What's a good starting country

gardel va

First Lieutenant

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Nov 23, 2008

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• Aug 14, 2010

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• #1

I just got the game, and was wondering what people think is a good country for a first game. The UK seems a bit too easy, and perhaps a bit too complicated. Any suggestions?

 

Emre Yigit

Creeping out of Covid hibernation

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Jun 13, 2001

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• Aug 15, 2010

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• #2

France? Not quite so easy and nowhere near as far-flung.

 

unmerged(219185)

Corporal

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• Aug 15, 2010

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• #3

The traditional recommendation for a beginner is Belgium. Relatively small and thus not too complicated to manage, yet relatively powerful and with potential.

 

unmerged(94472)

Captain

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Mar 11, 2008

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• Aug 15, 2010

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• #4

Mexico. It's easy to become a Great Power early on, you have access to all the mechanics without being overwhelmed, you have a challenge in becoming industrialized.

My long-term goal is to surpass the USA and become THE dominant Great Power of the Americas.

 

unmerged(95975)

Sergeant

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Apr 1, 2008

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• Aug 15, 2010

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• #5

Red Eagle 85 said:

The traditional recommendation for a beginner is Belgium. Relatively small and thus not too complicated to manage, yet relatively powerful and with potential.

Click to expand...

Possibly... however as my first game as Belgium I was getting my ass kicked by a Netherlands in an alliance with Russia and I couldn't negotiate peace with Russia as I couldn't occupy any Russian territory. The UK didn't ever bother helping me

I've been more successful with Prussia

 

S0ny B1ack

Colonel

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Aug 21, 2009

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• Aug 15, 2010

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• #6

the USA, you can try every game mechanic and its quite easy to play

 

Buckley

Perpetually Perplexed

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May 8, 2008

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• Aug 15, 2010

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• #7

I've been having a ton of fun as Argentina... mostly learning, restarting, learning some more, rinse and repeat.

It's not so complicated, I'm not smack in the middle of Great Power power grabs, I have a strong rival in Brazil and a few small neighbors I can pick on...

 

John Forseti

Northumbrian Nationalist

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Jan 13, 2008

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• Aug 15, 2010

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• #8

Belgium is a good bet, I've only started one game so far, that was with Belgium and I haven't started again yet(With EUIII or HoI3 i'd have restarted about 15 times now), having a grand old time.


One caution though, Belgium's primary culture is Wallon, but the Flemish seem to make up two thirds of the population right off the bat and the capital, Brussels, is in Flanders(Vlaarderen(sp?)). If anyone should be the Primary shouldn't it be them? Maybe this is historical? Anyway, the effect is that given the starting pop of about 1 mill you have 300K Wallons and since focii seem to be based only on Primary culture so far it is going to take a long, long, long time to get that second national focus, nevermind a third.

 

Yrsnö

First Lieutenant

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Jul 26, 2009

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• Aug 15, 2010

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• #9

Sweden has treated me fairly well. No real emergent threats as long as you can secure a strong ally. It's not a GP but it works well learning the political, industrial and technological aspects. There's enough do to without constantly being overwhelmed. War is possible if you wish or grow bored.

 

unmerged(131989)

Field Marshal

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Jan 13, 2009

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• Aug 15, 2010

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• #10

These kind-of threads are almost a cliché!

 

Buckley

Perpetually Perplexed

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May 8, 2008

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• Aug 15, 2010

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• #11

Palisadoes said:

These kind-of threads are almost a cliché!

Click to expand...

The responses are rather predictable aren't they? Belgium, Argentina, Brazil, Prussia....

For the OP... I think probably any nation is a good one to start with. V2 seems more accessible than Vicky did. Just know going in you're gonna be lost in the first couple of games and don't panic.

 

unmerged(201331)

Corporal

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Mar 28, 2010

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• Aug 15, 2010

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• #12

USA's worked out pretty alright with me. It's a nice challenge to push westward with Mexico in your way and slavery pretty much screwing up any chance of national unity until you abolish it or let the CSA do its own thing.

 

Valdus

Second Lieutenant

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Dec 9, 2009

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• Aug 15, 2010

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• #13

I started with Japan - they are uncivilized and closed off, so no one else messes with them. It gives you a good first goal (get civilized) and then you can learn how industry, diplomacy etc works from the ground up. It's 1880 and I'm now the 3rd Great Power and my goal is to take the Pacific. I recently swiped part of the Phillipines from Spain, and Java from the Dutch... a couple more wars there and then I can move on to the hard part, taking Australia from the UK.

 

Cossack8559

Major

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Feb 12, 2008

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• Aug 15, 2010

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• #14

Belgium is a great pick to start with.

 

unmerged(187365)

Second Lieutenant

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Dec 29, 2009

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• Aug 15, 2010

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• #15

John Forseti said:

One caution though, Belgium's primary culture is Wallon, but the Flemish seem to make up two thirds of the population right off the bat and the capital, Brussels, is in Flanders(Vlaarderen(sp?)). If anyone should be the Primary shouldn't it be them? Maybe this is historical?

Click to expand...

It's historically accurate.

 

Jayavarman

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

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Feb 8, 2002

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• Aug 15, 2010

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• #16

Spain.

France is your main neighbor. You have a few colonies as well as expansion possibilities in North Africa and Portugal.

 

stantz

Second Lieutenant

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May 30, 2010

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• Aug 15, 2010

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• #17

I tried Brazil first, spiraled into debt and couldn't get out of it ,then I tried US , so far I have an ironclad navy, machine guns, the panama canal, and I just kicked Spain's ass all up and down the Caribbean

I think the US is the best one to start with, you can just do your own thing at your own pace, the only tricky part is Mexico early on, but with some tech and some allies it turns into a pushover.

 

slugo

Colonel

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Aug 29, 2001

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• Aug 15, 2010

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• #18

i'm having fun playing portugal. you get some colonies, its not too hard to get GP status.
the economy is tough tho. no cappis, so alot ot tinkering there.
right now i'm about to embark on a war with Spain for hegemony in iberia, and if i can, maybe free catalonia, whichwould cement GP rank5 for the rest of the game, i believe

 

dinofs

In Hiding

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Feb 13, 2010

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• Aug 15, 2010

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• #19

I started with Austria, and I would recommend it. The initial war(s) with Prussia might be sort of a challenge, but if you can remove their GP status you won't have any competition in Germany. (Unless the Dutch start influencing the North German states.) You don't start off very industrialized, but you can easily get a very powerful economy.

 

A

Akuseru

Second Lieutenant

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• Aug 15, 2010

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• #20

Japan. It's quite easy to become a Great Power, and as long as you maintain good relationships with China, there's no one around that can mess with you for a long time.