The conclusion begins: a masterpiece worth buying.
These are two young people living in Victorian Europe, perhaps the same workers who participated in the British Chartist movement of 1836?
Each grand strategy game from the development company Paradox, has a definite theme and setting period. Victoria is a very clear target for the era of the Second Industrial Revolution (electrification), modernization, colonization and imperialism. The 100 years from 1836 to 1936 to be exact.
A real history simulation game, one might even say teaching software
For us Chinese, this is the eve of the outbreak of the Opium War in 1840 and the beginning of modern suffering. Regarding the strict prohibition of opium or the suspension of opium, the Qing Dynasty and Emperor Daoguang were still exploring and discussing this year.
If you look around the world, you will find that there are so many different historical events taking place in the same universe during the year. Let's take a look at the British Empire, the protagonist of the series, which is engraved in its name. This was the year of the Chartist Movement (1836-1848) in the British Empire.
It was a movement initiated and led by the working class, and the workers of the world's factories at the time, Britain, under the leadership of the London trade unions, petitioned Parliament to abolish the property qualification restrictions for parliamentary candidates and demand universal suffrage for every mentally sound man over the age of 21.
At the same time, this year, 18-year-old Karl Marx proposed to Yanni.
On the North American continent, the Texas War of Independence was underway. The "Battle of the Alamo" of that year was a small fortress attack and defense battle with a huge disparity in strength, which later became one of the symbolic totems of the spirit of Texas and the United States. It was also the same year that the Republic of Texas was born.
In the Japanese archipelago, Ryoma Sakamoto, a famous reformer, was born.
The year the game opens, Britain has industrialized to the point where it gives workers the desire and power to participate in politics. In the same year, opium, elections, political ideology, border changes, reform and reform. Wonderful, the show is ongoing.
And through "Victoria 3", I personally experienced the pulse of the times in this historical background.
Productivity gains are a one-way train that is gone forever
Although the state of industrialization varies from country to country, each country will start with many yeoman farmers and subsistence farms. These settings, of course, mimic the state of the agrarian economy of the 19th century. (It is conceivable that there were extremely many yeoman farmers in the Qing Dynasty)
Then, as the player gradually lays down tea plantations, wheat farms, rice farms, coal mines, iron mines, steel mills, food factories, glass factories, textile mills, paper mills, industrial equipment workshops, and other industrial units, some unemployed homesteaders will slowly begin to enter these industrial units and manufacture industrial products.
Subsequently, the entire industrialization and modernization were like an unstoppable whirlpool, which swept more and more people into it.
Cheap agricultural/industrial goods produced by higher productivity attracted first urban and rural idlers to collective farms/factories, and then subsistence farms and yeoman farmers. More and more people are leaving their land and joining the tide of modernization.
The wave is gone.
In the game, the player plays the role of the "will of the state" to manipulate the market and the government, and the player needs to pay attention to the government's financial situation, the market's reaction, the people's income and expenditure and living standards.
Once industrialization begins, the player has to continue the process while making changes to the laws and systems of their own government in line with the process. Failure to strike a balance between these will result in a bankrupt government, an incapable army, and a country plagued by constant protests and rebellions due to hardship.
Thinking of the industrial upgrading threshold that China is facing now, people have to sigh that history is in the present tense.
Governing the country is walking on thin ice
During the whole game, what made me feel the most difficult to govern the country was the Qing Dynasty. The Han provinces of the Qing Dynasty were also densely populated, and a sufficient number of government agencies were required to manage the corresponding population. If the quantity is not reached, it will bring a loss of tax revenue to the government. And the game began to pay about 70-80% of the tax losses to the Qing Dynasty.
Can't collect taxes! It's too true.
In order to break the game, at the beginning of the game, it is necessary to concentrate the industrial construction in a few provinces, and at the same time fully invest in the construction of government facilities in these provinces, so that the efficiency of tax collection will gradually improve. Isn't it very similar to the special economic zone in the early days of reform and opening up? This is one of the special tests given to the Qing Dynasty in "Victoria 3".
Then my Qing Dynasty entered a period of prosperity and smoothness. But then I found the next bottleneck.
My modern chemical plant needs more and more literate people, and if it doesn't, the productivity of the factory unit will be compromised. But I have my own national conditions here, and there are no modern schools!
Schools must be built with the abolition of serfdom and the prohibition of child labor. But the scholars, who at this time were overwhelmingly dominant in the government (50-60% of the seats), were opposed to the abolition of serfdom.
It's stuck here, and I haven't found a better solution yet. A more natural transition to the next stage can only be made by waiting for the further development of industry and capital, the creation of more capitalists and workers, and then, with the increase in the strength of the capitalists and the trade unions, and the removal of the party of scholars and doctors from their ruling position.
At the same time, also because there have been no subversive changes in the main ruling forces, the reform of our army has also remained on the system of "peasant conscription" and cannot be changed. This means that there is no way for standing armies and reserves to be equipped and organized in the most advanced ways. This made the "national will" that the great powers were waiting for a little anxious.
At the same time, the inability of the army to reequip also led to the fact that the demand for weapons factories and ammunition factories, as well as associated industrial industries, could not go any further.
When productivity is not running at full capacity, the worst happens.
After adding new machines to factories and changing infrastructure for towns at the same time, I found that the entire industrial chain had collapsed. The decline in demand for industrial intermediates led to a decline in government tax revenues, and trade collapsed in tandem, which then led to a decline in tariffs as well. Then there's the tax deficit that the government has been unable to improve for a long time...
I'm still stuck here. It is walking on thin ice.
The era when the great powers carved up the world
The game uses a very interesting game system to simulate the era when imperialism divided the interests of the world.
This "diplomatic game" allows each country to decide where it can declare its "interests" based on its prestige and influence in the countries of the world.
Then the state can initiate a diplomatic game, demanding some benefits. This includes territorial claims, reparations, market opening, or changes in the political system of the opposing country.
After initiation, in the game panel, the initiator and the target country can each call on their allies to stand on their side diplomatically, change or add game objectives, and then when the entire game time bar is completed or halfway through, the target country can choose to give in or not accept. Not accepting nature means war.
This system mimics the entire process from diplomacy to war, and it has the authentic flavor of the 19th-century powers. It also reminds people of the tragic history of China's modern history, from the Opium Wars to a series of unequal treaties.
Ah, speaking of which, I am reminded of the series of events that once occurred in the "Outer Northeast Gold Mine" when I was playing the Great Qing Dynasty. After seeing it in the game, I went to check Baidu, only to learn that there were rich gold deposits in the Outer Northeast. It is a pity that it was during this period that the Outer Northeast was cut off by Tsarist Russia. This is also one of the epitome of the educational significance of "Victoria 3".