How should I build up the US?

[Strifeboy]

I don't what focus I should go for, boost economy for more invest points/value for them, welfare to increase cohesion and reduce inequality, knowledge, (I don't know how this work should i just get an education number a stay on their) or space stuff?

[debott]

Not an easy answer, since they're all good, except maybe economy, because I feel like USA is already 'maxed out' on that.
- Welfare is great because USA has lots of Inequality, and to mitigate climate change.
- Knowledge is great because USA is only a Flawed Democary, and research is THE most importand resource during early game.
- Boost and especially Mission Control are great, because space is where all the cool kids hang out theses days. ;P

I recommend you find a balance and do whatever you want from there. ^.^

[36ggz]

USA is the stick. You invest in military in USA, so you can skip military elsewhere. USA starts with highest MilTech and 6 armies ready to go. This is why primary focus on military (40%? perhaps) is the most optimal route.

You may mix a bit, also by adding a bit of Mission Control in Canada before annexation or adding a bit of Coherence, but USA is best used as Big Stick of Earth.

Few years of military buildup with full fleets makes USA a perfect tool to crush Aliens on land. Before they can even disembark.

[fruit flavored ENERGY DRINK]

you want boost as early as possible but preferably only from small GDP countries, i wouldn't bother with boost in US unless you desperately need it. same with MC but since there is a limit on how many MC points a country can get you'll want US to invest in that later on. again, wouldn't bother unless you need it immediately

US is a powerhouse that does everything but tends to get destabilized and coup'd by the AI a lot. so you want to lower inequality with welfare and increase cohesion (with knowledge) to prevent that

i'd keep the economy just enough so GDP doesn't shrink, and focus mostly on knowledge. once you get some military investment modifiers, you might wanna start investing in that and navies. same with the economy once you get plus economy modifiers

you already have the best military at the start of the game so feel free bonk people with the big stick

[fruit flavored ENERGY DRINK]

also what the guy above said. you can focus on military and have the US roleplay as the world police while letting others do the research. it's up to you

[Pawleus]

Originally posted by 36ggz:

USA is the stick. You invest in military in USA, so you can skip military elsewhere. USA starts with highest MilTech and 6 armies ready to go. This is why primary focus on military (40%? perhaps) is the most optimal route.

You may mix a bit, also by adding a bit of Mission Control in Canada before annexation or adding a bit of Coherence, but USA is best used as Big Stick of Earth.

Few years of military buildup with full fleets makes USA a perfect tool to crush Aliens on land. Before they can even disembark.

Except if you use USA as @debott suggests (even actually disbanding armies) you can stop the Aliens even from landing so I wouldn't say your route is the most optimal.

[debott]

Yea, but this is bad spoiler territory, so I prefer not tell new players. ;)

[gimmethegepgun]

Originally posted by debott:

Yea, but this is bad spoiler territory, so I prefer not tell new players. ;)

It's hardly a spoiler that the aliens are going to land in force eventually. It's a game about an alien invasion.

[Pawleus]

Perhaps @debott is saying that it's a bad spoiler that you can do unthinkable: actually disband some of USA armies that hamper their development :)

[debott]

Sorry, but that's not yours to define: if you had told me that alien armies are going to land and how to defeat them , before my first campaign I would have hit you. That was an awesome event in my first campaign. Bad, bad spoiler, in my book.

Edit: This is why I don't look into forums for a game that I want to experience blind.

[Pawleus]

You are saying that in your first campaign you would be able to stop Assault Carriers from landing if you only knew they were going to?

[debott]

Nah, it's less about that, I think I did fine. But let's just say Mongolia would have been less radioactive, had I known.

I think new players should be left to figure things out for themselves, is all. If they have questions, I try to answer of course, but encourage them to experiment and not tell them word for word what to do or expect. Like in this example: @strifeboy didn't even mention military, so I didn't tell them about it in my initial response (although it was obvious in my mind). All else, It's not hard to use these: Spoiler text Or is it?

Does this make sense? I might have sounded harsh earlier, and I apologize if I did.

[gimmethegepgun]

I just specifically take issue with people complaining about spoilers involving an alien invasion in a game about an alien invasion.
Like, seriously, how is this surprising?

[Necroscourge]

You generally want to immediately rival and declare war to lose all the cohesion they have. That way when the research for splitting up the US appears it'll be easier to break it up.

[gimmethegepgun]

Originally posted by Necroscourge:

You generally want to immediately rival and declare war to lose all the cohesion they have. That way when the research for splitting up the US appears it'll be easier to break it up.

... why would you want to break it up?
Also, if you already have control of the Executive of the US then you can just release those nations instead of causing revolutions that will ruin the place and make loose nukes if you haven't dismantled them.

[generalcoffeemug]

US has many regions for more navies later and starts with 6 navies and some pretty sizable unrest penalties, so IP (investment point) to miltech is the best IP value in the game. High economy and government score make IP to knowledge also a great value. Spoils and funding are also good values to put some IP into because the US has so much IP a <10% IP allocation to the combination of the two doesn't affect the US's IP focuses at all. Plus the US also gets a bonus to funding from its financial sector, which is like a free bonus to the US's total IP depending on how much IP you put into funding. You can bank the income from the US's funding and spoils to buy armies and navies when you need them to give the US more IP to work with for longer.

Best things to do IMO until 2040-ish is to focus on stabilizing the US against unrest and raising cohesion to at least 2 or so to protect against waves of fear, while pumping government score and miltech with 20-40% IP across both.

The US's economy isn't really maxed out. You can raise it pretty well with the right combination of tech and government score while keeping IP to economy at least 6-8 points. The US also has a very high GDP reward for finishing the economy priority. Every IP in the US is so powerful because of the magnitude of US's numbers, so I don't understand neglecting economy to not increase IP. One more thing you can do is have one councilor do some periodic stretches of advise missions to increase IP when there aren't many high value missions for them to do at the time, ideally someone with a high science score to give a bonus to US tech output as well as the 25 admin score to GDP.

People say boost and MC, IMO the US isn't the best for these early on. Only because the US has other higher value tasks to focus on. But 2-5% IP for boost & MC early on won't hurt at all. But later on US boost and MC is good. But there is no getting around how the US has a pretty wide range of boost reward per completion. If you want US boost and MC early on, grab some of its nation exclusive orgs.