Vicky... oh, Vicky... so many hours spend on that biatch...

lol, whatever. here are some tips:

- beware of the addiction. This game is extremely complicated (you'll need plenty of time to learn the basics and much, much more to actually master it) but when you get the hang of it, it's extremely addictive. Can suck up loads of your social/family/professional life time before you even know it

- After you understood that, go over at paradoxplaza.com. They got heaps of good reading material (scattered in many forum topics, of course) and you can get a good idea of how to proceed.

- Pick a country that is easy to play (but not necessarily to win) with. I'd recommend Belgium or Sweden. Stay away from UK, Russia, US, Prussia in the beginning - far too complicated - and stay away from minors as to survive and thrive with them takes more than beginners skill.

- Try to stake claims in Africa (fairly easy access for Belgium) and the pacific (fairly profitable later on)

- Go for machine parts tech asap - you need it. If you play with Belgium, the industrial potential is very, very good, but you'll need to act fast and try to get a lead.

- Your first war (after the initial confrontation) should be against Holland (again). A general note about wars: Alliances, alliances, alliances. Being allied to the UK, maybe France and Prussia when facing Holland as Belgium, renders you completely invulnerable, no matter what alliances they got.

- Try to learn the basic game mechanics by fiddling around a lot. You may sink your country in the first game, but later you'll manage to bring them to glory.

- The most interesting countries to play with (for my playing style, at least) are Prussia, Italy (those two have the best "unification events") Japan (good potential, if you can industrialize soon - veeeery slow start though) China (a backwards giant becoming #1 is quite a challenge) Russia (huge potential, humangous problems at start, very difficult to cope with and gaining a tech lead is very challenging with Russia).