When to go for game level 3?

I wanted to go for game level 3 to be able to build some of the more advanced industries. But reaching 80 in defensive index is a bitch.

I can afford the cost of the weapons, but as far as I can see, the running defense cost would be around 25B per month per country. And since my average budget surplus of my countries is atm around 8B per month, it would be a heavy cash drain for a long time. Not least when the beginner bonus runs out (currently at 20B per month).

So what I wonder is, if I should forget about level 3 for years to come? Or how fast did you guys head for level 3? And which is the cheapest way to get index 80?

I had the same problem when I started. I changed the judging to Peaceful for my country, which doesn't need a defense requirement.

I was then able to disband all my military in my secured countries to help with funds whilst I establish myself, and...if you don't use military, you don't need the excess ammo in your stores, a great source of start up cash

Missle Interceptor Batteries (MIB's) seem to be the fastest,quickest and easiest way to reach 80.

If you have a country with 15M pop it shouldnt be to difficult to maintain an index of 80.

Problem is that it is an empire average. So I really need defensive index 80 in every country.

What happens if I go to pecaefull mode and get to level three and build level three stuff. Will I be able to go back to the warring path?

As far as I know you can.

But it really doesn't take alot to get 80 index. According to the documentation which isn't always 100% accurate, but is prolly close in this case is that it would take approximately 18,390 MIB's for a def of 80. Obviously if you have other weapons they would contribute as well and you wouldn't have to have that many. The docs say each MIB adds 0.00435 points. They use 5 llw and 2 mlm each. That's why if you have about 15M pop its not that difficult to get 80 index.

Right, but now I have 3 countries.

It means I need 3*18k. And with a price of about 30M for each, that's around 1,6T.

Maybe not much to you, but to a newbie it is.

Ah, but how much do you get as a reward for reaching level 3, huh?

Not so bad, is it.

I'm not going to trade any Gc for money. Simply because I can see how large parts of the game that is unreachable without GC usage.

So the GC reward doesn't count towards the lvl 3 cost as far as I'm concerned.