Victoria 3 – Tips for Winning Opium War as Qing

I am always play Qing so have tips for you.

Opium War Tips

Opium War is so easy if you use your navy; the British AI always tries to naval invade your capital. At the start, when Britain attacks, you have 2 flotillas with 7 and 8 ships, and you don’t need to add extra war goals except recognition.

Just create 15 flotillas with one ship in each, and those flotillas must have 4 admirals each and patrol the Beijing port. When Britain starts to naval invade, it will only kill one of your flotillas (which will take a lot of time), then your flotilla can quickly be repaired in port and sent back to patrol your capital port. You need to initiate a naval invasion in British African colonies, and Britain will start losing points until it reaches -100.

Just wait… wait, and British war points will drop to nearly -90, and they will agree to make peace with you.

I also recommend building more universities at the start to get more research points and first researching line infantry, then focusing on railroads. When you upgrade your army to line infantry, your army projection will be around 7000-9000, making other countries less likely to be aggressive towards you, thinking you are very powerful (if you’re not engaging in aggressive expansion).

Sometimes, Russia may randomly attack you after a few years at the start, so I recommend improving relationships with Russia from the beginning until you have line infantry, after which there is no threat.

Also, I recommend not expanding territories by war at the start if you’ve banned opium, because you only have (if I remember correctly) 8 years to cure from opium, and if you go to war, it won’t count the time, and you will automatically lose the Opium Wars after 8 years, receiving a very bad debuff for many years.