The Maldives is a Tier I island nation off the coast of 
India, located in South Asia 
.
Background
Maldives, officially the Republic of Maldives, is a small archipelagic state in South Asia, situated in the Arabian Sea of the Indian Ocean. It lies southwest of 
Sri Lanka and India, about 700 kilometres (430 mi) from the Asian continent's mainland. The chain of 26 atolls stretches from Ihavandhippolhu Atoll in the north to Addu Atoll in the south (across the Equator). Comprising a territory spanning roughly 298 square kilometres (115 sq mi), Maldives is one of the world's most geographically dispersed sovereign states as well as the smallest Asian country by land area and, with around 557,426 inhabitants, the 2nd least populous country in Asia. Malé is the capital and the most populated city, traditionally called the "King's Island" where the ancient royal dynasties ruled for its central location.
The Maldivian Archipelago is located on the Chagos-Laccadive Ridge, a vast submarine mountain range in the Indian Ocean; this also forms a terrestrial ecoregion, together with the Chagos Archipelago and Lakshadweep. With an average ground-level elevation of 1.5 metres (4 ft 11 in) above sea level, it is the world's lowest-lying country, with even its highest natural point being one of the lowest in the world, at 5.1 metres (17 ft).
Maldives was a member of the Commonwealth from July 1982 until withdrawing from the organisation in October 2016 in protest at allegations by the other nations of its human rights abuses and failing democracy. The Maldives rejoined the Commonwealth on 1 February 2020 after showing evidence of functioning democratic processes and popular support.
Base Statistics
Economy
The Maldive Islands has a starting income of $107,528.
Resources
The Maldives produces no resources, making it dependent on trade.
Military
Maldives starts off with 60,000 manpower and a manpower gain of 301.
| Base Manpower Capacity of Maldives per Conscription Law | |
|---|---|
| The following columns below present the manpower capacity from lowest (Disarmed) to highest (Required). RP stands for "Recruitable Population". | |
| Disarmed [1% RP] |
|
| Volunteer [2% RP] |
|
| Limited [5% RP] |
|
| Extensive [10% RP] |
|
| Required [25% RP] |
|
Geography
Maldives is a very flat country, surrounded by water. It has a maritime border with India and Sri Lanka.
Cities
Maldives has one city, its capital, Malé.
Strategy
Start trading with AI nations for oil and set your taxation laws to high and enable Press Censorship. This will allow you to have enough money to buy oil while your stability isn't hit too hard. Secure diplomatic relations with any nation near you.
Begin justifying a war against Sri Lanka if nobody is playing it. Spawn around 60K soldiers (including your Home Guard) and train them for Jungle specialization. Unlike most nations, Sri Lanka's troops are not stored in its capital so take Colombo first. After defeating their troops via AI luring and entrenchment, auto-capture the rest of the country.
Now, as an island nation in the Indian Ocean, your goal should be to establish a maritime empire before taking on larger countries such as 
Bangladesh. The next country you should expand into is 
Comoros. Take over one of their smaller cities first and after defeating their troops, take the rest of their islands.
The next countries you should invade are 
Seychelles and 
Mayotte. In order to take over them, spawn a destroyer and use it to weaken their troops. You're going to have to do this as 1-city nation's troops will be too entrenched for an immediate invasion. If you want to conserve oil, spawn Artillery on a smaller island in Comoros and use it to shell Mayotte's troops. Unfortunately, you will still have to use the destroyer on Seychelles so keep trading with nations for oil.
Use the same tactics on 
Christmas Island and 
Timor-Leste. Now, that you've taken a significant amount of island nations, you're going to want to take some larger nations - specifically ones with square cities. 
Madagascar and 
Somalia are prime examples of these types of nations. Use a destroyer and AI luring to weaken and defeat their troops. For, Somalia, make sure to train some soldiers for Arid specialization.
Congratulations, now you have gone from a tiny island to a thriving maritime empire! You can continue to build up your military and take nations such as Bangladesh or 
Malaysia, further expanding your interests in Asia.
Threats
Maldives is relatively safe as it doesn't have resources and not in required of much formables, but there still some notable threats:
- Sri Lanka forming the
Kingdom of Kandy. - India,
Pakistan or Bangladesh being expansionist. - Any other expansionist nations in the region.
United Kingdom and 
Portugal wanted to form their empire.
