Which country is the best to take over early game?

[F35]

Taking over big nations is difficult and quite a lot of work. So which small/middle-sized nation do you opt for at the start?

[=(FGR)=Sentinel]

France. The game doesn't make this obvious, but if you have control over France and several other nations within the European Union, you can unite France with another country via national action to create the EU as a nation out of the two, then expand it from there. You need a nation to be part of the European Union Federation for a certain amount of time, which itself requires that they be allied with France/the EU for a certain period of time, so knowing how to manipulate international relationships helps.
For the Resistance, this more or less defines what the meta's likely going to be: capitalizing on federations to take a collection of small/medium nations and forge them into a single large one. These larger ones are less efficient at resource production than the individual parts, but they're also more resistant to interference by rival factions and can generally field a larger military (in theory). Later on in the game, a number of faction projects come into play that seem to allow more Federations to form (particularly in East Africa, the Middle East, and Central America) as well as expand the reach of the European Union, while others allow larger nations to be broken up into smaller parts.
TL;DR France is a good pick, then try to unite the European Union. Always go for Federations rather than powerful single nations.

[Warhunter]

France is a good start (if your people aren't too skilled you can grab the european countries nearby to make france easier to get)
as you can unify all the EU nations into one big massive nation

or if you have people with public campaigns (raise public opinion) then targeting canada/mexico can be a good start. as once you control those 2 nations its easy to break into the US

if you understand how the game works. then after the deep skywatch global tech, theres an event that causes alot of nations to gain public opinion for the resistance.

I've utilized this massive boost to take over india/china within the first year of gameplay
all you need is to grab a single control point to get your foothold in there
from there set unity priority to 100% output for all your control points.
That will continue to raise your public opinion allowing you to conquer large nations within a few months

[Seva]

Kazakhstan and Belarus are very easy to get and are a pre-req for the Eurasian Union

[Steelpoint]

Originally posted by Mormon Jesus:

Kazakhstan and Belarus are very easy to get and a pre-req for the Eurasian Union

Kazakhastan can be good to nab as it provides, if my memory is right, the highest boost income of any nation at game start. Its also not hard to secure.

But the Eurasian Union is a poor-man's European Union (I wish Russians had more imaginative names for their unions). I'd consider Eurasian Union more a consolation prize if you could not secure the European Union as the economic output of Eurasia is far less than Europe.

[просто чел]

Russia

[fortydayweekend]

All good tips, I like France + as much of EU as possible, then US, Australia/NZ, then China

Another thing I find that helps is to leave the last (exec) control point unclaimed in your first round of claiming countries. If you get the other control points, no other faction can claim it (unless they purge your other points first). This way you can lock in more countries and come back to do the last point later.

[CrookedToe]

+1 for france. my most successful playthrough had be go for the eu first, then russia, then the us.

[RobOda]

I didn't think of France.

I went to Ireland initially, which led to me breaking into the UK and the Scandinavian nations rather rapidly like a set of dominoes. (If you take any of Norway, Sweden or Finland, it seems they all fall into place together.)

[Akameka]

France is IMO the best candidate for first country. Quite easy to settle in (medium sized democracy), Army, Nukes, great acces to naval control, leader of EU, which gives you a foothold for the others UE nation, abilities to federate countries immediately... before things starts to settle after initial chaos, I was able to secure all the west block (from Spain to Poland, with england back in the EU) and unite them before the academy started to destroy EU from within. Then I secured Russia because good implanted space program, armies, security for Europe and lots of nukes if things go south somehow (alien battleships maybe in late-game ?) and started to slowly get USA to fund me. China is powerful and has lots of money but hard to gain access because of high unity and...well, china government. Good target when you have lots of influence per day,but not of immediate signifiance because it's too hard to gain a foothold.

[LPar]

AI seems to have no problems getting Russia in a few turns. Meanwhile I have 5% chance to take a point

[Akameka]

A politician with a good persuasion score (7+) and one or two successful media campaign from an influencer or a journalist, add an influence investment and it should do the trick (30/35%). First point is the hardest to get, then it is easier for the next ones. Of course that's if you have lots of influence to spend, which requires important councilmen (rich, influents, well known) or the support of other countries you already have taken (EU for exemple)

[Aranador]

Truth. I gained China by having a 16 PeR councilor, enough influence to spend 64 each shot, and just brute forced it at about 30pct chance a turn until it was mine. It is actually possible to do well in the game with no countries, but denying the other factions resources and lift is a strong reward too.

[Aerolfos]

France is good, but the problem is the EU immediately falls apart if other factions get any of the other countries (which they do if you focused on France+US)

[Akameka]

Originally posted by Aerolfos:

France is good, but the problem is the EU immediately falls apart if other factions get any of the other countries (which they do if you focused on France+US)

This is why you don't focus on USA. You focus on main european countries (France, Spain, Italy, Germany, England, Benelux) with only thoses 6 you'll be around 17.500B GDP, against 22.000B for USA. If you get complete control over thoses quickly (doable before initial panick settle) you can then turn those countries into a Megastate before UE colapse because of the Academy.

Then, with the support of this Federal EU, you can funds your entrance in USA and China markets, which should still be empty at this point (because hard to get in). Russia is more vulnerable, so it should be priorised right after the core EU.
Also, you'll get an opportunity to snatch former EU countries from the hands of the academy when global tech discover the facts aliens have already buit weapons.

Note that Japan is actually a good target too, but AIs will target it quite early on.

[Dragster6681]

I've gone for Canada, then Mexico and then onto USA. Using three councillors, 2 to improve public relations and 1 to take control. The improve relation mission finishes before the take control, and if they are successful they'll improve the percentage success chance of the take control mission.