How to dominate in the early years of the game.

**Kewpur** · March 08, 2009, 06:04 PM

I'm playing as russia and im teaching myself many strategies to help myself be successful. These tips are for people who are struggling in the early game.

1)First few turns you must build up all your farms.

2)Then build up your infrastructure. Also build up any trading posts/mines

3)Start researching the land military technology (make your way to the rank fire). Also start researching any other technology besides Cannon and Navy tech. Try researching things that will increase wealth and just give you more money

4)Make armies of line infantry. Don't get any of the beginning cannons (unless you need to seige a lot). Maybe get a few groups of horses. But make your armies mainly comprised of line infantry.

5)Start trying to trade with factions. If you can, try and trade with factions whose climate is much different. For example. If you're russia, try and trade with India. They don't have the same resources as you and will probably give you more money.

6)Only start wars/continue wars with factions you know you can defeat easily. For example: try not to wage war against the ottoman empire or russia because they have huge amounts of territory already. Good targets would be weak minor factions.

-Once you get rank fire, you will dominate enemy armies because if you get it first the enemies will be no match.

-Don't try to blitzkrieg through all the factions at first. Try to build up your economy.

From Toorima:

-Before starting a war or after being dragged into a war, set yourself limit goals. The best thing is to concentrate all available troops on one hostile province, take that province and then negotiate a peace treaty. A decisive defeat will make your enemy come to agreeable terms quicker. You should always stick to limit ambitions for protracted war really makes your treasury drain off.

From Homeros:

1. Disband your armies in all provinces if you are at peace, only keep one or two units to help public order.

2. Trade is the way to make money. Build merchantships asap and send them to the different tradingspots (Ivory coast, Brazil etc.) and occupy at least one of them (more is better). Sign trade agreements with all factions that are connected to your empire by roads. Also, and more importantly, sign trade agreements with factions overseas. But be aware, only the port (must be a trading/commercial port) at your capitol can export/import goods. And those tradelanes are limmited to 2 or 3 at the start of the game.
The best factions to trade with are the large/powerful ones so chose them wisely. Don't be scared to offer them some money if they don't accept the deal, 1000 or 2000 will do. In a couple of turns you have made far more money by trading with them, so it's a good investment.

3. Build schools. You can transform almost every town into a school and every school is a research centre, so if you have two schools you can research two techs at the same time. Remember that schools cause unrest in the region, so only build one per region.

4. Research philosophy at the start of the game. It will boost research (+5%, +10% etc) so in the long run it will pay off. It also provides upgrades to your schools so research is boosted even more. Move your gentlemen in the schools to speed up research.
I recommend to use one school for philosophy and the other(s) to improve your farms and military capabilities.

5. You will be making good money this way and you will need it later on. So don't build a large standing army, they have huge upkeepcosts. You can recruit a fullstack army in only 2-3 turns in a single province, so only do so when you go to war. Make sure you have a large reserve in your treasury before going to war. War will disrupt tradelanes and they are the moneymakers, so if you don't rule the seas, be careful.

6. Try to fight short wars, just take one or two provinces and then try to make peace. Diplomacy is useful in Empire TW. Afterwards you can disband a large part of your army and make money to start a new war later on.

**Aldgarkalaughskel** · March 08, 2009, 06:39 PM

Nice one, although it could be a wee bit longer. +rep Keep browsing the forums and if you find any useful information, please update your post. I added this thread to my stickied guide library btw.
Actually, I just try to steal technologies from the other nations in the early game. Send your gentlemen to foreign schools / unis, as early technologies have a better chance to be stolen.

**Toorima** · March 08, 2009, 08:25 PM

Let yourself be inspired by the cabinet wars!

Before starting a war or after being dragged into a war, set yourself limit goals. The best thing is to concentrate all available troops on one hostile province, take that province and then negotiate a peace treaty. A decisive defeat will make your enemy come to agreeable terms quicker. You should always stick to limit ambitions for protracted war really makes your treasury drain off.

**Homeros** · March 09, 2009, 06:53 AM

1. Disband your armies in all provinces if you are at peace, only keep one or two units to help public order.

2. Trade is the way to make money. Build merchantships asap and send them to the different tradingspots (Ivory coast, Brazil etc.) and occupy at least one of them (more is better). Sign trade agreements with all factions that are connected to your empire by roads. Also, and more importantly, sign trade agreements with factions overseas. But be aware, only the port (must be a trading/commercial port) at your capitol can export/import goods. And those tradelanes are limmited to 2 or 3 at the start of the game.
The best factions to trade with are the large/powerful ones so chose them wisely. Don't be scared to offer them some money if they don't accept the deal, 1000 or 2000 will do. In a couple of turns you have made far more money by trading with them, so it's a good investment.

3. Build schools. You can transform almost every town into a school and every school is a research centre, so if you have two schools you can research two techs at the same time. Remember that schools cause unrest in the region, so only build one per region.

4. Research philosophy at the start of the game. It will boost research (+5%, +10% etc) so in the long run it will pay off. It also provides upgrades to your schools so research is boosted even more. Move your gentlemen in the schools to speed up research.
I recommend to use one school for philosophy and the other(s) to improve your farms and military capabilities.

5. You will be making good money this way and you will need it later on. So don't build a large standing army, they have huge upkeepcosts. You can recruit a fullstack army in only 2-3 turns in a single province, so only do so when you go to war. Make sure you have a large reserve in your treasury before going to war. War will disrupt tradelanes and they are the moneymakers, so if you don't rule the seas, be careful.

6. Try to fight short wars, just take one or two provinces and then try to make peace. Diplomacy is useful in Empire TW. Afterwards you can disband a large part of your army and make money to start a new war later on.

**Kewpur** · March 12, 2009, 07:20 PM

Okay I updated it. I will add most useful tips that have not already been mentioned!

**jazz_chow** · March 31, 2009, 05:15 AM

"You can recruit a fullstack army in only 2-3 turns in a single province, so only do so when you go to war."

does each unit take one turn to recruit? Is it true that creating a full stack takes at least 15 or more turns? please correct me if my logic is wrong.

**Frederf** · March 31, 2009, 05:43 AM

The more advanced buildings allow you to build 2 and even 3 units in parallel so with 3 slots and 3 turns you can build 9 1-turn units.

**Homeros** · March 31, 2009, 08:05 AM

Your capital has (if you upgrade barracks & government building) 5 or 6 recruitment slots, so creating an army of 10 units (2 turns), 15 (3 turns) etc.

**Keepbro** · March 31, 2009, 08:17 AM

With the exception of researching tech Kewpur early game start technique is similar to every early start technique in every Total War game that has come before. It seems that Money,money and yet more money is the key to winning at any Total War game which is not always realistic.

Yes people will point out that the best Armies in history have been ones that have big money behind them, it seems that there hasn't been any method for computer simulating martial ardour, balls or a general appetite for warfare. Look at the Mongols - did they have banks or massive merchant class or rely on mercenaries - no. It just seems sad that some factions are inherently stronger than others because they can get more trade in game (British are WAY too powerful in this game and its easy to become all powerful with the Netherlands).

The most fun I've had playing empire has been with the Prussians (in fact most people seem to like playing as them) mainly because you have to pick a fight with most of Europe at one point or another.

Anyway sorry to belittle you Kewpur, for your early start technique is indeed the best strategy for getting a good start in Empire - I just wish it was a bit different thats all.