Victoria II taught me to hate all politics. Here I was, ticking along nicely as a socialist constitutional monarchy (don't ask me how that's supposed to work), I was building state-run factories one after another and all together, the were pretty profitable, to the tune of 50 net gold flowing into my nation's coffers. Then the communists rebelled and they completely crashed my economy, averaging about -10 net gold from the same state-run factories. But there was nothing I could do about it, because they had a stranglehold on my nation's politics. So I had to wait around for the inevitable Jacobin counterrevolution (though I was a little scared, because it looked, for awhile, like the fascists were going to take over). In the meantime, the communists' subsidies to my factories were destroying my reserve of gold. Eventually, I shut down all but the two most profitable, and as my workers were diverted into my most profitable endeavors, suddenly I as seeing 200 net gold. The dictatorship of the proletariat wasn't looking so bad. I used the gold to build finish any stray infrastructure I needed and raised my reserve to ludicrous new heights. In the meantime, I also maxed out my social reforms, giving the workers full pensions, health care, education, the whole package.
Then the Jacobins took over. Yay for human dignity and the liberty of the individual and all that, but the damned "constitutionalist" party let my factories go bankrupt. Hey, guys, the cost of the subsidies was around 15 gold. The tax revenue they brought in was close to 300. Do you, perhaps, have a principled opposition to basic math? Well, congratulations, you destroyed the capitalist class more effectively than a communist revolution and a socialist king. I limped along to the end of the game with a net income of 10 gold, plus my truly staggering gold reserves, but I wasn't happy about it.
I guess, in the end, I really liked Victoria II. The political model was often confusing, when it wasn't frustrating (also, Hawaii is an oddly powerful choice, with the slight drawback that it can't fend off any sort of revolution), but it was fun watching a nation's ideological transformation. I wasn't a deft enough politician to handle Meji Japan, but Ethiopia was fun (if a bit lagging, even compared to other "primitive" nations) and I adored trying to get Hawaii into the big time (peaked at 15th most influential my second time through - the big problem is that there are not enough late-game sources of prestige that don't involve pointless wars of conquest). The so-called Great Powers were, perhaps, less interesting to me. The USA was fine when it wasn't offensive, but the brief time I tried Great Brittan (so I could claim to have at least sampled the game's titular Victoria) I was too overwhelmed by its size to do much of anything.
Of the three Paradox historical games I own, I think Victoria II is probably the least essential to replay. It covers the shortest, least interesting time period, it's the one that is the least charitable to non-European playthroughs, and it's the one I'm least invested in in terms of DLC (the last one probably shouldn't count as much as it does, though). I did like the pops system, and I might come back just to meddle with my people's ideology some more, but the game as a whole can't match the scope of Europa Universalis IV or the human drama of Crusader Kings II. Though, if I ever do get my act together and do the thing where you finish a whole game in one title and then import it into the next, then at least I know that I'll be able to finish strong.
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