This page exists to provide a general rule of thumb to teach newer players how to survive past the first year of the game.
Do NOT provoke these countries[]
United States of America[]
The United States is the strongest nation in the game. It has the highest income at the start of the game, along with a large number of cities and resources to its disposal. A large portion of the west is arid, semi-mountainous and spread out, along with Alaska being completely arctic, making it one of the hardest countries to invade.
China[]
China is the 2nd strongest nation in the game. It has a massive amount of population and square cities, making it easier for a China player to spam tanks early on. This combined with the fact that most of the south is jungle, and that most of the north and west are arid and mountainous, any foreign invasions can be stopped with ease.
India[]
India is the third strongest country in the game, with a large amount of tax due to its democratic ideology on game-start and the massive amount of square cities, making it easier for India to spam tanks early on. All of the cardinal directions contain harsh terrain ranging from mountainous regions and jungle/arid biomes.
Brazil[]
Brazil is a great power located in South America, with a large tax base due to its starting ideology of democracy, along with a large population, making it the 4th strongest country in the game. Most of its nation is filled with jungle and hills, making it extremely off-putting to invade early game.
Russia[]
Russia is a great power located in Eastern Europe, notable for its vast stretches of land throughout both Europe and Asia and its status as a resource superpower. With it harboring nearly all of the game's resources, this makes it extremely easy for Russia to produce lots of factories and advanced units early on. This combined with the fact that it starts off with the limited conscription law, giving it nearly double the manpower it would normally get, makes it trivial for Russia to spam infantry or tanks.
Do NOT country hop with malicious intent[]
Country hopping is the act of abandoning a country and switching to a different one. If this is done after your country has capitulated for the sole purpose of getting revenge on the player that invaded, it is considered breaking NLR (New life rule) and is forbidden. Switching to a country for the sole purpose of ruining an aspect of it (Stability, Army, Trade) is considered griefing and is also strictly forbidden. If you perform either of these actions in-game, your account could receive severe punishment.
Do NOT let your stability drop too low[]
Allowing your stability to drop low enough can cause you to collapse and lead to countries declaring independence from you, along with crippling your tax income, manpower gain, and allowing for negative events to take place. It is recommended to use anything at your disposal to keep it from going below at least 45%. Ways that stability can be increased are, but not limited to; forming countries, political technology, events, policies, and economic laws.
Do NOT leave your transports undefended[]
Whilst transporting a large sum of ground units by sea, it is paramount to deploy a small mixture of submarines, destroyers, frigates or battleships to move alongside it. If not escorted properly, the enemy can use their naval fleet to easily wipe out transport ships.
Train your forces when viable[]
An important element of the game is training your units, giving them buffs to attack and defense. This can help immensely in cases where the enemy force is larger but less experienced. Troops can only reach at most 125% experience from conventional training, with the rest being gained by battles. You can also get specialization doctrine, which is really good if you tired of waiting for units to train.
Do NOT be in debt too often[]
While in debt, the following effects are present:
- Base stability drops by 15%
- You can't build
- You can't produce units
- You can't buy resources from other countries
- Negative events will occur
- Positive events will become less common
Ways to stay out of deficit and debt include, but are not limited to;
- Deleting unnecessary troops
- Setting economic laws lower
- Cancelling unnecessary trades
- Selling resources you don't need
Do NOT leave your nation undefended[]
Even if your nation contains vast amounts of resources to its disposal in case of an invasion, it is important to set up defenses even before invasion is guaranteed. Surprise attacks are one of the strongest tactics that can be used against a player.
Choose the right ideology[]
Ideologies work by min-maxing certain stats such as factory output or tax income, making different playstyles easier or more effective. Some policies are exclusive to certain ideologies.
Liberalism and Democracy gives large boosts to unrest reduction and tax income, making it easier to pull tax income from cities. War justification time is increased and declaring non-liberation wars reduces stability, making it harder and slower to invade other countries. Getting consumer goods, stability technologies, and using certain economic laws wisely is a necessity for expansion as either of the ideologies.
Nationalism and Fascism gives large boosts to stability and military upkeep, while also reducing war justification time. Declaring wars increases stability, making it extremely powerful for non-stop expansion. Nationalism has no debuffs and is a safe option for newer players. Fascism extends previous bonuses whilst also taking a significant hit to tax income.
Socialism and Communism gives boosts to manpower gain and factory output, while also reducing war justification time. Tax income is reduced massively, making factory development vital to stay out of a deficit by selling the manufactured goods and increasing resource income. Also provides great war exhaustion decrease.
Build anti-aircraft in your largest cities[]
Enemy bombers can attack your cities, which, if left unchecked, will cause them to be scorched, destroy any buildings present, and increase war exhaustion. Building anti-aircraft in your largest cities will save you a lot of income while fighting a player with an airforce. This would also save you from low stability as with your biggest cities gone, your nation will become extremely vulnerable.
Use anti-tank technologies[]
The anti-tank technology tree makes destroying tanks with infantry easier, improving defenses against any enemy that spams tanks.
Use a military leader if viable[]
Military leaders can be created for either three of the unit types and can be upgraded by gaining XP with the units assigned to them. The more troops that receive XP under a military leader, the more XP the military leader assigned to them earns.
