For those who have already played this game but are still wondering why and how ?

1) Badboy (lowering)
2) 2 step annexation (short)
3) DI harvesting.

I'll make more additions to this as I go along..

(Plz don't post remarks that don't help or are generally useless..)
(imma try and keep this thread clean..)

Ok..enough blabla..here goes...

1) Badboy, BB's, (lowering BB's)...BB rinse
Capture a nation completely, and you'll get those BB's whenever you annex or demand provinces seperately..
Also declaring war on a nation that's civilized or great power
There's plenty to read up on already on the net on that..
But..here's my solution to lowering them.

First you two-step (annex) them..then you release them as a satellite, as in "Create satellite",
under the diplomatic actions..(took me a long time to figure this out)
Yes, it's as simple as clicking on the crown and then clicking in the tab "Diplomatic relations"..
Then in that tab, at the bottom there's "Create satellites", click on it then select ur choice..
You'll lose the provinces in that country, but you'll also lose 1 BB per province...
Now if you have two-stepped them first, it'll have cost you only 1 BB to declare war, and another to annex
their capital..which means that on a 4 province (-4 BB) nation, you'll lose 2 BB's....
Rinse and repeat right there, and you'll stay nice and cozy in the not so badboy zone..

2)Two step annexation..(the short form)
Declare war on unciv nation (prefferably a big one), then proceed and capture all provinces for max effect...
Wait till they put up the peace offering with like 5 provinces, and accept, or Ponzi Krakow it...
Repeat till all but capital are yours..annex the capital when it's the last province..
Now.."Create satellite"..buhbye BB's..
I just did Oman in two short wars (REAL short),and a final annex of the capital..
Total cost = 3 declartions of war =3 BB's
Final annex (capital only left)= 1 BB
Total cost 4 BB's...
Create satellitet -7 BB's...
Keep rinsing and repeating to keep the BB's low..

3) DI harvesting..Eternal war...
Yes, when at war you get 1 extra DI per year..
Downside for trying to keep this up, greater unrest in ur POP's..
So..you need an army in every province to quell any uprisings..
(That cost manpower etc..)
But if you can manage it, you're good for an extra 5 provinces per year..
Spend the DI's wisely..
As I figure it, they're worth 5 provinces per year..
(reset the war-exhaust every so often, by making peace and parking some units in the
single province country of ur choice..a stack of ten cheap infantry will subdue it if you declare war again)


WARNING:If you annex more than the capital you'll gain more BB's..and this only works with unciv's..
I'm trying to keep the BB's low, to get higher ranking, so I have fixed armies to invade and grab provinces..
The final one (capital) is THE shortest war ever fought, and it's subsequent release keeps my BB's in the black..
Go CONQUEST !! (yes, with each BB you lose you can succesfully add another province to ur domain,
and keep it while the BB's stay low..
Normally the BB's decrease only 0.5 per year..with the BB rinse..much much more..

Technically you can only add 49 (100 years *-0.5 BB) provinces to ur domain through conquest
witout going in BB-red..
BB's also lower ur ultimate score..

Have fun, and maybe I'll update this when I got new tricks up my sleeve..

Correction: There was only 2 wars...so 2 BB's..
The first one got me the provinces, the second got me the capital..and one more BB for annex capital.
Release only yielded -6 BB's..but still -3 BB's ain't bad no ?
Now I'm trying if I can give Oman more provinces by selling to them cheap..
Prestige is easier to come by than negative BB's..
(Build LOTS of capital ships..in fact for the end run, check how many months there's left in the game,
and then give a buildorder to finish just before the end...same goes for armies..end up 0 BB's in the end,
for maximum effect..)
Yes, China has lots of provinces, so you can use that as negative 'piggy bank' for BB's..
But they are also VERY BIG..so..you might end up in a war that's not so much fun..

ttyl

For the ppl that are thinking "Why ?"

Well..I wanna start with an unciv and end up with the entire world...
So..yeah..anything and everything goes..including exploits..
(which to me are not cheating, cuz they are part of the game...)
(yes, they curry stuff quickly in ur favour, but hey..you try taking an unciv and ending up with the entire world..)

And nope..YOU CANNOT HAIZ MAH PLANS FOR WORLD DOMINATION !!...
(lol)

DI's and cash only get you so far..
(max DI's per year = 4..and with each you can buy 5 provinces...so..2000 provinces theoretical limit..)
(and yes..that's the entire world, but don't forget the DI's you need for BB rinsing etc..)
(you'll be lucky to use half of it for buying..and that's SOOO not enough..)

Even the biggest army (like every pop in ur country being drafted) will not be enough to forego a BB war..
(not A BB war...but THE BB war..the one where EVERYONE's in it on one side,
with you on the other..))

Also..when playing an unciv (Haiti isn't one), you'll get 1 DI per year for starters..
When you're at war you'll get +1, and +1 for GP status,
and 0.25, 0.5,0.75 and 1 from prestige 25,100,500 and 100 resp.
So..you betcha an unciv needs EVERYTHING..

I think there's like 1750-ish total provinces to gain in total..buy and conquer ur hiny off...
(and yes..you'll need Krakow Ponzi for that..LOTS !..)

And then there's difficulty level MAX...LOL..instead of feeble countries it's sharktank..
(.. :DDDDD ....)

Great! Keep this coming :) Everything, that helps to suck less at this game, is really appreciated :)


(I will edit out this nonsense later, I just wanted to let you know, that more info about playing this game is really welcome, because nowadays, the hints/playthroughs/FAQs for the older Victoria game are really hard to find among all of the Victoria 2 info around the web.)