AGEOD Forums

What is the secret on taxes? I have had mine as low as %2 and still no one is happy. I wish ours were that low. I am playing as Prussia ,it's 1865. I do education reform and all those that come up to make the population happy, but nothing.
Also on a side note, I have conquered Belgium to make an invasion of France in 1870 easier. I keep turning down the peace offerings. Will I be able to annex Belgium?

Populations happiness is effected by a number of factors. Taxes is one, as is the goods you are selling them. You should see a message each turn saying something like "goods sold in our country increased satisfaction by 0.xx%). That xx needs to be above 50 to increase your population's happiness (above 65 if you can manage). To get that high, you need to sell them some of everything, especially luxuries. Also, are you in a long running war? War weariness lowers population happiness.

As to the game, if playing by historical constraints, then no. You might be able to annex Luxembourg if you get a war score high enough (you need to capture the capital to get a high war score).

Sell them things? I have not figured out how to do that yet. I have not read the whole manual yet, I can't resist just getting into the game itself most of the time.

The F4 screen will give you an overall awareness of the trade situation. Study this, play with the slider, see on which resources/goods you are adequate and which you need to import. One VERY important note: do NOT play in a mercantilistic way. Don't go for self-sufficience (autarky). If you have lots of a certain resource/good sell it, but also sell those you might need (at a lower quantity, obviously) in order to make the world economy work.

This is very important in this game, if the other nations starve and fail to thrive, then they will be less good trading partners for you as well. Everyone profits from open trade in the Victorian era! ;
(do not worry about historical accuracy, the game already takes into consideration ruler propensities in trading, see F1 screen... these give some inherent bonuses when you trade)