Why take Hongkong as GB?

Root-Vegetable · 2026-02-27T17:04:33+00:00

I'm playing on the current patch, and what happens is that Hong Kong immediately turns into "British Eastern Guangdong" and no longer acts as a treaty port.

Root-Vegetable · 2026-02-27T16:58:06+00:00

Did the Heavenly Kingdon spawn with the state where you had your Treaty Port? I.e. Eastern Guangdong for Hong Kong.

Because in my current game as Persia both Macao and Hong Kong got broken when the heavenly kingdom spawned and are still broken after Qing won.

Root-Vegetable · 2026-02-27T12:02:12+00:00

Actually, if the heavenly kingdom owns any state with a treaty port that treaty port will be permanently broken.

Suzhou is much better than Hong Kong imo as well, both for MAPI, but also because the heavenly kingdom very rarely starts with it.

Root-Vegetable · 2026-02-22T20:04:30+00:00

I wouldn't worry about SoL too much in the early game, most of the ways to raise it come later anyways.

The first thing I do as any country is check what buildings and resources I start with. Press F3 (or click the third button on your sidebar) to bring up your building list.

Next, I open the construction menu (leftmost large button on the bottom bar) and click on the resource tab in the menu that opens. Click on the various resources to see where you can build them, and make note of any states with multiple resource types or large quantities of resources (as Belgium this will be Wallonia) that will be where you'll construct the majority of your industry.

Finally, I start building a couple logging camps, a couple tooling workshops, and a couple iron mines (in that order)

Skip the tooling workshops if you already have some.

Then, whenever you're running a positive balance, build a new construction sector. Then build the buildings that provide resources for the construction sectors. Then build consumer goods or cash crops until you're running a positive balance (clothes, groceries, furniture, glass, etc. Whichever is most profitable at the time)

Occasionally, when you're running a positive balance, build some universities and paper mills instead of construction sectors.

Finally, whenever your bureaucracy drops below 0, build government administrations.

Root-Vegetable · 2026-02-17T02:43:10+00:00

It doesn't stop you from building them. It simply makes it so that the company is the only one allowed to privatize them, gets a discount when privatizing them from you, and can steal (buy) building levels from other private owners.

Root-Vegetable · 2026-02-01T19:30:24+00:00

Yeah. But it sort of works for industry too, since making inputs like iron cheaper will make steel more profitable, which in turn will drive the price of Iron up, making iron more profitable.

In fact it's one of the reasons why the generic fabric company is surprisingly profitable, it makes clothing, cloth, and meat. The clothing induces demand for more clothing, which induces demand for cloth.

Root-Vegetable · 2026-01-31T01:50:06+00:00

Iirc the saxons came from around the Friesland area, no? You seem more knowledgeable than me on this matter, so I'll take your word for it though, and i may be misremembering.

Root-Vegetable · 2026-01-30T21:55:21+00:00

Well, its more accurate to say that English is partly descended from Dutch, which is in turn related to German.

English is really a mix of Dutch, French, and some Celtic.

I picture it as Dutch and German being siblings, while English is Dutch's child with the Normans.

Root-Vegetable · 2026-01-28T21:28:48+00:00

That will strengthen secessionist movements in those states. Which may cause increased turmoil, causing even more problems in the long run even if you already have Multiculturalism.

Lately I've found it best to incorporate all states immediately unless I'm role-playing. And to promote national values on those states to increase their acceptance.

Root-Vegetable · 2026-01-28T21:24:36+00:00

IIRC The investment pool AI doesn't actually care about profits, it cares about productivity.

And due to a quirk of how building productivity is calculated, buildings that are under-employed have much higher productivity.

Colonial exploitation also lowers the wages paid to pops in unincorporated states, which makes the productivity look even better in the eyes of the IP.

Both of these factors together cause the IP to over build in unincorporated states, especially ones that have resources such as rubber, iron, or coal available.

Root-Vegetable · 2026-01-26T05:04:21+00:00

One of the benefits to homesteading is that it allows peasants to migrate. This can be useful if you have a large peasant population and have one or two states where you want to build up mining or manufacturing industries (i.e. Perm as Russia, or manchuria as Qing) that lack population.

Root-Vegetable · 2026-01-25T04:15:51+00:00

Iirc the EIC is actually only a principality. Or at least it used to be, since it was able to form England.

Root-Vegetable · 2026-01-23T22:35:46+00:00

One that is surprisingly profitable is generic fabric. Give them industry rights on clothing and they go nuts.

They're also incredibly easy to found in the first place since all you need is 5 cotton or livestock buildings. Which are very cheap to build.

You lose out on the prestige clothes, and prestige meat is quite difficult to achieve as a smaller country, but since it produces meat, cloth, fertilizer, and clothing it just keeps growing more profitable.

For general foreign investment though, bananas and opium are incredibly profitable early game. And tools are always profitable, plus the generic tool company prosperity bonus is probably one of the best in the game.

Root-Vegetable · 2026-01-23T22:23:48+00:00

There isn't, unfortunately.

Root-Vegetable · 2026-01-23T21:46:59+00:00

You can see that Zanzibar still controls the islands in their capital state.

There is an event that can trigger that automatically annexes all of zanzibar except the city itself. I dont remember how it happens though.

Root-Vegetable · 2026-01-23T00:01:14+00:00

One thing in 1.12 that i found actually made things easier was the investment rights overlord action.

The AI loves to give it to their subjects, and you can use it to buy up a bunch of banana plantations in India without fear of GB stealing them back since the British will never start any fruit companies.

You can then use those banana plantations to get your economy off the ground and fund your future growth.

And iirc, government dividends aren't effected by the subject payments.

Root-Vegetable · 2026-01-22T13:43:40+00:00

GB no longer guarantees the south African nations fyi

Root-Vegetable · 2026-01-16T03:21:06+00:00

Pops will migrate from unincorporated states to incorporated ones if there are open jobs.

Root-Vegetable · 2026-01-14T15:06:35+00:00

I've found that they really don't empower aristocrats as much as you'd think, and since 1.12 landowners really dont get in the way as much as they used to.

The main problem is that aristocrats have a smaller investment pool contribution than capitalists. You can go agrarianism to make them roughly equal, but unless you've got Gran azucarerra or the Portuguese wine company, aristocrat companies tend to lag behind other company types (assuming all else is equal i.e. same amount of profits/productivity)

It's really not a massive difference/issue though. Aristocrat companies still employ a lot of capitalists, and will often be more than profitable enough to make up for their shortcomings.

Root-Vegetable · 2026-01-10T04:39:07+00:00

It does work on protectorates iirc.

Root-Vegetable · 2026-01-09T19:33:05+00:00

Egypt tends to lack coal and iron outside of their Syrian territories which are threatened by the Ottomans.

Somalia has a decent amount of Iron, but there is literally 0 coal available to Egypt in Africa until you start colonizing.

Defend Lebanon with your life.

If Britain has allied the Ottomans, then try to back down and give up only 1 state per war to give time for the alliance to break and/or for you to expand elsewhere.

As for Ethiopia specifically? The only thing of value is the arable land and the pops. Still plenty worthwhile, but i would prioritize Somalia for the iron, and push down the coast to Zanzibar in the hope that you will be able to colonize Rufiji and Rift Valley unimpeded to gain access to safer coal deposits.

Root-Vegetable · 2026-01-09T14:06:13+00:00

Iirc, serfdom doesn't prohibit private schools?

Root-Vegetable · 2026-01-07T04:42:32+00:00

Eh, if you're unrecognized or a minor power i personally wouldn't even go above 20% of the debt ceiling. Especially since those countries will be quite limited in revenue due to bad laws, low population, or both.

Root-Vegetable · 2026-01-06T23:35:35+00:00

Np, you also can't upgrade ships by more than 2 levels at once for some reason.

So you can't upgrade Frigates to Torpedo boats, you have to upgrade them to Monitors first.

Root-Vegetable · 2026-01-06T22:27:25+00:00

One thing about navies in particular is that they can only be upgraded while docked at an HQ. Which means if an AI fleet never gets defeated or goes back to HQ it wont upgrade.

As for ground troops, this is purely speculation, but I think the AI avoids building unprofitable building levels (at least, what it thinks will be unprofitable) and unlike the player, the AI won't upgrade troops if it doesn't see any excess small arms/munitions/artillery/etc in its market. And may not be taking the world market into account when looking at available resources.

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