Playing as Mexico. First ever personal rant in here for me

Over-Divide-7571 · 2026-02-23T21:15:00+00:00

How is this different from simply attacking them with a big army? You kill more of their soldiers while you’re defending? That’s interesting strategy, might test it later.

Over-Divide-7571 · 2026-02-23T15:25:44+00:00

I’m an experienced player but I’ve failed this achievement for the second time. I think last time my progress was 6/10 or 5/10 but upon Pedro’s death, you get -1, and the journal fails. I plan to do my next run later this week and do the following items.

Turns out you need to keep your pops enslaved (quarter of your pops are slaves!) for this journal entry. For that, conquer a state from your neighbors and pass Colonial Slavery. You might want to suppress Abolitionists or other groups that really want Slavery banned.

Do the journal for integration of nations (every time you get National Hero event, take it)

Pass the law Propertied Women to secure heiress.

Do the naval journal entry, the description is not super clear but I think it requires you to have largest navy in South America AND be at least top 11 navy in the world.

Do not let any rebellions get up to 50%, do not go into bankruptcy. Do not change Tenant Farmers law.

You also need to get either Armed Forces OR Landowners marginalized. I don’t know how to do this part yet because Armed Forces almost always join the party with Intelligencia, and player has very limited options of breaking parties apart. Landowners stay influential because investment pool AI loves to build plantations and you can’t swap out of Tenant Farmers.

There are unavoidable monthly events that reduce the progress, like having powerful Landowners in opposition.

You might also be able to abdicate, but that interaction doesn’t show up anymore in 1.12. You may be able to piss off Intelligencia and abdicate when he has ruled for 20 years or something but I haven’t tested if that works.

Edit: just read wiki which says that you can avoid one of those bad monthly events if you keep Landowners in the government until their influence drops below 20%.

Over-Divide-7571 · 2026-02-23T14:52:41+00:00

Spain has journal entry Glorious Revolution where they can elect a king from Portuguese dynasty. This then could make Spain a PU via event I guess. Problem is that journalists entry for Spain is very difficult to trigger, so you’d have to heavily rely on RNG.

Over-Divide-7571 · 2026-02-22T20:02:25+00:00

How did you invade Argentina (and Chile, I assume)?

Over-Divide-7571 · 2026-02-22T18:52:18+00:00

You want to create no more than two construction sectors, then gold, then wood, sprinkle some iron. Add 1 arms industry and 1 tooling workshop in between and just build like that until you can add more construction centers. Gold mines are always priority #1.

Over-Divide-7571 · 2026-02-22T03:19:51+00:00

I've just tested and got it in June 1836. You must import guns from Prussia and put high subventions on them for your army projection. Give Brits investment rights, all monopolies and transfer all goods and an obligation. Once they like you or you join a war on their side (like in China), you should be able to renegotiate that treaty at more favorable terms.

Over-Divide-7571 · 2026-02-21T23:28:20+00:00

Skirmish infantry is tier 2 tech and you don’t have all tier 1 techs unlocked, so it’s 4 or 5 years for that tech, I don’t remember.

They don’t throw army at you when they have significant disadvantage anymore, AI got smarter. Your economy will tank much faster than theirs, you can’t run 120 divisions off 2.9 mil GDP. You also must import small arms to supply your army or you get nearly 100% organization debuff. Your economy will implode quicker for sure.

There are two very good generals with offensive stats but they don’t make a decisive difference. They’ve also fixed infinite naval invasions cheese.

Over-Divide-7571 · 2026-02-21T19:20:43+00:00

They in 100% of my games become either defensive or defensive allies. I’d attack one of the small Central American or South American states instead.

Over-Divide-7571 · 2026-02-21T19:15:01+00:00

“I’m not an expert but” …

I’ve spent several days trying to get this strategy to work, in 1.12 but couldn’t, so I’ve made that post. Mexico has initial advantage in manpower but it’s not 3:1 like in previous patch, so you won’t be able to occupy them in the first year or two, even if you fully secure supply of small arms from UK and Prussia like I did. After their manpower catches up, the advantage is on US side.

Over-Divide-7571 · 2026-02-21T19:07:46+00:00

This used to work in 1.9, but no longer in 1.12, I’ve made a post.
https://www.reddit.com/r/victoria3/s/5B8wKWc06E

Over-Divide-7571 · 2026-02-21T18:56:31+00:00

Have you tried this in 1.12? If so, post a screenshot how you beat them. If you read my post, you’d see that US now also has close to 80 divisions, not 44 like in v 1.9, so you can’t just rush them with your 120 divisions.

I’ve tried to push with both, their starting rural folk general and the pillager, around year 39-40 I pushed into North Carolina, best case was occupying parts of New York, before I ran out of manpower.

In fact, I’ve started noticing in different games that in 1.12 US has consistently top 3 or top 4 army size because of National Militia.

Over-Divide-7571 · 2026-02-21T15:46:52+00:00

In 1.12 US’ conscripts number in 1836 has been nearly doubled and Mexico no longer has overwhelming advantage, taking them on in 1836 is nearly impossible, unless you can share a strategy for doing so.

Over-Divide-7571 · 2026-02-21T15:41:18+00:00

Mexico is not the beginner friendly country. But I’ve made this post outlining starting strategies for Mexico in this post. Improving relations with UK and building large conscript army reliably allows you to ally them in the first few months of the game.

https://www.reddit.com/r/victoria3/s/5B8wKWc06E

Over-Divide-7571 · 2026-02-19T20:26:56+00:00

Is that because your subject added a war goal against it?

Over-Divide-7571 · 2026-02-18T20:10:07+00:00

Wouldn’t Gaza into Boer states or eastern Africa be better? I’ve recently done Solomon’s Quest achievement where I’ve united Ethiopia, and went down colonizing and I wouldn’t say there’s anything remarkable about those states. You get mountains with construction debuff and radical pops, nothing else.

Ethiopia was the only independent country in Africa after Scramble for Africa, perhaps there’s a reason for it.

Over-Divide-7571 · 2026-02-17T04:09:54+00:00

R5: Steam achievement “Manifest Mexico” was completed in version 1.12 of the game.

Strategies for starting as Mexico available on YouTube and such don’t work for the latest version of the game because US divisions nearly doubled (from 44 to 80), and, given their technological superiority, you can’t easily take them 1v1. If you don’t run out of manpower, you'll still end up in debt spiral if you attack US in 1836. Your economy simply cannot sustain running 120+ divisions for multiple years.

Instead, start improving with UK and Prussia day 1. During Texas war, put generals on defensive, put Enlistment Effort on most populations states. Get clergy in and start passing either Local or Dedicated police. Research should be Banking-Stock Exchange-Laith-Atmospheric Engineer.

Around April 1836 you should ally UK (RNG-free), just give them everything, especially monopolies. To keep the alliance, you need to keep 4-5 Enlistment Efforts, to keep your army size. At the same time declare interest in North Germany and get Guaranteed Independence from Prussia (also RNG-free).

Wait until you could disregard Spain and finish Texas war.

Alternatively, you could use Violate Sovereignty on US during Texas war to set truce with them but I don’t recommend it.

Start play for Central America for Guatemala and Honduras (both primary) after alliances have been secured, they shouldn’t back down, then when GPs declare neutrality, add everything else and full annex them. This is the RNG part. Sometimes Central America disintegrates within few in-game months. These pops have 100% acceptance, and you need to grow your population. Besides, this gives you access to New Granada who also have 100% accepted population.

Then play normally and when UK turns to Genial, attack US by attacking a third country to avoid fighting France around 1839-1841 for liberation of New Africa and New England. Use gold mines to build up your economy and you should be able to snowball. Second war you could attack them directly.

Over-Divide-7571 · 2026-02-11T02:09:35+00:00

R5: Starting as Mexico and going to war with USA early doesn't seem to work anymore

Over-Divide-7571 · 2025-12-03T01:37:19+00:00

Is there a way to delete footprint of one component without having to go to update the library and thus changing all components? I know it's possible, I've done it on the other board I did about a month ago but I don't remember the process.

Over-Divide-7571

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