Comrades!

I am a kinda newbie and want to do a socialist Sweden run and this is roughly the plan I came up with. I’d appreciate advice from more experienced players:

1 - Go extremely hard on construction and industrialization. Allow foreign investment rights and let foreign countries pour money into Sweden. Let GDP explode while the workers suffer under taxes and industrial conditions.

2 - Avoid strong police institutions and internal security early on. I want labor and socialist movements to gain as much support and activism as possible. Maybe even intentionally start anti-worker laws just to anger them and farm movement activism before cancelling the laws.

3 - Colonize a few useful regions and form Scandinavia so the future socialist state has access to resources like fruit, dyes, etc.

4 - When socialist events start appearing (Red Scare and similar events), use them to push pro-socialist laws quickly. If I remember correctly, some of them give strong enactment bonuses.

5 - Rush Council Republic and fully empower the Trade Unions. AFTER that, switch into Universal Suffrage so the lower strata massively boosts Trade Union clout and legitimacy.

6 - Since legitimacy should become very high, spam socialist laws one after another. Maybe even go Isolationism eventually and create a heavily state-controlled economy. Then slowly nationalize all foreign-owned investments.

7 - Finally, spread socialism across the world. Raise SoL massively, create a huge internal consumer economy, build the worker’s paradise, and establish the dictatorship of the proletariat. Since construction will be state-controlled anyway, spam arms industries, artillery and munitions factories, make weapons cheap, expand the army and destroy the European capitalists. Then create my own communist power bloc.

How does this plan sound?

Any “definitely do this” recommendations or mechanics I should abuse?

One more thing: when using “Regime Change” war goals, some countries still seem unable to get rid of monarchies and similar systems. Is there a better way to spread socialism internationally?

Open to all advice.

Hey everyone,

I’ve been trying to understand Victoria 3 for around 10–15 hours now, playing as Sweden, and I still have a lot of beginner-level questions. If you have the patience/time, I’d really appreciate some guidance.

1. With the new trade mechanics, am I correct in understanding that importing goods is now mostly handled through tariffs/subsidies rather than manually setting up huge trade routes?
   For example, if I have a fruit shortage, I subsidize imports and the market handles the rest automatically. Am I doing this correctly?

Also, is there any downside to relying heavily on imports diplomatically/economically? And how exactly do you join other countries’ markets now? Almost nobody accepts me even when relations are good.

2. As Sweden, I have a lot of forests and iron mines, so I assumed focusing on furniture and steel industries makes sense. But then things like tools, fabric, coal, etc. become expensive if I don’t produce them domestically.

So I keep subsidizing imports for those goods. Is that a reasonable strategy?

Another issue: whenever I try to expand industries like tools or textiles, eventually I start getting red workforce shortage icons on buildings. I assume my population is too small? Or maybe there are simply no unemployed pops left? I’m not fully understanding what the bottleneck is.

3. Since the new mechanics removed the old “Declare Interest” system, I’m confused about expansion and diplomacy.

For example, I want to improve relations with the US and start colonizing parts of Africa, but I can’t seem to increase my strategic presence there. I even moved my navy nearby, but it still doesn’t work. I passed the colonial law as well.

What exactly am I missing?

4. Which countries should I sign Trade Agreements / Commercial Pacts with? Does it depend on the goods involved?

For example, if I’m importing coal from Britain, does having mutual trade agreements make imports significantly more efficient or profitable?

5. How exactly are you supposed to weaken Landowners, Rural Folk, and the Church early game?

At the start they’re extremely powerful. I keep building factories, but Industrialists and Intelligentsia still stay around 10–15% influence most of the time.

If I put them into government, legitimacy collapses. Then radicals rise and eventually I start getting revolutionary movements.

6. Most of my radicals seem to come from peasants and workers.

The weird thing is: I’m actually trying to improve their living standards by making staple goods cheaper, but they still radicalize constantly.

I assume part of the problem is that Landowners/Rural Folk are angry while being in opposition. But if I keep them in government, I can’t pass the laws I want.

How do you usually handle this balancing act early game?

Sorry for the long post. I’m really enjoying the game, but I feel like I’m missing some core logic behind the economy/politics systems.