Victorian Three

Victorian Three

Possible if

• Start date is 11 November 1444.
• Playing in ironman mode.
• Provinces with historical tax and manpower values.
• No custom nations.

The player’s country:

• is Busoga or Buganda or Karagwe.

Achieved if

The player’s country has:

• an administrative technology level of 32.
• a diplomatic technology level of 32.
• a military technology level of 32.

The Victorian Three achievement requires the player to, as Busoga, Buganda or Karagwe (the three nations bordering Lake Victoria), reach the maximum tech level in all three kinds of technology. This is quite similar to the Poland can into space achievement.

The player will want to expand in a limited fashion. Not being so small as to become a good target for Westerners seeking to make use of the Overseas expansion CB, but not expanding so much as to use a large amount of monarch points taking land.

Starting position

Eight nations begin the game in 1444 separated from the rest of Africa situated around Lake Victoria. Busoga and Buganda start the game with one province each; Karagwe owns two and thus may be marginally easier. Early on the player will need to expand enough that none of the other nearby nations can be a threat. After expanding to control all of this region, the player will need to either need to colonize though the wasteland in order to reach land which can access the coast, or find a CB (or no-CB) to attack the other distant African nations. Remember that it is always possible to core land adjacent to a vassal on the player's home continent, so if the player vassalizes one of the nations on the coast (as an example say Malindi) or in Central Africa, then they will be able to core land taken adjacent to them in the future.

Embracing institutions

The biggest challenge for completing this achievement will be embracing institutions in a timely fashion to keep the technology cost low enough to make it possible to unlock all technologies by 1820. Not embracing institutions will quickly make technology costs too high to be practical. As tribal monarchies, all of the nations involved in the achievement will also need to embrace Feudalism. Most institutions require spreading from an adjacent province (though a few, such as Manufactories, grow independently), so at least some of the player's provinces will need to adjoin provinces connected to the rest of the world in order to acquire institutions, either through colonization or coring next to vassals. Of course it is also possible to develop some institutions, but keep in mind that a lot of monarch points are also required for the technologies.

It may be easiest to colonize/conquer to the west, until the player borders the Atlantic Ocean, and hope that Europeans colonize nearby provinces, as they will usually embrace institutions very quickly which will spread that institution to all of their provinces regardless of adjacency. It is however entirely possible to colonize/conquer to the east and the Indian Ocean, and embrace institutions as they spread south from the Horn of Africa region, though it may be slower.

The cost (in ducats) to embrace an institution depends on the remaining development in provinces that do not already have that institution, and institutions also spread faster in more highly developed provinces, so for the purposes of this achievement, a few well-developed provinces are more useful than many poor ones. However, the provinces in Central Africa are full of rich trade goods such as gold, copper, iron, and ivory, so some colonization will provide additional income from these sources. The Manufactories institution will grow in any province with a manufactory, so it is possible to get a head start on this institution by building manufactories in as many provinces as possible before it appears in 1650 (which will also boost income if built on these high-value trade goods).

Several policies also give +10% institution spread, including two involving the Humanist idea group (though its utility otherwise is not especially high for this achievement).

Additional technology cost reductions

In addition to embracing institutions, additional technology cost reductions are available from a number of sources:

1. Idea groups such as Innovative, Administrative, Diplomatic, and Aristocratic all offer ideas, or finishers which provide bonuses to reduce tech cost. Also simply having a larger number of any ideas in each tech type will contribute to the reduction in tech cost for those respective tech groups. The Innovative idea group also has an idea that provides −10% institution embracement cost.
2. Religious bonuses. Certain religions provide tech cost and idea cost bonuses. These include being a legalist Sunni nation (−10% tech cost), or a Protestant nation with the Individual Creeds aspect activated (−5% idea cost). Becoming Sunni by expanding east and conquering a Sunni province will likely be easier.
3. National ideas and traditions. Certain formable nations have idea and tech cost reductions, such as the Mughals. However, the costs involved in culture switching, coring the required provinces to be allowed to form the nations and so on, probably outweigh the benefits from doing so.

Achievement guides