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Thread: Best Way To Start Out?

  1. #1

    Default Best Way To Start Out?

    I'm new and just started. Im playing through the Road To Independence campaigns to figure out the ropes and learn what to do, but during a Grand Campaign, I get overwhelmed with how many factions there are and I often wonder what I'm doing, what I SHOULD be doing, what cities should be doing what, what to build, where to conquer, how to find trade routes, etc. All in all, I'm a mess when in Grand Campaign. Doing fine in Road to Independence though...

    Any suggestions?

  2. #2

    Default Re: Best Way To Start Out?

    push the LISTS button on the bottom right and go to the tab that shows your regions. that's an easy way to see how each of them is doing and to cycle between them.

    the tax option works for a whole theather (europe, india, america) and not each individual city like the old games. open the tax policy page and adjust the taxes in each theater so that all your regions are at least in yellow. it's best to have cheap lower class taxes at first to boost population growth. you can usually keep upper class taxes pretty high, just make sure none of the towns show less than 0 for upper or lower class happiness.

    you want to build farms and get the early farm related technology. in just a couple turns, the population in all your towns should be increasing.

    after farms, you want to load up on all buildings that add money to your regions, then updgrade all the trade buildings.

    do what the advisor told you when you started the campaign. the best idea, usually, is to capture the 1 or 2 small nations that are usually next to you. try to avoid starting any wars with big nations.

    for a beginner i would suggest using nation that is only in one theater like austria or prussia or russia. those nations dont have to deal with navy so much at first. makes things easier.

    dont make a huge standing army cuz they cost a lot of upkeep.

    before ending each turn, cycle through the LISTS page and do something with all your agents, check where you armies are, see how each city is doing, etc.

    if a city is in bad shape you can click 'disable taxes for this region' and that will almost always make it happy. you wont make as much money next turn, but it will give you time to make the buildings you need to fix it.

    if a city is losing population, build farms or lower taxes. if a city is losing income, add trade buildings. if a city is gaining both, but is still unhappy: either lower taxes, add public order buildings, add militia, etc.

    at first a lot of towns will say they are losing like -8 income per turn. this is okay if the population is growing steadily because you will make that money up with taxes, and as the city grows you will be able to add better trade buildings. loss of population is the big problem cuz that will only hurt you so make sure pop is always growing.

    open negotiations and try to get trade going with major nations that are distant from you.

    there is a button on bottom right that will show faction overview and show how much money you will make, how much is spent on army, etc.

    you should be making at least like 5k per turn with most nations early game, maybe a little less when building an army to attack. try to balance taxes/happiness,etc so that you are making at least that much. always upgrade buildings that add income when you can.
    Last edited by pulpnonfiction; March 07, 2009 at 12:12 AM.

  3. #3

    Default Re: Best Way To Start Out?

    How do you ADD buildings? As far as I knew, buildings were automatically added. Like, how do u add farms and buildings that bring in income?

    Thanks for such a long reply

  4. #4

    Default Re: Best Way To Start Out?

    well first you have the main town in each region which is called the REGION CAPITAL. you can build a few buildings here like a management building, barracks, some public order builds and a few otehrs. just click the capital, then mouse over the options at the bottom of the screen. each option shows a little clock with a timer that indicates # of turns it takes to make it. if the clock is green, you can upgrade it. if the clock is that faded redish color, it means you have to wait that # of turns before it will be available. it may also show a small picture of a technology you need to researchin order to get it.

    the farm and trade buildings are located outside of the region capital, but still in that region. just scroll around each region and you should see little farms, mines, ports, small towns, etc. if the building has a spinning gold icon over it (these are over capitals too), it means you can add something to it. just click the buliding, and then mouse over and pick one of the available options it shows on the little display. (there is usually just once choice for farm and trade buildings. there are multiple choices for towns and ports.)

    if there is no spinning icon over it, then you cant currently build anything. you can still select it and see a picture of what will be available and in how many turns.

    it's kinda hard to explain, but pretty easy once you figure it out.

    You can also cycle through each available capital, town,farm, port, etc that you have via this cycler on the middle toolbar. use this to make sure you dont pass any over.

  5. #5

    Default Re: Best Way To Start Out?

    Quote Originally Posted by pulpnonfiction View Post
    well first you have the main town in each region which is called the REGION CAPITAL. you can build a few buildings here like a management building, barracks, some public order builds and a few otehrs. just click the capital, then mouse over the options at the bottom of the screen. each option shows a little clock with a timer that indicates # of turns it takes to make it. if the clock is green, you can upgrade it. if the clock is that faded redish color, it means you have to wait that # of turns before it will be available. it may also show a small picture of a technology you need to researchin order to get it.

    the farm and trade buildings are located outside of the region capital, but still in that region. just scroll around each region and you should see little farms, mines, ports, small towns, etc. if the building has a spinning gold icon over it (these are over capitals too), it means you can add something to it. just click the buliding, and then mouse over and pick one of the available options it shows on the little display. (there is usually just once choice for farm and trade buildings. there are multiple choices for towns and ports.)

    if there is no spinning icon over it, then you cant currently build anything. you can still select it and see a picture of what will be available and in how many turns.

    it's kinda hard to explain, but pretty easy once you figure it out.

    You can also cycle through each available capital, town,farm, port, etc that you have via this cycler on the middle toolbar. use this to make sure you dont pass any over.
    Ahhh, gatcha! Thank you! So you can't build any other farms or mines other than what is given to you at the start?

  6. #6

    Default Re: Best Way To Start Out?

    also there is an option that makes taxes and construction automatic. if you have this enabled then dont need to do any of that except worry about fighting. it's a lot more fun to manage it yourself though.

  7. #7

    Default Re: Best Way To Start Out?

    oh, no. they spawn automatically and you just upgrade them. you cant actually add a farm to a spot on the map. you just click the farm, port, or town, etc that pops up and upgrade it. more will show up over time and it will usually notify you.

  8. #8

    Default Re: Best Way To Start Out?

    Quote Originally Posted by pulpnonfiction View Post
    oh, no. they spawn automatically and you just upgrade them. you cant actually add a farm to a spot on the map. you just click the farm, port, or town, etc that pops up and upgrade it.
    Yeah I knew about that and yeah, playing through the road to independence campaigns, it is a lot more fun to manage it myself. Ive gotten better at keeping my income in the green and making cities happy.

  9. #9

    Default Re: Best Way To Start Out?

    Quote Originally Posted by xxmaelstrom View Post
    Yeah I knew about that and yeah, playing through the road to independence campaigns, it is a lot more fun to manage it myself. Ive gotten better at keeping my income in the green and making cities happy.

    basically the thing you should always do each turn is use the LISTS button and just cycle through everything under each tab and make sure it's all in order. and before you end each turn, click that main faction page and see how much your projected income for next turn is. that's usually how you decide what you need to do with taxes.


    also, in case you didnt know:

    -put gentlemen in the towns where your schools, colleges, etc are located to get the bonus they offer, it makes research faster.

    -gentlemen can go to other nations' schools and steal their technology

    -send priests to regions you have, or regions you want to capture that have opposing religion and they will convert people simply by being in the region. this helps in a lot of ways, mainly with happiness though.

    -you can disband some of your armies if you arent using them to save money. it's often cheaper to rebuild them when needed than pay huge upkeep for a lot of turns.

    -build an inidan tradesman boat with a few ship escort to the trade theaters and place him on an anchor and he will make you tons of cash.

    -green dotted lines show you trade routes, if they are red, then someone is blocking them and you need to go clear it up in order to make money.

  10. #10

    Default Re: Best Way To Start Out?

    Quote Originally Posted by pulpnonfiction View Post
    basically the thing you should always do each turn is use the LISTS button and just cycle through everything under each tab and make sure it's all in order. and before you end each turn, click that main faction page and see how much your projected income for next turn is. that's usually how you decide what you need to do with taxes.


    also, in case you didnt know:

    -put gentlemen in the towns where your schools, colleges, etc are located to get the bonus they offer, it makes research faster.

    -gentlemen can go to other nations' schools and steal their technology

    -send priests to regions you have, or regions you want to capture that have opposing religion and they will convert people simply by being in the region. this helps in a lot of ways, mainly with happiness though.

    -you can disband some of your armies if you arent using them to save money. it's often cheaper to rebuild them when needed than pay huge upkeep for a lot of turns.

    -build an inidan tradesman boat with a few ship escort to the trade theaters and place him on an anchor and he will make you tons of cash.

    -green dotted lines show you trade routes, if they are red, then someone is blocking them and you need to go clear it up in order to make money.
    Aye aye! Will do! I realllyyy wish I could run it better though. I can only run it on Low settings . High and Very High aren't even options

  11. #11
    Jayzilla's Avatar Centenarius
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    Default Re: Best Way To Start Out?

    meh, i started with th polish grand campaign. Its in the 1740's now

  12. #12

    Default Re: Best Way To Start Out?

    very good guide!

    One thing I just learn that is way more useful now is forts!

    They have a yellow circle around them, so If any enemies get on the circle a fight will start right away.

    So I`m now using much more forts to protect against raiders and also against nations I need defense.

    I`m just finding them much more useful.



  13. #13

    Default Re: Best Way To Start Out?

    Here's a couple things I've learned playing as the Swedens and also as Russia.

    1. In a monarchy, make sure you appoint good officials/ministers. Check back once in a while to make sure that you don't have a new guy who is better or if existing guys got new traits/ancillaries that make them better at a different position. These passive bonuses can make a huge difference.

    2. Upgrade your farms (or you most prevalent industries) first.

    3. Develop your intrastructure, roads keep your armies moving quickly.

    4. Use your generals early on to kill off enemy (minor faction) single unit armies. They will result in high quality victories and give you some nice traits and ancillaries from the start.

    5. Specialize your schools. I have 3 schools, all with a few gents in there. Each one specializes in 1 type of tech. Try locating these in new towns were you have good morale/happiness. It buffers the negative effects.

    6. State gifts of china (2500 gold) does wonders for diplomacy.

    7. If you are going to start a war with someone. Start your turn by first trade them a territory for money and techs. Then just take it back with an immediate assault. It's kinda cheap, but works well. (did this to Prussia twice. Give them Courland and East Prussia for 4 techs and a bunch of cash. Took them both back in 2 turns).

    8. After a slew of successful battles, try establishing a peace treaty with some monetary demands from your opponent. It gives you the cash you need to resupply the army and takes the pressure off you. Doesn't always work, but it's worth a try. Works particularly well if you dominated his army and yours is still on his door step.

    9. Tread carefully when deciding who to attack. Lots of factions are allied up or protected. Try and ally with the ally of your next target. They will either join your (if you are more powerful) or abstain from the fight. Both of which are good.

    10. Trade, trade, trade.

  14. #14

    Default Re: Best Way To Start Out?

    Quote Originally Posted by xxmaelstrom View Post
    Ahhh, gatcha! Thank you! So you can't build any other farms or mines other than what is given to you at the start?
    To me this is one of the biggest annoyance with ETW, B4 I had one place per region to look, now I have to roam all over each region.. who has what etc. PIA.... thanskfor the tip re gold spinnnig thingy!!!

  15. #15
    Foederatus
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    Default Re: Best Way To Start Out?

    old thread = good thread!

    This helps a lot with my own newb days with ETW

  16. #16

    Default Re: Best Way To Start Out?

    I start an easy GB campaign and after playing, I realised that I should have less enemies, unless they are really weak, or there is a strategical reason for attacking him. I aim at the Americas and on to India, avoiding the huge battles in Europe. Its going on really easy. I don't know about you, but I make a stack at the start of the game(which makes me nearly bankrupt) and then attack some natives before I have to disband my armies. And, befriend those who love trade and helping but don't do so to those who hate you to the core, s they they like that for a long, long time.
    What the hell happened to this WORLD?

  17. #17

    Default Re: Best Way To Start Out?

    Coming back a year later and reading this when I can play on high settings, this is a great guide for people starting out. Thanks for all the tips!

    "All the world's a stage,
    And all the men and women merely players" --Shakespeare

  18. #18

    Default Re: Best Way To Start Out?

    Quote Originally Posted by british_general View Post
    I start an easy GB campaign.
    MWAHAHAHAHA!!! The Brits bow before my legions of Frrrrrench line infantry with their outrrrrrrrrageous accents!!!

    I tried a GB campaign... Went bankrupt in 20 turns...

  19. #19

    Default Re: Best Way To Start Out?

    start as great britan on easy. that is what i did when i got the game. as you get better u can play as other factions on harder levels.

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