How do I get started?

[rwprice]

I'm just starting to learn this game, and I'm not sure where to begin. When I start a GC, I wind up just staring at the map, not knowing what to do first. Can anyone give me some first steps? Do I build more military units? I'm surrounded by other countries, so I don't think I want to go to war right away. I'd sure appreciate some pointers. Thanks.

[yin26]

First: What country are you?

In general, the first thing you should do as a new player is pause the game and click through the icons the left (the little tree, the pile of coins, the helmet, the shield, etc.). I remember being most confused at first look because the default view is showing the terrain conditions of all the provinces and NOT who owns them.

Anyway, if you are comfortable with the game mechanics, the first strategic thing to do is exactly what you have done: Decide if you want war or will have to fight one soon. Again, you can check the nations' relationships with you through the diplomacy icon. From here, it totally depends on the nation you picked:

Spain would start colonizing, for example.
England would start building an econ and stabalizing itself.

I'm no expert, but I'll give ya any help I can.

[Dale]

One quick tip I worked out late (der) is this:

Decide if your nation is a "coloniser" or not. This means, do you or will you have the ability to colonise America during the game. Logical "yes's" are Spain, Portugal, England and France. Logical "no's" are Turkey, Austria, Poland-Lith and Russia. Once you work that out, decide what you'll do with the nation. Try to follow history for the first few games.

Spain: colonise central/south America.
Portugal: colonise Africa/Asia.
France: colonise Canada.
England: colonise North America/Asia.
Russia: expand south to find the Siberian Corridor to colonise all the way to China.
Austria/Poland-Lith: take advantage of all the Central European turmoil and establish yourself there.
Turkey: establish a stronghold in the Middle-East/North Africa then prepare for the Muslim-Catholic wars in South Europe.

If you play a few games following history, you'll pick up things yourself. Hope this helps.

[Kyle]

Pause the game then look at your budgeting. You'll want to conentrate on your trade at first. Get to whatever level allows for monopolies. If you're landlocked, put the naval slider all the way to the left (zero from the budget, but other factors will still let it accumulate). After you're able to gain monopolies, split mostly between land military and being able to promote your Governors to Consul Generals, or whatever they're called (Infrastructure level 3 or 4 I think).


Also, promote your baliffs as it becomes possible. This will increase tax income.


If you're not confortable with the trade system, go into the Trade screen and set it to automatically place merchants. Beware though, it costs about 8 gold to place them. Later on you may want to take control of that when you enter a slow period.



Then start upgrading fortresses and building troops as needed. Also work on getting royal marriages and general improvements on you diplo relations. Some countries just aren't going to like you, so concentrate on the ones that are more likely to (ie, don't bother with the east Asian countries, or Muslim countries in the early game).