Victoria 3 Cape Colony: Best Tips And Strategies

Out of many nations available in the game to start from, Cape Colony is an interesting pick. The area is neither too hard to control nor too easy to manage. Although the Colony is not as strong in itself, it will give you considerable benefits as compared to other African Nations. If you’re here, we are assuming that you have decided to pick Cape Colony as a Starting Nation in Victoria 3 or thinking of doing so. So, stick with us to know more about the location along with some interesting tips on how to grow it suspiciously.

Cape Colony: An Overview

Cape Colony was Originally a Dutch trading post that integrated with the British Crown and came under British rule. The area is categorized under Minor Power and comes at #33 in the colonial ranking. The nation doesn’t possess anything extraordinary that enhances its worth. Although Cape Colony has a low GDP of €577K, which apparently doesn’t look appealing, it’s one of the highest you can get from the region. 

Once you start working on the Cape Colony with a decent population and adequate GDP, you can grow the nation in two major ways. Firstly, you can make the Cape Colony strong by working on the infrastructure and investing in growth-enhancing factors. Once your nation is strong enough, you can get independence from British Rule.

If you go for being an independent nation strategy, you might have to put in some extra effort to get success in your motive. So, make sure to prepare accordingly. If you want to stay away from the diplomatic stuff, you can go for the strategy of making allies with the British.

That way, you can grow your economy while having backup support. Once you have enough dominance in your region through your power, you can start invading neighboring nations. This strategy is relatively easy to adapt as if anything goes South, you have the backup of Great Britain.

Strategies To Become A Powerful Nation

Once you’ve selected Cape Colony as your starting Nation, you need to adopt the right strategies and follow the perfect tactics to grow your area and become powerful in the region. So, let’s discuss about how you can make Cape Colony a powerful land in Victoria 3.

Infrastructure 

To become a dominant nation in the region, you have to prove to the world that you have the capability and potential for it, which can be portrayed by building a well-planned and advanced infrastructure. So, make sure to give proper attention to the groundwork of Cape Colony to build a stable nation.

First, you should start by developing Construction Centers and other crucial establishments to initiate basic trade and boost the economic cycle. For construction, go to the production lens center at the bottom of the screen and select your desired building to start working in it.

You can work in the Agriculture sector by building some Livestock and Wheatfarms from the lens and regulating them. Other than that, you can work on your Issue Decrees such as Road Maintenance, Increase Resources Extraction, and Enlistment efforts.

Use Your Arable Land

Being a Coastal Area, Cape Colony has a decent amount of Arable Land. To take fair advantage of your Arable land, you can increase the production of Farming buildings in the area. Try to build as many Rye Farms and Livestock Ranches as you can, depending on your current budget. Once you’ve used enough Arable land, the untouched area will be taken as Subsistence Farming by the farmers.

Subsistence Farms are used by peasants to make a variety of goods to meet their needs, and sell the remaining goods in the National Market. The problem is that the Subsistence Farms are poor in terms of profit and meeting the needs, so a more feasible approach is to make more peasants into gainful employees. So, the most optimal way is to utilize the maximum amount of Arable Land to your advantage and generate revenue from it. 

Regulate The Budget

When you will start working on Cape Colony you will get very few resources that regulate the budget of the nation. Most of the sectors are controlled by the landowners, which is bad as their contribution rate to the economy is very low.

You can start by revising the taxation rates and increasing them a bit in a few industries. While you’re regulating the budget, make sure to increase or decrease the taxation wisely as increasing the tax or lowering the wages too much will not end up good either. 

Increase Market Access

One of the best ways to work on your economy is by increasing your market access as more trade will result in more revenue generation. In the starting phase, the Eastern Cape and Northern Cape are below their maximum market access in the British Market, so you need to fix that.

Start building some ports as it will give a boost to Convoys and Urbanization while making your infrastructure strong. Also, make sure to increase the production rate of resources that have high demand in your regional market. Start building some Coal mines and Logging camps as the market has a high demand for wood and coal. 

Increase Resources Production

If your nation produces a considerable amount of resources, more parties will be interested in your region, which will result in migration and an increase in population to build a more stable economy. You can work on your resource production by investing in gold and iron mines.

Although these mines are a bit costly to set up, they give more benefits in the longer run. Once your mines are set up, keep them regulated and make sure that the workers and the utilities are working fine for the production of resources. 

Colonization

Once your Nation is stable enough, you can start Colonisation as it will help you in expanding your territory overseas and giving you access to new places with more valuable resources.

One important thing to remember is that if you are planning on becoming a colonial nation and integrating several nations together, then make sure that you unlock the Colonial Ability. You can unlock it by enacting a law for the Colonial Affairs Institution. You can either choose Colonial Resettlement or Colonial Exploitation.

If you have Colonial Resettlement, you’ll receive an extra bonus if you target unincorporated states for Migration Attraction. It will help you attract the population to your colonies, making them strong and more powerful. If you have Colonial Exploitation, it will be easier and cheaper to maintain your Colonies, but if we look at the bigger picture, the Resettlement will give you more perks in the long run. 

War With Sahrawi

In order to prove your stance in the region, you might have to declare war against some states and conquer them to expand your colony. While you’re at war, make sure to focus on building more infrastructure and supporting your troops with backup. Also, when you are fighting against a state, you lose a lot of money as you are utilizing your resources plus building extra infrastructure is not economical. 

If your army chief possesses good traits that can outperform the enemy battle line-up, you’ll have a much easier time winning the fight. You can also be aggressive against Sahrawi and attack them before their allies appear. So try to keep pushing on the state and try to find out how far you can capture the area.  Continue advancing forward until you invade the area. 

Build Urban And Trade Centers

Once you establish enough amount of Urban buildings in your state, the Urban Centre will unlock. These Centers will help in increasing the Urbanisation level in your states. If you have an interest in increasing the capacity of your Urban Centers, then invest more in Urbanization promoting infrastructures such as Power Plants, Government Administration, and Motor and Electronic Industries. 

Trade Centers, on the other hand, cannot be constructed directly. Instead, they appear as a result of advancement in the trade routes. These centers will be established automatically in the states with more trade. Although Trade Center does not manufacture or utilize anything, they will contribute by employing a considerable amount of Pops and contribute to the economy through promoting trade.

Build More Ports And Railways

Ports and Railways are two main infrastructures that are crucial for maintaining a decent economy and assisting the supply chains. Building more Ports will give a fair advantage to your states as it significantly increases the number of Convoys, which will boost overseas trade and help the economy of the Nation.

Building Railway routes, on the other hand, will help in improving the transportation sector and increasing the infrastructure of the state.

Conclusion

If you’re starting with Cape Colony in Victoria 3, you can go with the northern route for colonization without penalty. So, get a head start on the European nations by expanding your territory in a practical way. Also, try to incorporate your states and go for strategies that stabilize your economy. Once your goldmines and other resource production units are in action, the conditions will start to get fairly better.

After that, try to manage your economy within the British market and take more interest in the trade market. If you want to choose the independence option, you need to damage your relations with the British and start developing relations with their foes. France is a good option to make an ally as it can help you throughout your journey. 

If you are facing difficulties in establishing a good trade center, you can check our detailed guide on Trade Center to get some help. As you will be going through a lot of wars during your progression make sure to check out Victoria 3 Wars: How To Start & Win guide to dominate the region.