Conquer The World WW2 Best Starter Nations

The strongest nation on the Nation Tier List is rarely the best nation for your first Conquer The World WW2 (CTWWW2) session. Major powers attract experienced players, sit on contested borders, and demand fluency in economy, diplomacy, and warfare all at once. This page focuses on a different question: which nations let a brand-new player learn the systems without being punished immediately for a beginner mistake?

What makes a nation beginner-friendly

We prioritize four qualities over raw power when recommending a starter nation: few bordering nations (fewer surprise attacks to manage), at least one strong natural or diplomatic buffer (an ocean, mountains, or a neutral neighbor), a resource mix that does not force immediate difficult trade decisions, and a starting position unlikely to attract early aggression from major powers. A nation that is objectively weak on the tier list can still be an excellent teacher if it is quiet and safe.

Small, geographically isolated nations

Nations with natural borders — islands, mountain ranges, or a single land route in — are ideal first picks because they limit how many directions a threat can come from. You can spend your first session focused entirely on the Getting Started checklist and basic factory management without needing to watch three borders simultaneously. Pair this pick with the survival strategies in Small Nation Tips once you have your first session under your belt.

Neutral-leaning minor powers

Some minor nations start with a historically neutral or non-aligned position, which tends to translate into fewer default rivalries at the start of a match. This gives you time to build non-aggression pacts with every neighbor before any of them consider you a target, buying valuable early turns to grow your economy without diplomatic pressure.

Nations with a simple, singular resource focus

Avoid nations that start needing to juggle several scarce resources at once for your first game — the decision paralysis alone can eat into time you should be spending learning the interface. A nation with one or two abundant resources and a straightforward production path lets you focus on understanding factories and manpower instead of untangling a trade web on day one.

What to avoid as a first pick

• Any nation bordering three or more other player-controlled nations.
• Nations historically drawn into early alliances or rivalries that force a war decision in your first few minutes.
• Nations with a severe resource deficiency that requires immediate, complex trade diplomacy to function.
• Any of the major powers on the Nation Tier List — save those for once you understand the full game loop.

After your first session

Once you have completed a full session with a beginner-friendly pick — built up factories, queued research, and maybe signed a pact or two — you are ready to try something with more neighbors or contested resources. Check the Nation Tier List for your next step up, and read Major Powers once you are ready to try running a large, contested nation instead of a quiet corner of the map.

Redeem codes before you start

While you are picking your first nation, take a moment to redeem the current cosmetic codes — they only change your nation’s appearance, not its stats, so there is no reason to skip them even on a beginner-focused run.

A note on server variance

Exactly how safe a nation feels also depends on who else is playing that session — a normally quiet nation can end up next to an unusually aggressive player, and a normally risky one might land in a server full of passive AI. Treat this list as a strong starting bias rather than a guarantee, and always check your live borders and neighbor activity within the first few minutes using the tips in Getting Started before committing to a long-term build order.