Best Base Location

[sobpop]

Hi, I bought the game yesterday and make the "mistake" of doing all the required missions first and ended up with a mission I lose all 5 soldiers at and have lost 4 countries. So I'm restarting, and I was wondering what base location do you "vets" prefer?

[MattStriker]

On Easy, all base locations are more or less equally valid. On Normal and above, there's a fairly large chance that you'll lose at least one country before you get ahead in the satellite race, and losing just one country from a continent means that the continent bonus is lost forever...unless it's your "home" continent.

So it's a good idea to start on a continent with lots of countries, which would take a lot of effort to get full satellite coverage on, and when you need to decide where to go in an Abduction event, you can use your home continent to "dump" panic, since losing these countries will only cost you monthly resources. As such, Europe is a pretty good starting location...that's 5 countries you won't have to rush satellites to.

[P-47 Thunderbolt]

Mostly personal preference on a player to player basis. I think telling you the pros and cons is better than saying which is best since it can vary from player to player. I can tell you most would NOT recommend South America. It only has 2 countries so you can easily get SA's bonus of instant autopsies with 2 satellites. 

The others are just my opinion and are up for debate.

Africa is a popular start due to having 30% income and 3 countries to sacrifice if it comes to that. However, Africa's offers low starting income and to make the most of the bonus you have to pump out sats as soon as possible.

Asia has a strong early game since it reduces cost of all foundry and officer training school projects by 50%. Helps get your squad size up in the early game and is more useful in EW with the addition of more foundry projects. Once you have everything you want the bonus becomes useless mainly during the late game. Has 4 countries to sacrifice in case it comes to that.

Europe has 50% off the building and maintenance of labs and workshops. This ability is really catered to specific strategies and if you plan on using these building during the game. Not a bad ability but again you usually have to have a plan in mind for this start. Has 4 sacrificial countries.

North America 50% off aircraft, aircraft weapons, and maintenance. Not all that useful in the grand scheme of things. Will save you some money but you would get a better boost from some of the other continents since this is bonus helps the most mid to late game. The main benefit of a NA start is that you get a free sat over the US which gives you one of the highest incomes to start (unless you play with second wave.) 3 countries to sacrifice.

***When you choose your home base you can lose all countries in that area and still retain the bonus, hence sacrificial countries.***

[Froman]

On Classic and Impossible, I would recommend Africa. That early income boost is absolutely crucial for getting your satellites up and going. From there, you can spam sats and grab all the other continental bonuses.

[Alistar2013]

Out of all 5 I would never start on South America. If it comes down to it I'm good with losing instant autopsies and interrogations not to mention the small amount of credits ($150/month) they have to offer.

That being said, I normally start in Asia on lower difficulties so I get cheaper Officer Training School upgrades and Foundry Projects, especially for Iron Will so important to get it early game unless you plan on training up 3-5 squads during the game.

On Classic and Impossible my preference is to go with North America or Africa. North America gives you the most starting credits for your first Month and it makes Aircraft cheaper, which you may need to expand to multiple continents early if you have bad luck. Africa is prolly the better choice of the two because you get almost as many starting credits, but every country that you get satellite coverage over gives you that additional 30%.

Hope this helps! :)