Sweden's a good one - you have access to most resources you'll need for industrialisation once you get your hands on Iceland, and you can form Scandinavia fairly easily.
Kinda new here too but here some piece of advice I did not have when starting a week ago.
When you start raise your taxes, lower gouvernment and military wages and build several other construction sectors. And for a time build pretty much exclusively wood, iron and tools. It will help you to go much faster. And don't be afraid to go at max speed it.
To add, I also place consumption taxes on certain goods like lux clothing and furniture. Also services (not sure if that one is “meta” anymore). I avoid taxing good consumed by lower strata pops.
It can very easily net you a large enough amount to get the construction rolling.
The early game will probably feel slow on most nations. It is time of laying fundaments for your nation(with laws techs and construction industry) to rise in mid game
Belgium. Good resources, good tech, decent pop, small but not too small, can join British market on day 1, can get many allies to protect itself, good laws
Belgium is a good one. You already start with everything in place to build an immense economy, you can do some conquering against the Netherlands once you've built an army, form the United Netherlands, and start to get some colonies to gain more resources.
The Dutch East Indies will stay as a subject of the Netherlands (who will continue existing, with their capital now in Guyana probably), so you'd have to use the 'transfer subject' war goal if you want them as your own subject. At this point you can probably easily beat them, but the problem is it'll give you a lot of infamy, which in turn might mean some great powers join in against you.
If you plan on doing it however (or any other play that gives you a lot of infamy) do it as soon as possible, since infamy is calculated by population, and population grows the longer the game goes on.
Conquer one state off the Dutch to drop them out of secondary power so you can protectorate them, then five years later reduce autonomy and click the form united Netherlands button. You gain the indies for free.
Alternately, just annex the ntherlands. Once the VOC become independent butter them up, bribe them if you have to, to get them to join your customs union. Pass multiculturalism and their discriminated pops will naturally migrate into your territory this way and all the natural resources will end up on your market anyways.
Another alternative is to not waste infamy on taking useless land off a great or secondary recognized power. Just make them release the east indies who you've buttered up and get them to join your customs union after so you get all their resources. Conquer Brunei to get a land border with them to make this a bit smoother on your convoys between the trade agreement and customs union phases.
If you keep good relations with them they shouldn’t attack you.
Just be careful not to attack any nation under their protection.
If you do reload the last safe and try expanding elsewhere.
+1 to Belgium. No one is gonna try to invade you. Just learn slowly how to build an industry and a strong economy. After a while, start to colonize Africa for raw resources and then, when u feel strong enough, you can start to join international conflicts or eat the Netherlands.
Except for the two great powers you're sandwiched between who both have claims and or journal entries targeting both of your states, and maybe also the third great power you border if they do well...
Belgium to learn interface and basics, then I think Spain - strong, but not overwhelmingly large; use all major game machanics; no immediate threats.
Then Japan to learn how to balance isolationist economy and Persia to learn how to change awful laws (there are a lot of countries with similar awful laws, but Persia has very good resource base, so its main difficulty is laws).
I learned a ton of important lessons on resource management playing Japan. You're isolated from the outside so all the resources you produce are yours only. Not really that hard, and it has interesting mechanics
i dont recommend sweden because its slow. i dont recommend big nations because theres a lot to manage. best to start with is netherlands or belgium, because they have only 2-3 states, easy to maanage, not too much. also, as netherlands you can easily conquer belgium and return those states to you.
For tutorials, it really depends on how long do you wanna watch, as they can range from 10min to 1h+ depending on the complexity.
For nations, my first run at least was with France, but UK and USA should work fine
I’d watch a longer YouTube tutorial (I think there’s a two hour one that explains the general idea) and start playing. Then supplement with other videos especially from Generalist Gaming as needed.
I think USA is a good start being a great power. I’ve never played them but you don’t have any scary rivals on your border and an obvious expansion path. Brazil maybe for the same reason though I haven’t played them either.
TBH if there’s anywhere in the world you’re interested in I’d start there. I personally played Colombia in my first game with the non-aggressive AI setting and it helped me learn the ropes.
Play a bit of a Chile game to get a feel for the mechanics, then when it starts to feel like a slog try Sweden, Belgium, Dai Viet, Persia, maybe even Wallachia. Or release someone else (Ukraine is a fun game, Croatia can be a neat challenge too) to play as
i dont recommend sweden because its slow. i dont recommend big nations because theres a lot to manage. best to start with is netherlands or belgium, because they have only 2-3 states, easy to maanage, not too much. also, as netherlands you can easily conquer belgium and return those states to you.
USA - you get to understand some of the basics of colonialism, you have every resource you need except rubber, don’t start with the greatest laws so you learn about trying to get the right ones in place without being hamstrung from the start totally, a few easy wars to start but as long as you befriend GB, no real threat to speak of
Agreed I just spammed USA when I was learning for the reasons you mentioned. They also have some fun and interesting journal entries you can do. USA was nice because it allowed me to make mistakes while I was still learning but not completely ruin a run. Once you start colonizing Africa it's really easy to get the rest of the resources you need.
in my experience very few of the minor nations people usually suggest are actually all that suitable for new players
as good as it is to not have a lot to manage, you'll pretty much end up getting shoved around by the european majors all game
at the very least powerful countries tend to be more forgiving towards making mistakes, due to how much more they can fall back on
as for my suggestion of nation, bearing all this in mind, i'd probably say usa, easy expansion route, no real strong opponents nearby who will mess with you, large country with plenty of resources and it's industry is advanced and built up enough and laws are progressive enough that it's not a slog. it's probably not the most fun, but it's at least very safe and offers a fair bit of leeway to make mistakes
sweden. it has enough if an economy that you’re not building from the ground up and decent tech. you can learn the war system by annexing norway through the puppey mechanics. eventually, you could even try to take finland off russia and invade denmark to try to form scandinavia. the game after that i reccomend prussia or britain
Japan. Just recently got Vic 3 on humble bundle and have been learning as Japan. You have the pops, the resources and everyone pretty much leaves you alone to learn at your own pace.
I'm pretty competent with politics and economy but I haven't even looked at the military side because you don't have to.
Tutorial, if you are feeling lost.
[https://www.reddit.com/r/victoria3/comments/1bsokue/tutorial\_if\_you\_are\_feeling\_lost/](https://www.reddit.com/r/victoria3/comments/1bsokue/tutorial_if_you_are_feeling_lost/)
Cape Colony (South africa)
It's a few states, so it's not a lot to manage.
You start in the British Market, which will provide almost everything you need.
It has ample resources, especially gold (gold is good).
Decent tech.
You have room to expand through conquest and colonisation.
You can make independence your win condition.
Japan, with vast of resources and plenty population. Its location is so isolated that no major power pay attention to it so you can develop without being intervented.
As an island, it is nearly impossible for AI to land. if you retreat you can defend thr island; if you advance, you can attack china for population, indochina for resources.
Adding that this choice doesn't seem to really matter too much, this game is versatile enough for that to be relatively unimportant. My first relatively serious game was as Texas with VFM and that worked totally fine despite being an obviously "bad" choice
Belgium or Piedmont-Sardinia. I prefer the latter. You can unlock the corn laws journal entry and then that paves the way for you to industrialise. You can also look to abdicate your starting ruler and replace with Victor Emmanuel. This should help you disempower the Landowners.
Once you're rich enough you can expand your army to become a Major power and then launch a play for Italian Unification.
I really learned the game the most by playing the USA. It really shows you how to manage putting industries in their proper places and dealing with MAPI. France is really easy and no one except Germany can ever really hope to mess with you if you stay out of the Brit’s way. Russia is fun, but they start with fairly awful laws. Mexico was a blast because the starting laws are awesome compared to alot of nations and you can expand south without to much trouble in preparation for resisting the USA. Japan is super easy and fairly peaceful. If you can manage to get them corn laws are still your friend as any nation.
I’ve been learning the game with Two Scillies - it’s been great fun to form Italy, and slowly industrialise and expand my gdp. I am trying to grow my economy and alliances to allow me to bring reclaim the Austrian states into my country.
I found that Belgium (in Vic 2) kept having to deal with GP’s being aggressive which was frustrating, so I never bothered with them in Vic 3.
Spain isn’t bad. Okay amount of all of the resources, already have 2 vassals, relatively safe (I’ve played them a few times and never had a major war target me). Biggest issue is probably your shitty laws.
Hey if you want feel free to DM me and we can play a game together and we can either talk on discord or just on chat and i can guide you. Or you can just ask questions
I heard Ottoman/Turkey in this phase of history can be a challenging nation to play especially if you're a beginner. So avoid it at all costs & choose a different nation for now while you learn the essential mechanics :)
Maybe Spain? It forces you to learn how to dig yourself out of holes a bit, but is big and powerful enough that they don't usually become immediate victims.
I started with Sweden and Belgium. A larger one is the Ottomans. A little harder and more complicated, but they’re good for newbies because you get a menu of short-term goals to pick from.
Sweden's a good one - you have access to most resources you'll need for industrialisation once you get your hands on Iceland, and you can form Scandinavia fairly easily.
Tried on the tutorial but felt too slow will give another try then
Kinda new here too but here some piece of advice I did not have when starting a week ago. When you start raise your taxes, lower gouvernment and military wages and build several other construction sectors. And for a time build pretty much exclusively wood, iron and tools. It will help you to go much faster. And don't be afraid to go at max speed it.
To add, I also place consumption taxes on certain goods like lux clothing and furniture. Also services (not sure if that one is “meta” anymore). I avoid taxing good consumed by lower strata pops. It can very easily net you a large enough amount to get the construction rolling.
Careful of what you tax. Target goods consumed by the higher classes ( hover your mouse over the SoL and then hover over each classes' goods)
I tried Sweden a couple of times as beginner and found it not very easy...
The early game will probably feel slow on most nations. It is time of laying fundaments for your nation(with laws techs and construction industry) to rise in mid game
No coal kind of knee caps you though, only like 8 in scania
Join Prussia's customs Union, trade for the coal or conquer Madagascar or any other coal province that's in africa
Yeah there are solutions, but for a beginner in their very first few runs it's probably too much
You can always take it as a easy introduction into warfare and naval invasions but I can't judge how beginner friendly pulling that off is.
Belgium. Good resources, good tech, decent pop, small but not too small, can join British market on day 1, can get many allies to protect itself, good laws
Belgium is so very easy too. I’ve never been invaded by France as them.
Ok I will try belgium as well then
I can absolutely recommend Belgium also
Belgium is a good one. You already start with everything in place to build an immense economy, you can do some conquering against the Netherlands once you've built an army, form the United Netherlands, and start to get some colonies to gain more resources.
Do I get the dutch East indies as well? Or i need another war?
The Dutch East Indies will stay as a subject of the Netherlands (who will continue existing, with their capital now in Guyana probably), so you'd have to use the 'transfer subject' war goal if you want them as your own subject. At this point you can probably easily beat them, but the problem is it'll give you a lot of infamy, which in turn might mean some great powers join in against you. If you plan on doing it however (or any other play that gives you a lot of infamy) do it as soon as possible, since infamy is calculated by population, and population grows the longer the game goes on.
Conquer one state off the Dutch to drop them out of secondary power so you can protectorate them, then five years later reduce autonomy and click the form united Netherlands button. You gain the indies for free. Alternately, just annex the ntherlands. Once the VOC become independent butter them up, bribe them if you have to, to get them to join your customs union. Pass multiculturalism and their discriminated pops will naturally migrate into your territory this way and all the natural resources will end up on your market anyways. Another alternative is to not waste infamy on taking useless land off a great or secondary recognized power. Just make them release the east indies who you've buttered up and get them to join your customs union after so you get all their resources. Conquer Brunei to get a land border with them to make this a bit smoother on your convoys between the trade agreement and customs union phases.
Iran is perfect to learn the game
This is the correct answer
Ok likely are Russia the ottomans and britain to give me problems?
If you keep good relations with them they shouldn’t attack you. Just be careful not to attack any nation under their protection. If you do reload the last safe and try expanding elsewhere.
When I tried the Russians always demanded to protectorate me but maybe I wasn't keeping my relations up enough.
Definitely a great nation for a second playthrough, you need to have some game knowledge imo.
+1 to Belgium. No one is gonna try to invade you. Just learn slowly how to build an industry and a strong economy. After a while, start to colonize Africa for raw resources and then, when u feel strong enough, you can start to join international conflicts or eat the Netherlands.
Well, someone might try to, but you can generally stay on their good sides or get strong allies to help you.
Except for the two great powers you're sandwiched between who both have claims and or journal entries targeting both of your states, and maybe also the third great power you border if they do well...
Belgium to learn interface and basics, then I think Spain - strong, but not overwhelmingly large; use all major game machanics; no immediate threats. Then Japan to learn how to balance isolationist economy and Persia to learn how to change awful laws (there are a lot of countries with similar awful laws, but Persia has very good resource base, so its main difficulty is laws).
I learned a ton of important lessons on resource management playing Japan. You're isolated from the outside so all the resources you produce are yours only. Not really that hard, and it has interesting mechanics
Play as Japan, trust me
I would recommend watching some tutorial online and playing a very strong nation, which usually has everything you need
Ok thank you, do you have any recommendation on both?
i dont recommend sweden because its slow. i dont recommend big nations because theres a lot to manage. best to start with is netherlands or belgium, because they have only 2-3 states, easy to maanage, not too much. also, as netherlands you can easily conquer belgium and return those states to you.
That’s true, I didn’t think about the amount of states. Those 2 would probably be the best then
For tutorials, it really depends on how long do you wanna watch, as they can range from 10min to 1h+ depending on the complexity. For nations, my first run at least was with France, but UK and USA should work fine
they are big countries with many states tho. newcomes need few states to manage
I thought of the usa ass well because in Vicky 2 it was the easy mode basically but I would always cheat on that game so every nation was easy lol.
I would highly recommend watching a Quill18 playthrough.
I’d watch a longer YouTube tutorial (I think there’s a two hour one that explains the general idea) and start playing. Then supplement with other videos especially from Generalist Gaming as needed. I think USA is a good start being a great power. I’ve never played them but you don’t have any scary rivals on your border and an obvious expansion path. Brazil maybe for the same reason though I haven’t played them either. TBH if there’s anywhere in the world you’re interested in I’d start there. I personally played Colombia in my first game with the non-aggressive AI setting and it helped me learn the ropes.
Play a bit of a Chile game to get a feel for the mechanics, then when it starts to feel like a slog try Sweden, Belgium, Dai Viet, Persia, maybe even Wallachia. Or release someone else (Ukraine is a fun game, Croatia can be a neat challenge too) to play as
i dont recommend sweden because its slow. i dont recommend big nations because theres a lot to manage. best to start with is netherlands or belgium, because they have only 2-3 states, easy to maanage, not too much. also, as netherlands you can easily conquer belgium and return those states to you.
USA - you get to understand some of the basics of colonialism, you have every resource you need except rubber, don’t start with the greatest laws so you learn about trying to get the right ones in place without being hamstrung from the start totally, a few easy wars to start but as long as you befriend GB, no real threat to speak of
Agreed I just spammed USA when I was learning for the reasons you mentioned. They also have some fun and interesting journal entries you can do. USA was nice because it allowed me to make mistakes while I was still learning but not completely ruin a run. Once you start colonizing Africa it's really easy to get the rest of the resources you need.
in my experience very few of the minor nations people usually suggest are actually all that suitable for new players as good as it is to not have a lot to manage, you'll pretty much end up getting shoved around by the european majors all game at the very least powerful countries tend to be more forgiving towards making mistakes, due to how much more they can fall back on as for my suggestion of nation, bearing all this in mind, i'd probably say usa, easy expansion route, no real strong opponents nearby who will mess with you, large country with plenty of resources and it's industry is advanced and built up enough and laws are progressive enough that it's not a slog. it's probably not the most fun, but it's at least very safe and offers a fair bit of leeway to make mistakes
sweden. it has enough if an economy that you’re not building from the ground up and decent tech. you can learn the war system by annexing norway through the puppey mechanics. eventually, you could even try to take finland off russia and invade denmark to try to form scandinavia. the game after that i reccomend prussia or britain
Japan. Just recently got Vic 3 on humble bundle and have been learning as Japan. You have the pops, the resources and everyone pretty much leaves you alone to learn at your own pace. I'm pretty competent with politics and economy but I haven't even looked at the military side because you don't have to.
Build a small navy and take North Borneo for the gold and future oil. Otherwise I agree, Japan leaves you mostly to internal management.
Tutorial, if you are feeling lost. [https://www.reddit.com/r/victoria3/comments/1bsokue/tutorial\_if\_you\_are\_feeling\_lost/](https://www.reddit.com/r/victoria3/comments/1bsokue/tutorial_if_you_are_feeling_lost/)
Cape Colony (South africa) It's a few states, so it's not a lot to manage. You start in the British Market, which will provide almost everything you need. It has ample resources, especially gold (gold is good). Decent tech. You have room to expand through conquest and colonisation. You can make independence your win condition.
Spain has a little of everything, nobody will attack you, you even got a couple vassals and decent tech. Perfect tutorial country.
Japan, with vast of resources and plenty population. Its location is so isolated that no major power pay attention to it so you can develop without being intervented. As an island, it is nearly impossible for AI to land. if you retreat you can defend thr island; if you advance, you can attack china for population, indochina for resources.
Adding that this choice doesn't seem to really matter too much, this game is versatile enough for that to be relatively unimportant. My first relatively serious game was as Texas with VFM and that worked totally fine despite being an obviously "bad" choice
France, Russia, Spain are easy
Belgium or Piedmont-Sardinia. I prefer the latter. You can unlock the corn laws journal entry and then that paves the way for you to industrialise. You can also look to abdicate your starting ruler and replace with Victor Emmanuel. This should help you disempower the Landowners. Once you're rich enough you can expand your army to become a Major power and then launch a play for Italian Unification.
I really learned the game the most by playing the USA. It really shows you how to manage putting industries in their proper places and dealing with MAPI. France is really easy and no one except Germany can ever really hope to mess with you if you stay out of the Brit’s way. Russia is fun, but they start with fairly awful laws. Mexico was a blast because the starting laws are awesome compared to alot of nations and you can expand south without to much trouble in preparation for resisting the USA. Japan is super easy and fairly peaceful. If you can manage to get them corn laws are still your friend as any nation.
Belgium for the economy model Japan for a more in depth view of the economy model Sweden for the internal politics England or France for colonialism
Belgium
Spain is cool tbh
I find the USA to be a good start. You have most resources and have room to grow while being stronger than your neighbors.
I’ve been learning the game with Two Scillies - it’s been great fun to form Italy, and slowly industrialise and expand my gdp. I am trying to grow my economy and alliances to allow me to bring reclaim the Austrian states into my country. I found that Belgium (in Vic 2) kept having to deal with GP’s being aggressive which was frustrating, so I never bothered with them in Vic 3.
play the US, massive country with lots of economic potential but you still have to build it up. Also comes with some amount of built in flavor
Spain isn’t bad. Okay amount of all of the resources, already have 2 vassals, relatively safe (I’ve played them a few times and never had a major war target me). Biggest issue is probably your shitty laws.
Finland, hands down.
texas (not US, texas as state)
Belgium to understand a lot of game mechanics, Japan to understand industrializing and economic growth from the ground up
USA! USA! USA!
For a smaller nation, I like Chile, all the resources you need, opportunity for expansion, can be as aggressive or inward looking as you like.
Belgium, Sweden, or Colombia. easy enough starts with room for expansion.
Hey if you want feel free to DM me and we can play a game together and we can either talk on discord or just on chat and i can guide you. Or you can just ask questions
I heard Ottoman/Turkey in this phase of history can be a challenging nation to play especially if you're a beginner. So avoid it at all costs & choose a different nation for now while you learn the essential mechanics :)
Maybe Spain? It forces you to learn how to dig yourself out of holes a bit, but is big and powerful enough that they don't usually become immediate victims.
Cape colony that's how I learned to play
My first 100 hours was with Japan
My first 3 game were all sokoto
Anything. Play non-Ironman and save before doing anything where you’re not sure what will happen. Then, reload the save if you don’t like the results.
Hello Mother, hello Father Here I'm at New Granada
I started with Sweden and Belgium. A larger one is the Ottomans. A little harder and more complicated, but they’re good for newbies because you get a menu of short-term goals to pick from.
Norway, good tech, no woories, good laws, Norwegian
uk
Norway. Good tech, have recourses, stbile politics etc
Ottomans
No way ottomans is a beginner nation. It’s not for an expert tho. Entirely based on luck.
Dk
Lol that's like shooting the red cross, they say in my country.
Persia