What country is the best to start as?

I'd say ukraine is a high-risk-high-reward type nation. True, it's quite exposed, but a majority(if not all nations) that border it are comintern, whose weakness can be very easily exploited by ukraine's axis doctrine. I invest a lot in economy, it's part of my playstyle, so for me it's almost always worth it to select axis nations, and I find that they are my favorites, so I guess it just comes down to personal preference.

DomMax wrote:

Yugoslavia its a good choice too.