Becoming a Great Power in Victoria 3… While Roleplaying as IKEA

To create with your own hands gives one an insurmountable connection to the earth as you shape it in your image. Even the Bible conveys the unique connection between maker and object. And so there can be no more Godly force in the world than… IKEA.

And so, I set myself a challenge: to become Genesis in the form of Billy Bookcases within Victoria 3. I had a very humble aim to replicate the Allen key empire that provides affordable furniture for all.

Success was to be measured in a few different ways:

1. Becoming the #1 producer of furniture in the world
2. Having the highest standard of living
3. Having the most amount of trade agreements

I started my campaign in the promised land of Scandinavia, controlling the prodigal home of IKEA. Despite the accusation that I was a mere minor power in the world, I knew that the lands of Svealand and the surrounding areas were perfect to sow the seeds of such a fruitful endeavour.

There was much to do and little time to do it.

A balance of carpentry 

DIY is a core tenant of my flatpack empire, but the people of the world needed to be provided with the resources to accomplish this dream. Not only did they need the flatpacks, but they would need the precision tools to put these together.

And so I set about creating both a furniture manufactory and a tool workshop in order to bring about the feng shui balance of carpentry I so desired.

But quickly, I realised this couldn’t be the first step. I dreamed of giving the world the tools to create their dream homes but I had no way of making the factories that built them. I needed a construction sector to create IKEA. An IKEA for IKEA as it were. IKEA squared.

There is no such thing as a free lunch, and I knew that this foundation would start to show in the margins of expenditure. I could take a hit or two to the finances, but I needed to make my nation-come-corporation sustainable in order to make Billy, Kallax and Malm available worldwide.

Perfecting the assembly line

In the short term I would raise taxes. My workers were relatively happy and this wouldn’t cause a revolt. I also looked for a longer term solution to drive costs down.

I specialised my states into different parts of the assembly line. This streamlined the process of acquiring resources and transforming them into the final product.

I would need wood, and plenty of it, and so I planted the seed of flatpack forestry in the state of Norrland. I would raise livestock and harvest grain in Gotaland to provide the needed leather (and tasty meatballs that no IKEA would be without).

Iron was also needed, but I could reliably reap the benefits of the many mines around the country, though I would start with Scania. This was due to them also having, admittedly small, coal mines.

All of this was then taken to the capital and turned into the fixtures and appliances we have come to know and love. I set about issuing decrees to further boost this process, increasing the throughput of the required resources. And by so doing, I had cemented the foundations of creating IKEA within Victoria 3.

The journey truly begins

I had already identified the first bottleneck that required corking and set about sorting it. This bottleneck was my short supply of coal. I needed to fire up the factories – and a measly eight total mines in the whole of Sweden was not going to be enough for long.

As these buildings were raised and mines were dug, I looked abroad for potential customers and raw resource providers. I was not a dealer in weapons, nor did I want to wage war. The only kind of offense I would make would be the diplomatic kind.

After a busy couple of months, the first factories were opened and my IKEA journey had truly begun.

But with this magnanimous step, I had also created a problem. Svealand was not ready for the warehouses I had built: the infrastructure was just not in place for the popularity of my product.

What was I to do? I had not discovered the idea of railways and I was already buckling at the first hurdle. An R&D department was needed. I was in dire need of boffins to help solve the issues of tomorrow today.

Research and development

I invested in a university and its first task was to help innovate our infrastructure and inflate our income. I supplemented their spend by making paper mills. There was a need for complicated instructions and I’d be a fool to outsource this to my neighbours.

During this time I had also been slowly loosening the tight grip the monarchy had over the country. IKEA was to be an industrial powerhouse that pushed cheap and reliable goods for the many. The aristocrats had to go in order for this blueprint to work.

The first attempt was met with stubborn resistance. A parliamentary republic was a pipe-dream it seemed, and resulted in a powerful movement of people defending the autocratic system that was slowing the progress of my new DIY dynasty.

I retreated away from this idea, for now at least. And instead looked to take away the power of the church. They had no need for Stodja-styled goods and already had pews in place. If they had no need for us, then we would have no need for them.

I would move the suzerain of schooling from the church to the state. No longer would the bible shape the education of the worker. Instead, it would be the brochure of the new spring collection.

With the political plan in progress, I once again turned my focus to the factories. Market access was really hurting the productivity of this new urban landscape, and railways were still just a twinkle in a scientist’s eye. With ever-impending doom on the horizon, I searched every nook and cranny for a quicker solution.

Shipping

Ports! How silly I had been to not think of this sooner. I was already shipping away shelves and needed more convoys. By building ports I would kill two birds with one stone. I fast-tracked the construction of a modernised shoreline and tipped the bank balance back in my favour.

These new ports had the added benefit of being able to accommodate more imports. My workers were tirelessly working on DIY drawers and deserved some finer fancies from overseas. Their biggest want seemed to be fish n’ chips from ol’ Blighty. I obliged their request.

But despite a feverish growth within my northern realm, we still were not a significant producer of furniture. The game seemed to delight in telling me this, but it did not detract me from my goal. Rather, it reinforced it. I was filled with Blitz spirit – if Stockkholm was London and the bombs were cupboards. An awkward metaphor for sure but useful in fostering my determination nonetheless.

Soon, actual war – the type with guns – had erupted on the European mainland. I had yet to have the ability to peddle my Poängs outside of Europe, so this hit my economy hard. It turns out that people care a lot less about a Grönlid chaise longue when they are being pelted with cannonfire.

This created a squeeze on the income of the country that was already running a deficit. The plan to increase the construction sector at all cost was somehow backfiring. I made the drastic decision to import furniture from overseas.

A failed design

We were not providing enough Branäs baskets for our own people it seemed, and this would have to change if I was able to lead this experiment to international glory. But in the short-term I would be importing furniture under the guise of “research”

Weeks passed and the deficit hadn’t gone away. I was still losing money and the nation’s debt was increasing.

But, importantly, the rate of the increasing debt was decreasing.

That wasn’t just inane unintelligible waffle, but the hope I was clinging to. As yes, I was still heading towards financial ruin but I had decided to go via the scenic route. I was buying myself time to turn it around, and I had a few tricks left in my arsenal to get back on a stable footing.

Firstly, the construction sector was now a power house, the relative costs of building materials was low and I could build what was needed as soon as that need arose.

I also had a big payday coming in the way of taxation. My current model was more akin to serfdom than it was to a nation filled to the brim with bookshelves. I had a lot of political clout to upend before I could change this. Change (in both meanings of the word) was far off, but it was coming nonetheless.

On the up

Industry was also becoming more efficient: my IKEA-sculpted nation was an early adopter of most leading industrial practice. This made our market volatile but also gave us an edge on our competitors.

Not much time passed before I was notified that my trade routes for imported furniture were no longer productive. We had finally won over our own population to the idea of DIY and could set our sights to distant lands once more.

Victoria 3 finally acknowledged my efforts, stating that I was the 7th biggest producer of furniture in the world. It’s a start! This was certainly not the extent of my ambition for Sweden, but it was a hallmark, showing how far we had come.

The political lay of the land had shifted fairly naturally since I last tried to enact a parliamentary system for the subjects of Sweden. More people had flocked to the cities as jobs were aplenty in my furniture-based eco-system. Aristocrats were losing their authority as their wealth was eclipsed by investors.

A government was formed from the wealthy industrialists, the power-enabled academics and the newly formed trade unionists. All of which agreed that the Monarchy’s time was over. Again, I went to implement a parliamentary republic now with a stronger backing that had the leverage to make it happen.

And so it was that Sweden, formed in the image of IKEA, had become a republic. It was a collective that worked to fill the world with affordable furniture, Allen keys and meatballs. Just like Plato’s republic, every person had a role. And it was all to realise the dream of affordable settees and cheap beds. There was still progress to be made but the path was clear and the finances were secure.

Well they were secure – until my failure to remember to build railways caught up with me. But after a mini recession due to infrastructure issues, that was rectified.

But that blunder aside, the future looked bright, like a bright yellow cross against the blue sky. Rule IKEA.