AGEOD Forums

I can tell that PON is a game that I will love. I've had it since August 2012 and have played about 6 hours. Mostly, running in the background while I read AAR's.

I completely lost. I'm cool with complex games. I love them.

What I need is for someone to tell me what country I should start with.

Belgium is probably the easiest. It's compact, so you don't have that much to worry about, and it's populous and technologically advanced, so it can develop and fight pretty well. Also, you have a ton of natural resources for such a small country.
Sardinia-Piedmont isn't too hard either. Just remember to keep playing the unification decisions and you'll unite Italy, at which point you can go toe-to-toe with Austria for the Po valley and colonize.
The US is also pretty easy (all that gold coming in means you can do pretty much whatever you want), but it's sprawled out over half a continent, and then you have the Civil War (which I just won in 10 months because I had a huge army built up in advance, but I consider it gamey. I'm not proud of having done it.)
No matter who you play, you'll have the problem of the AI dumping its entire stockpile of pretty much every good on the marketplace, which will force you to choose VERY CAREFULLY what you invest in. Textiles is a trap: there's often a shortage of dyes, and you'll have to do major butt-kissing in order to build in other countries.

After reading some more AAR's I think that this game is probably a whole lot simpler than it looks. I can get pretty good at games and I have no qualms about charting points in Excel.

Anyway, It looks like an entire campaign takes forever. Which is good. But by the end of the campaign I'd imagine I will have the game mastered.

So my thoughts are to put it on a difficulty higher than normal and play a country that has outsides pressures left and right. I'd rather lose quickly than fall asleep for 2000 turns.

Maybe I should play one of the shorter scenarios first to get the basics then jump into the major campaign.

Am I underestimating the difficulty of the game? Thoughts?

The shorter scenarios are war scenarios. They are not really good practice for the grand campaign. I think your approach is a good idea.

So then Prussia or Austria? Which is harder? I have a deathwish.

Austria. About 10 years in, you get an event to declare war on Sardinia-Piedmont backed by France. Also, you have a large, multiethnic empire that may or may not be prone to rebellions. Remember: Prussia beat Austria twice (1756, 1867).

Thanks for the advice

Austria it is.

Man, this game is tooo easy.

I just beat the colonial tutorial in one turn!!

Try france. It is an easy country, enough industry to build up fast, enough resources and luxury resources and you can dabble in colonies ...

Difficulty level is dynamic by the way, you can start at normal and then change it as you wish everyturn. Same as options like extended force pool, spheres of influence, claims etc.