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The Cook Islands is a Tier I island nation in the Pacific Ocean. With it's low population, lack of economic potential and remote location, it was objectively the weakest country in the game for most of the game's history, being last place in the rankings. Even now with lower-ranked countries like the 
Falkland Islands, it is still considered extremely weak and resides at third-to-last place on rankings. This, in turn, gave the country a meme status among the community.
Despite it's status as one of the weakest countries in the game, the country possesses decent potential due to its remoteness and options for expansion in the form of several other island nations in the area. It can also form 
Cook Islands Federation and 
Alam Melayu.
Background[]
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The Cook Islands are a self-governing island country in the South Pacific Ocean in free association with New Zealand. It comprises 15 islands (Although only representing 1 city in RON) whose total land area is 240 square kilometers (93 sq mi). The Cook Islands' Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) covers 1,960,027 square kilometers (756,771 sq mi) of ocean.
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Base Statistics[]
Economy[]
The Cook Islands starts with $100,363 income, all of which comes from taxes. However, it spends $40,000 on military upkeep for its home guard units, which brings this income down to about $60,000.
Resources[]
The Cook Islands produce no resources.
Military[]
The Cook Islands have a manpower cap of 60,000 and gains 292 manpower every turn. Due to the miniscule population of the country, this manpower cap cannot be increased regardless of the conscription law or any policy that may be enacted.
| Base Manpower Capacity of Cook Islands per Conscription Law | |
|---|---|
| The following columns below present the manpower capacity from lowest (Disarmed) to highest (Required). RP stands for "Recruitable Population". | |
| Disarmed [1% RP] |
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| Volunteer [2% RP] |
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| Limited [5% RP] |
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| Extensive [10% RP] |
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| Required [25% RP] |
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Geography[]
Terrain and Biome[]
The Cook Islands has a very small amount of land, tiny enough to where it is almost negligible. As a result, moving troops around in the area effectively guarantees that they enter a naval transportation state. The tiny amount of land that is actually present within the country consists entirely of Jungle biome.
Borders[]
As an island nation, the Cook Islands do not border any country. However, it is fairly close to 
Niue and 
French Polynesia (about 1,000 km in-game from both).
Cities[]
The Cook Islands only has one city, that being it's capital, Avarua.
Politics[]
Ideology[]
The Cook Islands start off with the Non-Aligned ideology.
Formables[]
The Cook Islands has two formables, the Cook Islands Federation and Alam Melayu.
Threats[]
Australia, New Zealand, or any other Oceanian nation expanding across Polynesia.- Any Austronesian nation trying to form Alam Melayu.
- Tonga may try to form the Tongan Empire.
- Hawaii attempting to make the Polynesian Confederation.
- United Kingdom could try to form the British Empire, although they would try to expand elsewhere before Oceania.
Strategy[]
Playing as the Cook Islands can generally be an uneventful experience due to its remoteness and the lack of players in the region. While the country may be required for formables such as the 
British Empire or Alam Melayu, any attempts from other players to form these will likely come at a date way later than the beginning of the game, especially the British Empire. The only legitimate problem that you may face early-game is 
Australia possibly wishing to rapidly expand into the Pacific Ocean, or 
Tonga attempting to form the 
Tongan Empire. However, players of both of these countries are extremely rare, especially Tonga.
Due to the absence of players in the area surrounding the Cook Islands, you will likely have free reign to build up your resources and expand. However, unless you build up for a long time, your expansion should stay confined to your surrounding islands for easy expansion. Islands like Niue and French Polynesia, for example, are easy pickings. While you're at it, you can also form the Cook Islands Federation, which requires Niue, without much effort. Building an Electronics Factory and selling their product for extra tax income and creating a Destroyer to help attack units will greatly help out with the expansion process. The more that you expand, you could also aim to form Alam Melayu. While forming that country as the weakest one that can form it will definitely take a long time, requiring you to invade and annex countries like 
Indonesia, it is a goal that you can choose to aim for. You could also be bold and try to invade Australia for yourself, or colonize Africa 
and Asia 
. Playing as the Cook Islands can by all means be a painstaking process, but even the worst countries in the game have potential.
Trivia[]
- Because the new capital must be less than 750 km away, it is impossible for Cook Islands to move its capital, meaning its capital is always Avarua unless their capital is occupied by a foreign nation.
- Cook Islands used to have a second formable, the Pacific Federation, but it was removed in an update.
- Cook Islands in reality comprises of 15 islands but only contains 1 city in-game.
- Most people play it to troll countries or attempt to gain experience.
