Some things I've learned
I haven't made all that much progress at learning the game (like everyone else, too busy playing entomologist). But I have learned a few things:
- The early game, for naval powers, is a race to the trade spots. You have to spend the first few years spamming trade fleets and sending them right to the 4 zones. You can't get them all, every zone has at least one of Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch, or Indian traders already there, but you can get quite a few. Trade earns more $$$ than local industry, and money makes the world go 'round.
- You can add several trade fleets (in the same stack) on a trade spot, and earn more from each. It's a diminishing return, however, so 3-4 per spot seems to be it.
- Keep a battle-worthy fleet near each zone, though. When wars break out, your opponent loves to park on the trade link leading from the adjacent zone and choke off your income. (Of course, you can do the same to them!
)
- Check your ministers. At least one starts with, or acquires, negative modifiers. Boot 'em!
- At the start, make as many alliances and trade agreements as you can. Update as needed. When an ally goes to war, at least you get the choice about whether to get involved. Plus, you learn about who's fighting whom.
- Winning the tech race: whether through growth or conquest, try to develop more Schools in towns (even if you have to demolish a few Pleasure Palaces to do it
). You can have more than one active line of research in the Tech Tree. Obviously, a University with 3-4 Gentlemen (adding more than that doesn't seem to help much, diminishing returns again) stacked in it can research the advanced techs more quickly than a little School, but the issue is opportunity cost: finishing 4 techs sooner, in parallel, gets you much further ahead than finishing them serially.
- Pay attention to the interplay of key buildings and the Tech Tree. Remember to build the next level of metal working or weaver to unlock the next level of industrial research in time.
- Spies ("Rakes") do gain experience and skill with successful missions, but it's much slower than previously.
- Detached Sloops are very handy. They go faster/further than the other types, so they make great advance scouts and troop taxis. In the latter role, though, don't leave them unprotected. Have a "heavy" battle fleet, commanded by an Admiral, nearby.
- "Nearby" means either stacked with, or within that fleet's Red ZOC, so it can participate in any battle the opposition provokes.
- It's faster to sail your fleet into an unoccupied enemy port and unload troops there: they can move the same turn (unlike the beach landing, where they're done for the turn). It ain't 1940 Blitzkrieg, but it gets the siege started that much sooner.
- Conversely, remember to garrison your own ports when there are enemy fleets around. Prevents them pulling the same tactic on you.
- Military campaigns take patience, and pacing (which is appropriate for this time period, and much more "realistic" than previous versions). Immediately after capturing a region, there's unrest (Letter of Demand, Worker Strike). Left unchecked, these develop into full-blown Rebellions, especially in regions with 100% dissimilar Religion. So, you have to stay put for at least one turn (or go back and fight the rebels) before advancing onto the next one. You have to repair things, anyway, and it's also a good time to use the little '+' widget to replenish your units (expensive, but quicker than shipping in whole new units from home).
- I haven't had the luxury of being able to attack a bunch of regions simultaneously, to end a war quickly. Typically, there's at least one active war in each Theater, and just enough fleets and armies for each. Theaters are too far apart for even fleets to offer mutual support. So, each war turns into sequential region conquests. Also, start sending reinforcements early, because they'll take a few turns to arrive, to sustain the drive.
- Go over each Town, Port, and improvement in a newly-conquered region. Sometimes, you'll want to tear down and replace it with something that better fits your overall strategy (such as converting a Shipyard to a Trading port, if you've already got a good Shipyard near enough in that Theater).
One last note: I've learned that this site is a better one than twcenter.net. The latter is strictly for n00bs and fanboys -- the moderators take their jobs as Thought Police gestapo waay too seriously, deleting and moving posts with great enthusiasm. Any substantive criticism is deleted. Any references to them deleting posts is deleted. Only posts adhering strictly to the Party line survive. Cleverly, however, they also leave posts complaining about unimportant details, like wrong color uniforms or overlooking some obscure person from history. It leaves the impression (to the uninformed, like fanzine editors or E3 award voters) that the game is great and only clueless whiners have any problems with it. If you want the truth, read here.
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Re: Some things I've learned
Originally Posted by hooahguy
- Horseman of the 
Re: Some things I've learned
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