How Can I Turn A Backwater Into A Superpower? (Little Upsilon)

Hi everyone, I'm new to this game and I had a few questions. I'm the leader of a little coastal country, surrounded by a 2-nation empire racked with economic problems, so for the moment they aren't a concern. I want to have an empire of my own in the future, and the only way I can see that happening is going across the oceans.

My questions are: How would I go about building up a fleet able to conquer C3's across the seas? What should my economy be like before attempting this? Lastly, I noticed that LU seems to be in some sort of economic... disaster. How will this affect my small country?

To your questions:

#1: Don't know.

#2: The more profit per month the better. 30 billion a month is chump change.

#3: You may notice some shortages halting corporation production. Don't sweat the FMU shortages for now. Otherwise, the only other issues are delays in deliveries for some things.

Poison Sonata, I'd suggest following the instructions on the Church of Simcountry website (google Church of Simcountry) to get your country in order. Don't worry about building a navy right now - focus on your economy by building corporations, inviting CEOs to build corporations, and investing in infrastructure. Once you're earning a lot of money, build an air force or a navy and use it to conquer a C3.

I'd also suggest joining a federation. If you're a full member or planning to become one, IDC (Independent Defense Coalition) can help and guide you as you work on becoming a top President.

It may be worth it to create a CEO to increase your income. If you do, remember that the best way to make money is to build more corporations.

Lastly, if you ever need any tips on economics, send a message to Money Incorporated or The Republic of Brutillius and I will be happy to help you. Good luck in your investments!

EDIT: In answer to your questions:
- The best fleets use a carrier and navy fighter planes along with cruise ships and ship-based cruise missiles, if I remember rightly. The NFP (navy fighter planes) take out the air force and garrisons of the country whilst the cruise missiles destroy important targets like cities or forts. A good idea would be to add a ground force which you could use to back up your NFP. I know that doing this involves using airdrops and things, but I don't remember how it works. Any vets want to help out here? :P

- White darkness is correct. I, personally, conquered my first country when my profit was at $60B. The best idea is to stay under War Level 3 (you can't be attacked under War Level 3) and only build enough soldiers to take C3s. Once you've taken a C3, dismantle the forces you used to take it so your profit doesn't collapse. A massive mistake many new players make is to have a standing army in countries that can't be attacked. Your main country (your "secured main") can never be attacked, so never have a standing army there. Your other countries can only be attacked once you reach War Level 3, so only build a standing army in those countries once you're ready to move on to War Level 3.
On that note, there is no reason to move to WL 3 unless you are planning on engaging in PvP warfare. I've reached the top 5 on LU without ever getting beyond WL 2 and I probably won't get beyond WL 2 for a while yet. Remember - less military equals more profit.

- Think of the economic disaster right now as being like the recent real-life recession. Some countries (like the US) may be heavily affected, while others (like Australia) might get through nearly unscathed. Ultimately, there's no saying how badly your country will be affected by the recession. All you can really do is ride it out and remember - confidence will save the market. Don't isolate yourself from the world market - keep building corporations as long as you have pop to support them.

Sorry for the lengthy reply :P

Accordion gives good advice.
Learn from the Soviet mistake of keeping CEOs out and overspendning thru heavy military. US might be marshing into a smiliar fate with extreme overspending on the military.

Best is to first build a stable economy before building a military, but if you play your cards right you can begin military conquest quite soon. A 60b positive cash-flow (from profit) is enough to expand military. Keep in mind however that buying ammo and using em drains your cash stockpile heavily so have a few trillions to spare before starting your military plans. Also, rebuilding a conquered nation costs alot too.

"Accordion gives good advice."

This is why everything needs a like button :P

Thanks everyone for the advice. Sadly I already purchased an Aircraft Carrier and some Attack Boats/Destroyers before you all responded. Thankfully the effect on my economy isn't noticeable, and I'll probably deactivate them for the moment (I know, noob mistake).

I plan to let CEO's in once I get my tax rate to 0 (It's at 18% right now) and I have enough workers for them.

This economic thing is kind of interesting. So far my corporations aren't selling all of their goods, and I'm thinking of using the Local Market so they can have assured business. Is this a good idea?

Not really. Think of it like this:

You buy $10 of supplies from the world market (-$10 to Poison Sonata's account). You then make those supplies into $100 of household products which you sell to your country. You pay $100 to your corporation for the goods and then the corporation pays you $80 in profit transfer. So, after all that:

- You lose $10 to your supplier.
- $20 of your country's money goes to your corporation.
- The net outcome for your account is that you lose $10.

You're better off trading on the world market; in the above situation, you would've added $90 to your account in that bout of trading. There are other reasons why world market is better than local market (to do with quality) but I don't think I really need to explain them - suffice to say that it's better to take other people's money than to move about your own.

As for CEOs - allow them immediately. The tax rate will move down by itself if you've set the target tax rate to 0% and CEOs won't mind waiting a few months. As for workers, CEOs generally don't build corps unless there are spare workers - so let the CEOs do the waiting. Open your country to CEOs now so you don't have to worry about it again :P Plus, if you open your country, some CEOs might be interested in bidding on your state corps, which will increase your profit.

As for the military forces - dismantling is fine, but sell it if you're not planning on using it.

Accordian's advice is good, and economically sound.

If, however, you are thinking of your country "score", (which isn't something you need to worry about a lot until the time comes when you want to compete for the monthly GC awards) then selling local will improve the country score.

Or, if you have a lot of time on your hands and can be online once during every monthly cycle, you can do this:
Contract your products to your country (improves your score) then manually sell the products on world trade each month.

Warning! If you are a free player this will NOT work, because to make it economically feasible you have to use "fixed price" when selling; free players can only use best price.

It's a bit complicated and takes a LOT of work, but if you have decent quality products it can be profitable. What I do (in general) is set my corp trade strategy to +20, contract it to my country, then sell on the world market for +30 (or better if I can get it). If a product is deep red you can almost always get +40 for it (or more if your quality is 250+). However, if the product is green don't do it, you won't be able to get enough to justify. This method gives a small profit to your corp, builds up a strategic supply, and if the market is right your country can get a profit too.

All in all it's better to use Accordian's method until you're more tuned in to how the market works and you find your own method. It's very hard to compete for the monthly GC awards, they only give out something like 15 per month (that's RL, not game months)so country score isn't a concern in the beginning.

@rep: "What I do (in general) is set my corp trade strategy to +20"
Products sold via contract are sold at market price so won't be affected by the trade strategy.

Well, that's interesting, and I didn't know that.
Appreciate that info, as it basically means I was just lucky in the choice of corps I built in-country.
And it means a total realignment of my thinking process. Thanks a LOT!

/me snickers