[Vic2 LP] How Bismarck got his herring - polls

[Titan Uranus]

Africa is explored, but mostly uncolonized.
Colonies must be other within range of a naval base or contiguous with land that you have taken. There are also some proper nation-states which will require war to take (Egypt, Zulu, Sokoto, etc.).
If he is using the most recent expansion, and still plans on doing this, then the colonial system requires the building of structures, mostly limited by the number and strength of your naval bases, as well as some technology. It's actually pretty complicated to type on my phone, so if you want to know more you should check out the dev diaries at paradox's web site.

The diaries for HoD are listed here:
https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/in ... ve.671476/

[darthkommandant]

So basically colonies seem to be similar to pride of nations where one has to build up colonial penetration and watch out for native revolts while at the same time increasing deployed forces in the area and exploring new areas. At the same time building ports, railroads, telegraphs, roads and supply dumps to keep your troops supplied. When all this is done you can declare the area a protectorate than a colony. And you must hope to god that someone else doesn't beat you to the punch and steal all of your hard work.

Finally even if you are successful you not only have to pay for them but you may have to wait for years for your colony to be recognized by the international community if it is not in your sphere of influence. (Examples include French Algeria, Australia and Canada for The British, The western U.S. For the Americans and Siberia for the Russians. Germany gets the scraps left over in comparison.)

[Dominus Atheos]

Maybe, but you are making it out to be a lot more complicated then it really is. Here is a much better explanation. I'll just quote the whole thing: (TLDR summery at the end)

A nation begins the game with a base life rating of 35. Though there are a few areas that can be colonized so early, most potential colonies are not so hospitable. (AN: most of africa has a life rating of 15)

Three inventions can decrease a nation's minimum life rating. They are: Prophylaxis Against Malaria, Mission to Civilize, and Colonial Negotiations.

Prophylaxis Against Malaria can be discovered after a nation has learned Medicine, and reduces the minimum life rating by 5.

Mission to Civilize and Colonial Negotiations are more complicated inventions: they have no base discovery chance on their own, but gain a 10% discovery rate both when a great power or a neighbor invent them, and 25% discovery rates when the nation discovers technologies from a later decade.

Mission to Civilize will reduce the minimum life rating by 10 and gets a very high discovery chance from the following 1850-era technologies: Market Regulations, Nationalism and Imperialism, and Naval Statistics.

Colonial Negotiations will also reduce the minimum life rating by 10, and gets a very high discovery chance from the following 1870-era technologies: Economic Responsibility, Machine Guns, and Naval Logistics. Colonial Negotiations is usually the last tech needed to begin colonizing.

The bonus from discovering any one of the later-era technologies outweighs the combined bonus from a great power and a neighboring power already having the technology,

Generally, if the player is the first to get Colonial Negotiations, and thus able to colonize, the rest of the major powers will quickly (if not immediately) follow suit due to the neighbor bonus.

To colonize, the colony must both be within the nation's reach and at or over a nation's minimum life rating. A potential colony is within a nation's reach as long as the target province is close enough to the nearest naval base, or is adjacent to an already-controlled province. (Adjacency to a satellite state also counts.) A nation's minimum life rating is affected by its discovered technologies.

Sending an expedition will tie up a base of 100 points of colonial power, but will only take 80 if it is adjacent to an already-controlled province.

After an expedition is sent, there is a waiting period before anything else can be done with the colony. If no other nations make an effort to colonize the area, the colony can be turned directly into a protectorate at a small additional cost of colonial power. If other nations compete, however, it becomes something of a race as the two nations continually upgrade their expeditions until one withdraws their colonial power from the race and concedes defeat.

There are two levels of Colony. The first is Protectorate, the second is full Colonial province. Colonies start out as Protectorates, and you must pay more Colonial Points to upgrade them to full Colonies. Colonies cost more in colonial Points upkeep than protectorates, but they provide you with more Tax, and you can raise troops from them. You also need Colonies if you hope to upgrade to full States later. (AN: this basically never happens. Nearly all of your colonies in africa will be colonies for the entire game.)


If a colonial race carries on for too long, it will eventually drift into a crisis. To see how close the race is coming to a crisis, check the colored bar on the state-level view.

Each nation starts with a base of 100 points of colonial power from the technology Post-Nelsonian Thought listed as "From Improved Technology".
Each naval base built in a core province will give 30 points of colonial power to its owner.
Each additional level on a naval base in a core province will give 20 more points of colonial power to the base's owner.
Every combat ship in a nation's navy will increase its colonial power by some (note that this is only true as long as the naval supply limit is not exceeded; if it is exceeded additional ships will actually lower colonial power):
Frigate: 2
Man-o-war: 5
Commerce Raider: 8
Monitor: 10
Ironclad: 12
Battleship: 15
Cruiser: 16
Dreadnought: 22

Colonial Power is invested in colonial races and in making protectorates colonies. If a nation has enough colonial power free, and a colony meets the accepted culture bureaucrat requirement to be made a state, they can incorporate the colony into their nation. This will free up additional colonial power, allowing them to develop new colonies.

The required free colonial power to integrate a colony increases with distance, though, and can easily outstrip the potential colonial power of even a great empire. If a nation wishes to colonize more land, they can release a contiguous group of colonies as a dominion. This is done from the Release tab on the Politics screen, the same way states released as satellites.

TLDR: At or around 1970 a colonization rush will kick off for africa, you spend Colonial Power you get from your navy to colonize provinces, also competing with the other "8 great powers" and the next 8 "secondary powers." (if you aren't in the top 16 nations, you don't get to colonize) Wars may break out if two countries are trying to colonize the same province.

[darthkommandant]

So it is quite different than. Thanks for answering my question. Most of my explanation was for pride of nations which I own and am still trying to learn fully.

[Thanas]

First post is up in the game thread, it answers most of the questions raised in here.