is there actually some disadvantage in being friendly with smaller nations? Or was this just a tongue-in-cheek statement

I dunno, maybe it was just the people I was playing with. All I know is that in 3 of the MP games I've played so far, if you start out with a low industry and military, you will have 0 diplomatic influence. Since you'll need diplomacy in order to expand, turning a minor into a GP is impossible, unless of course some of the other players are generous, like in the TOW AAR the Swedish player got a lot of help and an alliance with Germany even though he didn't really give much back.

 

[pacal]

the way i practice for international multiplayer is playing a lan multiplayer
install victoria in a friend's pc and play lan, otherwise i have a laptop, i can play whit both and invite a friend to play using my pc