Victoria 3 Annex Puppet: Process & Prerequisites 

• Annexing puppets is setting a war goal to annex a nation that is your current puppet!
• The best way to annex a puppet will be to use the diplomatic lens and the annex subject tab!
• The main benefit of annexing puppets is gaining control over other nations!
• If you miss out on annexing puppets, you might not gain control of potential targets.

Victoria 3 can conquer and take over nations, which can come at the price of annexing your subjects. In our Victoria 3 Annex Puppet guide, we will go into complete detail about the entire process! 

How To Annex Puppets 

When it comes to annexing a subject or a nation that you have intended to take over, there will be quite a few steps that players need to go through, such as setting an interest, setting diplomatic plays with your desired nations, setting the war goals, making them your puppet, etc. 

However, the actual process of annexation isn’t all that tedious. For the nation that you have intended to annex and have already completed the war goal and diplomatic play process, scroll down to the far bottom of your screen, where players will be able to encounter different “lenses”. 

The lens they want to click on will be known as the “Diplomatic Lens,” which will essentially grant players the ability to see the attitude of other nations, and you will also be able to monitor your interests. With that, you will also be able to play out plays like regional actions, diplomatic plays, and diplomatic actions. 

From there, players will want to head to the middle tab displayed as “Diplomatic Plays” ad click on it. Below them will be a plethora of options you can choose from, and towards the far left will be a tab known as “Annex Subject”. 

When you click on it, a list will pop up in front of you, which will showcase the targets you can use for the selected Diplomatic play, which is, in this case, the annexation of the subject. Whichever countries are available to be annexed will be present in front of you, and in our case (USA), players can only annex the subjects they have already chosen to make puppets as their war goal. 

Second Method For Annexation 

Another method players can try out if they want to annex a nation will be to head over to the area available to annex (in our case, Indian Terrorism will be available to annex). Once the player has scrolled over to the area, right-click to access further information about the nation. 

Below will be a plethora of options like information, open diplomacy, begin improving relations, begin damaging relations, expel diplomats, start bankrolling, and granting independence. Right at the bottom of the screen, the option to “annex subject” will be present. You can click on that to start your new war goal. Before this can happen, players need to make the nations their puppets firsthand and start the previous diplomatic play, which we will discuss further. 

Prerequisite To Annexing 

Let’s discuss the prerequisites you might want to go through if you want to annex a nation properly. The first step is that almost any kind of nation’s annexation, dominion, or liberation will be known as carrying a Diplomatic Play. 

Diplomatic Play 

When it comes to a diplomatic play, it will entail a time between nations that will be carrying out diplomatic negotiations. The time being during the negotiations will be mild to severely hostile, where it may cause explosives to be used, and it eventually leads to one country or the other wanting to make demands from another nation or ask for a concession. 

To even carry out a diplomatic play, the first thing that players can expect to do will be to choose a strategic region, which is known to be a collection of state regions that have some form of importance to your nation. 

Strategic Region 

These strategic regions will entail countries with a form of interest in several regions, with interest being a signal to other regions to back off because your nation originally aims to form some form of diplomatic play with the chosen nation. Hence the term “interest” in a nation. 

The nation may also have interests in other nations, which can further act out extra diplomatic plays, but that doesn’t deem necessary most of the time. 

Active Interest 

Now, players will need to be active in the strategic region that they choose. Active interest essentially means that you will be fully invested in a nation. Active interest will be the interests you can gain from owning one or more states that are non-colonial and are present in the state region. Otherwise, it is an inactive interest. 

Once the active interest has been placed, you will also have the entitlement of being in diplomatic plays while being a third party in a certain strategic region. 

Escalation of Diplomatic Play 

After this, there will be a direct escalation that will take place for the diplomatic play that has been selected, and it will be split into three main moves, known as the opening moves, diplomatic manoeuvres as well as the countdown to war. 

Opening Moves 

Every diplomatic play that has been set between two or more nations will start with one main stage, which will be known as the opening moves. 

In essence, the opening moves will be the first phase, and when it is initiated. There will be a target, essentially the nation of the country you have targeted. The target will be granted the ability to set their first war goal. 

With that, both the initiator of the diplomatic play and the nation that has been targeted can go ahead and decide if they want to go for extra war goals, meaning more than one goal at the same time. The way that that will take place will be through using manoeuvres.

Manoeuvres will be used to take varying actions in a certain diplomatic play, allowing one nation or the other to claim several war goals. You can also sway, meaning convince other countries to come and support you on your end, and this will typically be done by offering a promise to the nation that you want to sway to your side. Nations can only carry out manoeuvres that will be based on their ranks. 

Diplomatic Maneuvers 

The next step for the diplomatic play will always be known as a Diplomatic Maneuver. It is essentially the same as a maneuver, whereby the nation initiating the diplomatic play will end up swaying other nations and joining their side on the pretense of promises. 

Not just the initiator but the targetted nation will also want to sway other nations to their side, specifically countries and nations that are comparatively stronger than their own. The main reason for this will always be to get backup support so that players can feel supported by other nations. 

Maneuvers can highly depend on the other nation you aim to sway. If they accept to be swayed by you, then you are in luck. However, if it doesn’t work out, then you might be in the rough. 

Swaying will always cost maneuvers, and the chance that a switched country will want to accept a sway request from your end will depend on your overall relations with them, how well you have treated them in the past, and how well you are willing to treat them in the future. 

Countdown To War 

Last, the final step to the diplomatic plays will be known as a countdown to war. In this phase, both the initiator and the target will be highly prepared. The preparations will be done in frantic to prepare for any possible war that might end up breaking out, which is typically inevitable if one nation wants to be hostile. 

• When it comes to the preparations, they can include them being the mobilization of your generals, which means that you want to start mobilizing the battalions handed over to them to take care of. Once they have been mobilized, generals can’t step down until the war between the two nations has finished. 
• Orders can also be given out to the commanders, which will grant them the ability to carry out several military objectives. A few orders can contain several targets, while other orders won’t contain targets. If there is any kind of order that requires the commander to travel from one place to another, they will immediately get to it. 
• Apart from this, the fronts will also need to be protected, which will be a collection of different provinces will be present on the border of the theatres between the two countries. Generals will typically be told to protect and defend these fronts, inevitably leading to battles. 
• Apart from the normal battalions, conscript battalions will also be formed, which will simply be temporary battalions, and they will be activated when wars take place. 
• The final prep will be to increase the command limit, which will simply determine the number of battalions that can be commanded. 

The main reason these phases exist is to set up a type of peace deal that will be offered if things get extremely hostile and the war leader wishes to end the war at hand. The deal will need to be negotiated on every front by both nations in the war. Apart from that, the peace deal can also add or remove certain war goals to calm the situation down further. 

Backing Down 

If there is any moment where either one of the parties decides to back down from the war, then they will end up handing over the war goal to the nation that is currently winning, and they will be declared the victor. This is a general explanation of how the diplomatic plays run down. 

From there, your next war goal can be to convert the nation of your choice to make your puppet which will follow this entire process too. 

Summary 

There we have it! Annexation of a puppet can seem really tough when in reality, it’s pretty easy. With that, we will wrap up our Victoria 3 Annex Puppet guide! 

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