Easiest country to play for a newbie ?

[allan_boa]

Which is the easiest country to play ? I mean the least complex with few provinces, no or little colonization and no war so that I could exclusively focus on the economic and social models. Thanks.

[PhilThib]

Paradoxically I feel the USA is easiest to play, despite the large amount of territory, because it's rather quiet and isolated for the first 10 years of the game

Second best-choice is Prussia

[Oli le Belge]

France is a nightmare ! leure:

[PhilThib]

Try Britain, it's close too ... or Russia, which is worst because it's poor and under-developped...

[allan_boa]

And what about Japan ? Did somebody try it ?

[tux]

Yes, I am playing Japan for long. As an introducing and testing one it is quite right. No interfering from outside. No wars. You can slowly build up your country and discover more about the mechanics in the game.

[montgomeryjlion]

Personally, I find France the best to play as there is a lot to do both colonially and domestically. A good mix. But it's not overwhelming like Britain.

[allan_boa]

A mod [or a patch] allowing to play minor countries would be great. Is anything planed ? I would love to play say, Swizzerland :-)

[Hohenlohe]

A mod [or a patch] allowing to play minor countries would be great. Is anything planed ? I would love to play say, Swizzerland :-)

Dear Allan, you should know that you need no mod definitely to play with a minor country. But some certain minor countries are somehow restricted because there are not enough units or leaders existing and even sometimes no cities. Most of the playable countries are very easy to recognize as you can see if you take a look inside the campaign-related script file 1850GCscript or such else. There you can recognize these files easy by the mapoffset figures beyond the country tag like TUR(Ottomans) or CHI for China...

Most european countries should be playable like Spain,Portugal or Bavaria or Netherlands or Belgium or Sweden, but others like the sub_saharan or most of the asian nations besides China or Persia will be not playable without modifying them. Some American Nations like Mexiko or Brazil will be also easy to play, but most nations like Ethiopia or such else and especially the North American Indians lacks ANY cities or some leaders or even the resources.

Thus you are limited to a mereley european point of view but nethertheless you wil be granted some very good gameplay. Most of these minor nations and especially the indigene tribes are somehow a problem related to a slightly less available and documented history.

Here in Europe simply not many people knew anything about Ethiopia and his old around 3000 years old history or anything about the Hausa states or the Kanem-Bornu state in the saharan area or about the old Mali. As far as I know the predecessor states of Kanem-Bornu and the Hausa ones seems to be founded in the old times as the Punians has some good trade lanes thru the Sahara together with the old Garamantes in old antique Libya.

There are not many written documents available nowadays although the existing islamic culture had a very great cultural centre there in Timbuktu until the French occupied that area...

African history beyond the Punian,the Egyptians and the Ethiopians is nowadays somehow a kind of a big riddle and puzzle and even in Ethiopia or Sudan there is not all explored by archaelogists thus we simply did not know much...

Thus you may be happy that this team has still did a great work with this game. Although it would be somehow a problem with turn resolution if someone had taken more information into account...But nethertheless I would be happy to choose from maximum 18 factions...

greetings

Hohenlohe

[Caccio]

For learning the economic game, I prefer Italy. At start you have only 7 regions to manage, but improving their productivity is a challenge. Your sphere of influence is small, so colonial options are limited. You have a respectable army, but watch out for the Austrians!

[hgilmer]

I would have to agree with Mr. Thibault. U.S. is probably easiest to start with for the first 10 years.

It can be frustrating at times, but you are generally left alone until The Civil War. But you have 10 years to get read for that. I have been playing for a week and am only 5 years in.

The Indian Wars gives you an idea on how to play for colonies and also a little bit about going to war before a major war.

[Zap Brannigan]

I think Austria is quite simple to play but not so simple that you don't get to do anything:
- no real colonisation unless you turn off historical settings and even then it's a minor part.
- there is a good mixture of resources to develop throughout the nation - good practice to focus on building a strong economy
- not as much threat to you as you'd expect plus you can attack the Ottomans if you want to practice warfare in a war where you have the advantage (start off friendly with Prussia and Russia and you have enough power to scare off S-Piedmont)

[Cruzeiro]

I´ve started with Prussia in my first game and I can give a recommendation for it as a starting nation.

In the middle of all major powers in Europe its territory is relatively small in the beginning. Austria, Russia and France - your surrounding neighbours- are all significantly bigger. The geographic situation in central Europe offers many opportunities to you.

The military is strong and will offer good protection. Additionally you are allied to Austria in the beginning which secures your southern borders. Prussia is good in technological progress, too.

In the future you will have interesting historical choices to form the German Nation and to challenge Great Britain´s almost untouchable position. In the late 70s I managed to surpass Great Britain in prestige. Never expected that after the start of the game. However if you don´t want to wage war you don´t need to. Special events give you CB against Denmark, Austria and France but it´s possible to ignore them.

You won´t have to take care of any colonial affairs from the beginning on if you don´t want to. Prussia does not start with any colonies. After all, it was a good choice because it´s relatively small in size but has a good economic basis which favors experimenting without too many troubles.

[Baris]

African history beyond the Punian,the Egyptians and the Ethiopians is nowadays somehow a kind of a big riddle and puzzle and even in Ethiopia or Sudan there is not all explored by archaelogists thus we simply did not know much...

I think Egyptians are also a big riddle. Some call themselves as "kıpti"(gypsie) that they dont believe they built the pyramids. But I believe they are built by men, not any kind of space creature they also tell every stone is the grave of the man, for to proceed to the sky..

[Bohemund]

Dear Allan, you should know that you need no mod definitely to play with a minor country. But some certain minor countries are somehow restricted because there are not enough units or leaders existing and even sometimes no cities. Most of the playable countries are very easy to recognize as you can see if you take a look inside the campaign-related script file 1850GCscript or such else. There you can recognize these files easy by the mapoffset figures beyond the country tag like TUR(Ottomans) or CHI for China...

Most european countries should be playable like Spain,Portugal or Bavaria or Netherlands or Belgium or Sweden, but others like the sub_saharan or most of the asian nations besides China or Persia will be not playable without modifying them.

And could you please elaborate how to make them playable?

[Michael Hopcroft]

Here in Europe simply not many people knew anything about Ethiopia and his old around 3000 years old history or anything about the Hausa states or the Kanem-Bornu state in the saharan area or about the old Mali. As far as I know the predecessor states of Kanem-Bornu and the Hausa ones seems to be founded in the old times as the Punians has some good trade lanes thru the Sahara together with the old Garamantes in old antique Libya.

There are not many written documents available nowadays although the existing islamic culture had a very great cultural centre there in Timbuktu until the French occupied that area...

African history beyond the Punian,the Egyptians and the Ethiopians is nowadays somehow a kind of a big riddle and puzzle and even in Ethiopia or Sudan there is not all explored by archaelogists thus we simply did not know much...

I was taught very little about African history as an American. This despite the fact that nearly 13% of Americans self-identify as being descended from Africans and another 3% are biracial. (President Obama is the latter -- his father is a Kenyan immigrant and his mother is Caucasian). So Africa is part of history for Americans. Most of what is taught concerns West Africa largely from its interaction with the slavers, but there is a lot more out there to be learned and studied. And a lot can be learned from it.

Africa is a huge continent with thousands of cultures, most of which have been altered in various ways from interaction with the West. Those interactions comprise most of what Westerners know about African history. As China Achebe's novel Thing Fall Apart suggests, the Western colonialists did not want to understand the people in places like Nigeria -- they just wanted to dominate and exploit them. Little wonder most of Africa threw the Europeans out as soon as they were able to do so.

[Hohenlohe]

I was taught very little about African history as an American. This despite the fact that nearly 13% of Americans self-identify as being descended from Africans and another 3% are biracial. (President Obama is the latter -- his father is a Kenyan immigrant and his mother is Caucasian). So Africa is part of history for Americans. Most of what is taught concerns West Africa largely from its interaction with the slavers, but there is a lot more out there to be learned and studied. And a lot can be learned from it.

Africa is a huge continent with thousands of cultures, most of which have been altered in various ways from interaction with the West. Those interactions comprise most of what Westerners know about African history. As China Achebe's novel Thing Fall Apart suggests, the Western colonialists did not want to understand the people in places like Nigeria -- they just wanted to dominate and exploit them. Little wonder most of Africa threw the Europeans out as soon as they were able to do so.

You are very right with your viewpoint...we just know simply nothing about the antique Africa - the socalled craddle of mankind...

[Hohenlohe]

And could you please elaborate how to make them playable?

Oouch, it is very simple as I aknowledged either here or at the PDOX forum...

Just open the script folder and then the GC1850 sct file and then look for Spain like ESP if I am correct or some other shortkeys...

Then look for some like ChgFactionUnselect = 1 and change the entry to ZERO.

Then notice if possible the rulers name and then open the 1850GC scn file and search for the rulers name and above that scroll until you get the entry on the left side like the simple "2401" which is somehow used for a certain playable country. Just beyond that entry you will see the number "1" which means not selectable for a country and therefore you should change this entry to ZERo too...and voilà you will get a new playable country and hopefully it is playble but you will recognize this by some entries related to certain resources shown on top left screen...

I hope you got it and I wish you the utmost fun with the game sofar...

Hohenlohe