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I still haven't gotten 'in' to the game. While I have read the manual (history thesis), I still am not sure of the basic strategies and the intitial and longer term goals that I need to a strive for. I have read a couple of FAQs. While they answer secific questions, they didn't cover a general strategy. Could someone give me a basic outline that would go along the lines of: First you work on building up your such and such, then you should do this and a little that and only after you done A, B, and C, should you consider doing such and such.

Also how can my merchants (on auto), trade with Japan when I haven't discovered it yet and have no (game) idea that it exists?
 
I believe Oranje has an excellent EU primer, beta version on his website. I would urge you to check it out. You can find it by following the link to his Holland GC scenario at the scenario depot.

There are a lot of ideas in the primer to help you get started.
 
There isn't any specific strategy for EU. It all depends on circumstance: what country your playing, when, what the other nations are doing, and what you want to do. However, as a few general tips for the Grand Campaign:

1)Don't use auto-merchants. Send them yourself.
2) Pick alliance partners carefully.
3) Never underestimate the long-term value of improving your trade and infrastructure levels.
 
I was in the same boat about a week ago. I was quite overwhelmed by all the numbers and lack of visual action (I was used to RTS games) and at first I thought the game is just tedious and there's no fun in it. I recommend that you take it slowly and don't expect to learn everything at once. Give the game some time and soon enough you'll be hooked.

As far as basic strategy, I'd suggest at the early stages of a scenario you spend time and money on upgrading your provinces and collonizing new territories if possible before you decide to wage war. If you try to pull of a 'rush' you'll find your economy crippled and your troops most likely slaughtered. Just do some promotions in your provinces, maybe build fortifications, send off your merchants to trade centers, and focus mostly on researching trade and infrastructure. But like Dark Knight said, there's no best strategy, and the best way to improve is to play a lot.
 
Originally posted by mikebike
I still haven't gotten 'in' to the game. While I have read the manual (history thesis), I still am not sure of the basic strategies and the intitial and longer term goals that I need to a strive for. I have read a couple of FAQs. While they answer secific questions, they didn't cover a general strategy. Could someone give me a basic outline that would go along the lines of: First you work on building up your such and such, then you should do this and a little that and only after you done A, B, and C, should you consider doing such and such.

Also how can my merchants (on auto), trade with Japan when I haven't discovered it yet and have no (game) idea that it exists?
Click to expand...

I'd do the following things:

Play Russia, no navy to dink around with and no colonial powers. Lotsa causus belli to allow you to fight a few wars.
Atuo-send the merchnats to start. It is just one less thing to worry about even though it is a really non-optimal solution.
Doing this will allow you to focus on how to conduct diplomacy and wars.

As Russia my first steps:
Get an ally to pressure Poland- Brandenburg, Hungary, someone like that. Pskov is an easy add but not too useful. Denmark as well.
Start a war with Kazan in Dec 1492. Let them march across the frozen wastes to you. Beat their army and roll forward in the war weather. Storm thier forts, don't sit and attrit. I've been able to annex the whole of Kazan but you might be better off crippling them and taking 3 provinces.
 
I'm afraid I can't help with specific strategies (I'm still learning the game myself). I really think it depends what nation you are playing. What I can say is this. When I first started playing the game I had a kind of 'Civilisation' mentality, ie. trying to take over everything ASAP. This doesn't work cos all the other nations get annoyed and gang up on you.
Instead plan for the long term, I'm talking 10, even 50 years ahead. Don't spread yourself too thinly. As Spain I was trying to colonise North America, South America and the Far East simultaneously but it's just not working out, so I've decided to stick with the richer South American provinces. Pick your allies carefully. I did favour France (very powerful) but am having second thoughts. They are also very aggressive and keep getting me into unnecessary wars.

Not much help I'm afraid but I was in the same boat as you just a week ago and considered shelving the game. After some persistence and some friendly help and guidance from forum members I am definitely 'into' EU. Hope you will become so too.
 
Stick with it, the game is worth it. I too felt out of my element. I played Civilization et al alot and I always had a general strategy and loose timeline to bring maximum success. I jumped right into the Grand Campaign as France and quit after about 2 hours. Next I started a Grand Campaign as Spain and have played for several days. Things started off rosy but aren't going well for me now (I was a little too aggressive and everyone is after me). I have ideas of what and when things went wrong and am already looking forward to my next game.

I would defintely say that the strategy is different for varying countries, hopefully this will enhance the re-play value.
 
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