Beginner Nations 1.7

[harrisone16]

Anyone have any suggestions on a good 'starter' nation for the new update/Sphere of Influence? Ideally a smaller one that has some decent resources.

[PossibleTango]

usa

[Vellsi]

If you have gotten the Sphere of Influence DLC, give the new The Great Game mode a try and pick one of the suggested nations. They are all neighbors, situated between India, the Ottoman Empire and Russia but, for the most part, have similar army size and decent resources. The whole area and conflict comes with various options in how to progress and unfold your empire, while juggling the danger of the nearby Great Powers against one another.

South America also has a few good options, as the continent is somewhat isolated and gets mostly ignored by the Greater Powers until later in the game, provided one doesn't mess with their colonies. Resource-wise it's full of good things, including gold and oil. Just as heads up: Grao-Pará is at war with Brazil at the start of the game, so don't pick that. Similarly Bolivia will be hated by all its neighbors because of a unique mechanic where it's trying to fuse with its puppets and others have the choice to interrupt it. States like New Granada, Brazil, or Argentina or Venezuela have interesting expansion choices and economic pathways though.

If you want a completely isolated start, out of reach from all major empires, then try Buganda. It's in the middle of mostly uncolonized Africa and until Greater Powers colonize a pathway to your borders you just get to mess with your neighbors and try to conquer them. It's technologically very far behind though and has backwards laws, so you basically have to build up a nation from scratch.

Similarly, the Ethiopian nations are a little game of their own, though the ones bordering on Egypt or the ocean have to be careful, as Egypt or the Ottoman Empire might want to get involved.

Mind you, most African nations starts very far behind technologically and are prey for lager powers, unless you make friends with one and get independence guaranteed, access to their market or technology spread. It's a bit of a slow start with limited options but a fun little way to learn the basics and experiment in your little pocket of neighboring nations.

If you want to be near the hotspots of Europe Sweden is always a good choice in Paradox games. You can do your thing up there for a while and build up to whatever you want - provided you make peace with all the big neighbors. The Neatherlands and Belgium also have an easy time staying out of major conflicts by making peace. Gives one enough time to learn.

Italian nations are also worth considering but be warned: Italy has, similar to Prussia, Austria or Romania, a nation fusing mechanic that will trigger infighting over who gets to form the big nation. That means you have to look into the Culture tab and deal with neighbors to survive. They might try and be allies with Greater Powers and that in itself could make it a bit dangerous.

[Nimble-Cat]

Belgium

[SIX]

Belgium

[harrisone16]

Thanks! Would something like Madagascar be a good one to try?

[Dcethe]

Japan - Lets you build your economy from the ground up, Opportunity to expand in Korea or a collapse china, compete with other powers in Indonesia near endgame

USA - Releatively easy and works great with the new investment update. You start off with all the important techs and can keep snowballing with a good liberal government. Mid-late game you can easily become one of the strongest powers without even resorting to colonizing outside the US

Italy - Decently challenging, its a lil hard for A.I to form italy but most players find it easy. Theres room to grow and build up your own colonizing nation. this is a lil bit harder to play.

the other countries like UK and Prussia are a lil harder to play because you need to know how to play the game to utilize them right, but its not a steep skill slope.

[SIX]

Originally posted by harrisone16:

Thanks! Would something like Madagascar be a good one to try?

no

[Wilhelm]

For beginners? one of the beginner nations.
next step would be nations in south america.
alternatively japan.

wouldn´t recommend USA for the very first start. its easy but not as fun as the other starting options.

[Wilhelm]

Originally posted by harrisone16:

Thanks! Would something like Madagascar be a good one to try?

unfortunately not. these minors need a lot of time to develop and there isn´t much to do (for a beginner or normal player). thats mostly for veteran players.

[DathTV]

cheers to you for posting this question and getting these answers!
your question was my google search. W

[Blims!]

Chile
Has gold and alot of other mines, can colonize further south, has some unique political events.

[VelesWorshipper]

Originally posted by harrisone16:

Thanks! Would something like Madagascar be a good one to try?

I had fun and learned a lot of things playing Transvaal.

[Cole]

hear me out, russia is good if you know the heir strat. heres a simplified run down of it. basically you want to abdicate and then make sure you do a royal marriage for the tsar you now have. then make sure hes popular so when you exile the leader of the landowners, he becomes the leader. since hes a market liberal you can charge a bunch of op laws. make sure you move your capital to moscow after 1845. moscow has better resource and industrial potential then ingria. also persia is really fun. theres no way you will ACTUALLY win the great game if you dont pull out some weird strategies. but its still really fun if things go your way. make sure you get a strong Allie tho

[Cole]

Originally posted by Cole:

hear me out, russia is good if you know the heir strat. heres a simplified run down of it. basically you want to abdicate and then make sure you do a royal marriage for the tsar you now have. then make sure hes popular so when you exile the leader of the landowners, he becomes the leader. since hes a market liberal you can charge a bunch of op laws. make sure you move your capital to moscow after 1845. moscow has better resource and industrial potential then ingria. also persia is really fun. theres no way you will ACTUALLY win the great game if you dont pull out some weird strategies. but its still really fun if things go your way. make sure you get a strong Allie tho

oh also russia can spam construction insanely well