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*** The most recent expansion makes this more likely, as any area with sufficiently high nationalism will eventually create a crisis, which will allow a new nation to form without any war.
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*** Though fixed in a recent patch, since the US gets a core on all of what is now the US through an event. Though somewhat unfixed with the newest expansion, where it's more common for the UK to take Oregon or Washington.
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Technically they can take any of them. There\'s a slight chance of them offering it to the Papal States or Two Sicilies if they\'re Great Powers, but S-P is the default.
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* BadGuysDoTheDirtyWork: A rather "gamey" tactic by players who wish to change their government type is to encourage a specific type of rebels and then let them take over your country and enforce their demands - the player takes a prestige hit, but it's not the end of the world. In fact, the game itself uses this technique with Garibaldi and his Redshirt army, whom the game treats as ordinary rebels that, if successful in taking over the Two Sicilies, unite Italy under Sardinia-Piedmont.
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* BadGuysDoTheDirtyWork: A rather "gamey" tactic by players who wish to change their government type is to encourage a specific type of rebels and then let them take over your country and enforce their demands - the player takes a prestige hit, but it's not the end of the world. In fact, the game itself uses this technique with Garibaldi and his Redshirt army, whom the game treats as ordinary rebels that, if successful in taking over the Two Sicilies, any other Italian state, unite Italy under Sardinia-Piedmont.
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* On April 16th 2013 a second ExpansionPack was released, titled ''Heart of Darkness''. It overhauled the colonization system, expanded naval combat, balanced the land combat, made twinges to the industry system, and added a more in-depth diplomacy system for Great Powers. Specifically, "crises" can now develop in high-tension areas (such as Greece demanding land from the Ottoman Empire), prompting all Great Powers to pick a side to support, or stand aside. These situations can escalate until one side backs down, or a Great War is triggered between both sides. [[hottip:*:[[FridgeBrilliance Which, if you think about it, isn't too far]] [[WorldWarOne from what really happened...]]]]
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* On April 16th 2013 a second ExpansionPack was released, titled ''Heart of Darkness''. It overhauled the colonization system, expanded naval combat, balanced the land combat, made twinges to the industry system, and added a more in-depth diplomacy system for Great Powers. Specifically, "crises" can now develop in high-tension areas (such as Greece demanding land from the Ottoman Empire), prompting all Great Powers to pick a side to support, or stand aside. These situations can escalate until one side backs down, or a Great War is triggered between both sides. [[hottip:*:[[FridgeBrilliance Which, if you think about it, isn't too far]] [[WorldWarOne far from what really happened...]]]]
]]
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* WorldWarOne: Usually would not happen in the first game, except for the scenario designed to specifically simulate it. However, the sequel now has generic 'Great Wars' which trigger whenever a war between at least two Great Powers on both sides occur. These cannot easily be ended, and the penalty for losing a Great War is a massive reduction in military forces and repayment of war debts. The 'crisis' system added in the ''Heart of Darkness' expansion now also better simulates scenarios that can lead to Great Wars very similar to WorldWarOne.
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A sequel to the original game, imaginatively titled ''Victoria 2'', was released on August 13th 2010, turning this Paradox title into a new series. One major ExpansionPack has been released so far, with second in the works:
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A sequel to the original game, imaginatively titled ''Victoria 2'', was released on August 13th 2010, turning this Paradox title into a new series. One Two major ExpansionPack has expansion packs have been released so far, with second in the works:released:
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* On January 31st 2013 a second ExpansionPack was announced, titled ''Heart of Darkness''. Released now, it will overhauled the colonisation system, expand naval combat, and add a more in-depth diplomacy system for Great Powers.
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* On January 31st April 16th 2013 a second ExpansionPack was announced, released, titled ''Heart of Darkness''. Released now, it will It overhauled the colonisation colonization system, expand expanded naval combat, balanced the land combat, made twinges to the industry system, and add added a more in-depth diplomacy system for Great Powers.
Powers. Specifically, "crises" can now develop in high-tension areas (such as Greece demanding land from the Ottoman Empire), prompting all Great Powers to pick a side to support, or stand aside. These situations can escalate until one side backs down, or a Great War is triggered between both sides. [[hottip:*:[[FridgeBrilliance Which, if you think about it, isn't too far]] [[WorldWarOne from what really happened...]]]]
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* PuppetState: Satellites (civilized) and Dominions (uncivilized), using the same mechanic as in most PI games. As of "Heart of Darkness", the AI tends to release these more often and become more efficient rather than remaining monolithic and bureaucratically choked.
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* On January 31st 2013 a second ExpansionPack was announced, titled ''Heart of Darkness''. Set for release in mid-2013, it will overhaul the colonisation system, expand naval combat, and add a more in-depth diplomacy system for Great Powers.
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* On January 31st 2013 a second ExpansionPack was announced, titled ''Heart of Darkness''. Set for release in mid-2013, Released now, it will overhaul overhauled the colonisation system, expand naval combat, and add a more in-depth diplomacy system for Great Powers.
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** You might just have a ship sunk by a [[TwentyThousandLeaguesUnderTheSea certain submarine]].
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** You might just have a ship sunk by a [[TwentyThousandLeaguesUnderTheSea [[Literature/TwentyThousandLeaguesUnderTheSea certain submarine]].
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** That said, they also made choices like having the British republican flag be identical to the monarchical one rather than using the flag most commonly in use by 19th century British republicans.
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** That said, they also made choices like having the British republican flag be identical to the monarchical one rather than using the flag most commonly in use by 19th century British republicans.[[labelnote:Note]]Though this might be because said flag is nearly identical to that of Hungary.[[/labelnote]]
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** Taken to ridiculous extremes in countries with multiethnic populations like Austria and the Ottomans, which, by the time of 1900, usually has completely marginalized all their minority populations and replaced them with their primary culture. When looking at the nationalities tab, it's often common to see half of Europe covered in Germans.
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** USA in first game got special, country-specific stat. It was not only one of major factors attracting people, but also allowing US to assimilate virtually any kind and amound of immigrants, pronto. It was almost impossible to see non-American [=POPs=] in States. This was heavily nerfed in second game, but still USA got sizable advantage over other nations when it comes to assimilation, thanks to few flags set by decisions.
** Taken to ridiculous extremes in countries with multiethnic populations like Austria and the Ottomans, which, by the time of 1900, usually has completely marginalized all their minority populations and replaced them with their primary culture. When looking at the nationalities tab, it's often common to see half of Europe covered in Germans. This was mostly a result of nerfing both Austria and the Ottomans in terms of their acceptable cultures, thus assimilation kicked over large chunks of population who were before left intact. Second game got enough factors to halt almost any conversion, especially in those two countries.
** Taken to ridiculous extremes in countries with multiethnic populations like Austria and the Ottomans, which, by the time of 1900, usually has completely marginalized all their minority populations and replaced them with their primary culture. When looking at the nationalities tab, it's often common to see half of Europe covered in Germans. This was mostly a result of nerfing both Austria and the Ottomans in terms of their acceptable cultures, thus assimilation kicked over large chunks of population who were before left intact. Second game got enough factors to halt almost any conversion, especially in those two countries.
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* DarkestAfrica: Treated as a malaria-infested uncivilized hellhole populated entirely by subhuman savages that only machine guns can tame - in other words, exactly like the European powers of the time saw it.
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* DarkestAfrica: Treated as a malaria-infested uncivilized hellhole populated entirely by subhuman savages that only machine guns can tame - in other words, exactly like the European powers of the time saw it. In second game it's actually impossible to colonize 95% of Africa before your army got machine guns.
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* EliteMooks: Guards in ''Victoria II'' are a form of this -- they're much stronger than standard infantry, and have a higher reconnaissance value than cavalry, but are expensive and can only be recruited from your primary and accepted cultures.
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* EliteMooks: Guards in ''Victoria II'' are a form of this -- they're much stronger than standard infantry, and have a higher reconnaissance value than cavalry, but are expensive and can only be recruited from your primary and accepted cultures. French AI just ''loves'' to build them, never looking on the costs.
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** Panjab starts out as one of the few, yet largest, Indian minor states not a puppet of Britain, and thus stands the best possible chance of eventually working itself up to GP status and kicking Britain out of India. The AI will ''never'' accomplish this, but a skilled player can actually unite India.
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** Panjab starts out as one of the few, yet largest, Indian minor states not a puppet of Britain, and thus stands the best possible chance of eventually working itself up to GP status and kicking Britain out of India. The AI will ''never'' accomplish this, but a skilled player can actually unite India.India around 1880.
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* PaperTiger: China
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* PaperTiger: ChinaChina before becoming civilized nation.
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*** Though it's much easier to just declare war at the very beginning, humiliate them, and watch them slowly climb back up the ladder. Until, of course, you annex them for the glory of Großdeutschland
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*** Though they can still get this no matter where they are stationed, and are just peachy as long as you aren't putting them in a province about their attrition limits.
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** In the second one, they show up when someone discovers Karl Marx. Presumably in some sort of vat in a laboratory.
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* BrickJoke: In the sequel, there's an event called Comet Sighted. At least with the expansion pack, there are two options, which both increase research points, one called "Thank God we live in such enlightened times." A reference to EU3, which has an event with an option added each expansion, which all give you negative stability points, also called Comet Sighted. If you decide to explore the Valley of the Kings, though, there eventually pops up an event which says your people think it is cursed. One of the responses is "What next, comet sighted?"
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** If you're France, Britain, or the United States, you might have a ship sunk by a [[TwentyThousandLeaguesUnderTheSea certain submarine]]. It can happen for other nations, too, but it's less likely (the ship-sinking will happen regularly once certain conditions are met, until a connected event-chain is finished. France, Britain and the United States have a lower Mean Time To Happen for the ship-sinking event than other nations, so they're liable to have more ships sunk until the event-chain is finished).
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** If you're France, Britain, or the United States, you You might just have a ship sunk by a [[TwentyThousandLeaguesUnderTheSea certain submarine]]. It can happen for other nations, too, but it's less likely (the ship-sinking will happen regularly once certain conditions are met, until a connected event-chain is finished. France, Britain and the United States have a lower Mean Time To Happen for the ship-sinking event than other nations, so they're liable to have more ships sunk until the event-chain is finished).submarine]].
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** If you're France, Britain, or the United States, you might have a ship sunk by a [[TwentyThousandLeaguesUnderTheSea certain submarine]].
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** If you're France, Britain, or the United States, you might have a ship sunk by a [[TwentyThousandLeaguesUnderTheSea certain submarine]]. It can happen for other nations, too, but it's less likely (the ship-sinking will happen regularly once certain conditions are met, until a connected event-chain is finished. France, Britain and the United States have a lower Mean Time To Happen for the ship-sinking event than other nations, so they're liable to have more ships sunk until the event-chain is finished).
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cleaned up AHD entry
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* On February 2nd 2012, an ExpansionPack called ''A House Divided'' was released, expanding the game to include, among other things, new ways to influence other nations and generate Casus Belli, new ways to control the population and government, new map modes and a new starting point in 1861 right after the beginning of the American Civil War. [[FelonyMisdemeanor Most importantly]], this expansion recolored Prussia from a sickly yellow to the proper Prussian blue.
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* On February 2nd 2012, an ExpansionPack called ''A House Divided'' was released, expanding released. Ostensibly focused on the game to include, among other things, AmericanCivilWar, it added a 1861 start date and made the Confederacy less doomed. Additionally, many new mechanics were added, such as new ways to influence other nations and generate Casus Belli, new ways to control the population a system of political movements and government, repression, new map modes and a new starting point in 1861 right after the beginning of the American Civil War. interface improvements, and [[FelonyMisdemeanor Most most importantly]], this expansion recolored Prussia from a sickly yellow to the proper Prussian blue.
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added \"Heart of Darkness\" expansion entry
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A sequel to the original game, imaginatively titled ''Victoria 2'', was released on August 13th 2010, turning this Paradox title into a new series. On February 2nd 2012, an ExpansionPack to the sequel called ''A House Divided'' was released, expanding the game to include, among other things, new ways to influence other nations and generate Casus Belli, new ways to control the population and government, new map modes and a new starting point in 1861 right after the beginning of the American Civil War. [[FelonyMisdemeanor Most importantly]], this expansion recolored Prussia from a sickly yellow to the proper Prussian blue.
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A sequel to the original game, imaginatively titled ''Victoria 2'', was released on August 13th 2010, turning this Paradox title into a new series. One major ExpansionPack has been released so far, with second in the works:
* On February 2nd 2012, an ExpansionPackto the sequel called ''A House Divided'' was released, expanding the game to include, among other things, new ways to influence other nations and generate Casus Belli, new ways to control the population and government, new map modes and a new starting point in 1861 right after the beginning of the American Civil War. [[FelonyMisdemeanor Most importantly]], this expansion recolored Prussia from a sickly yellow to the proper Prussian blue.
blue.
* On January 31st 2013 a second ExpansionPack was announced, titled ''Heart of Darkness''. Set for release in mid-2013, it will overhaul the colonisation system, expand naval combat, and add a more in-depth diplomacy system for Great Powers.
* On February 2nd 2012, an ExpansionPack
* On January 31st 2013 a second ExpansionPack was announced, titled ''Heart of Darkness''. Set for release in mid-2013, it will overhaul the colonisation system, expand naval combat, and add a more in-depth diplomacy system for Great Powers.
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You cannot avert things hard.
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* ApatheticCitizens: Averted hard. It takes quite a bit for citizens to actually take arms against the government, but its usually about lots of little things (unemployment, political repression, nationalism) rather than one big thing that upsets them.
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* ApatheticCitizens: Averted hard.Averted. It takes quite a bit for citizens to actually take arms against the government, but its usually about lots of little things (unemployment, political repression, nationalism) rather than one big thing that upsets them.
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As the game covers most of the [[VictorianBritain Victorian]] and [[EdwardianEngland Edwardian]] eras but displays the entire globe it will naturally cover TheAmericanCivilWar, TheWildWest and WorldWarOne. Since an important part of the game is European Imperialism, DarkestAfrica comes into play at times. Also covers the very end of JidaiGeki.
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As the game covers most of the [[VictorianBritain Victorian]] and [[EdwardianEngland [[TheEdwardianEra Edwardian]] eras but displays the entire globe it will naturally cover TheAmericanCivilWar, TheWildWest and WorldWarOne. Since an important part of the game is European Imperialism, DarkestAfrica comes into play at times. Also covers the very end of JidaiGeki.
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''Victoria: An Empire Under The Sun'', affectionately known as "[[FanNickName Vicky]]" among its fans, is a complicated RealTimeStrategy / TurnBasedStrategy FourX game created and published in 2003 by Creator/ParadoxInteractive.
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''Victoria: An Empire Under The Sun'', affectionately known as "[[FanNickName "[[FanNickname Vicky]]" among its fans, is a complicated RealTimeStrategy / TurnBasedStrategy FourX game created and published in 2003 by Creator/ParadoxInteractive.
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* NotSoHarmless: Excluding Prussia and Austria, most Germany countries are rather weak and will usually end up just being annexed by whatever powerful neighbor happens to border them. However occasionally some lucky German nation will expand enough and can form either the Southern German Federation, or the Northern German federation. Both of which are usually ranked as great powers in the game and can (when they're not controlled by them) match Prussia and Austria in status and power.
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* NotSoHarmless: NotSoHarmlessVillain: Excluding Prussia and Austria, most Germany countries are rather weak and will usually end up just being annexed by whatever powerful neighbor happens to border them. However occasionally some lucky German nation will expand enough and can form either the Southern German Federation, or the Northern German federation. Both of which are usually ranked as great powers in the game and can (when they're not controlled by them) match Prussia and Austria in status and power.
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* BoisterousWeakling: China. It (and its substates in the expansion) starts out with an absolutely enormous population and huge armies to draw on. Yet, when actually engaged in battle, folds over like a paper tiger.
** To a lesser extent, the Ottoman Empire, which starts out as a Great Power and gradually declines as its highly illiterate and conservative society refuses to modernize with the rest of Europe and eventually becomes a pushover.
** To a lesser extent, the Ottoman Empire, which starts out as a Great Power and gradually declines as its highly illiterate and conservative society refuses to modernize with the rest of Europe and eventually becomes a pushover.
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** A POP Divided is the largest and most mainstream, adding tons of new economic options, new political options, new countries, new events and event trees, and generally smoothing the game out a lot.
** Includes the formation of Greater Germany if the player can defeat and sphere Austria.
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** Japan starts out as an uncivilized nation just like the rest of East Asia, but gets a huge bonus to its westernization ability. This, along with its relatively large population, means that it can become civilized relatively quickly and immediately become at least a secondary power with an ideal position to dominate China and Southeast Asia.
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** Japan starts out as an uncivilized nation just like the rest of East Asia, but gets a huge bonus to its westernization ability. This, along with its relatively large population, means that it can become civilized relatively quickly and immediately become at least a secondary power with an ideal position to dominate China and Southeast Asia. Asia.
** Panjab starts out as one of the few, yet largest, Indian minor states not a puppet of Britain, and thus stands the best possible chance of eventually working itself up to GP status and kicking Britain out of India. The AI will ''never'' accomplish this, but a skilled player can actually unite India.
** Panjab starts out as one of the few, yet largest, Indian minor states not a puppet of Britain, and thus stands the best possible chance of eventually working itself up to GP status and kicking Britain out of India. The AI will ''never'' accomplish this, but a skilled player can actually unite India.
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* WeHaveReserves: Played literally with the 'mobilization' option that lets you conscript a large amount of ordinary workers into your army, ostensibly as canon fodder since they aren't nearly as effective as regular soldiers.
** The AI typically like to group soldiers into gigantic armies, which often times causes horrible attrition on long marches through territory that can't support so many soldiers at once. Combat also usually devolves into throwing huge amounts of armies into one battle trying to overwhelm the enemy. In fact, it's the only way uncivs even stand a ''chance'' against the Great Powers.
** China in particular suffers this most of the game, as trying to fight the Great Powers results in your armies dying by the thousands just to kill hundreds of their guys.
** The AI typically like to group soldiers into gigantic armies, which often times causes horrible attrition on long marches through territory that can't support so many soldiers at once. Combat also usually devolves into throwing huge amounts of armies into one battle trying to overwhelm the enemy. In fact, it's the only way uncivs even stand a ''chance'' against the Great Powers.
** China in particular suffers this most of the game, as trying to fight the Great Powers results in your armies dying by the thousands just to kill hundreds of their guys.
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* ArtificialStupidity: Something of a problem in ''Victoria II''. The capitalist [=AI=] [[YouFailEconomicsForever loves to build luxury clothes factories in countries where nobody can afford them]], while other countries will happily continue to research philosophy while you're slaughtering their armies with machine guns and poison gas. To add to this, the AI frequently marches its soldiers in massive columns through harsh deserts and freezing mountains, leading to some truly horrific attrition levels which can leave armies decimated before they even ''see'' battle. Watching armys lose significant numbers of soldiers before even crossing the border is not that uncommon.
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* ArtificialStupidity: Something of a problem in ''Victoria II''. The capitalist [=AI=] [[YouFailEconomicsForever loves to build luxury clothes factories in countries where nobody can afford them]], while other countries will happily continue to research philosophy while you're slaughtering their armies with machine guns and poison gas. To add to this, the AI frequently marches its soldiers in massive columns through harsh deserts and freezing mountains, leading to some truly horrific attrition levels which can leave armies decimated before they even ''see'' battle. Watching armys armies lose significant numbers of soldiers before even crossing the border is not that uncommon.
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** Taken to ridiculous extremes in countries with multiethnic populations like Austria and the Ottomans, which, by the time of 1900, usually has completely marginalized all their minority populations and replaced them with their primary culture. When looking at the nationalities tab, it's often common to see half of Europe covered in Germans.
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* TheBritishEmpire: One of the principal world powers. Starts ranked at #1, and will generally stay there unless something catastrophic happens to them, such as revolution or player interference.
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** Unification and Balkanization are typically rare given that the AI never puts drastic effort into its wars. Expect countries to only go to war for one wargoal and quit despite possibly being able to tack on more if they stayed with the war.
* TheBritishEmpire: One of the principal world powers. Starts ranked at #1,and they will generally typically stay there unless something catastrophic happens to them, such as revolution for the entire game if left untouched, generally only being replaced by the US, and rarely France or player interference.China (if it westernizes). Removing it from the Great Powers is however, a very difficult feat for any player.
* TheBritishEmpire: One of the principal world powers. Starts ranked at #1,
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* GreatOffscreenWar: The Napoleonic wars are referenced occasionally in some events as a ground-shattering event that brought forth the ideas of Liberalism to the Ancien Régimes of Europe.
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* GreatOffscreenWar: The Napoleonic wars are referenced occasionally in some events as a ground-shattering event that brought forth the ideas of Liberalism to the Ancien Ancient Régimes of Europe.
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* VestigialEmpire: This can happen to an especially unfortunate nation over the century of gameplay. Even yours, if you're really that bad/lazy.
** The Ottoman Empire ends up like this in nearly every game. They start the game as a great power but soon after lose their status and get put into another empire's sphere.
** The Ottoman Empire ends up like this in nearly every game. They start the game as a great power but soon after lose their status and get put into another empire's sphere.
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* VestigialEmpire: This Something that rarely happens, as the AI typically won't war against other nations enough to do it (since it is avoiding a high infamy score which gives everyone free containment casus belli against it). But it can happen to an especially unfortunate nation over the century of gameplay. Even yours, anybody, even your own country if you're really that bad/lazy.
** The Ottoman Empire ends up likebad/lazy. Bolivia often has this in nearly every game. They start the game as a great power but soon after lose their status and get put into another empire's sphere.happen to it.
** The Ottoman Empire ends up like
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** State Planned economies almost always fail, inevitably because factories end up unable to buy the resources to make goods to sell. You typically end up with large amounts of factories employing people to sit on their hands. Even if there's huge demand for goods from the factory, they won't get made.
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Rename
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A sequel to the original game, imaginatively titled ''Victoria 2'', was released on August 13th 2010, turning this Paradox title into a new series. On February 2nd 2012, an ExpansionPack to the sequel called ''A House Divided'' was released, expanding the game to include, among other things, new ways to influence other nations and generate Casus Belli, new ways to control the population and government, new map modes and a new starting point in 1861 right after the beginning of the American Civil War. [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotHeinous Most importantly]], this expansion recolored Prussia from a sickly yellow to the proper Prussian blue.
to:
A sequel to the original game, imaginatively titled ''Victoria 2'', was released on August 13th 2010, turning this Paradox title into a new series. On February 2nd 2012, an ExpansionPack to the sequel called ''A House Divided'' was released, expanding the game to include, among other things, new ways to influence other nations and generate Casus Belli, new ways to control the population and government, new map modes and a new starting point in 1861 right after the beginning of the American Civil War. [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotHeinous [[FelonyMisdemeanor Most importantly]], this expansion recolored Prussia from a sickly yellow to the proper Prussian blue.
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moved from Main + namespace
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[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/a2f2451c0382c60214d69119ac937a88-Victoria__An_Empire_Under_the_Sun_22.jpg]]
''Victoria: An Empire Under The Sun'', affectionately known as "[[FanNickName Vicky]]" among its fans, is a complicated RealTimeStrategy / TurnBasedStrategy FourX game created and published in 2003 by Creator/ParadoxInteractive.
Chronologically it follows its sister series ''VideoGame/EuropaUniversalis'' and precedes its other sibling, the ''VideoGame/HeartsOfIron'' series. ''Vicky'' starts in 1836 and ending in 1920 (or 1936, if you bought the ExpansionPack). The game is noted for being arguably the most complicated of the Paradox Interactive games, dealing not only with war but also with an impressive economic and political system. It is noted as one of the better aversions of the CommandAndConquerEconomy.
The game was noticeably buggy at release, but some patches, the ExpansionPack (which changed totally the way the economy works) and some great work by modders has made the game far more stable.
As the game covers most of the [[VictorianBritain Victorian]] and [[EdwardianEngland Edwardian]] eras but displays the entire globe it will naturally cover TheAmericanCivilWar, TheWildWest and WorldWarOne. Since an important part of the game is European Imperialism, DarkestAfrica comes into play at times. Also covers the very end of JidaiGeki.
The game is (in)famous for being almost incomprehensible to newbies, due to the vast array of interlocking factors, especially in politics and economy and how those two affect each other. (and how, generally, these things depends on your political party) The effect of these is often to create a rather fascinating effect where as an autocracy you are desperately trying to keep popular support from overwhelming you while a democracy has to take it relatively easy to avoid reactionary insurrections.[[hottip:*:[[FridgeBrilliance Which, if you think about it, isn't too far from what really happened...]]
A sequel to the original game, imaginatively titled ''Victoria 2'', was released on August 13th 2010, turning this Paradox title into a new series. On February 2nd 2012, an ExpansionPack to the sequel called ''A House Divided'' was released, expanding the game to include, among other things, new ways to influence other nations and generate Casus Belli, new ways to control the population and government, new map modes and a new starting point in 1861 right after the beginning of the American Civil War. [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotHeinous Most importantly]], this expansion recolored Prussia from a sickly yellow to the proper Prussian blue.
----
!!This these games provide examples of:
* AdamSmithHatesYourGuts: Well, not really, but he's kind of a {{tsundere}}. In wartime prices of weaponry can increase quite spectacularly. Of course, this increase also [[WarForFunAndProfit makes it more profitable to build said weapons factories]]...
* TheAlliance: Spheres of influence in ''Victoria II'' can become this, to some extent. Especially true for {{Prussia}} and any Great Power looking to form Italy.
* AllTheLittleGermanies
* TheAmericanCivilWar: Exists as a starting scenario and will (via {{Event Flag}}s) happen in most ordinary games as well, although in those cases due to the weakness of the South it tends to be... anticlimactic. If you want to play as the CSA in the Grand Campaign you'll have to play until the Civil War and then reload as them. Noticeable this is one of the more complex event chains and was, for the longest time, quite buggy (mostly due to a certain party having to win the election in a certain timeframe to trigger the war) There is also an alternate version where New England secedes.
** ''Victoria 2'''s ''A House Divided'' ExpansionPack lets players start in 1861, includes more historical {{Event Flag}}s and actually gives the South a fighting chance.
* AnachronismStew: Provinces and states are divided according to the post World War 1 map, which doesn't always correlate with actual historical divisions. This is most obvious in the middle east, which is divided along the lines of the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sykes%E2%80%93Picot_Agreement Sykes–Picot Agreement]] rather then the original Ottoman division.
* ApatheticCitizens: Averted hard. It takes quite a bit for citizens to actually take arms against the government, but its usually about lots of little things (unemployment, political repression, nationalism) rather than one big thing that upsets them.
** ''A House Divided'' adds an additional step where [=POPs=] will join political movements. If you ignore them or repress them too much, they will take up arms against the government eventually.
* AppealToTradition: Modus operandi of reactionaries.
* ArtificialBrilliance: People automatically try to find the highest quality of political and civil freedoms, even though it's not actually a stat. Playing a particularly liberal power with an oppressive Britain? Expect lots of Indian immigrants.
* ArtificialStupidity: Something of a problem in ''Victoria II''. The capitalist [=AI=] [[YouFailEconomicsForever loves to build luxury clothes factories in countries where nobody can afford them]], while other countries will happily continue to research philosophy while you're slaughtering their armies with machine guns and poison gas. To add to this, the AI frequently marches its soldiers in massive columns through harsh deserts and freezing mountains, leading to some truly horrific attrition levels which can leave armies decimated before they even ''see'' battle. Watching armys lose significant numbers of soldiers before even crossing the border is not that uncommon.
** Also, to unite Germany one of the states you need is Holstein, a satellite of Denmark. This is not much of a problem, as anyone looking to unite Germany has a unification Casus Belli and [[CurbStompBattle Denmark isn't really in a state to resist.]] So when Prussia invades they take control over [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jylland Jutland]] without much problem. But the AI sometimes gets overexcited, and annexes Jutland instead of Holstein. [[SarcasmMode Congratulations AI,]] you've delayed (if not outright stopped) the unification of Germany for the gain of a small peninsula.
*** Fortunately, such an occurance is rare, simply because game-mechanics wise, this occurs when a country can only fulfill some of its war goals, instead of all. Because Denmark is such a weak country at the start of the game, when this is likely to happen, [[CurbStompBattle it's unusual for Prussia to be in such a situation]]. However, this still leads to the odd scenario where Germany rules all of the Jutland Peninsula.
** AI USA tends to ally itself with Mexico in the beginning of the game and then sit and watch it annex Texas and never actually fulfill Manifest Destiny and take California.
* AlternateHistory: The inevitable outcome of every game. It's pretty much alternate history the moment you unpause the game.
** ''Victoria 2'''s main menu art is a picture of Confederate soldiers fighting ''British redcoats''. The expansion ''A House Divided'' changes this to show American ironclads bombarding London.
* TheAssimilator: Democratic states (especially the [[EagleLand United States]]) get a bonus when assimilating immigrant [=POPs=] to their primary culture.
* AttackAttackAttack: The primary strategy in the early part of the game. However, mid-game tech developments such as [[MoreDakka the machine gun]] [[TruthInTelevision start favouring the defense]].
* BadGuysDoTheDirtyWork: A rather "gamey" tactic by players who wish to change their government type is to encourage a specific type of rebels and then let them take over your country and enforce their demands - the player takes a prestige hit, but it's not the end of the world. In fact, the game itself uses this technique with Garibaldi and his Redshirt army, whom the game treats as ordinary rebels that, if successful in taking over the Two Sicilies, unite Italy under Sardinia-Piedmont.
* BalkaniseMe: One of several war goals is forcing another country to release states from under their control. Inverted with fragmented countries like Germany and Italy, which have to annex several other countries in order to properly form.
* TheBritishEmpire: One of the principal world powers. Starts ranked at #1, and will generally stay there unless something catastrophic happens to them, such as revolution or player interference.
* ButThouMust: It's typically frequent to get notifications with the only option is to simply 'acknowledge' it instead of taking alternative options.
* CharacterPortrait: Generals and admirals have unique portraits.
* ChronicBackstabbingDisorder: Want to take over a country, but don't want the Great Power they are allied and/or in sphere of getting involved? Simple, become friendly with that nation and make them break the sphere or alliance. Then go to war.
* ColourCodedArmies: All civilized nations use basically the same soldier model with a different colored coat. Some countries' models are a bit more unique -- for example, South American soldiers wear sashes and Prussians wear [[CoolHelmet pickelhaubes]].
** Subverted by the time the 20th Century rolls around, as everyone starts wearing duller browns and greys. However, the design of the various uniforms also become more unique.
* ColourCodedForYourConvenience: Each country has an associated colour (Britain: red, France: blue, Russia: green, Germany: grey), some of which carry over into other Paradox titles.
* CommandAndConquerEconomy: Oh so averted. You don't even technically earn money from producing stuff: Instead your population does, and you can either tax them (which means they can't buy as much stuff...) or raise tariffs (which makes imported goods more expensive). All [=POPs=] have their own "needs" of stuff they want (everything from grain and coal to opium and radios) based on their class and type. If you can't satisfy them they'll move somewhere else or starve. Oh, and did we mention that under two of the games' four economic policies you don't actually build factories yourself? Instead your capitalists do (using their own money, that disappears if you tax them too highly). The problem with capitalists, of course, is that they build factories that are the most profitable to them, not the factories that you would prefer built. (For instance, the ones that produce guns).
** Played semi-straight under Planned Economy. You're in charge of deciding where to build the factories, and you can put them where they'll benefit the nation the most. One of the perks of being a [[DirtyCommunists Dirty Communist]].
* TheComputerIsACheatingBastard: Averted. If you play above 'normal' difficulty, then the AI does get some bonuses to production, but otherwise it follows the exact same rules as the player. If the computer appears to be cheating, it is making use of some sort of mechanic that is not readily apparent. (Such as: The second game opens at the beginning of the Texan Revolution; if you play as Texas, you will soon discover that the Mexican army has better morale than you. But not because of this trope, rather because it has an Engineers brigade attached, which gives +10 to morale.)
* CoolBoat: Starting with [[WoodenShipsAndIronMen wooden frigates and ships of the line]], and moving on through ironclads to ''HMS Dreadnought''.
* CreatorProvincialism: The three Union Tags that have special ways of being formed are [[ImperialGermany Germany]], Italy, and... Scandinavia[[hottip:*:The odd one out in that it ''failed'', as opposed to, say, Romanian unification]]. For those unaware, ParadoxInteractive is a Swedish company.
* DarkestAfrica: Treated as a malaria-infested uncivilized hellhole populated entirely by subhuman savages that only machine guns can tame - in other words, exactly like the European powers of the time saw it.
* DeliberateValuesDissonance: The game encourages the players to stomp over peoples' rights, colonize huge patches of land and violently suppress political movements in the name of progress, science, tradition or downright profit. All of these match the actions of the real life nations of the time.
* DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment: In the second game, states that are not completely controlled by one country have their names show as <owning culture> <state>. This leads to gems like "British British Columbia", "Hawaiian Hawaiian Islands", "New English Northern New England" and "Luang Prabangni Luang Prabang".
* TheDevTeamThinksOfEverything: In regards to flags. Every single possible country has a flag for all types of governments (Kingdom, Communist, Fascist, and Republic), and many of them use imagery from lesser-known movements in the country. In a nod to a commonly-held misconception, the flag of the CSA is the historically accurate [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Confederate_National_Flag_since_Mar_4_1865.svg "Blood-stained banner"]], but under fascism it's the naval jack that is often called the "Confederate flag".
** That said, they also made choices like having the British republican flag be identical to the monarchical one rather than using the flag most commonly in use by 19th century British republicans.
* DirtyCommunists: They show up in 1848 (when Karl Marx published ''The Communist Manifesto'') and remain an important factor for the second half of the game.
** More specifically, ''Socialists'' show up around 1848. Communists (basically radicalised and angry Socialists) don't show up until later.
* DividedStatesOfAmerica: Taken UpToEleven. Although some of them, like California and Texas, were nations in their own right before being absorbed into the USA, there is also a number of ahistorical nations. Among the nations that can be formed from United States Territory are: the California Republic, the Cherokee Nation, Columbia (with parts of Canada), Deseret, the Manhattan Commune, New England, and the Republic of Texas.
** The [[GameMod Pop Demand Mod]] has a mechanic allowing for every ''single'' state to leave the Union if [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere things get bad enough]].
*** It also adds a reversed American Civil War -- if the USA favours slavery enough that the southern states never secedes, the ''northern'' states will instead secede as the Free States of America.
* EagleLand: The United States starts as a Great Power, ranked #7. They are the only Great Power to start as a democracy with extensive political freedoms, and as such get a huge boost to immigration. They also start with slavery still legal, which is is important later on.
* EasyLogistics: To some degree. Your units requires a ton of different kinds of resources to produce (basic infantry requires small arms, canned food and manpower) but upkeep "only" costs you money.
** No longer the case in ''Victoria II'', where upkeep requires small arms, ammunition, explosives, liquor...
* EliteMooks: Guards in ''Victoria II'' are a form of this -- they're much stronger than standard infantry, and have a higher reconnaissance value than cavalry, but are expensive and can only be recruited from your primary and accepted cultures.
* NoSwastikas: The flag used to represent Fascist Germany displays an iron cross rather then a swastika.
* TheEmpire: [[TheBritishEmpire Accept no substitutes]].
** What every player strives to be.
* EventFlag: Abused in the original, almost as much as in ''HeartsOfIron''. Breaking the first game's reliance on these was one of the major design goals of the sequel.
* TheFederation: Any reasonably liberal Great Power arguably counts. The [=US=], [=UK=], France, Italy, and even ImperialGermany (if formed through a liberal revolution) are all particularly likely candidates.
* FogOfWar: The standard version: The player can only see what goes on in his or his Allies' territories, and only into foreign provinces bordering his own.
* GameMod: As per ParadoxInteractive tradition, many exist. One of the most entertaining for the sequel adds [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic Equestria]].
* GlobalCurrency: The Pound Sterling is used for international trade.
* GloriousMotherRussia: Entirely possible.
* GreatOffscreenWar: The Napoleonic wars are referenced occasionally in some events as a ground-shattering event that brought forth the ideas of Liberalism to the Ancien Régimes of Europe.
* HegemonicEmpire: Great Powers can increase influence by building factories and railways in minor states.
* HighClassGlass: your capitalists will, naturally, dress in top hats, wear monocles and smoke cigars.
* HopelessWar: Texas and Tripoli are set up to be like this; Texas starts off with armies named after the three battles it lost! Both are weak nations facing down secondary powers with far more divisions. However, this can be averted by a skilled player (or rather, a player who knows how to hold out until the US comes in, in the case of Texas, and who can exploit the attrition mechanic, in the case of Tripoli.) The Victoria II wiki has advice on how to survive as both powers.
* ImperialGermany: The historical path of German Unification leads to this. You can do it in other ways though.
* ImperialJapan: Japan starts the game as a fairly well-developed uncivilised nation. Even under the [=AI=], Japan westernises sometime around 1880 and can easily become a Great Power by the endgame.
* IncrediblyLamePun: The [[http://hosting11.imagecross.com/image-hosting-44/1851Dyeing-of-laughter-.jpg Dye Works]] Accident event in the second game.
** There's also the "Mummy Found!" event (involving egyptology) the response to which is "Orphans Rejoice!"
* InferredHolocaust: Once you've colonized an area, usually in Africa, the speed at which the native population is replaced by yours (it can be up to 99% European in as few as five years) is a little alarming.
** Furthermore, placing soldiers in a non-colonized province speeds up the colonization. They're probably protecting the settlers, but at what cost?
* InsistentTerminology: In ''A House Divided'', foreign countries refer to TheAmericanCivilWar as such. The USA calls it "The War of the Rebellion", and for the CSA, it's "The War of Northern Aggression".
* LandOfOneCity: Minor countries such as Moldavia or Texas start with only one State, usually made up of several provinces. However, some ''really'' small countries like Krakow and many German Minors have only one ''province'' within a single state. Also, it is impossible for a country with only one State to become a Great Power, no matter how powerful they actually are.
* MagikarpPower: A civilized, industrialized China is truly a thing to be afraid of.
** As pointed out below, [[AllTheLittleGermanies Any German State]], from mighty Prussia to middle-power Bavaria to little Saxe-Coburg-Gotha can form Germany through multiple paths.
** Chile starts as an underdeveloped backwater wedged between the Andes Mountains and the Pacific. However, they're a democracy and get a huge boost to immigration, meaning they can become a Great Power much easier than Argentina (Presidential Dictatorship) or Brazil (Constitutional Monarchy).
** Japan starts out as an uncivilized nation just like the rest of East Asia, but gets a huge bonus to its westernization ability. This, along with its relatively large population, means that it can become civilized relatively quickly and immediately become at least a secondary power with an ideal position to dominate China and Southeast Asia.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: So, you managed to conquer China as an industrialized power? All that production at your fingertips. Oh, and the mother of all Luddite revolts as the sudden mechanization of Chinese agriculture causes the bottom to drop out of that market entirely. Have fun with that.
** Well it's debatable seeing as the army you built up to take the place is usually numbering in the 100 thousands you can usually crush any revolts easily, plus the patches that reduces the revolt chances from the ridiculously high of the out-of-the-box settings makes it less of a hassle to keep.
* NonEntityGeneral: Even though in-game messages are addressed to the leader of the country (eg "King" or "President") you most certainly can continue playing even if your country falls to a revolution.
* NoticeThis: To differentiate them from the hundreds of ordinary events that pop up routinely, truly momentous events (the American Civil War, the discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb, the writing of ''Literature/HeartOfDarkness'', etc.) have a special, major banner with fancy bordering and your flag flying suggesting the public notices used in the period.
* NotSoHarmless: Excluding Prussia and Austria, most Germany countries are rather weak and will usually end up just being annexed by whatever powerful neighbor happens to border them. However occasionally some lucky German nation will expand enough and can form either the Southern German Federation, or the Northern German federation. Both of which are usually ranked as great powers in the game and can (when they're not controlled by them) match Prussia and Austria in status and power.
* ObstructiveBureaucrat: There's an optimum number of civil servants you need to run your country. Any more than that and all they do is draw a paycheck.
** Conversely, if you don't have enough bureaucrats, your civil service will quickly descend into [[BeleagueredBureaucrat chaos]] and your country will suffer as a result.
* ObviousBeta: Extremely buggy on release with sup par AI. One of the most egregious parts is the impossible to pacify political radicals who often stage massive rebellions when it makes no sense for them to. AI countries would often get overrun by rebels demanding Democracy from a democratic nation. Etc.
* OldSaveBonus: You can import games from the EuropaUniversalis series. You can export them to HeartsOfIron 2. Considering CrusaderKings has an export feature to EuropaUniversalis II, you could in theory pilot the same faction from 1066 all the way through 1964 via the four games, a true feat of Paradox fanboyism.
** At least one person has [[http://lparchive.org/Paradox-Hohenzollern/ actually done so]], leading to a world that's...''quite'' different from our own by 1836 - for one, the Spanish Reconquista failed, and America was first discovered and colonized by Muslims; taking the place of real-world Mexico is the Islamic Republic of Mazula - and that's one of the ''smallest'' changes. [[http://www.shardsofdalaya.com/images/germany_lp/ending/world-1946.png Here's]] the state of the world in 1946 (at the end of an enormous war) as a result of the events of this playthrough.
* PretextForWar: The casus belli system functions like this. ''A House Divided'' expands the system so you can manufacture them, your ability to do so depending on how free your press is.
* PublicDomainSoundtrack: The entirety of the original game's soundtrack was classical music from the era. Averted in the sequel.
* {{Prussia}}: Starts as #5. Generally will face early conflicts against [[TheSoundOfMartialMusic Austria]].
* QueenVicky: Well... [[CaptainObvious Duh]]
* QuicksandBox: The ins and outs of the economic system can leave the player at a loss as to what to do next...
* RedOctober: You will be investing vast amounts of time and resources either trying to avert this, or trying to bring this about and expand it.
* RedScare: If you turn Communist, expect everyone to hate you. TruthInTelevision, of course.
** With good reason: as of ''A House Divided'', Communist nations immediately get a permanent "Spread the Revolution" casus belli on all their neighbours.
* RefiningResources: Factories (and Artisan [=POPs=] in the sequel) turn raw materials into finished products. For example, cotton is spun into fabric, and then combined with dyes to make clothing, which is then bought by citizens or used by the military for uniforms.
* RelationshipValues: Two different scales. One measures their opinion of you, which means how likely they are to ally with you. The second is available only for Great Powers and measures how much influence they have on smaller nations. That said, including a nation under your sphere of influence would usually mean they're more likely to ally with you.
* RiskStyleMap: Hundreds of provinces (used mainly for fighting in) groups of provinces are grouped into "regions" (where your factories are).
* RiverOfInsanity: There are event chains that simulate expeditions up the Nile, Amazon, and so on. More often than not they disappear without a trace...
* RoyalMess: When playing as a monarchy, in-game text boxes address the player as "King". Even if you're playing as a not-Kingdom like Austria or the Duchy of Baden, or if you're the [[QueenVicky United Kingdom]].
* RPGElements: Military leaders have "backgrounds" and "personalities" which have positive or negative effects on the units they lead. ''A House Divided'' introduced the idea of leader prestige: the positive effects of leader traits increase with prestige.
* ScareChord: The sound that accompanies the message that someone has declared war on you.
* ShoutOut: Tons, mostly in event texts, especially the "You have lost X amount of X resources" random events. After getting these dire news the "accept" option is usually a witty remark, for instance, for cotton it is [[GoneWithTheWind "Frankly, I don't give a damn!"]] and for Precious Metals it's [[LordOfTheRings "My precioussss!"]]
** In Vicky 2, one of the in-game events that happen if New England achieves independence is the foundation of the [[Creator/HPLovecraft Miskatonic University]].
** Also in the sequel, the existence of the Manhattan Commune as a possible nation is a reference to ''TheDifferenceEngine''.
** One of ''Victoria 2'''s election events is on immigration, with one possible choice being [[MemeticMutation "Immigrants? In 'my' <province>?"]] Doubly hilarious if it happens to the island of Victoria.
** Getting a surplus of goods also leads to references, such as the event for cotton: [[Music/CreedenceClearwaterRevival "In Them Old Cotton Fields", with one choice being "Rock me in my cradle!"]]
** If you're France, Britain, or the United States, you might have a ship sunk by a [[TwentyThousandLeaguesUnderTheSea certain submarine]].
* SoLastSeason: All preceding military developments become pretty much irrelevant with the [[GatlingGood invention of the machine gun]].
* StopHelpingMe: The sequel sees Belgium start the game in the United Kingdom's sphere of influence. This would be a great military advantage if there wasn't a [[ShownTheirWork world iron shortage coming on]], and the [=UK=] didn't have first pick of its sphere-members' iron.
* TankGoodness: These start appearing towards the tail end of the game.
* TheodoreRoosevelt: He's depicted as the leader of the United States.
* TheSoundOfMartialMusic: Austria (or Austria-Hungary, depending on whether it loses a certain war) is a prominent player, especially in the early game. Anyone seeking to unite Italy or Germany has to face them at one point.
** It is easy to avoid facing them when uniting Germany in the sequel, but the way ensures that they will be a very prominent player indeed: play as them.
** Even if you don't actually go to war, there will be ''extremely'' intense diplomatic battles in order to get spheres of interest away, with one side constantly throwing out the other's diplomats or discrediting them.
* TsaristRussia: Starts in a rather comfortable #2 spot, blessed with lots of empty land, illiterate peasantry, backwards infrastructure, and a reactionary upper class.
* VestigialEmpire: This can happen to an especially unfortunate nation over the century of gameplay. Even yours, if you're really that bad/lazy.
** The Ottoman Empire ends up like this in nearly every game. They start the game as a great power but soon after lose their status and get put into another empire's sphere.
* VideoGameCaringPotential: It's entirely possible to build a democratic utopia where the rights of workers and minorities are protected. However, it's also [[EvilIsEasy much much MUCH easier]] to be an oppressive bastard, and the game generally [[DeliberateValuesDissonance rewards you for acting that way]]. See below.
** For example, enforcing labour regulations such as limited work hours and safety standards make factories more expensive and will hurt your economy.
* VideoGameCrueltyPotential: It's entirely possible to end the game with the world under the domination of a fascist dictatorship with institutionalized slavery.
** Plus, it is almost impossible to play a great power without committing atrocities, colonial or otherwise. Drive Native Americans off their lands and set up mining operations? Yup! Forbid Africans from teaching in schools in their native tongue? Sure! Execute minorities for trying to oppose your foreign rule? Why not?
* VideoGameHistoricalRevisionism: Due to the high level of detail present in the game, there are often mistakes made, sometimes for AcceptableBreaksFromReality reasons, sometimes because they can't be arsed to fix it (somewhere though, a modder will) most divisive tends to be the allocation of minority cultures and POP's.
* WarForFunAndProfit: One war cause lets the victor demand concessions from the loser. Plus, countries can actually create a military-industrial complex, which boosts army/navy/industrial research, but hampers both cultural and financial research.
* WrongTurnAtAlbuquerque: The "botanical expedition to the colonies" events in the sequel have a fairly high chance of resulting in the party either disappearing or turning up again much later and worse for wear, as in real life. However, they don't check to see which province the expedition was sent to first, and generate a random destination. This leads to such situations as a character going to Canada and ending up in ''Morocco''.
* YouFailEconomicsForever: The capitalist [=AI=] in ''Victoria II'' at launch only looked at the maximum possible profit for a good when deciding what factories to build - even if nobody in the world could afford it, with the effect that capitalists would sink thousands of dollars into building luxury clothes factories and then immediately go bankrupt. This has been patched, thankfully.
** State Planned economies almost always fail, inevitably because factories end up unable to buy the resources to make goods to sell. You typically end up with large amounts of factories employing people to sit on their hands. Even if there's huge demand for goods from the factory, they won't get made.
* YouRequireMoreVespeneGas: No less than 47 different resources. Basic types like iron, coal, wheat, and wool are all present, as well as more esoteric goods such as tea, opium, tanks, and luxury furniture. Raw materials such as coal or wheat are mined/harvested by worker [=POPs=] in provinces, and are either consumed ore refined into other goods. Some advanced goods, like Radios, Aeroplanes, and Tanks require a [[http://www.paradoxian.org/vickywiki/index.php/Production_Flow_Chart production chain]] that is pretty complex. Luckily you can buy all resources from the world market, assuming there is SOMEONE somewhere who is producing the stuff...though price fluctuations can make an import-heavy economy very vulnerable to shortages.
** Different powers have different levels of priority for resources, and some resources repeatedly prove problematic. For starters, liquor is required for a variety of units and you can find yourself in dire shortage of it. Cue ''the British Empire'' not being able to build artillery because they can't get any liquor.
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''Victoria: An Empire Under The Sun'', affectionately known as "[[FanNickName Vicky]]" among its fans, is a complicated RealTimeStrategy / TurnBasedStrategy FourX game created and published in 2003 by Creator/ParadoxInteractive.
Chronologically it follows its sister series ''VideoGame/EuropaUniversalis'' and precedes its other sibling, the ''VideoGame/HeartsOfIron'' series. ''Vicky'' starts in 1836 and ending in 1920 (or 1936, if you bought the ExpansionPack). The game is noted for being arguably the most complicated of the Paradox Interactive games, dealing not only with war but also with an impressive economic and political system. It is noted as one of the better aversions of the CommandAndConquerEconomy.
The game was noticeably buggy at release, but some patches, the ExpansionPack (which changed totally the way the economy works) and some great work by modders has made the game far more stable.
As the game covers most of the [[VictorianBritain Victorian]] and [[EdwardianEngland Edwardian]] eras but displays the entire globe it will naturally cover TheAmericanCivilWar, TheWildWest and WorldWarOne. Since an important part of the game is European Imperialism, DarkestAfrica comes into play at times. Also covers the very end of JidaiGeki.
The game is (in)famous for being almost incomprehensible to newbies, due to the vast array of interlocking factors, especially in politics and economy and how those two affect each other. (and how, generally, these things depends on your political party) The effect of these is often to create a rather fascinating effect where as an autocracy you are desperately trying to keep popular support from overwhelming you while a democracy has to take it relatively easy to avoid reactionary insurrections.[[hottip:*:[[FridgeBrilliance Which, if you think about it, isn't too far from what really happened...]]
A sequel to the original game, imaginatively titled ''Victoria 2'', was released on August 13th 2010, turning this Paradox title into a new series. On February 2nd 2012, an ExpansionPack to the sequel called ''A House Divided'' was released, expanding the game to include, among other things, new ways to influence other nations and generate Casus Belli, new ways to control the population and government, new map modes and a new starting point in 1861 right after the beginning of the American Civil War. [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotHeinous Most importantly]], this expansion recolored Prussia from a sickly yellow to the proper Prussian blue.
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!!This these games provide examples of:
* AdamSmithHatesYourGuts: Well, not really, but he's kind of a {{tsundere}}. In wartime prices of weaponry can increase quite spectacularly. Of course, this increase also [[WarForFunAndProfit makes it more profitable to build said weapons factories]]...
* TheAlliance: Spheres of influence in ''Victoria II'' can become this, to some extent. Especially true for {{Prussia}} and any Great Power looking to form Italy.
* AllTheLittleGermanies
* TheAmericanCivilWar: Exists as a starting scenario and will (via {{Event Flag}}s) happen in most ordinary games as well, although in those cases due to the weakness of the South it tends to be... anticlimactic. If you want to play as the CSA in the Grand Campaign you'll have to play until the Civil War and then reload as them. Noticeable this is one of the more complex event chains and was, for the longest time, quite buggy (mostly due to a certain party having to win the election in a certain timeframe to trigger the war) There is also an alternate version where New England secedes.
** ''Victoria 2'''s ''A House Divided'' ExpansionPack lets players start in 1861, includes more historical {{Event Flag}}s and actually gives the South a fighting chance.
* AnachronismStew: Provinces and states are divided according to the post World War 1 map, which doesn't always correlate with actual historical divisions. This is most obvious in the middle east, which is divided along the lines of the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sykes%E2%80%93Picot_Agreement Sykes–Picot Agreement]] rather then the original Ottoman division.
* ApatheticCitizens: Averted hard. It takes quite a bit for citizens to actually take arms against the government, but its usually about lots of little things (unemployment, political repression, nationalism) rather than one big thing that upsets them.
** ''A House Divided'' adds an additional step where [=POPs=] will join political movements. If you ignore them or repress them too much, they will take up arms against the government eventually.
* AppealToTradition: Modus operandi of reactionaries.
* ArtificialBrilliance: People automatically try to find the highest quality of political and civil freedoms, even though it's not actually a stat. Playing a particularly liberal power with an oppressive Britain? Expect lots of Indian immigrants.
* ArtificialStupidity: Something of a problem in ''Victoria II''. The capitalist [=AI=] [[YouFailEconomicsForever loves to build luxury clothes factories in countries where nobody can afford them]], while other countries will happily continue to research philosophy while you're slaughtering their armies with machine guns and poison gas. To add to this, the AI frequently marches its soldiers in massive columns through harsh deserts and freezing mountains, leading to some truly horrific attrition levels which can leave armies decimated before they even ''see'' battle. Watching armys lose significant numbers of soldiers before even crossing the border is not that uncommon.
** Also, to unite Germany one of the states you need is Holstein, a satellite of Denmark. This is not much of a problem, as anyone looking to unite Germany has a unification Casus Belli and [[CurbStompBattle Denmark isn't really in a state to resist.]] So when Prussia invades they take control over [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jylland Jutland]] without much problem. But the AI sometimes gets overexcited, and annexes Jutland instead of Holstein. [[SarcasmMode Congratulations AI,]] you've delayed (if not outright stopped) the unification of Germany for the gain of a small peninsula.
*** Fortunately, such an occurance is rare, simply because game-mechanics wise, this occurs when a country can only fulfill some of its war goals, instead of all. Because Denmark is such a weak country at the start of the game, when this is likely to happen, [[CurbStompBattle it's unusual for Prussia to be in such a situation]]. However, this still leads to the odd scenario where Germany rules all of the Jutland Peninsula.
** AI USA tends to ally itself with Mexico in the beginning of the game and then sit and watch it annex Texas and never actually fulfill Manifest Destiny and take California.
* AlternateHistory: The inevitable outcome of every game. It's pretty much alternate history the moment you unpause the game.
** ''Victoria 2'''s main menu art is a picture of Confederate soldiers fighting ''British redcoats''. The expansion ''A House Divided'' changes this to show American ironclads bombarding London.
* TheAssimilator: Democratic states (especially the [[EagleLand United States]]) get a bonus when assimilating immigrant [=POPs=] to their primary culture.
* AttackAttackAttack: The primary strategy in the early part of the game. However, mid-game tech developments such as [[MoreDakka the machine gun]] [[TruthInTelevision start favouring the defense]].
* BadGuysDoTheDirtyWork: A rather "gamey" tactic by players who wish to change their government type is to encourage a specific type of rebels and then let them take over your country and enforce their demands - the player takes a prestige hit, but it's not the end of the world. In fact, the game itself uses this technique with Garibaldi and his Redshirt army, whom the game treats as ordinary rebels that, if successful in taking over the Two Sicilies, unite Italy under Sardinia-Piedmont.
* BalkaniseMe: One of several war goals is forcing another country to release states from under their control. Inverted with fragmented countries like Germany and Italy, which have to annex several other countries in order to properly form.
* TheBritishEmpire: One of the principal world powers. Starts ranked at #1, and will generally stay there unless something catastrophic happens to them, such as revolution or player interference.
* ButThouMust: It's typically frequent to get notifications with the only option is to simply 'acknowledge' it instead of taking alternative options.
* CharacterPortrait: Generals and admirals have unique portraits.
* ChronicBackstabbingDisorder: Want to take over a country, but don't want the Great Power they are allied and/or in sphere of getting involved? Simple, become friendly with that nation and make them break the sphere or alliance. Then go to war.
* ColourCodedArmies: All civilized nations use basically the same soldier model with a different colored coat. Some countries' models are a bit more unique -- for example, South American soldiers wear sashes and Prussians wear [[CoolHelmet pickelhaubes]].
** Subverted by the time the 20th Century rolls around, as everyone starts wearing duller browns and greys. However, the design of the various uniforms also become more unique.
* ColourCodedForYourConvenience: Each country has an associated colour (Britain: red, France: blue, Russia: green, Germany: grey), some of which carry over into other Paradox titles.
* CommandAndConquerEconomy: Oh so averted. You don't even technically earn money from producing stuff: Instead your population does, and you can either tax them (which means they can't buy as much stuff...) or raise tariffs (which makes imported goods more expensive). All [=POPs=] have their own "needs" of stuff they want (everything from grain and coal to opium and radios) based on their class and type. If you can't satisfy them they'll move somewhere else or starve. Oh, and did we mention that under two of the games' four economic policies you don't actually build factories yourself? Instead your capitalists do (using their own money, that disappears if you tax them too highly). The problem with capitalists, of course, is that they build factories that are the most profitable to them, not the factories that you would prefer built. (For instance, the ones that produce guns).
** Played semi-straight under Planned Economy. You're in charge of deciding where to build the factories, and you can put them where they'll benefit the nation the most. One of the perks of being a [[DirtyCommunists Dirty Communist]].
* TheComputerIsACheatingBastard: Averted. If you play above 'normal' difficulty, then the AI does get some bonuses to production, but otherwise it follows the exact same rules as the player. If the computer appears to be cheating, it is making use of some sort of mechanic that is not readily apparent. (Such as: The second game opens at the beginning of the Texan Revolution; if you play as Texas, you will soon discover that the Mexican army has better morale than you. But not because of this trope, rather because it has an Engineers brigade attached, which gives +10 to morale.)
* CoolBoat: Starting with [[WoodenShipsAndIronMen wooden frigates and ships of the line]], and moving on through ironclads to ''HMS Dreadnought''.
* CreatorProvincialism: The three Union Tags that have special ways of being formed are [[ImperialGermany Germany]], Italy, and... Scandinavia[[hottip:*:The odd one out in that it ''failed'', as opposed to, say, Romanian unification]]. For those unaware, ParadoxInteractive is a Swedish company.
* DarkestAfrica: Treated as a malaria-infested uncivilized hellhole populated entirely by subhuman savages that only machine guns can tame - in other words, exactly like the European powers of the time saw it.
* DeliberateValuesDissonance: The game encourages the players to stomp over peoples' rights, colonize huge patches of land and violently suppress political movements in the name of progress, science, tradition or downright profit. All of these match the actions of the real life nations of the time.
* DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment: In the second game, states that are not completely controlled by one country have their names show as <owning culture> <state>. This leads to gems like "British British Columbia", "Hawaiian Hawaiian Islands", "New English Northern New England" and "Luang Prabangni Luang Prabang".
* TheDevTeamThinksOfEverything: In regards to flags. Every single possible country has a flag for all types of governments (Kingdom, Communist, Fascist, and Republic), and many of them use imagery from lesser-known movements in the country. In a nod to a commonly-held misconception, the flag of the CSA is the historically accurate [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Confederate_National_Flag_since_Mar_4_1865.svg "Blood-stained banner"]], but under fascism it's the naval jack that is often called the "Confederate flag".
** That said, they also made choices like having the British republican flag be identical to the monarchical one rather than using the flag most commonly in use by 19th century British republicans.
* DirtyCommunists: They show up in 1848 (when Karl Marx published ''The Communist Manifesto'') and remain an important factor for the second half of the game.
** More specifically, ''Socialists'' show up around 1848. Communists (basically radicalised and angry Socialists) don't show up until later.
* DividedStatesOfAmerica: Taken UpToEleven. Although some of them, like California and Texas, were nations in their own right before being absorbed into the USA, there is also a number of ahistorical nations. Among the nations that can be formed from United States Territory are: the California Republic, the Cherokee Nation, Columbia (with parts of Canada), Deseret, the Manhattan Commune, New England, and the Republic of Texas.
** The [[GameMod Pop Demand Mod]] has a mechanic allowing for every ''single'' state to leave the Union if [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere things get bad enough]].
*** It also adds a reversed American Civil War -- if the USA favours slavery enough that the southern states never secedes, the ''northern'' states will instead secede as the Free States of America.
* EagleLand: The United States starts as a Great Power, ranked #7. They are the only Great Power to start as a democracy with extensive political freedoms, and as such get a huge boost to immigration. They also start with slavery still legal, which is is important later on.
* EasyLogistics: To some degree. Your units requires a ton of different kinds of resources to produce (basic infantry requires small arms, canned food and manpower) but upkeep "only" costs you money.
** No longer the case in ''Victoria II'', where upkeep requires small arms, ammunition, explosives, liquor...
* EliteMooks: Guards in ''Victoria II'' are a form of this -- they're much stronger than standard infantry, and have a higher reconnaissance value than cavalry, but are expensive and can only be recruited from your primary and accepted cultures.
* NoSwastikas: The flag used to represent Fascist Germany displays an iron cross rather then a swastika.
* TheEmpire: [[TheBritishEmpire Accept no substitutes]].
** What every player strives to be.
* EventFlag: Abused in the original, almost as much as in ''HeartsOfIron''. Breaking the first game's reliance on these was one of the major design goals of the sequel.
* TheFederation: Any reasonably liberal Great Power arguably counts. The [=US=], [=UK=], France, Italy, and even ImperialGermany (if formed through a liberal revolution) are all particularly likely candidates.
* FogOfWar: The standard version: The player can only see what goes on in his or his Allies' territories, and only into foreign provinces bordering his own.
* GameMod: As per ParadoxInteractive tradition, many exist. One of the most entertaining for the sequel adds [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic Equestria]].
* GlobalCurrency: The Pound Sterling is used for international trade.
* GloriousMotherRussia: Entirely possible.
* GreatOffscreenWar: The Napoleonic wars are referenced occasionally in some events as a ground-shattering event that brought forth the ideas of Liberalism to the Ancien Régimes of Europe.
* HegemonicEmpire: Great Powers can increase influence by building factories and railways in minor states.
* HighClassGlass: your capitalists will, naturally, dress in top hats, wear monocles and smoke cigars.
* HopelessWar: Texas and Tripoli are set up to be like this; Texas starts off with armies named after the three battles it lost! Both are weak nations facing down secondary powers with far more divisions. However, this can be averted by a skilled player (or rather, a player who knows how to hold out until the US comes in, in the case of Texas, and who can exploit the attrition mechanic, in the case of Tripoli.) The Victoria II wiki has advice on how to survive as both powers.
* ImperialGermany: The historical path of German Unification leads to this. You can do it in other ways though.
* ImperialJapan: Japan starts the game as a fairly well-developed uncivilised nation. Even under the [=AI=], Japan westernises sometime around 1880 and can easily become a Great Power by the endgame.
* IncrediblyLamePun: The [[http://hosting11.imagecross.com/image-hosting-44/1851Dyeing-of-laughter-.jpg Dye Works]] Accident event in the second game.
** There's also the "Mummy Found!" event (involving egyptology) the response to which is "Orphans Rejoice!"
* InferredHolocaust: Once you've colonized an area, usually in Africa, the speed at which the native population is replaced by yours (it can be up to 99% European in as few as five years) is a little alarming.
** Furthermore, placing soldiers in a non-colonized province speeds up the colonization. They're probably protecting the settlers, but at what cost?
* InsistentTerminology: In ''A House Divided'', foreign countries refer to TheAmericanCivilWar as such. The USA calls it "The War of the Rebellion", and for the CSA, it's "The War of Northern Aggression".
* LandOfOneCity: Minor countries such as Moldavia or Texas start with only one State, usually made up of several provinces. However, some ''really'' small countries like Krakow and many German Minors have only one ''province'' within a single state. Also, it is impossible for a country with only one State to become a Great Power, no matter how powerful they actually are.
* MagikarpPower: A civilized, industrialized China is truly a thing to be afraid of.
** As pointed out below, [[AllTheLittleGermanies Any German State]], from mighty Prussia to middle-power Bavaria to little Saxe-Coburg-Gotha can form Germany through multiple paths.
** Chile starts as an underdeveloped backwater wedged between the Andes Mountains and the Pacific. However, they're a democracy and get a huge boost to immigration, meaning they can become a Great Power much easier than Argentina (Presidential Dictatorship) or Brazil (Constitutional Monarchy).
** Japan starts out as an uncivilized nation just like the rest of East Asia, but gets a huge bonus to its westernization ability. This, along with its relatively large population, means that it can become civilized relatively quickly and immediately become at least a secondary power with an ideal position to dominate China and Southeast Asia.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: So, you managed to conquer China as an industrialized power? All that production at your fingertips. Oh, and the mother of all Luddite revolts as the sudden mechanization of Chinese agriculture causes the bottom to drop out of that market entirely. Have fun with that.
** Well it's debatable seeing as the army you built up to take the place is usually numbering in the 100 thousands you can usually crush any revolts easily, plus the patches that reduces the revolt chances from the ridiculously high of the out-of-the-box settings makes it less of a hassle to keep.
* NonEntityGeneral: Even though in-game messages are addressed to the leader of the country (eg "King" or "President") you most certainly can continue playing even if your country falls to a revolution.
* NoticeThis: To differentiate them from the hundreds of ordinary events that pop up routinely, truly momentous events (the American Civil War, the discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb, the writing of ''Literature/HeartOfDarkness'', etc.) have a special, major banner with fancy bordering and your flag flying suggesting the public notices used in the period.
* NotSoHarmless: Excluding Prussia and Austria, most Germany countries are rather weak and will usually end up just being annexed by whatever powerful neighbor happens to border them. However occasionally some lucky German nation will expand enough and can form either the Southern German Federation, or the Northern German federation. Both of which are usually ranked as great powers in the game and can (when they're not controlled by them) match Prussia and Austria in status and power.
* ObstructiveBureaucrat: There's an optimum number of civil servants you need to run your country. Any more than that and all they do is draw a paycheck.
** Conversely, if you don't have enough bureaucrats, your civil service will quickly descend into [[BeleagueredBureaucrat chaos]] and your country will suffer as a result.
* ObviousBeta: Extremely buggy on release with sup par AI. One of the most egregious parts is the impossible to pacify political radicals who often stage massive rebellions when it makes no sense for them to. AI countries would often get overrun by rebels demanding Democracy from a democratic nation. Etc.
* OldSaveBonus: You can import games from the EuropaUniversalis series. You can export them to HeartsOfIron 2. Considering CrusaderKings has an export feature to EuropaUniversalis II, you could in theory pilot the same faction from 1066 all the way through 1964 via the four games, a true feat of Paradox fanboyism.
** At least one person has [[http://lparchive.org/Paradox-Hohenzollern/ actually done so]], leading to a world that's...''quite'' different from our own by 1836 - for one, the Spanish Reconquista failed, and America was first discovered and colonized by Muslims; taking the place of real-world Mexico is the Islamic Republic of Mazula - and that's one of the ''smallest'' changes. [[http://www.shardsofdalaya.com/images/germany_lp/ending/world-1946.png Here's]] the state of the world in 1946 (at the end of an enormous war) as a result of the events of this playthrough.
* PretextForWar: The casus belli system functions like this. ''A House Divided'' expands the system so you can manufacture them, your ability to do so depending on how free your press is.
* PublicDomainSoundtrack: The entirety of the original game's soundtrack was classical music from the era. Averted in the sequel.
* {{Prussia}}: Starts as #5. Generally will face early conflicts against [[TheSoundOfMartialMusic Austria]].
* QueenVicky: Well... [[CaptainObvious Duh]]
* QuicksandBox: The ins and outs of the economic system can leave the player at a loss as to what to do next...
* RedOctober: You will be investing vast amounts of time and resources either trying to avert this, or trying to bring this about and expand it.
* RedScare: If you turn Communist, expect everyone to hate you. TruthInTelevision, of course.
** With good reason: as of ''A House Divided'', Communist nations immediately get a permanent "Spread the Revolution" casus belli on all their neighbours.
* RefiningResources: Factories (and Artisan [=POPs=] in the sequel) turn raw materials into finished products. For example, cotton is spun into fabric, and then combined with dyes to make clothing, which is then bought by citizens or used by the military for uniforms.
* RelationshipValues: Two different scales. One measures their opinion of you, which means how likely they are to ally with you. The second is available only for Great Powers and measures how much influence they have on smaller nations. That said, including a nation under your sphere of influence would usually mean they're more likely to ally with you.
* RiskStyleMap: Hundreds of provinces (used mainly for fighting in) groups of provinces are grouped into "regions" (where your factories are).
* RiverOfInsanity: There are event chains that simulate expeditions up the Nile, Amazon, and so on. More often than not they disappear without a trace...
* RoyalMess: When playing as a monarchy, in-game text boxes address the player as "King". Even if you're playing as a not-Kingdom like Austria or the Duchy of Baden, or if you're the [[QueenVicky United Kingdom]].
* RPGElements: Military leaders have "backgrounds" and "personalities" which have positive or negative effects on the units they lead. ''A House Divided'' introduced the idea of leader prestige: the positive effects of leader traits increase with prestige.
* ScareChord: The sound that accompanies the message that someone has declared war on you.
* ShoutOut: Tons, mostly in event texts, especially the "You have lost X amount of X resources" random events. After getting these dire news the "accept" option is usually a witty remark, for instance, for cotton it is [[GoneWithTheWind "Frankly, I don't give a damn!"]] and for Precious Metals it's [[LordOfTheRings "My precioussss!"]]
** In Vicky 2, one of the in-game events that happen if New England achieves independence is the foundation of the [[Creator/HPLovecraft Miskatonic University]].
** Also in the sequel, the existence of the Manhattan Commune as a possible nation is a reference to ''TheDifferenceEngine''.
** One of ''Victoria 2'''s election events is on immigration, with one possible choice being [[MemeticMutation "Immigrants? In 'my' <province>?"]] Doubly hilarious if it happens to the island of Victoria.
** Getting a surplus of goods also leads to references, such as the event for cotton: [[Music/CreedenceClearwaterRevival "In Them Old Cotton Fields", with one choice being "Rock me in my cradle!"]]
** If you're France, Britain, or the United States, you might have a ship sunk by a [[TwentyThousandLeaguesUnderTheSea certain submarine]].
* SoLastSeason: All preceding military developments become pretty much irrelevant with the [[GatlingGood invention of the machine gun]].
* StopHelpingMe: The sequel sees Belgium start the game in the United Kingdom's sphere of influence. This would be a great military advantage if there wasn't a [[ShownTheirWork world iron shortage coming on]], and the [=UK=] didn't have first pick of its sphere-members' iron.
* TankGoodness: These start appearing towards the tail end of the game.
* TheodoreRoosevelt: He's depicted as the leader of the United States.
* TheSoundOfMartialMusic: Austria (or Austria-Hungary, depending on whether it loses a certain war) is a prominent player, especially in the early game. Anyone seeking to unite Italy or Germany has to face them at one point.
** It is easy to avoid facing them when uniting Germany in the sequel, but the way ensures that they will be a very prominent player indeed: play as them.
** Even if you don't actually go to war, there will be ''extremely'' intense diplomatic battles in order to get spheres of interest away, with one side constantly throwing out the other's diplomats or discrediting them.
* TsaristRussia: Starts in a rather comfortable #2 spot, blessed with lots of empty land, illiterate peasantry, backwards infrastructure, and a reactionary upper class.
* VestigialEmpire: This can happen to an especially unfortunate nation over the century of gameplay. Even yours, if you're really that bad/lazy.
** The Ottoman Empire ends up like this in nearly every game. They start the game as a great power but soon after lose their status and get put into another empire's sphere.
* VideoGameCaringPotential: It's entirely possible to build a democratic utopia where the rights of workers and minorities are protected. However, it's also [[EvilIsEasy much much MUCH easier]] to be an oppressive bastard, and the game generally [[DeliberateValuesDissonance rewards you for acting that way]]. See below.
** For example, enforcing labour regulations such as limited work hours and safety standards make factories more expensive and will hurt your economy.
* VideoGameCrueltyPotential: It's entirely possible to end the game with the world under the domination of a fascist dictatorship with institutionalized slavery.
** Plus, it is almost impossible to play a great power without committing atrocities, colonial or otherwise. Drive Native Americans off their lands and set up mining operations? Yup! Forbid Africans from teaching in schools in their native tongue? Sure! Execute minorities for trying to oppose your foreign rule? Why not?
* VideoGameHistoricalRevisionism: Due to the high level of detail present in the game, there are often mistakes made, sometimes for AcceptableBreaksFromReality reasons, sometimes because they can't be arsed to fix it (somewhere though, a modder will) most divisive tends to be the allocation of minority cultures and POP's.
* WarForFunAndProfit: One war cause lets the victor demand concessions from the loser. Plus, countries can actually create a military-industrial complex, which boosts army/navy/industrial research, but hampers both cultural and financial research.
* WrongTurnAtAlbuquerque: The "botanical expedition to the colonies" events in the sequel have a fairly high chance of resulting in the party either disappearing or turning up again much later and worse for wear, as in real life. However, they don't check to see which province the expedition was sent to first, and generate a random destination. This leads to such situations as a character going to Canada and ending up in ''Morocco''.
* YouFailEconomicsForever: The capitalist [=AI=] in ''Victoria II'' at launch only looked at the maximum possible profit for a good when deciding what factories to build - even if nobody in the world could afford it, with the effect that capitalists would sink thousands of dollars into building luxury clothes factories and then immediately go bankrupt. This has been patched, thankfully.
** State Planned economies almost always fail, inevitably because factories end up unable to buy the resources to make goods to sell. You typically end up with large amounts of factories employing people to sit on their hands. Even if there's huge demand for goods from the factory, they won't get made.
* YouRequireMoreVespeneGas: No less than 47 different resources. Basic types like iron, coal, wheat, and wool are all present, as well as more esoteric goods such as tea, opium, tanks, and luxury furniture. Raw materials such as coal or wheat are mined/harvested by worker [=POPs=] in provinces, and are either consumed ore refined into other goods. Some advanced goods, like Radios, Aeroplanes, and Tanks require a [[http://www.paradoxian.org/vickywiki/index.php/Production_Flow_Chart production chain]] that is pretty complex. Luckily you can buy all resources from the world market, assuming there is SOMEONE somewhere who is producing the stuff...though price fluctuations can make an import-heavy economy very vulnerable to shortages.
** Different powers have different levels of priority for resources, and some resources repeatedly prove problematic. For starters, liquor is required for a variety of units and you can find yourself in dire shortage of it. Cue ''the British Empire'' not being able to build artillery because they can't get any liquor.
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