I've had my best games as Western Canada, Kenya, and Near-East, but despite taking part in the 17-game monstrosity I don't think I've played any country enough to say with any certainty which will ultimately be my favorites. I've enjoyed Kenya/India and Kenya/Near-East alliances.

Kenya/India? That's an odd alliance. Imo, they will always clash with each other.

Not always ;)

I'm sure they usually do, but in the relatively small sample size of games I've played as one or the other, it has worked out.

I like Russia's ability to build quickly in the first year. And I have no idea what I was thinking, but I meant Russia-Libya to squeeze out the Near East. Russia and Near East can work, as stalemate lines can encourage diversion of forces elsewhere. Other common alliances I've seen were Ghana/South Africa and Pac-Russia/China, although that one involves a stab sooner or later, as does India/Pac-Rus. India and Kenya is intriguing, and I like the idea. IMO, it's like France/England because the Northwest Indian is like the English Channel. Important, but if utilized well, powerful.

I love playing as Argentina because it's easy to run over Brazil, and South Africa is too busy tied up with FA and Kenya. from there, an alliance with the prevailing North American power and a strong fleet can push into the Antarctic, or directly to Africa, although the later is less common.

What would you do in a gunboat to imply a wanted alliance/ peace? I find it impossibly hard to play gunboat when spreading out forces in 3 directions.

I loved playing with South Africa. Had had great alliance with Oz and later Argentina joined us, once we had eliminated antartica, we could quite easily sweep the map from the south.

that's actually quite interesting. I see pac-rus/ western Canada alliances to sweep the map from the north, but not the other way around.
India, I have yet to play as, but I desperately want to. It seems so fun. China is hard to play as... Europe is even harder.

For a gunboat you start with a support, but the hard part is trusting to move so you have empty SCs near your ally. Even in a regular game you can easily get stabbed when you need units for a front line. It works best when your "ally" needs units too and can't afford to start a war with you.

I like Kenya because once you grow past 10 units it's easy to establish a stable front even without getting into an alliance.

I love playing Kenya and FA. A PAC-Russia and FA alliance has worked well for me before.

I've seen my share of southern power alliances as well as northern power alliances. Both are good since they anchor themselves in a corner of the map

Have you ever seen successful Europe, Ghana, or Brazil games? I think those are a few of the weaker powers in the game.

Yes, yes, and yes.

Europe, South Africa, and Libya are the weakest in the game. Brazil and Ghana are really middle-level powers

Who do you think are the strongest then?

dont forget china, china is pretty weak too

Oh, we both know about that, Otto. Btw, thanks for stabbing me and giving neither of us any chance of survival.

Brazil gameID=65533
Ghana gameID=44803
Europe (well, if you scroll back, he was powerful until he attacked me.) gameID=36132

Strongest in the game are Western Canada, Kenya, Argentina, and India

Cool. thanks.

Forgive the formatting, but this is a little something I did a year and a half ago.

Draws Wins Survive
Kenya 43 5 16
China 32 2 10
Frozen 32 3 9
Near East 26 3 9
Quebec 31 5 7
Argentina 30 7 9
Ghana 28 5 10
Pac-Rus 24 1 9
West Can 33 1 6
India 26 6 12
Oz 20 1 10
USA 20 4 15
Europe 21 4 8
Brazil 27 4 11
Russia 28 2 13
Libya 14 2 7
South Af 17 2 1

sample of 150 games (ish)

interesting. thanks a lot.

it would be nice if we could see the losses on there as well...

that's a lot to ask for...