What is a good starting country for a beginner?

[TannerNeedsSleep]

Any other tips would be greatly appreciated

[Shufflecat]

I like either South America or North America (not countries, I know, but contenents is how it's actually handled in game).

North America's good for doing a satellite push at the beginning of the game. South America keeps your research queue from getting bogged down a bit so you can reach the armor and weapon upgrades earlier.

The others are IMO more generalized "nice to have, but not really needed" bonuses than stuff that actually makes a strategy difference.

[Stardustfire]

in Classic and above SA and Africa are first choise.

[King of Wei]

Africa has been my starting continent of choice for a while.
+30% income means you can get more done per month and you can neglect satellite coverage over South Africa and Egypt for more lucrative countries like the USA or Russia.

As for other tips:
Satellite coverage for council nations will be your main source of income and panic reduction so keep on them.

Build your satellite uplinks next to each other for a +1 adjacency bonus to max satellites.

If playing on the harder difficulties, don't immediately build your first satellite. Wait for the early abduction mission in the 1st month and take the 4 engineers. That'll reduce the satellite cost by $31. You'll get the first satellite for free on normal.

When you're ready to get coverage over a continent, ignore abduction mission for them and instead focus on other continents. Even if they are at max panic they won't withdraw until the end of the month. You can wait until there's a day or two before the council report and then launch the satellites to keep max panic countries in.

[Ozymandias]

Well basically it's all about money, except for South America, so let's see:

- South America, probably the worst one: sure, it has a nice bonus when you research corpses and interrogate live aliens, but it's only 2 countries, so it's the easiest continent to grab later, when you actually have some use for that bonus. Until then, it doesn't help and provides little money. There are better things to research than corpses, at the beginning, like lasers or armor.

- Europe seems good, but it actually isn't that much because you can do a whole playthrough with only one lab (probably not even required, definitely not at the beginning), and you won't need enough workshops to make the bonus worth it. Even if you can keep all 16 countries, by choosing abductions that provide engineers, I think 4 workshops is enough to build enough uplinks. And again that's all about money, so why limit the benefit to a couple buildings. The other advantage from Europe is that you will keep the bonus even if you lose countries from the continent, but that's the same with Asia which has a more useful bonus anyway.

- North America, best starting money and cost reduction on interceptors, but you won't need many interceptors per continent anyway, so it's basically just for money. Yet the difference isn't big compared with Africa. And since only the USA give a lot of money, it means only 1 satellite later will be enough to increase your income. Just to add about the interceptor cost reduction: by the time it becomes useful, that is when you start having some all over the place, you'll also have satellites all over the place, meaning a good enough income.

- Africa, the money is almost as good as N America since the starting money already benefits from the bonus, and if you launch a satellite (possibly over the USA), it'll be better than NA by the second month already. So it's a pretty good start, even on impossible, if you want to rush satellites and keep every country.

- Asia is good, because like Europe you make sure you won't lose that bonus, which is hard to get since you'd otherwise need 5 sats to grab it. The bonus is good to increase your squad size quickly (that is quiet soon in the game, when money is scarce), and there's many projects in the foundry so it's nice to reduce their cost. So with the bonus guaranteed, you can focus your satellites over Africa to maximize your pay checks.


As for general tips... If you don't know the game at all, there's too much to be said, but you'll learn most of it from playing normally, just make sure you read descriptions (like adjacency bonus for buildings, and click the "?" for item description. Just a few points I guess, starting with base management.

Basically, your long term goal is to cover as many countries as you can with satellites (focus on one continent at a time if you can, to grab their bonus), because they increase your income, reduce panic and prevent abduction in that country. You can always delay launching them until the last day of the month (just don't forget), but that still means you've got to start production at least 21 days before the month ends.

Also you need satellite uplinks to launch them (but not to build them). The uplinks take much shorter to build but you need enough engineers before you can build them. That's why engineers are so important (more engineers also reduce production costs), and of course workshops since they provide engineers.

Then of course, buildings also require power, and hopefully you'll have an easy access to steam because thermal power is much better than the normal fusion reactor or whatever the name. Anyway don't worry if you lose a few countries, than means less income but also less sats and uplinks to build.


All right, this is already so long, I'll make it short for the tactical tips: as funny as it sounds, the tutorial mission is both horrible and interesting. The game forces you to make silly moves, and the outcome is really poor, but it's interesting because the bad moves are clear:
- dashing for no good reason when you don't know what's ahead
- moving one soldier at a time using both actions, each of them discovering more area and potentially activating aliens, instead of moving your squad as a whole, or even better moving one soldier, and follow the same path if it's safe (no need to take cover if there's no active alien, save for special missions where aliens drop on overwatch)
- exposing a soldier to flank an enemy, at the risk of being flanked yourself or again activating more aliens

Anyway you'll learn more from playing, so don't give up even if it looks like you'll lose, if only to unlock more advanced weapons, buildings, etc, and see how it all fits.

[Stardustfire]

err Ozymandias play classic or impossible and than come back with "SA is worst choise" in Impossible SA is nearly ONLY unrivaled choise. When u only play easy or normal u dont need the interrogations fast, but in thr upper difficultys u need them asap.

[Mhblis]

Yeah those basically free autopsies and research credits are huge boosts. The same with cheaper maintanence and interceptors. Asia I felt was always the worst starting location since the bonus doesn't help in the first few months as a new player.

[Stardustfire]

Oh and btw Asia needs like Europe only 4 Sats, not 5.
And forget the Money, Play with Results driven and random Economy and u can forget about the "NA is riches Continent" thing

[Ozymandias]

I always play on impossible, well not anymore since I play Long War, but regardless, SA is the easiest continent to cover entirely. The bonus isn't a "huge boost" until you have some use for that kind of research, and that's usually after lasers because they will make a big difference during the first terror mission. And there's only a couple species available to research during the first months anyway, which you won't be able to capture right away, so it's not like you could have research credits soon.

It looks like you consider you won't get any other bonuses, while I consider I'll have most if not all of them. Even on impossible, it's possible to save every country, but even if you can't, SA is still the easiest to save. So you might as well go for bonuses that'll help you at the beginning.

edit: yeah it's 4, not 5, but the point is they need more sats to get the bonus

[Skully]

europe is always good

[spacealf]

Asia is good for half money for Officer Training School or Foundry upgrades.

[red255]

Asia, because its bonus is not s*** and it gives you engineers. and has 4 countries.

Asia is the best.

[Milk]

Originally posted by red255:

Asia is the best.

For experienced players, not beginners who don't quite grasp every single mechanic.

[red255]

Originally posted by Tacobandit:

Originally posted by red255:

Asia is the best.

For experienced players, not beginners who don't quite grasp every single mechanic.

I'm sorry I seem to have missed which country you seem to think is better.

[Milk]

Originally posted by red255:

Originally posted by Tacobandit:

For experienced players, not beginners who don't quite grasp every single mechanic.

I'm sorry I seem to have missed which country you seem to think is better.

USA obviously. The bulk money you get alone is extremely helpful. As a beginner, you're going to take a lot of losses and probably spend money on stuff you probably shouldn't have (like buying things you don't really need off the bat, like too many excavations or lifts, or tons of medikits). It leaves you a lot of wiggle room, plus cheap interceptors aren''t bad.

[KT Chong]

Asia.

As you start to expand satellite coverage, you want to leave three nations without satellites. Those three natons will let you "farm" abduction missions (after "Act 1" of the game.) Ideally, you want to keep those three nations on the same continent. That way, you will be able to manage the panic levels of those three nations. (i.e., the panic levels of the nations/continents whose abductions you choose to ignore would rise... unless all three nations are on the same continent!)

Why would you want to leave three nations without satellite coverage and farm abduction missions? Abduction missions are a good source of meld, weapon fragments, and plasma weapons. As the game progresses, weapon fragments will become the bottleneck of your research efforts. You will often have to suspend or stop research because you run out of weapon framgnents. In addition, you will be able to salvage plasma weapons by capturing aliens alive. Plasma weapons are expensive to manufacture yourself. You will be able to save a lot of credits and resources by capturing plasma weapons from aliens.

Again, abduction missions are a good source of meld, weapon fragments and plasma weapons. If you have full satellite coverage for every nation, abduction missions will stop. Your gatherings of meld, weapon fragments and plasma weaponry will take a noticeable hit. That is why you want to leave three nations without satellite coverage: they allow abduction missions to continue, so you can continue to collect meld, weapon fragments and plasma weaponry from abduction missions.

So. The consideration for what continent is the best for XCOM base is this: Which is the best continent to leave three nations without satellite coverage while having the least negative effects?

When you select a continent as your starting base, two things happen: (1) you receive the bonus reward for that continent, even though you do not have full satellite coverage for that continent; and (2) you receive a free satellite for a nation on that continent; that satellite is already launched at the start of the game.

You want to select a continent that has four nations -- because one of the nations will automatically get a free satellite. That leaves three nations on the continent without satellites. Those three will be the ones you leave without satellites for farming abductions. As you are not going to provide full satellite coverage for that continent, you want to start in that continent so you will still receive the bonus reward for that continent.

Only two continents have four nations: Europe and Asia. I would not even consider North America, South America and Africa, because they do not allow you to maximize continent bonuses/fundings and farm abductions. (If you leave zero, one or two nations without satellite coverage, the abduction will stop; it has to be three or more.)

Between Europe and Asia, Asia is the better choice for starting because:

(a) Individually, European nations offer more funding than Asian nations. So you want to grab all the European nations for more monthly credits. (Australia and India offer some of the lowest fundings among the council member nations.)

(b) Asia offers a continent bonus that is more useful at the beginning; Europe offers a bonus that is more useful at mid and late game.

At some point, you will have satellite coverages for all the nations in North America, South America, Europe and Africa. You will have the continent bonuses for all those continents (because every nation in those continents have a satellite.) The only three nations that will not have satllites are in Asia: China, Australia and India. Those three Asian nations will continue to provide "abduction farming" month after month. You will still receive the continent bonus for Asia as Asia is your starting location. Japan is the only Asian nation that has a satellite, which it receives as the first and free satellite. (BTW, the Asian XCOM base is actually in the Philippines, not Japan; I imagine it's a US military base.)

That means you will have ALL the continent bonuses while leaving three nations without satellites (just enough for farming abductions.) Asia and Europe are the only two continents that allow you to maximize continent bonuses while farming abductions at the same time. Asia is the better choice than Europe because it's more profitable to grab the wealthier European nations with satellites (i.e., more funding than Asia.)

That is why Asia is, IMO, the best choice for XCOM base.