Help for a GB Campaign

[Leptomeninges]

Hello Folks,

I've been poking around through the Total War library a bit after enjoying Shogun2. I've had fun with Napoleon but am a little intimidated by Empire after reading many mixed reviews. It also sounds like balance has changed a lot over the months and years which makes me uncertain what kinds of advice are still relevant.

I'm thinking about playing a game as Great Britain. I know they're an "easy" faciton, but I'll crank up the difficulty to VH to compensate. I have a few questions!

1. Do people still agree regarding the importance of monopolizing trade nodes? I've read different things and some suggestions that you should ignore them altogether.

2. Do I understand that regardless of how one completes the "13 colony mission" that the "USA" emerges and wrests them from your control at some point?

3. I've read different things about the importance of infrastructure improvements. Some people suggest that they rarely pay off in the game's time scope. Any tips on smart moves to build the economy?

4. Just generally any other wisdom on a GB campaign would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

[Fisherking]

Easy is a subjective term and you are right about all of the rebalance.

Trade is still important, though.

Infrastructure is important for troop movements as well as money you know.

If you crank the difficulty up too far too fast you are going to be frustrated with the play. Stick to normal on your first try. The harder difficulties also mess with the diplomacy, a lot!

Usually the emergence of the 13 Colonies is brought about by one of the tribes capturing a region and when it rebels it does so as the American faction.

In North America you need to build up in Rupert’s Land and take out the Pirates as soon as you can.

In Europe, unlike many, I like to hold on to Gibraltar by building up there also.

Unrealistically trading away regions you have to recapture later is not my style.

You have to balance Army & Navy to win in the end.

Build up your farms early. Work to grow your population, keeping taxes moderate to low. Build schools for your tech research. The rest of the campaign will develop naturally.

[Leptomeninges]

Thanks for the reply!

Just started my game. I want to lower taxes to increase population growth which I've heard is a good idea. What's the difference between lowering tax rates on the lower class versus the nobility?

[Fisherking]

The upper class grows wealth and the lower class grows population.

I will tell you what works for me. I usually leave the taxes set as they are but I exempt the regions from taxes that I want to grow quickly.

It has a more significant effect than lowering taxes on growth and you can usually do without the money from that region for a few turns. You not only grow the population in that way but also the wealth.

Rupert’s Land is the place to start. You will have a town there in short order, and I recommend you build a school to advance your techs. Also improve the Barracks to get troops there quickly. You will be fighting Indians and French in no time.

[Leptomeninges]

Hey, thanks for the tips. I'm about twenty odd turns in to my game (Normal/Normal at your suggestion). A few additional questions and general feedback requests:

I apprecite your advice on exempting regions. What about getting Liverpool to pop? Do you think it's worthwhile prioritizing that? I was able to pick up a couple additional trade agreements when it came online and now have trade agreements with all the big players but France and possibly Poland.

Speaking of which, is there a list anywhere of which provinces have the potential to pop additional cities or ports?

I read somewhere not to build schools in the U.S. as it would be difficult to control the unrest/unhappiness. Right now I'm doing two schools back in my starting province in England (burned down the church) and seem to be way ahead in the tech race. I tech traded pretty aggressively early in the game and was able to steal one tech although I've had a ton of failures and am uncertain if stealing is really a good use of Gentlemen. But I'm getting sidetracked. My question is really if the school in Moose Factory causes problems? I had read somewhere to put churches through the colonies and that was my starting plan although I'll probably only finish the mission by winning Quebec in the next turn and haven't had to cross that bridge yet.

I threw out Indiamen to all the trade zones in my first turns and was generally pretty successful. I have 4/5 of the nodes off Africa and the Far east area. I think I have 3/5 off Madagascar and 2/5 off Brazil. Is Indiaman spam the best way? Do you send faster-building brigs or something earlier to hold the spots?

Speaking of trade nodes, the lack of tooltips confuses me a bit. How do I know which resource each node produces? Do multiple ships continue to have an added benefit on the same node? Is there a benefit to owning all the nodes in a trade theater? Do the trade theaters produce goods of equal value?

When I engaged France in the New World, I stayed out of war with Spain by declaring war on the Italian States which brought me into war with France and Venice but not Spain with whom I have a trade agreement. Right now I'm really happy with that decision as I think it would be difficult to fight two major powers at once.

Also, are there any alliances you prioritize? It seems like every few turns some alliance is threatening to pull me into continental war. So far I've been declining to enter war and breaking the alliances, but do you think there are some alliances worth preserving?

I also made peace with Barbary and got around 5000 in the deal. Really happy with that as I no longer have to pratrol those sea lanes and I got a big chunk of cash to sink into my infrastructure.

Planning to follow a fairly historic path by developiong North America and possibly a bit of the Carribean and then India. Right now I'm thinking that I may leave some of the remote indian tribes alone in North America as the provinces look poor. I'll probably stay out of the European Continent except for possibly going after Gibraltar at some point.

Any tips are welcome!

[Fisherking]

There are many different ways to play this game. Some of the advice is pertinent to one style but not necessarily all of them.

Building a school in Rupert’s Land is unlikely to result in unmanageable unrest.

England has so many farms that you hardly need to worry about exempting them.

On the tax tab of each region it will tell you what town is developing and how long it will take at the current rates.

Chances are you will end up with a Gentleman or two in North America, schools or no schools so if you have a place for them to go it is all for the better.

In ETW all of the trade nodes in a given trade area are the same. Both the areas off of Africa have Ivory. South America has Sugar and the East Indies has spices. Other than that you have plantations or trading posts in other regions, as I am sure you have seen.

You can put any number of ships in a fleet on the trade nodes with ever diminishing returns. I think it was decided that 13 trade ships still pay for themselves but more are rather wasted. You need a few warships with them anyway.

Alliances work much better in NTW than in ETW. In Empire they may be more of a hindrance than a help. Chances are you will end up with very few friends anyway and making alliances just gets you into wars.

Just wait until Sweden, Prussia, or Poland declares war on the 13 Colonies.

If you only worry about your required regions in North America it will be fine. The more developed areas are better. South America and the Caribbean are also good once you are at war with Spain.

Larger trade partners are better than small ones. Russia may be the best for you but they can be difficult at times.

Morocco makes a good staging area vs. Spain and has ports near the trade areas.

If you are good at naval battles you can make a lot of money catching pirate fleets and selling off the ships.

You may want to blockade and capture their islands fairly early on, however.

Trade techs with anyone you can. You can usually stay a head of the race after you get your schools up and running. You only get 6 Gentlemen now and not the 12 you once got in the earlier versions of the game.

I don’t know if there was ever a table done of all regions and the towns they develop. You would have to do a bit of searching.

I hope that answers most of you questions. I hope it helps.

[Leptomeninges]

Thanks so much for your answers. It's appreciated. Unfortunately, work is killing me and I won't be home until late tonight, but I'm looking forward to playing a few more turns when I do finally get out of here!