Forming a Empire, where to start

[Martok]

Well I have chosen Africa as my spot, I h8 Indian & Indies locations as I h8 jungle warfare & I just personally h8 America. To answer a question b4, they said they'd be including the Ivory coast, which was known to have supplies of slaves & of course, Ivory among other goods.

I believe the Ivory Coast is simply another "trade theater" (like the East Indies) and cannot be conquered or colonized. I'll see if I can find the actual quote from CA, but I'm reasonably certain that's the case.

It would be nice to know if you could take control of the Suez & Panama canal in Egypt &
prevent other countries getting through without military access, going to war or they have
to pay a toll to pass through, I believe the latter was what the British control when they
were in puppet rule over Egypt, though my mind is always quite flimsy..

Actually, neither canal existed at any point during the time period covered by Empire. The Suez didn't open until the late 1850's, and the Panama wasn't finished until 1914 or 1915 (I forget which). So unfortunately that will not be a factor in ETW.

I found this picture on another forum, the map has North America but I also read an interesting
thing that some1 there has been told by CA that it is going to be a completely seperate
campaign from the rest that you have to unlock. That would be pretty but I find it
unlikely.

There's going to be a separate "Road to Independence" campaign (starting with the English founding colonies in North America and eventually leading to America's rebellion against Britain), but you don't have to unlock it. It will be playable from the beginning.