- I started this game as the Ionian Islands, and spontaneously was annexed by Greece around 1853, even when reloading - that's when I moved to Krakow. I didn't have a chance to prevent this. It appeared that the same thing happened to the minor Italians awhile later when Italy appeared. Is there normally some control over this if you are a more powerful country? I thought it might be fun to play as the Papal States, but it would be less so if I got spontaneously annexed.
I think Greece has an unique decision to annex the Ionian Islands. I think the only other nations that can be annexed via decisions are Hawaii and Madagascar. That being said, playing such a minor is MUCH harder than in other Paradox games. I would recommend to play as Belgium, Holland or a South American nation to get into the game.
- How do you effectively control your economy when you have Free Trade, or to a lesser degree, Interventionism? A large part of my success has been due to building highly profitable factories while a Reactionary or Communist party was in power. While playing the demo as the USA, I felt pretty helpless when it came to the economy - I could build railroads, but that was about it.
Free Trade doesn't affect your economy, so you probably mean Laissez-Faire.
In general there isn't much you can do yourself while L-F is active - because that's what L-F stands for. All you can do is setting industry national focus to make your capis more likely to build the stuff you desire. You can also close and raze undesired factories, so if they build something wrong, you can make them try again.
You do, however, receive a MASSIVE output bonus (20% iirc?), so your industry becomes a lot more competetive. In addition, all factories cost only half the regular amount, so your capis can build stuff like crazy.
L-F is in general a good policy for countries with a somewhat developled industry (so your capis can get the money to build new stuff) with good commerce techs (to make your industry competetive).
As for interventionism, you can at least subside the factories you really want and make foreign investments, but otherwise it acts like L-F (without the actual output or build discount bonus).
- Are certain countries predisposed towards certain governments? I've noticed that I'm the only country that is either a Democracy or has a value of Liberty (and I'm both!) that has gone Communist, and sadly, the Socialists won the last election. I've also noticed that although my people's ideology is 75-80% Socialist, I have to work really hard to get them to vote Socialist or Communist - they tend to prefer to vote Conservative.
National values can influence the chance of some events and inventions, but in general there is no natural "bias". Pop ideologies change depending on the actual situation.
As for the vote, pops vote by issue, not ideology. So if your socialist pops have different issues than your socialist party, they will pick the one that is best suited for them. Also, the more CON pops have, the more they become aware of what they actually want (and vote accordingly).
- Is there a reason I'm not listed as a top exporter of autos (etc.) even though I am? Prussia and Danzig are the only other producers listed on the trade screen, and even though I produce a lot more than Danzig, I am not listed. I want my bragging rights of one city being #2 in the world!
Do you actually produce and sell them on the world market?
- How does support of military units work? I went to war once, sending my only regiment east towards the Urals to help fight China with my Tsarist friends. However, I then realized that 5/6 of my troops had died, and I failed at replenishing them, so the regiment disappeared entirely. It seems I had marched too far from my supply lines? How do I know how far I can safely march? Or did I just make the classic mistake of marching through Russia in the winter?
Each province has a supply limit. If you have more units in the province, you will suffer up to 5% losses per months (also triggered when moving into a province). Your troops will reinforce up to 10% in your territory, but they need to be in supply to do that. To be in supply, you have just to buy their maintenance goods. This usually happens by auto-trade, which is part of the "National Stockpile" slider expense in your financial menu.
- I'm still rather puzzled about the economic picture, particularly figuring out what's steering your tax revenue and how quickly factories go kaput when demand falls. My tax revenue has varied a lot, and I don't always know why. Although it seems like with all my concentrated industry, my people have been dirt rich and revenue has been really good (is 200+ pounds/day/province a good profit?).
Tax income depends on pop income. So if your pops earn much money, they will pay you more back. This value is then modified by tax efficiency (so 100% tax slider is actually only about 30% tax in the early game) and administration efficiency.
Since the world marked is usually in flux, your tax values will vary as well. In addition, your pops might have savings - so if you increase taxes, you can milk your pops dry until they are out of cash. Once that happens, your tax income will fall. Also keep in mind that bureaucrats and clergymen are paid by YOU, so if your cut your education budged, you will also reduce your tax income from clergymen.
- I'm rather clueless as to setting tax revenues. I assume that if you are free trade, you don't want to tax capitalists too much since only they can build factories? I'm less sure of the effects if you aren't free trade, or on the lower classes. I assume it partially affects revolts if they can't afford their needs? I've been leaving it at 50% lately as that's the minimum for Communists and everyone seems really happy.
I usually go with max taxes for all pops and then first cut rich taxes (to boost building from my capis), then the mid strata (to make them more likely to promote to capis). During the late game, when you have a big economy and your capis are dirt rich, you can max their taxes (they will have enough left anyway) and reduce mid and low pop taxes accordingly.
In general you should be able to max-tax any pop without starving unless you have a REALLY poor and backwarded economy.
- I've got over 800,000 pounds sterling in the bank, and seemingly nothing to spend it on. What can I spend it on? My infrastructure/forts are maxed out, and I have more jobs in the factories than workers to fill them. Is that a lot of money or does it just seem like it since I only have one province?
You could start subsides (negative tarriffs) to boost your industry and pops until you even out the budged. Negative tarrifs will reduce the cost for goods, so your pops can consume more and your factories can get their ressources a bit cheaper.
HOWEVER, be wary that this can also result in your capis building an economy that requires subsides to run smoothly (because actually unprofitable factories can stay alive). So in general it is a good idea to both cut direct subsides in the industry menu and the negative tarrifs to see which factories cannot compete on the market. I usually have between -1% and -10% tariffs.
On the other hand, you should
NEVER EVER impose tarrifs as an industrialized nation. Your factories have to pay extra on their imports, which devestates their profits. NEVER use positive tarrifs unless there is no other choise. Better cut all your spending before moving that slider to the right. If you only have RGO goods to sell (e.g. early game Russia), than you can do that. But NEVER EVER else.
- Is there a way to figure out how much of my population growth is from immigration? I'm gaining like 1% per month or something ridiculous like that. That seems way too high to be a natural increase, and it also went way up after I built a bunch of factories.
Go to your "Population" menu and move your cursor over the arrow in the upper left that shows the current national pop trend. You should receive a detailled tooltip about pop migrations.
- Will it hurt my industrial ranking if I reduce the maximum work day (it's unlimited now)? I'll lose my Secondary Power status if my ranking falls, so I'm hesitant to do so. Thankfully they are happy with free healthcare and superb safety.
You will lose a few IND points. HOWEVER, since you only lose throughput, your industry will actually not become less competetive. You just produce less goods.
You can compensate the point loss by building more troops or ships, or by gathering more prestige.
- What can I actually do as a Secondary Power that I hadn't been able to before? I think it lets me colonize, but I'm landlocked. What else?
If you play with the addon, you should also sell less ressources to the nation that sphered you (10% instead of 25% iirc). There are also some events that require you to be a secondary power (none of that too important, iirc).
- The bureaucracy expands to meet the needs of the expanding bureaucracy. I had 0% bureaucrats in 1854, so I set funding to the maximum of 100% (zero cost), and when I checked again in 1890 or so, I had about 8% bureaucrats, when I needed about 1.1%.
Slider settings in the financial menu increase the chance that your pops will convert to the related job. Lower admin spending to 50% to reduce growth. Also be aware that social reforms increase the % of bureaucrats you need.
- Politics can be steered. Oddly, it seems that one of the best way to increase support for socialists and communists was never enacting reforms, even when they were in power. I'd kind of hoped that enacting a reform as them would increase their support.
Ruling parties only bestow their issue effects (L-F vs. State Capitalism, Jingoism vs. Pacifism, etc.) on you. Otherwise they are more or less unimportant. In general pops turn socialist when there is reform want, so the more you delay reforms the more support socialists will get. On the other hand once you have passed all reforms, your pops become conservative again (which makes sense, considering that conservatives want to maintain the Status Quo).
- New industries can be really lucrative.
Yes, especially the electric and automotive industry.
- It seems to be a lot more difficult to change ideology than votes (which is hard enough). It seems like the only ideologies my people follow at are are Socialism and Liberalism. I'd love to make some of them Communist, but haven't had a chance to do so. Whenever I get a few of them to be Reactionary, they revert back within a few years.
The player can influence votes by election events or party loyality (if you play with the AHD addon). Ideology is, however, the result of the circumstances. Because your pops are happy and well fed, they have no reason to become communists. If you want to make them red, you have to close all factories and cut all funding. After a few years the impovered masses should start to change their ideology. But again: That will stop and reverse once you are doing well again.
Anyway, if you are playing with AHD, I would highly recommend you the Pop Demand Mod (aka. "A Pop Divided"). It adds a TON of new stuff: New factories and goods, new inventions, new ideologies (Seperatist, Social-Liberal), more reforms (pollution, art subsides, child labour, education, draft, minority rights), a complete economy overhaul (MUCH better than vanilla) and many, many new options, decisions and events.
LINK
If you do not have AHD: Buy it.
As with many Paradox games, you will never want to go back to vanilla once you have played the expansion.