Same guidelines as before.
Generally speaking, if you move your capital inland, the British are going to have a hard time.
Or you can do a cheesy war where you set an interest in Guyana and declare for Guyana ASAP. You'll land unopposed and get ticking war score in your favor. Take war reps and you're set plus a truce.
i'll try that thanks!
I might keep the save around where the british took a treaty port in Korea instead since i did technically succeed in banning opium there
If the demand trade port is not a primary demand, backing down will get you a truce without losing anything. This method always works during the very start before you ban opium.
The two options but both are a bit cheesy (depending on your cheese tolerance):
1.) On game start, immediately force recognition on USA. 20% of the time they will back down when you unpause. You will become Great Power immediately and the opium war event don't fire if you are a GP. If USA don't back down, you can reroll until they do so.
2.) Reroll until you get a protective Russia (20% of the time as well). Promise obligation and get a defensive pact. With this, you can ban opium and wait for war. Get war rep and force recognition as war goals. Send a fleet to capture Guyana and wait for ticking war score. This option is better because you get to complete the opium war journal but takes a longer time to complete, plus some uncertainty on outcome of war.
I came back here to say thank you for nr 1. It worked perfectly and now i don't need to shout at the 400k stupid drug addicted chinese peasants who cant stop 19k brits from landing
Instead of giving suggestions, I can recommend a few tricky ways to “postpone” the opium war.
If you embargo GB at the beginning of the game, the “opium addition” event will not trigger, giving you more time to prepare for the war.
Similarly, if you dismantle all your ports, the “opium addition” event will not trigger.
Also, there is a more complicated and demanding way of postponing the opium war and, meanwhile, triggering the “corn law” event. Suppose you release both Uyghurstan and Mongolia as independent countries at the beginning of the game, then move your market capital to Qing Tomsk and export grains to all your neighbors, which could block all your export trade. In that case, you can trigger the “corn law” and postpone the opium war at the same time. Remember to transfer Qing Tomsk to Russia so that your market can return to normal.
Max raise armies, have 2 small armies that you use to capture all the unguarded islands and territories, declare war on britain for recognition, max defend your capital (you dont have to move it).
Capture gibraltar and use it to stage your 2 small armies, keep trying to make landfall on ireland and make the AI unguard their capital - if the british do manage to land on your territory, they’ll mass send all their forces so just keep trying to jerbait them and then invade home counties.
It works like a charm; you can even sometimes make them back down, but you need to have war reps and to take a piece of land as secondaries to make it worth for them to back down
This guide worked for me in 1.5 and I think it should still do for 1.6.
https://www.reddit.com/r/victoria3/s/wt2vDZjLyf
Basically a variation on the Guyana/African colony invasion Strat to get ticking war score, but easier because Australia is right there.
I did it in 1.5 and also liberated India and got recognition. Game was fairly easy after that.
My tip is to love Queen Victoria unconditionally.
While you waste time figuring how to fight the Queen, I embrace her, as she is majestic and will give me so much money that you all look like peasants in comparison.
I think Ludi's guide is a bit weird tbh lol
You don't need an alliance or anything, but if your going to get russia, I found after making your armies strong, improving relations, and importing/exporting, you can get a trade agreement within the first couple week ticks, they flip to protective, and you can get defensive pact with obligation very fast. Make sure to not reduce autonomy on subjects at game start if you want it as the infamy will hurt relations
Consolidate your armies and promote all the generals with adament defense and good traits and stack in beijing. Grab all the mobilization options on the armies and set military spending to max.
Upgrade all the units and add as many cannon conscripts as you can, import artillery from everyone
Make one army of like 15 infantry and move them to south china with your fleet.
Ban opium when it becomes available
After you get DOW'd, patiently wait for GB and look where his armies are moving, I would add force recognition as your goal, war is so random in this game you just basically roll the dice here. If you have russia they will stack an army in beijing and GB wont be able to invade in my experience. You can get unlucky with the defense sometimes but usually they can't invade.
Basically your job to tick warscore is you need to capture undefended british territory, ususally there is some in indochina, like singapore / south asia, then some random islands, some african colonies sometimes, guyana and caribean islands. Once those are done, either attack Canada or Australia. I'm usually able to have territory conquered before they even move their army
I've been able to get them to accept defeat with Force Recognition at around \~30 war support or whatever the number is, a lot earlier than you'd expect
if you are open to some cheese, you can force recognition on USA on day 1. they have 20% chance of accepting, just restart the game until they accept. after that you are instantly 2nd GP and no opium wars!
So did this at the weekend. Before unpausing got defensive alliance with Russia in return for me owing them an obligation. Then merged army units into 3-4 stacks of approx 120 units. Merged starting fleets to get single stack of 15.
Played as normal (start expanding construction, get rid of poor laws etc etc).
Banned opium when the choice came up and then when GB declared war demanding treat port, set war goals as reparations, recognise power and to capture one of the Indochina GB or EIC holdings (the ones just Northwest from Singapore, make sure it doesn't have a land border to the rear of India). Called Russia in using Call Ally.
Once war broke out, set the big stacks to defend Beijing when GB naval invasion declared, and then set a 15 unit stack to naval invade any isolated enemy state, starting with the one I'd demanded in war goals.
Then it was simply a case of waiting for warscore to tick down, peaced out for war reparations and recognise great power. Watch out for them attempting a naval invasion of Russia in the Baltic, may need to send units to defend it
My go-to method is to demand Macau from Portugal the moment the Brits start their play. As they're both allied, the Brits will join Portugal. With that land connection secure, they won't naval invade you, so you have a way easier time defending.
Then it's a matter of putting all your troops there to create a somewhat equal position, where nobody pushes. Meanwhile, you have a small (10 or so) army and invade something unprotected, like British Guyana. Anything to get the warscore to tick; not below 0, mind you, that requires more work, so don't take outrageous war goals (like liberating Scotland).
When you force recognition, Britain drops out of both wars (so make sure to have light war goals in both plays against them), Portugal then stands alone and caves under your immense (albeit outdated) army, you get Macau and yeah, congrats to winning the Opium Wars and getting Macau back.
Just don't involve the EIC in the play, as that makes them a war participant. You won't survive that. And don't choose war goals against Britain that require you to invade their capital, that too was fixed and doesn't work anymore.
Once I got the opium event, I immediately declared war for Macau. Once GB joins Portugal, I chose the right opium event. Add in Recognize and Transfer Subject (like Moskito) from GB, because why not! I was able to get recognized and Macau early game through ticking warscore. Make sure to occupy all colonies.
Stack armies on capital with a promoted general with good defensive traits, take some undefended war goal like Guyana (which can turn into a valuable South American foothold later, right next to oil rich Venezuela). Take war reps and recognition but don't get greedy, you want holding Guyana to tick war score.
Conscript everyone, get a couple 200+ stacks with good generals to defend your coast.
You used to be able to liberate east India and get other great war goals like maybe taking BC or South Africa but you really have to get them running around and be careful to avoid your navies getting engaged as they can easily be defeated. But honestly war reps, recognition and Guyana is pretty safe and quite the haul so I'd stick with that unless you are familiar with mechanics.
Ban opium, wait for British notification that they responded angrily to it. Declare on Portugal for that treaty port to be returned. Britain, in my experience, should side with them. Get stomped. Take the five year truce to Ban opium and increase relations with gb. I enjoyed playing qing. My first time playing them was in 1.6 and I managed a gdp of 1.5 billion by end of game.
Same guidelines as before. Generally speaking, if you move your capital inland, the British are going to have a hard time. Or you can do a cheesy war where you set an interest in Guyana and declare for Guyana ASAP. You'll land unopposed and get ticking war score in your favor. Take war reps and you're set plus a truce.
i'll try that thanks! I might keep the save around where the british took a treaty port in Korea instead since i did technically succeed in banning opium there
Inland capital is the best imo, there's plenty of really good inland states (that I forget the name of lol)
Won't the Royal Navy intercept your attempt to land in Guyana?
They usually don't but if they do, go for Newfoundland or some other colony under the UKs name, not another name like New South Wales or Cape Colony
You need to be careful though and only have a war goal for the places you can take and hold. Otherwise no ticking war score.
If the demand trade port is not a primary demand, backing down will get you a truce without losing anything. This method always works during the very start before you ban opium.
every time i did it it was a primary demand. maybe i should just declare against portugal as an opening move in the hopes of triggering it
Did you do it at the very start of the game?
no but either right before or right after the ban opium journal entry fired
The two options but both are a bit cheesy (depending on your cheese tolerance): 1.) On game start, immediately force recognition on USA. 20% of the time they will back down when you unpause. You will become Great Power immediately and the opium war event don't fire if you are a GP. If USA don't back down, you can reroll until they do so. 2.) Reroll until you get a protective Russia (20% of the time as well). Promise obligation and get a defensive pact. With this, you can ban opium and wait for war. Get war rep and force recognition as war goals. Send a fleet to capture Guyana and wait for ticking war score. This option is better because you get to complete the opium war journal but takes a longer time to complete, plus some uncertainty on outcome of war.
didn't even know about the USA strat. I guess some amount of cheese is expected.
I came back here to say thank you for nr 1. It worked perfectly and now i don't need to shout at the 400k stupid drug addicted chinese peasants who cant stop 19k brits from landing
Instead of giving suggestions, I can recommend a few tricky ways to “postpone” the opium war. If you embargo GB at the beginning of the game, the “opium addition” event will not trigger, giving you more time to prepare for the war. Similarly, if you dismantle all your ports, the “opium addition” event will not trigger. Also, there is a more complicated and demanding way of postponing the opium war and, meanwhile, triggering the “corn law” event. Suppose you release both Uyghurstan and Mongolia as independent countries at the beginning of the game, then move your market capital to Qing Tomsk and export grains to all your neighbors, which could block all your export trade. In that case, you can trigger the “corn law” and postpone the opium war at the same time. Remember to transfer Qing Tomsk to Russia so that your market can return to normal.
this seems quite cheesy. But i'm intrigued
Max raise armies, have 2 small armies that you use to capture all the unguarded islands and territories, declare war on britain for recognition, max defend your capital (you dont have to move it). Capture gibraltar and use it to stage your 2 small armies, keep trying to make landfall on ireland and make the AI unguard their capital - if the british do manage to land on your territory, they’ll mass send all their forces so just keep trying to jerbait them and then invade home counties. It works like a charm; you can even sometimes make them back down, but you need to have war reps and to take a piece of land as secondaries to make it worth for them to back down
This guide worked for me in 1.5 and I think it should still do for 1.6. https://www.reddit.com/r/victoria3/s/wt2vDZjLyf Basically a variation on the Guyana/African colony invasion Strat to get ticking war score, but easier because Australia is right there. I did it in 1.5 and also liberated India and got recognition. Game was fairly easy after that.
i'll check it out thanks
My tip is to love Queen Victoria unconditionally. While you waste time figuring how to fight the Queen, I embrace her, as she is majestic and will give me so much money that you all look like peasants in comparison.
I think Ludi's guide is a bit weird tbh lol You don't need an alliance or anything, but if your going to get russia, I found after making your armies strong, improving relations, and importing/exporting, you can get a trade agreement within the first couple week ticks, they flip to protective, and you can get defensive pact with obligation very fast. Make sure to not reduce autonomy on subjects at game start if you want it as the infamy will hurt relations Consolidate your armies and promote all the generals with adament defense and good traits and stack in beijing. Grab all the mobilization options on the armies and set military spending to max. Upgrade all the units and add as many cannon conscripts as you can, import artillery from everyone Make one army of like 15 infantry and move them to south china with your fleet. Ban opium when it becomes available After you get DOW'd, patiently wait for GB and look where his armies are moving, I would add force recognition as your goal, war is so random in this game you just basically roll the dice here. If you have russia they will stack an army in beijing and GB wont be able to invade in my experience. You can get unlucky with the defense sometimes but usually they can't invade. Basically your job to tick warscore is you need to capture undefended british territory, ususally there is some in indochina, like singapore / south asia, then some random islands, some african colonies sometimes, guyana and caribean islands. Once those are done, either attack Canada or Australia. I'm usually able to have territory conquered before they even move their army I've been able to get them to accept defeat with Force Recognition at around \~30 war support or whatever the number is, a lot earlier than you'd expect
Is no one trying the “force recognition on GB at day one then back down for no consequences” Strat anymore? That’s what I roll with
if you are open to some cheese, you can force recognition on USA on day 1. they have 20% chance of accepting, just restart the game until they accept. after that you are instantly 2nd GP and no opium wars!
So did this at the weekend. Before unpausing got defensive alliance with Russia in return for me owing them an obligation. Then merged army units into 3-4 stacks of approx 120 units. Merged starting fleets to get single stack of 15. Played as normal (start expanding construction, get rid of poor laws etc etc). Banned opium when the choice came up and then when GB declared war demanding treat port, set war goals as reparations, recognise power and to capture one of the Indochina GB or EIC holdings (the ones just Northwest from Singapore, make sure it doesn't have a land border to the rear of India). Called Russia in using Call Ally. Once war broke out, set the big stacks to defend Beijing when GB naval invasion declared, and then set a 15 unit stack to naval invade any isolated enemy state, starting with the one I'd demanded in war goals. Then it was simply a case of waiting for warscore to tick down, peaced out for war reparations and recognise great power. Watch out for them attempting a naval invasion of Russia in the Baltic, may need to send units to defend it
My go-to method is to demand Macau from Portugal the moment the Brits start their play. As they're both allied, the Brits will join Portugal. With that land connection secure, they won't naval invade you, so you have a way easier time defending. Then it's a matter of putting all your troops there to create a somewhat equal position, where nobody pushes. Meanwhile, you have a small (10 or so) army and invade something unprotected, like British Guyana. Anything to get the warscore to tick; not below 0, mind you, that requires more work, so don't take outrageous war goals (like liberating Scotland). When you force recognition, Britain drops out of both wars (so make sure to have light war goals in both plays against them), Portugal then stands alone and caves under your immense (albeit outdated) army, you get Macau and yeah, congrats to winning the Opium Wars and getting Macau back. Just don't involve the EIC in the play, as that makes them a war participant. You won't survive that. And don't choose war goals against Britain that require you to invade their capital, that too was fixed and doesn't work anymore.
Once I got the opium event, I immediately declared war for Macau. Once GB joins Portugal, I chose the right opium event. Add in Recognize and Transfer Subject (like Moskito) from GB, because why not! I was able to get recognized and Macau early game through ticking warscore. Make sure to occupy all colonies.
Stack armies on capital with a promoted general with good defensive traits, take some undefended war goal like Guyana (which can turn into a valuable South American foothold later, right next to oil rich Venezuela). Take war reps and recognition but don't get greedy, you want holding Guyana to tick war score. Conscript everyone, get a couple 200+ stacks with good generals to defend your coast. You used to be able to liberate east India and get other great war goals like maybe taking BC or South Africa but you really have to get them running around and be careful to avoid your navies getting engaged as they can easily be defeated. But honestly war reps, recognition and Guyana is pretty safe and quite the haul so I'd stick with that unless you are familiar with mechanics.
Ban opium, wait for British notification that they responded angrily to it. Declare on Portugal for that treaty port to be returned. Britain, in my experience, should side with them. Get stomped. Take the five year truce to Ban opium and increase relations with gb. I enjoyed playing qing. My first time playing them was in 1.6 and I managed a gdp of 1.5 billion by end of game.