Countries

When starting a new game on a map, one of two events will occur, either the player getting a predetermined country, or being able to select a country.

## Basics

Countries are areas on a map that allow players to, well, be able to play the game!

   With them, you can build buildings, produce military units, and expand your nation on the map. Countries are made up of provinces that produce either double resources, regular rate resources, or have no resources. They will also have victory points, the more you get, the closer you get to winning the game! Some provinces offer many victory points, others have either two, one, or none!

## Country Selection

*Main article: How to choose your country*

If you are able to select a country, you need to take care when selecting one. Though it is possible to win with all countries with the right amount of skill, alliances, and some luck, picking a good start will increase your chances of victory.

    There are several factors you will need to consider when selecting a country, which are:

1. Is the country landlocked? Being landlocked will lock out your naval research tree from being useful (though you can still research naval tech) until you gain a coast. You will also be vulnerable on all sides unless if one of those sides is an AI, but better to not have the potential to be surrounded by your enemies by having a coastline.
2. Where will the capital be? This will require knowledge about the map itself, but the flag icon will give you a rough idea of where your capital is going to be for the meantime.    It may not seem crucial, but having bad capital placement will screw you over unless you have the resources to afford moving the capital to another province where no players are nearby. Losing the capital to an enemy player or AI will decrease morale of all your provinces by 20%, which is never a good idea.
3. What resources will I be in a shortage in, and what are the double resources? Resource production can influence your game. The most common least produced resource are rare materials, which most countries do not produce good amounts of, followed by oil.     For example, if you do not produce much rare materials or food, they are the resources you want to go after, especially food. Though you can buy from the market, in the later game, the market will not help you that much, as the sellers would have been taken over. Building infrastructure and industrial complexes only solves the cause, not the root of your resource problems. However, you need to have experience with the map to figure out which countries produce which, and what resources you will need to go hunting for.
4. How many neighbors border me? You do not want to be bordering too many player nations, as that will increase your chances of attack (though only one neighbor will guarantee that the neighbor attacks you, or a coalition is set up with them and you in there). Being an island nation allows you to not have to worry about neighbors, but attacking will take longer, and you need to defend your island(s) at all costs.

There are other factors as well, such as how big the country is, or how many AIs are bordering the country, but the four listed are the main factors for a country.

Some games do not let the player choose their country, and instead choose a country at random for that player. This option is called "random country selection."