Need help with counselors.

[PapaGizmet]

Ok, I cannot figure out what I am doing wrong with my counselors. I mean I get 4 as soon as I can, one for Per, Cmd, Inv and Esp, each with the highest stat possible and I make them higher as soon as I can. Yet, the AI seems to out pace me in everything, they get like 4 countries first week, even had one of them start a space station first week. While I struggle to get even one country. What am i doing wrong? I take Kazekastan (I can't spell it) first, then get the second pip next, but by that time the AI has like 4 or 5, sometimes all of an entire country like Germany or something, I have even had them have most of Russia. What should I be doing with my counselors?

[Kite Sumane]

In the early stages of the game having multiple persuasion counselors is crucial to quickly taking over good nations. You can always swap them out for others after the first year or two.

[debott]

I recommend getting 3 or even all 4 coucilors with good Persuasion at the beginning. There are some very good hybrid vocations, like politician or journalist, that have good Persuasion alongside other good stats as well. You can specialize them later or even dismiss them once you have all the countries you like.

Academy and Exodus always start their campaigns with the ISS and Tiangong space stations. If you play as either faction yourself, you will get one of the stations, too. It's nifty, but not all that helpful because they mostly cost money and boost without a lot of benefit.

[cswiger]

Originally posted by debott:

Academy and Exodus always start their campaigns with the ISS and Tiangong space stations. If you play as either faction yourself, you will get one of the stations, too. It's nifty, but not all that helpful because they mostly cost money and boost without a lot of benefit.

Trade or even gift the station to whichever AI faction is doing best producing boost, so they suffer the early drain instead?

Anyway, agreed you want at least two and maybe three of your starting dudes to be strong in persuasion and have control nation. But you also would like to have someone be strong in investigation + science, which makes them good at investigating alien activity and making rapid progress on your faction's objectives related to xenotech.

Next is having someone be strong in espionage with purge and assassinate. You won't need them right to begin with, but getting your 5th or 6 councilor with these missions is a good idea. You also won't need the command-related missions until much later, and admin missions like hostile takeover can wait.

Someone with Quick Learner will have a big advantage in gaining stats and is worth picking up, even if you have to use orgs to get them the mission type(s) you want them to do. Avoid Inflexible or anyone having traits with Loyalty penalties.

[LorDC]

Originally posted by debott:

I recommend getting 3 or even all 4 coucilors with good Persuasion at the beginning.

It does not even have to be good PER, just them having Control Nation mission.
Also, not all nations are created equally. E.g. AI having something like Poland or Portugal is, like, whatever.
And having early station is actually detrimental to your space game.

[PapaGizmet]

ok, thanks for the help, I like the complexity of the game, but I was starting to get really frustrated. Maybe having all 4 of my starting at Per counselors will help. Thanks again.

[Ericus1]

Originally posted by PapaGizmet:

Ok, I cannot figure out what I am doing wrong with my counselors. I mean I get 4 as soon as I can, one for Per, Cmd, Inv and Esp, each with the highest stat possible and I make them higher as soon as I can. Yet, the AI seems to out pace me in everything, they get like 4 countries first week, even had one of them start a space station first week. While I struggle to get even one country. What am i doing wrong? I take Kazekastan (I can't spell it) first, then get the second pip next, but by that time the AI has like 4 or 5, sometimes all of an entire country like Germany or something, I have even had them have most of Russia. What should I be doing with my counselors?

One thing you may not realize is that The Academy starts the game with very high public opinion around the world. Because PO gives a strong bonus to the "take control point" mission, they have a much easier time taking nations at game start and so it seems like you are way behind. But the reality is that starting bonus is countered by the fact that they get an event very soon after game start tied to a game state and a tech that causes all their CPs to have a 50% chance to get cracked for a year.

Also, starting PO is somewhat randomized around the world at game start, and certain factions have starting PO affinities for poor, authoritarian, low education cheap CP-cost areas around the map, which are very easy to take but offer little value in return. So again, it may seem like you are behind in terms of raw numbers but in terms of value gained you are not. Taking 6 CPs in Africa can be worth less than a single one in the US.

You don't need to go all out with picking nothing but Per councilors to do well. You want your starting councilors to have some overlap on those early important missions, like PR and taking CPs, but the value of the latter rapidly falls off once the initial scramble is over so taking 4 councilors who go all in on that loses value quite quickly in favor of other mission types. You can also fill in weaknesses in your mission profiles using orgs.

While a mistake newer players make is to try and hold on to all their starting councilors forever, do not be afraid to replace them if someone better comes along, especially if it's still early in the game. Good traits will matter far, far more in the long run. Striver and a science trait (chemist, computer scientist, doctor, etc.) on a non-science councilor are especially good things to look for, as well as overall starting stats. If you can find both on a single councilor you should seriously considering getting them - several of the pre-gen councilors (i.e. the non-random ones) have excellent starting traits and skills, for instance Sean Dioz, Matthew Zaboroski, or Sara-Connor Keller.

[gimmethegepgun]

Originally posted by debott:

Academy and Exodus always start their campaigns with the ISS and Tiangong space stations. If you play as either faction yourself, you will get one of the stations, too. It's nifty, but not all that helpful because they mostly cost money and boost without a lot of benefit.

They do, however, have a baseline Boost production sufficient to cover the needs of the starting station. You'll keep that if you get rid of them, but keeping them doesn't disadvantage them in any way compared to other factions except for a little bit of money.
You should disassemble (or at least disable) one of the solar collectors on the ISS though. There's no point in having 2 alongside a space science lab.