As you might expect, warfare is just as complex in Victoria 3 as many of its other mechanics.
Be sure to brush up on your strategic skills before diving into Sphere of Influence!
Instead, you must make aDiplomatic Play.
You cannot annex puppets or dominions.
Ban Slavery
Slavery is forcibly banned in the target country.
Conquer State
The states being targeted become a part of your country.
Independence
Your country breaks free from its overlord.
Liberate Subject
You break the target free from its overlord.
Make Dominion
The target country becomes your dominion.
Make Puppet
The target country becomes your puppet.
Make Vassal
The target country becomes your vassal.
Open Market
Forcibly changes the target’s trade laws to Free Market.
Regime Change
Forcibly changes the target’s government and laws to match your own.
Transfer Subject
Forces the target country to give you overlordship of the target subject.
In other words, it must have been declared for some time.
You won’t go to war upon making a Diplomatic Play - instead, you’ll enter theEscalationprocess.
The number of Maneuvers you get to work with depends on your power rank and prestige.
If you don’t there may be diplomatic repercussions.
An Introduction To Warfare
If neither country backs down during a Diplomatic Play, war begins.
Generals are recruited in the Military menu and are necessary to lead your soldiers into battle.
For example, a General withExpert Offensive Plannerwill obviously have greater success when using offensive tactics and Advancing Fronts.
Battalions are recruited at the Barracks building, with one Battalion arising from each fully-staffed level of Barracks.
If you have laws that enableConscription, you will also have access toConscription Battalionsduring war.
These must beenabled individuallyin the Military menu, with Conscripts joining the forces of any available Generals.
You will need tomobilize your troopswhen war breaks out.
it’s possible for you to mobilize Generals before war breaks out, during Diplomatic Maneuvers.
After a certain amount of time has elapsed at a warfront, battles will start happening.
This will pit Generals against each other, with their Battalions doing all the fighting.
you could watch the battle’s progress by clicking on it in the Warfront Overview menu.
Navies can also be used totransport armiesvia the Naval Invasion action.
Once the navy has driven off any blockading ships, the army willcommence a battleon the shore.
If they lose, they’ll insteadreturn to the fleetand retry after they recover.
Higher-tier units havemuch better stats, butrequire more input goodsto field effectively.
Supplies
An army marches on its stomach.
ChoosingForced Marchreduces their Morale but gets them where they’re going faster.
Engines and Automobiles, though expensive, can hasten your troop movements even more if you have them available.
Medical Support
Medical Support is used to help wounded troops get back into the fight.
Here, you’ll find the applicable war goals.
punch any unpressed war goals to press them, which sets the details of your proposed peace deal.
A white peace is simply a peace deal with no war goals pressed.
Capitulation means accepting every war goal against you, including the unpressed ones.
A sufficiently devastated enemy AI player will capitulate, ending the war immediately.
Only the war goals withcheck marksnext to them have been resolved, though!
