Carefully guide your nation from the era of absolute monarchies in the early 19th century, through expansion, colonization and social upheaval, to emerge as one of the great world powers by the dawn of the 20th century in Victoria. Gather the wealth and strength required to stay ahead of your enemies, gain invaluable prestige and honor, and reform the nation into a free democracy. Or, drive your people down the grim road of tyranny, corruption, and anarchy...
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Victoria 1 is unfortunately not very interesting in 2023. While the economy management sorta set the groundwork for the series, it’s extremely simple which is a very weird thing to say about a Victoria game. This game is very clearly a rushed product – it came out between EU II and Crusader Kings 1. I don’t think it got much love. Paradox was working lead programmer Johan Andersson to the bone… but he always brings at least some interesting design concepts to a game. His ideas and systems definitely matured over the years. This is clearly a rough draft without much of an identity.
Anyway, in my game I played as Mexico and won the Texas war of secession pretty easily. It suffers from the same tedious combat as other early paradox games of the era, but it’s not the worst implementation. Where Victoria really thrives is with the economy, and honestly I was happy to see so many tradegoods and sliders… but it was pretty simple to get myself in the green. I don’t think the economy is that complex to manage here, though I didn’t simulate more than 5 years so it might go up and down. Pops don’t seem to really a concern in this one. I did get some rebels but they were easy to put down. As for colonialism, I couldn’t get my head around how to settle in the border territories with US. Oh well! This is more a game for my own historical curiosity then something I would ever recommend.
Anyway, in my game I played as Mexico and won the Texas war of secession pretty easily. It suffers from the same tedious combat as other early paradox games of the era, but it’s not the worst implementation. Where Victoria really thrives is with the economy, and honestly I was happy to see so many tradegoods and sliders… but it was pretty simple to get myself in the green. I don’t think the economy is that complex to manage here, though I didn’t simulate more than 5 years so it might go up and down. Pops don’t seem to really a concern in this one. I did get some rebels but they were easy to put down. As for colonialism, I couldn’t get my head around how to settle in the border territories with US. Oh well! This is more a game for my own historical curiosity then something I would ever recommend.