Got this game on sale for 5 dollah because everyone talks about how vicky 3 is this big communism builder, but I just started the game and I’m so confused.
Like, are petit-bourgeoisie proles in this game that I have to align with? Should I support Agrarian peasants who want monarchich order. I’m playing as Mexico in the ‘Egalitarian’ challenges, succesfully defended Texas from the evil American hordes and my sights set on American states
There’s a few pre-reqs, first you need socialism in the tech tree, until that you’re really not getting anywhere. Once it’s researched and people are miserable enough (below 10 SOL IIRC) you’ll get a socialist movement and this is your first real springboard. You basically need enough supporters of the trade unions (TUs) to make passing the law feasible (or at least, not lose all your states in a counter revolution.)
Above all else you need to build industry since they give you laborers who mostly align with the TUs, the core of this will be lumber mills, tool workshops, and iron mines in the early game since they all feed each other. Try to avoid building anything agricultural since agricultural workers are far less effective in getting the TUs in power.
To your direct question about the petit-bourgeoisie (PBs) no in most cases will actually impede the socialist revolution, but they’re part of industrialization so you gotta just accept they will be there. The rural folk/agrarian IG is fine, it can get a socialist leader on occasion but I wouldn’t count on it. If you do want to get the rurals on your side, mostly keep them miserable, so this means tenant farmers or commercial farming in the laws, not homesteading. Homesteading will effectively make them wealthy enough to not want socialism.
What about the armed forces, and the Theological groups? Will collaborating with them be counterrevolutionary?
Armed forces are a wildcard. If you manage to recruit a popular communist general, promote him to the max level and fire all more popular generals to get him into leadership of IG. The devout are very useful for passing public healthcare early, and then they are not helpful or worse. Rural folk can be very useful, if they get anarchist leaders. Petit bourgeois can rarely get someone good as a leader, but most often they are reactionary.
Also, I recommend passing Technocracy, because it allows to demarginalize Trade Unions much faster.
Collatz_problem is correct on both counts for the armed forces and religious IGs. I just want to add that you can use this general cheese on any ideology capable of taking up the communist ideology (so TUs, AF, I think rurals?), so an easy way to get a communist leader of the TUs is actually to have a communist general that is part of the TUs. Once the leader dies/retires the existing characters have a chance to get that role based on popularity and influence. You can actually see those chances if you click an IG and scroll down to the Leader Ideologies drop down.
Kind of want to focus on this route as I build the NorthAmUSSR. Right now, with Mexico in the initial phase, my government is made up of reactionaries and anyone remotely left wing (intelligentisia, agrarians) hates me.
Is it possible to have catholics, petit-bouge, landowners, AF, all in tow to make a 75% majority in government and still veer towards communism later on?
Yup, Alaskaball already described this process in detail, but the gist of it is you will have an almost all reactionary government at the beginning of the game in almost all countries. As you develop further, the landowners will lose influence as their base of power becomes diluted by industrialists owning more of the means of production. It’s worth checking in on your government every few years to see how the IG power percentages have changed. As you play the game more you’ll get a feeling for how close you are to being ready for enacting the council republic law. Definitely just focus on building up your industry like I mentioned in my first post.
Edit: the religious IG can be made pretty irrelevant if you change the PMs for the cities/universities/government admin buildings.