A few questions on the game---please help

[Japan]

I got the EU game a few days ago. I've been playing it non-stop and think it's the best game ever! Since the manual is a heaping pile of garbage, I have been forced here to come for answers. Please answer my questions if you can.
1) Whenever I make an alliance with a group of nations, the manual says that they are suppose to help me in war. However, whenever a country declares war on me (or vice-versa), they do nothing but sit there. Is this right? Am I doing something wrong? This really annoys me since basically its like I have no allies.
2)Someone please explain to me the whole idea of the merchants and the trade centers.
3)How do I delete saved games?
4)What options would you recommend for a new beginner?
5)How do I join an online game?! Is there some sort of website I go to to play against other people?

If you can answer any of these questions, thanx. Sorry if they're dumb, but as I said, I am new to this game.

 

[State Machine]

1) Whenever I make an alliance with a group of nations, the manual says that they are suppose to help me in war. However, whenever a country declares war on me (or vice-versa), they do nothing but sit there. Is this right? Am I doing something wrong? This really annoys me since basically its like I have no allies.
2)Someone please explain to me the whole idea of the merchants and the trade centers.
3)How do I delete saved games?
4)What options would you recommend for a new beginner?
5)How do I join an online game?! Is there some sort of website I go to to play against other people?

1) A lot of very useful messages in the game do not default to a popup. The messages you are missing (right now) are little "icons" on the upper right side of the screen. These message expire after a month or two. Go into Options (I think that is what it is called), then select message options. Change most of them to popups for now.
2) Just go into a CoT and put your traders on "autosend" for now. Once you are familiar with the rest of the game, search the forum for advice on how to use traders.
3) Use Windows explorer. The folder is (relative to your EU folder), \Scenarios\Save Games.
4) None that I can think of.
5) I haven't played online. Sorry.

The best advise is to read the sticky threads in this and other forums, and to ask questions here. Huszics has an excellent FAQ (one of the sticky threads) that answers many questions about the game. You will usually get very good answers from us. The game is too big to comprehend, so it will take a long time to really learn.

 

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You might like to read all the "stickies" in the FAQ Forum and follow any links from them.
There is a wealth of information there.