Victoria 3 is a strategic society simulator where you need to build the ideal society during the period of the 19th century. As you create the society of your dreams, you will need to balance the demands of various economic groups and lead your nation towards stability. The game gives you complete freedom on how you wish to develop your country and extend your influence either diplomatically or militarily as you try to maintain global peace and avoid conflicts.
Diplomacy is an important part of maintaining good relations with neighbouring countries however these talks can often fail resulting in a break out of war and conflict. While it’s not a major focus of the game, it’s important to learn how to declare war if you wish to protect your interests and defend your territory.
This guide will tell you how to declare war in Victoria 3.
How To Declare War – Victoria 3
Starting a war isn’t easy as pressing a few buttons to invade your enemies instead you need to follow a few steps to find a reason to force yourself into war. This process is called Diplomatic Play often involving neighbouring countries where the political goals affect your special interests.
You can only start a Diplomatic Play in a territory where you have declared your special interests. Usually, these countries will have a history of conflicts or rivalry with each other that often cause undue tensions.
In order to declare war, click on the Diplomatic Lens in the bottom menu and then select Diplomatic Plays where you will find a couple of options which include:
- Annex Subject
- Ban Slavery
- Conquer State
- Cut Down to Size
- Humiliation
- Independence
- Liberate Subject
- Make Puppet
- Make Vassal
- Regime change
- Return State
- Take Treaty Port
- Transfer Subject
You can select either one of these options to start a conflict and the result will vary depending on the situation and may or may not end in full-out war.
The places where you can make a diplomatic play will depend on your prestige and power ranking as well as your special interests. For example, you cannot ban slavery in a nation where you have no special interests declared.
Once you have selected any of these options such as Make Puppet then you will see countries highlighted in green where you can enforce your actions.
The list on the left will show you the list of targets that can be chosen for the Diplomatic Play.
Do note that other nations may or may not support your actions and this will affect the outcome of your diplomatic play as they might not like your actions and wage a war against you.
After confirming the action, you will enter the phase of Diplomatic Escalation and a countdown will begin where you can either negotiate or add more goals to the conflict. These goals are limited and based on your world ranking as they will affect your Diplomatic Manoeuvres.
The final process before the war is called Diplomatic Manoeuvres as it involves swaying other countries to join your side during the war. You can offer them incentives to bring them to your side or convince them to stay neutral during a conflict. Offering obligations might sound easy but you will need to support those countries in their wars
After the Diplomatic Manoevuer phase, a countdown will begin giving each side time to prepare or back down from the war so they can surrender and prevent bloodshed and economic loss from happening.
In the meantime, you can activate Conscription Centers near the region where you have declared the war as well as recruit generals for the cause.
You can check the entire list of states where these centres can be activated as well as the units available in the list on your left.
Once the war begins, you will need to manage the war front by mobilizing troops for the cause.
You will need to manage the Battalions and Generals by promoting them so they can lead the soldiers into battle and this will cost you bureaucracy as well as increase the political power of the interest group that they are a part of.
You can win a war by capturing lands and winning battles to improve your standing and this will force the opponent to either accept a peace deal or surrender themselves.
These peace deals can be negotiated or rejected if you think that you have a better chance of winning the war. War casualties, economic loss and public support for the war can be found by hovering over the area of conflict.
Your enemies will be forced to accept your war goals if you emerge victorious and capture the contested piece of land.
That’s it, now go ahead and follow these steps to declare war on your enemies in Victoria 3!