Seeing how you've taken a spin at ol' France, who I found was my ideal breaking in nation, little of everything.
Portugal was rewarding for me as my first small nation; small stretches of land in Angola and Mozambique, Goa in India, Macau in China and Timor(?) in the East Indies. Very easy to keep track off.
Your position on the outskirts of Europe keep you out of continental affairs, your few neighbours are passive in general. Spain will sphere/protect you as she's more interested in Japan/Morocco/Middle east and the UK will leave you alone, prefering to eat its way through her Indian neighbours. The Dutch can be a problem but thats covered in the end of this post.
Your true opponent will be your horridly low literacy, but whilst you get on top of that you can expand Mozambique, take Oman's African colonies or tussle with the Dutch. Morocco is also on your doorstep, may as well take it before Spain and every other nation from the Netherlands to Sweden take a bite out of it.
If you want to take the Indies from the Dutch before they try to take your sole possession there, wait until they (always seem to) try to annex Belgium, the UK will curbstomp them, perfect time to strike.
Portugal was rewarding for me as my first small nation; small stretches of land in Angola and Mozambique, Goa in India, Macau in China and Timor(?) in the East Indies. Very easy to keep track off.
Your position on the outskirts of Europe keep you out of continental affairs, your few neighbours are passive in general. Spain will sphere/protect you as she's more interested in Japan/Morocco/Middle east and the UK will leave you alone, prefering to eat its way through her Indian neighbours. The Dutch can be a problem but thats covered in the end of this post.
Your true opponent will be your horridly low literacy, but whilst you get on top of that you can expand Mozambique, take Oman's African colonies or tussle with the Dutch. Morocco is also on your doorstep, may as well take it before Spain and every other nation from the Netherlands to Sweden take a bite out of it.
If you want to take the Indies from the Dutch before they try to take your sole possession there, wait until they (always seem to) try to annex Belgium, the UK will curbstomp them, perfect time to strike.