Tips please

[Emperor Basil]

I only got Empire the other day and so far I've played a few campaigns and keep getting whipped or at least struggling at every turn. This is great and everything because I like a challenge but I'm wondering if maybe I've missed something? I've never had any problems on Rome or Medieval fighting and winning against the odds but on Empire it isn't coming as easily. Possibly I don't understand early modern warefare like I do medieval.

Problems I have:

- How to best fight a naval battle?

- Tips in land battles. I think I'm getting the hang of this one though: I put my musketeers in a long line and fire!

- How to make money? I send trade fleets out but even with protection these often get detroyed. I conquer lands but these drain my money and resources. I make trade agreements but these often break. I'm normally at war on about three fronts and I attack trade routes and block trade ports but this doesn't seem to affect the enemy but one year of blocking one of my trade ports bankrupts me. This is the biggy because war is basically money.

[P|A|ntZ]

Hey Basil,

There are some very well written guides and articles in the game play section: http://www.twcenter.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=1078

Have a read through the index of guides for ones that appeal to you. There are guides on naval tactics, building your economy, and many many others.

Cheers,

P|A|ntZ

[Emperor Basil]

Cheers

[♔ brucedickenson♔]

Welcome to the game

[morteduzionism]

Problems I have:

- How to best fight a naval battle?

Practice maneuvering the ships...different ships have different speeds/handling

Once you've really got a hang of how the ships operate you should be able to maneuver well enough, in a battle, to allow yourself to get into position to fire on the enemy before he can fire on you (especially if you have 500-range ships vs. 400-range)

NOTE: a ships strength/firepower is on its' sides not the front

- Tips in land battles. I think I'm getting the hang of this one though: I put my musketeers in a long line and fire!

-use cavalry to counter cavalry
-DO NOT attack men in a square with your cavalry
-use "Line Infantry," when possible, over other forms of infantry
-use cavalry to neutralize gun crews
-DO NOT use lines (infantry) too thin, a cavalry charge will cut right through them

- How to make money?

There're really two means of making money, as I see it, trade and industry.

Your type of government should influence which method you use. An absolute monarchy might want to avoid developing too much industry too fast.

Another factor to consider is long term growth vs. short term needs. Higher taxes may give you windfalls in the short term, however over the long term it will do more harm than good.

I send trade fleets out but even with protection these often get detroyed.

You may want, if you don't feel like waiting, to clear that theatre out first with a bigger fleet than the one there...

If not, be cautious and sneak around a theatre (don't get intercepted!) and find an open node to quietly acquire goods.

If you don't mind waiting, wait until you have better ships to protect your merchants.

I conquer lands but these drain my money and resources.

Really? How?

Having multiple standing armies and large garrisons will eat your treasury up. For the most part most regions can be left ungarrisoned...try to find the force complement you can afford. It might be one standing army and garrisons in x, y and/or z

Try to keep your "army upkeep" below the amount you bring in from taxes. Use the monies from trade to finance your navy.

I make trade agreements but these often break.

Try to make/maintain trade agreements with major nations you're unlikely to go to war with.

The income from long-term trade partners increases as time passes and eases relationships between partners. A hostile nation you get a deal with, if kept long enough, will become "friendly" as time passes.

I'm normally at war on about three fronts and I attack trade routes and block trade ports but this doesn't seem to affect the enemy but one year of blocking one of my trade ports bankrupts me. This is the biggy because war is basically money.

Get a navy that's at least strong enough to keep your ports open. I don't know which faction you're playing as but as Spain I can generally keep my ports open with a single brig...

Also, try to get peace treaties and reduce your enemies. Pay, beg and/or whine for the actors to sign peace treaties and get trade deals where you can...

NOTE: raiding trade routes doesn't give you that much money...but as you already see blockading a port seriously hurts a nation. Depending on who you're at war with...if you can't blockade their port (no navy) try to get an infantry/cavalry/whatever unit to go sit in their port (you'll get ran off but...an example: the Dutch have a single territory with one large port...so all those commodities have to come into one port, I've seen the Dutch making 6000+ on one trade route, shut that port down you effectively reduce their trade income to 0 just like that)

Not all ports trade! Make sure you blockade trading ports and not shipyards or fishing ports!

[eXistenZ]

One tip: don't fly as a madman into war. The game is called total war, but total war is something you should avoid at all cost.

One of my tips: sell technologies to country's that will be destroyed soon (marocco, portugal, saxony, crim khaneate,...)

Don't train a buttload of troops where you don't need them, cause they are expensive in upkeep. But maybe most important, make sure your treasury minister isn't a moron.

You will get the hang of battles eventually. and like mentioned, there are a lot of guides in the scriptorium.

Have fun

[ODaly]

Another tip is to turn your enemies (and the occasional ally) into protectorates instead of wiping them out. It's usually pretty tricky, but the income is worth the hassle in the long run.

And as was mentioned earlier, trade nodes as well as plantations in Indian and Caribbean provinces (some of the richest territories in the world) can really boost your income from trade agreements. Think about capturing the two Pirate towns to bring in more cash and eliminate them from raiding your trade fleets. Two birds with one stone.

[Emperor Basil]

Thanks for all the tips guys. I'm starting to get the hang of it although I'm still not lording it over the AI like in previous games but that's a good thing in my book.

[War&Politics]

The ETW economy is quite complex. As pointed out above the two main ways of making money are trade or industry.

Trade: In order to make money from trade you need two things- trade goods, and trade partners. Trade goods are goods such sugar, coffee, spices, ivory, furs, tea etc. You can get trade goods in one of two ways. First is to own an overseas colony (exception- furs can also be found in northern Europe) or second to send out a trade fleet to one of the trade theatres. I recommend the African theatres because it produces Ivory which has a high price and can't be found anywhere else. Secondly you need trade partners. These partners will buy your goods which will earn you a profit. When it comes to trade the computer AI isn't stupid though, they will be unlikely to give you a trade deal if you will make much more money from it than they do. Best option is to get the deals early, or to hoard cash to offer them in return.

For trade to work you need to connect the trade good to your capital territory. With trade fleets a sea route will be established between the trade theatre and your capital's trade ports. With colonies you will need a trade port at both the colony and in your capital. Your capital is the hub for trade routes, trade will only go through your capital (or if you have no trade ports at your capital, through a nearby land connected territory). It's important to make sure your enemies and pirates are not blockading your ports, or raiding your routes. This can decrease or even eliminate all your trade income.

Industrialization is even more complicated. Industry profits are generated by towns where you build weavers or iron works. Raw materials such as wood, gold, gems etc. will also add to your region wealth, as well as farms. Your region wealth however is not the wealth you get in your pocket! The income you get is from tax. For example, you build a building that adds 1000 to region wealth. If your tax rate is at 33% you will get 333 gold in your treasury. To upgrade your region wealth you need to research technologies that increase town wealth or industrial profits. You also need to upgrade your buildings and farms. However, upgrading your territory too much will cause penalties- essentially your people are unhappy because of the industrial revolution your society is undergoing. Republics are better at managing happiness than Absolute Monarchies, so if you are an Absolute Monarchy you should consider encouraging a revolution, or holding off on industrialization.

Low taxes will also encourage faster town wealth, and population growth. So, low taxes for a few turns now may permanently increase your regions wealth in the future. A good strategy is to spend the first few years at peace. You can upgrade your territory, increase your trade, and lower your taxes. This will make the game much easier in the long term!

[magman]

A quick guide of things to do in your first turn to help you for the rest of the game
1. Clean out your cabinet: Read all of your minister's cards and rearrange them for the best set up. If you have in your "candidate pool" a bunch of useless twits, run them all through a position, before finally replacing them with the person you actually want to do your job. This may seem minor, but you can usually get a few extra happiness, 1-2% extra trade income, some repressions bonuses etc. by the proper arrangment of your cabinet.
2. Place you agents: Put you gentlemen in your schools (or your enemies) and your rakes in enemy territory. Send you religious agents into any friendly territory that needs a religious boost, or into an enemy territory that you want to conquer and which is of a different religion. A good use for a rake is as a saboteur. Usually sabotage is not particularly valuable. But if your enemy only has 1 commercial port, bombing that port prevents all trade income. Basically 1 agent can deprive a foe of thousands of income per turn! Do this early and keep doing it to a upstart neighbor, or a long time enemy to keep their economy weak.
3. Establish trade: Do anything necessary to get as many trade partners as possible. You should be trading with all of your land neighbors at least. Note that if they are small countries, they may want some money, but I find 500 does the trick and you will make that back in about 2 turns. You will probably have 2 sea trade routes open. Depending on who you are playing as, these should be dedicated to the largest economies that aren't so far as to make raiding by pirates and foes a constant issue (to get an idea of relative economic strength, look at the prestige graph (the trophy button) and mouse over the brownish(?) part. The bigger the number, the bigger the economy. Often, big economic powers will even pay a little bit of money for a trade route so try to ask for 500-750 along with the trade agreement.
4. Begin research: At this point you need to think ahead. Are you going to be a naval power or do you have enough territory to begin researching andvanced manfuacturing techniques? If you are a total monarchy, how far can you push your peasants before revolt? It is worth thinking ahead when choosing a path for research. Try to play to your strengths in order to give the greatest advantage as quickly as possible as at little cost as possible.
5. Clean out your towns: This is going to be controvertial, but I destroy all religious and happiness structures, replacing them with economic buildings or schools. At this point it shouldn't be too difficult to keep the population happy and thus, that building is taking up space. Similarly, religion doesn't play a particularly important part in this game, so bulldoze those seminaries! When building schools keep in mind that they can really mess with lower-order happiness, especially as they get upgraded, so think ahead and don't overdo the schools.
6. Clean out your Armed Forces: Look at all of your armed forces. Consider what you are going to be using them for (offensive land opperations? Patrolling searoutes? Garrisons?). Disband any units that you do not think you will be using. I personally tend to lean toward professional armies, so I will usually disband any militia or pikemen.
7. Build, Build, Build: Choose the buildings you want to develop in your major cities. Do not disregard your happiness buildings here, they don't take up space and if you get an observatory you can get extra gentlemen, which increase the rate of research. Remember not to neglect infrastructure (another tab in the region's capital menu)! Roads allow a smaller military force to guard a larger area, but also increase trade and are a great investment in the early game.
8. Raise troops: Often enemy attack because they perceive weakness. Now we all know that a human 1/2 stack can crush a full stack, but the CAI doesn't see it that way. Keeping too small a garisson in your city invites war as your neigbors see the opportunity for some quick gains. Counter intuitively, hiring troops is an essential step to preventing numerous wars. For some factions a navy is as if not more important than a land force. Trade ships are a great way to generate income (especially in the relatively safe east indies, or on the Cote D'Ivoire. Consider them, however, as very valuable and keep a strong protective force with them.
9 Place garrisons: A logical position for a garrision is the major regional city, right? Well, sometimes. But other times it is worth placing a few units in key strategic locations. Bridges offer a bottle neck where a smaller force can keep a foe out of your territory altogether and can save your region from economic hardship due to raiding. Placing a unit in a school makes agent detection easier and may prevent foreign gentlemen from entering to steal technologies. Placing a small garrison in a trade port prevents it from being destroyed by a foreign navy, although it can still be blockaded.
10 End turn: doing the previous nine steps has probably increased your income by 1000 per turn due to trade, has removed about 2-400 in upkeep costs on unnecessary troops, in a few turns will substantially increase regional wealth due to new construction. Additionally you have protected yourself, and stopped yourself from being viewed as a weak nation to be buldozed. Mission accomplished!

These steps are all necessary in the first turn but they revolve around a central idea that is essential throughout the game: pursue goals. If you want to be a naval power, it works against you to upkeep vast land armies. Think of what you want to do and optimize your economy and armed forces to that end. Don't worry about losing battles, that is how you learn. As long as you manage your economy well (and aren't playing on VH!) you should be able to sustain a few tactical defeats without experiencing a strategic loss. Good luck and welcome to empire!

[l33tl4m3r]

Moved to the Gameplay and Strategy forum.

Pm me with any questions.