MA 2 – President Simulator: 5 Starting Nations Beginners Should Avoid

When starting your first playthrough of MA 2 – President Simulator, avoid selecting Taiwan, Mongolia, Palestine, Ukraine, or North Korea. These five nations suffer from immediate wars against superior powers, geographic deadlocks, crushing military maintenance costs, or severe trade sanctions. Beginning with any of them routinely leads to rapid bankruptcy or military annexation before you can master basic economic and diplomatic systems.

Instead, choose nations with stable baseline cash flows, established resource production, and access to weaker neighbors.

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1. Taiwan: Overwhelming Early-Game Invasion

Taiwan faces an immediate existential threat from mainland China. China begins the game with an overwhelmingly superior standing military, deploying massive ground divisions, armored units, air wings, and naval forces.

• No Strategic Depth: As an island positioned directly off the Chinese coast, Taiwan lacks territorial depth. Any amphibious landing strikes vital national infrastructure immediately.
• Resource Depletion: Taiwan lacks the raw industrial output and domestic equipment production to replace heavy combat losses.
• Economic Paralysis: Sinking your limited treasury into coastal defense garrisons will exhaust your gold reserves. Maritime supply disruptions quickly freeze domestic factory lines and trigger widespread civil unrest.

Without advanced knowledge of mercenary mechanics and diplomatic stalling tactics, Taiwan will be annexed within the opening months.

2. Mongolia: Encircled and Landlocked Expansion Trap

Early progression in MA 2 – President Simulator relies on conquering weaker adjacent territories to claim their factories, tax revenue, and raw resource deposits. Mongolia makes this strategy impossible.

• Border Bottleneck: Mongolia is completely landlocked and bordered exclusively by two heavily armed nuclear superpowers: Russia and China. Early expansion against either neighbor is fatal.
• Weak Domestic Base: The country starts with low population density, minimal industrial production, and severe deficits in vital energy commodities.
• Fiscal Stagnation: Modernizing infrastructure requires substantial capital, but the starting budget provides no headroom for central-bank loans or economic adjustments.

Playing Mongolia traps you in a passive defensive position where any diplomatic friction can trigger immediate conquest.

3. Palestine: Immediate Active War Without an Economy

Unlike peaceful starting options that grant time to adjust tax policies and build resource extraction facilities, Palestine begins the simulation under active invasion by Israel.

• Severe Military Disparity: Israel starts with advanced mechanized divisions, pre-built fortifications, and dominant air power capable of destroying starting Palestinian units in early clashes.
• Inadequate Tax Revenue: Starting treasury reserves and baseline daily revenues are too low to sustain unit replenishment or weapons manufacturing.
• Debt Spirals: Purchasing foreign equipment or hiring emergency military forces forces players into unsustainable loan cycles with the central bank, driving the state into swift bankruptcy.

4. Ukraine: High-Cost Continental War of Attrition

Defending Ukraine requires fighting an extensive, high-attrition war along an exposed land border with Russia, which commands massive stockpiles of armor, artillery, and air units.

• Crippling Upkeep: Mobilizing the large frontline force necessary to contest the border will instantly plunge an unoptimized national budget into deep deficit.
• Infrastructure Destruction: Active combat quickly devastates domestic power plants, agricultural acreage, and mining facilities.
• Civilian Instability: Compounding shortages of food and oil damage public approval, sparking domestic labor strikes and factory shutdowns while you are attempting to hold the defensive line.

5. North Korea: Sanctions, Embargoes, and Deficits

North Korea cripples new players through heavy diplomatic isolation and severe economic imbalances rather than immediate frontline destruction.

• Trade Embargoes: Deeply negative baseline diplomatic relations prevent you from signing profitable trade treaties or buying necessary raw goods on the global market.
• Chronic Shortages: The state suffers from persistent deficits in crude oil, food, and rare ores, halting factory output.
• Bloated Military Maintenance: Upkeep for North Korea's oversized standing army drains revenue away from resource exploration, healthcare, and infrastructure. Over time, these costs trigger domestic famine and armed rebellion before you can mount an offensive campaign.

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Beginner Risk Comparison and Safer Starting Alternatives

To build an initial campaign successfully, select regional powers that have secure borders, surplus commodities, and clear paths for regional expansion.

Next Steps for Your First Playthrough

Select a country from the recommended alternatives list. Focus your early turns on balancing the national budget, constructing iron and energy facilities, and stockpiling gold before entering foreign treaties or declaring war.