How to choose your country

In Call of War, your starting country can be an immensely important influence on your success throughout the rest of the game. However, judging which country is best can be extremely difficult. Here is a (relatively) quick and easy guide to choosing your country. (Please note: This guide specifically mentions countries and their advantages and disadvantages in Europe: Clash of Nations maps, which are one of the main maps in the game. However, many of these tips apply to other maps.)

## Qualities of an ideal country

1. **Coastline:** If your country is completely landlocked, it is impossible to access naval units at the start of the game. This can place you at a huge disadvantage, as battleships and cruisers are capable of causing massive damage over time to land units with artillery fire, with aircraft as its only counter. Being unable to access the sea may force you to make uncomfortable alliances, or attack a country before you are ready. Furthermore, a landlocked country is much easier to attack, since there is no disembark time, which gives the defender a 4-hour window to counter-attack or set up defenses. Winner: the United Kingdom. This isn't even close. The UK is a standout coastline country due to being an island. This makes it immensely hard to attack, especially if you have a strong navy. Bear in mind the next points, though, as Britain has a number of disadvantages. Also, due to these advantages, Britain is often unavailable to play as it has already been selected. In this instance, any North American country can be great, or alternatively Sweden, France or Spain. You should try to avoid Poland, Ukraine and Caucasus. Poland has only a single port in Danzig, which can be blockaded by enemy ships, potentially cutting off an escape or a naval invasion. Ukraine's only neighboring body of water is the Black Sea, which gives Turkey a lot of potential to trap your ships (the same is true for Caucasus).
2. **Many neighboring AI nations:** A great way to gain an upper hand early on is to annex AI nations. Most of them grant 10 victory points (except for Greece and the Cossack Republic, which have 20 each), a small bonus to resources, and are extremely easy to trick using ranged units due to being typically quite passive. This is especially useful for Axis doctrine nations, which gobble up resources extremely rapidly due to their +10% unit costs. AI nations will fight back, but they generally do not have many units, and they make no effort to optimize terrain use or avoid artillery fire. Winners: Yugoslavia and Germany. Both border 4 AI nations - Albania, Austria, Bulgaria and Greece for Yugoslavia, and Belgium, Denmark, Luxembourg and Netherlands for Germany. Yugoslavia is probably slightly better because conquering Denmark is a complete pain due to having two separate islands and some mainland area, and Luxemburg has only one province, but both countries are extremely viable options. Both are also Axis nations, which benefit the most from rapid expansion. You should avoid Britain, pretty much all of North America and most of northeastern Europe (i.e. Russian Empire, Communist Russia etc.). The downside of having a lot of coastline is that you have very few borders with AI nations. This makes the United Kingdom and the North American nations quite hard to play, and they will certainly suffer from fewer resources and victory points at the start of the game. If the UK can conquer Belgium or Netherlands early on, however, it would give them a lot of potential for expansion in Europe whilst their core provinces are safe. Northeastern Europe has no redeeming qualities, and arguably includes some of the worst countries on the map.
3. **Few neighboring player-controlled countries:** This is a no-brainer. After conquering AI nations, countries typically look to start conquering neighboring player-controlled countries. The fewer player-controlled countries near you, the fewer wars you will have to fight. Ideally, you should be in a coalition with some bordering countries. Not having to fight wars allows you to build and upgrade your armies, develop your economy and provides a morale boost. Winner: Once again, the United Kingdom takes the cake here due to bordering no playable countries. North America seems like a good option, but because there are so few countries there, wars often break out much sooner, as complete control over the region can grant a player a massive advantage. France is also a great choice, especially if you enter a coalition with Spain and Germany, but you may find your occupied provinces are separated from your core provinces. Spain, Sweden and most African countries are all viable options. You should avoid Communist Russia. It borders 4 different player-controlled countries: Finland, Poland, Russian Empire and Ukraine. This makes it an extremely dangerous place, especially as it is in a region with few AI countries, meaning player countries turn on each other sooner. Poland is also quite dangerous, as it borders Communist Russia, Germany, Greater Romania and Karelia.
4. **Many defensive chokepoints:** This one is more obscure, but still extremely relevant. One extremely valuable defensive resource for countries is chokepoints. These are single provinces or regions that an enemy attacking from a particular direction must pass through to access the defending country. An example of this is the Turkish Straits. This makes Turkey less vulnerable to a sudden naval invasion from the north (except from Caucasus or Ukraine) since any ships attempting to reach northern Turkey must pass through the Straits. It also grants Turkey the ability to blockade Ukrainian and Caucasian ships, weakening those countries' holds. Winner: Poland and Communist Russia. Both have only a single province open to the sea, allowing those countries to massacre any naval invaders at said provinces. Turkey's control over the Turkish Straits and Spain's over the Strait of Gibraltar are also worth a mention, but are not as impactful. Again, in this category, you should avoid the UK. Regardless of the attacking country, they can approach the British Isles from any direction. This forces Britain players concerned for their country to defend around the entire edge of the country, which significantly reduces their offensive power.
5. **Preferred Doctrine.** In Europe: Clash of Nations, there are only 3 doctrines - Allied, Axis and Comintern. There has been a lot of debate over which is strongest, with many favoring Axis. However, I will simply break them down in the way I think they are intended to be used: - *Axis*. Designed for the early game and blitzkrieg. The attack and HP buffs make attacking a neighboring player country immediately quite viable, and continue to be extremely powerful up until around day 6, when more advanced Allied units will have better buffs, and the +10% resource cost will begin to take its toll on production rate. Still stronger than Comintern until day 10 or so, by which point Comintern countries will have a big enough army to withstand an Axis onslaught. Generally offensive, due to buffed motorized infantry, medium and heavy tanks, and attack bombers. The buff to the railroad gun allows Axis players to potentially outrange enemies late game, but the only real way I can see an Axis country winning is with clever resource management and a constant state of offensive war. -*Allied*. Designed for the mid game. Of all doctrines, I consider Allied to have to least penalizing debuff, as -10% movement speed is more annoying than crippling. Due to fast research, upgrade and production times, Allied countries can expect to have considerably more powerful units than any other country by day 6 or 7, and they only fall behind Comintern's massive armies by ~ day 12. Allies have the best advanced infantry, with buffs to commandos and paratroopers, and their stronger tactical bombers can provide them with some defense against rampaging early-game Axis armies. The only buffed Allied tank is the tank destroyer, suggesting a more sneaky and ambushing play style. The greatest weapon of Allied countries is the A-bomb and associated weapons, which they get 2 days early. If they can survive to day 18, Allied countries can expect to dominate the battlefield for the next couple of days, as nuclear weapons in CoW have none of the same moral qualms as in real life. In many games, all or most of the real fighting is over by the end of the mid-game, making the Allies perhaps the best chance of winning a game. - *Comintern.* Many people hate this doctrine, but that is because most people never finish playing a round of CoW. Although Comintern seems underwhelming on the surface, reduced production and upkeep costs allow Comintern nations to sustain a much larger army than any other country. Designed to be strongest in the late game, Comintern countries have buffs to militia and infantry which can allow them to survive to the second and third week, as well as superior medium and heavy tanks, which can be used in the late game to great effect. Buffed rocket artillery and SP rocket artillery makes fighting infantry a breeze. To be fair, they are mostly defensive in nature, and using militia is unusual, but when you can get a Comintern setup to work, it works really, really well. I would argue that using a Comintern country can give you the best chance of *surviving* a game.

--Article by Qweifomapsvoiams