1.7 SOI Best 1-2 State nations

[harrisone16]

Similar to another of my posts, I’m looking for recs on a fun 1-3ish state nation to play. Ideally something rather under the radar and a bit under developed but with great resources. Any thoughts?

[insae]

Korea is great,some of their states are awesome in terms of resources. They have 5 states but are small enough,i'd say. You could also go for Belgium,as Wallonia is insanely strong and will certainly carry you through the game. Other than that,maybe Chile or Argentina?

[Vellsi]

When it comes to small nations one usually has to release one at game start and select the "play as it" checkbox to get interesting possibilities but from the default ones go give the achievement nations Luxembourg and Langfang a try, it's a fun climb to the top. Krakow on the other hand is mostly tedious, though causing uprisings and forming Poland is rewarding when it works out.

If you want to try something different in the Middle East, go start as Ottoman Empire, immediately release Iraq to play as that. You get lots of oil later in the game but until then you have an infrastructure bonus in each state, agriculture bonus in two of them and for resources you get silk, cotton and triple sulfur mines, giving you the option to get into textiles and fertilizer early. The fun part is that other resources you have to trade for, which makes for a nice game of international diplomacy and naval shenanigans, sandwiched between Ottomans, Persia, Russia and the Arab Peninsula. The experience is mostly driven by your exports and imports. You also get to choose whether or not to conquer the Arabian peninsula over time, setting up for an oil monopoly late in the game, which supercharges your wealth, economy and military options.

Eastern Borneo is also great for discoverable resources later in the game, bumping up your wealth in the rubber and oil era (so you have to specialize early) and gives you various fragmented state provinces to start as. You have to conquer the rest of the state yourself though - or hope that you can side with rebellions against the Dutch overlord to free some.

Eastern Russia or Manchuria have an enormous amount of resources and are in an area that otherwise doesn't see any interesting nations, so releasing those is great. Taiwan also makes for a fun challenge.

Since we're in the area: If you enjoy getting others addicted to opium, try the states between India and Russia and try to form Afghanistan. There's a chance a culture gets obsessed with opium (any culture, not just specific ones) if you export huge amounts to them (no matter if there's demand or not, as long as one delivers three quarters of demand) and, given enough time and RNG, you can turn yourself into the largest drug empire in the world. You are in constant danger from the Great Game though, so you need to expand to stay big enough to protect yourself (and you need sea access to export properly).

In Southern Africa, above the Cape Colonies, are the states of Vrystaat and Transvaal. Combined with Northern Cape the region has the highest concentration of gold per area, so you can play around that. You also get to colonize immediately into Tswana (it has no malaria in the South), so you can grow naturally over time a bit. Mind you, no sea access until you snag Gaza or Zulu before Portugal or the British claim it.

In Europe Bohemia or Czechoslovakia, and to lesser extent Poland, re insanely strong in terms of resources but you'll be sandwiched between 3 powerful Greater Powers, so you have to play it smart.

In South America Venezuela with Miranda and Zulia have have lots of oil and a tiny bit of rubber, they are also close to lots of interesting islands to mess around on - or to Middle America to snag the Panama Canal. While it's in Bolivia, La Paz even has oil, rubber and gold in a single province and the surrounding states have more of it, too.

[John Hadley]

Philippines might be an interesting one to try because it has both Filipino and Spanish as primary cultures, so you have both European Heritage and South-East Asian Heritage. That allows you to incorporate more states in the world quickly.

The same might be said of Darfur since it has both African and Middle Eastern heritage.

Ecuador could be pretty great for its resources as a construction core. It has wood, iron, and fabric in good quantities all available in the capital, plus coal so you can make construction materials, steel, engines, and other such industrialization materials right there in your capital.