Personal notes on normal:
At the very beginning:
Produce 1 trader, upgrade the factories
Process basic materials into intermediate
At the beginning:
Court 2-3 minor powers, preferably the ones not bordering to another great power. Continue to buy up their stock (or at least one). More is overkill because your developer only has one action each turn.
Preferred materials: coal, iron, timber, cotton
Check dealbook, military ranking each turn.
Military ranking: don't be the weakest, usually when a major gets its first colony or start a war. Very important
Navy first, land later. Preferred army: 2-4 scouts (quick cannonfodder), the rest of the army: mobile artillery
Leave one space open in battles so units can retreat instead of surrender. Unit fights till the green bar is gone
Don't sell your stock all at once (lowers prices)
Don't defend the weakest major power (not fun when they gradually start declaring war with you instead)
Sign defend pacts with your minors (requires embassady)
Subsidy: usually 10-25%. Remember, you still have to make a profit.
Next industrial revolution:
Steel/Coal/Arms is more important. Timber loses importance due ironclads.
Majors powers more triggerhappy.
There are usually 2 minor powers that have been neglected.

My preferred early game strategy is to start with a country that has a lot of wood or scrub timber. I build all of my factories and two Indiamen. If I have lots of fruit and farms, I forgo an agriculturalist for a while, as my rail connections will bring in lots of food. If I have no cotton fields, again, I have little need for a farm worker to begin. If I have access to plenty of wood, I look for two or three minors that have all four of: iron, coal, cotton and wool. This means I can tender for all four materials of which I am short and at the same time improve my relations. I establish two to four trade consulates first turn, then I build two embassies in the most desirable minors ASAP and make pacts. After a while, I may have enough cash to open a third embassy.

Your idea of trying to establish relations with minors that do not border a major power is quite astute. As they do not share a land border, they are more resistant to early invasion. I try to build at least two frigates when I can, simply so I can transport the one artillery and two regulars with which the game starts. These frigates can also protect your merchants if you are unfortunate enough to be attacked early on, before you can start building ships of the line and raiders.

I also prefer to start with an island power, or at least not share a land border with another major. If I share with a minor nation, I use one of either of these strategems: if they have resources that I need, I court them fervently. If I can convert it into a colony, I have some protection of my border. If they have resources that I need and there are no minors nearby whom I am courting, I may go to war early in the game simply to secure "lebensraum." I am not strong enough to take the capital, but usually I take three of the four provinces and box him into his capital. If that capital province has no resources, the other majors will usually ignore it.

The downside to attacking a minor at the outset is that you will have to increase your subsidies to those you court. It can be an expensive stratagem, but it can increase security of an island power that has land neighbours.

At a certain point in the game, and you can almost tell when that tingling begins behind your neck, the other majors will start picking off the minors. I consult the diplomacy screen at the beginning of every turn. Doing so will inform you on the turn that a power is declaring war against a minor [or you!] and give you a last second warning. You have that initial turn to move your ships and soldiers about. Sometimes I take advantage of this declaration of war against a minor by moving my navy to its shore. If I declare war the same turn [or wait until the following turn to see if a major intervenes] then I can "bum rush" that minor and get ashore before the declaring power. It feels nice to eat someone else's lunch.

Another tactic I sometimes employ is to build a second builder on the first turn. With two builders, you can lay track twice as fast. This is useful for traversing lengthy tracts of land. I may not build depots at the same time, but sometimes I lay track with the intention of building the depots later. This can speed up the linking of your resources with your capital long before you come under attack. I especially employ this tactic if my resources are at a distance from my capital city, which can happen if you have one of those long, skinny countries. Getting track from one end of the country to the other makes you rather immune to blockades of resources that are only connected by port early in the game.

Keep an eye on your allies. They can drag you into wars that you would rather avoid. I believe in making alliances and generally stick by them, but not if they become suicide pacts. You may have a weak ally who declares war on a power that is rated "good" or "excellent" in the military category. You and he may have several other allies together and that gives him confidence to bite off more than he can chew. You may think that your allies will band together, so you go for it. Next thing you know, they abandon you and now you are married to a weakling who soon sues for peace and now you are trying to play Rambo against the USSR when you have the resources of Nicaragua.

So, watch those allies. Another idea to consider is if you wish to beat up on one power, but you don't want your buddies to come along with you and gobble up provinces you wish to acquire. If you declare, then they may as well and next thing you know, there are landings by several other powers and those resource-rich provinces for which you went to war now belong to your allies. What to do? Here is a trick some of you may not be aware of:

On the diplomacy screen, declare war on your ally or allies, and immediately remove the declaration of war. Exit the diplomacy screen and then re=enter the diplomacy screen and you will now see that you are no longer allies. This breaks your alliances without actually going to war with your allies. The cost of this will of course be an alliance, but it can sometimes result in your former ally or allies being less friendly to you. But hey, you are El Grande Jefe. That's why you make the big bucks, to make those big decisions. If it all works out well, you get to have exclusive access to your next victim, until the other sharks decide to bum rush the proned out body. But usually they will wait a few turns until you have done the lion's share of wearing down the armed forces of your victim.

Thanks for the advice.
In a new game I've placed the capital near a forest. Only needed to connect an orchard. The country had also horses and a lot of mountains.Got lucky that the remote minors liked my preferred partners.
Also started with building the 2 merchants.

I no longer court my neighbouring countries, declaring war before the other can establish embassadies. This saves a lot of money and clears any threat that a major wins one over. Bonus: military ranking
This resulted in a reputation loss of 2 levels from light gray to normal, which improved quite quickly the following turns. Luckily the land proved rich of metals and timber, even some diamonds.

Attacking army: starting army+ 2 light artillery for pushing over the militia (capitals require more)
The war gave also a relation drop with Ordune (orange) who would attack me about 10-20 turns later. Having next to no navy was quite peculiar and Ordune tried to invade multiple times. Rushbuilding a navy prevented a dire blockade.

The major power of Deneb had bad luck with alliances and was a welcome victim/distraction of superpower Devron and the world (disbanded mine because of potential attention shift). By the time Deneb disappeared the navy prospered and the main island was secured. Ordune had its losses and was second to face the world.

Devron had grown to a superpower ranking slight above me and was smart enough to declare war before interior strength would pick up. Luckily its income drained rapidly because of blockaded main port by 26 ironclads. The game was virtually won. After Devron, Zimm gave suit.

Betrayed Patagon and the last major battle was a major navy clash with Haxaco and its capitol. At the end, when oils gets it use, 2500 wagons were transporting goods with an average income of 160.000.

Favorite army piece: light artillery branch for speed and range. Maintained 2 1/2 army.
Apparently there isn't much needed to drive out militia, lost provinces against 1 heavy artillery
Third era artillery is quite battle resistant, killing the previous era in one/two hit(s) whilst needing 8 to take them out.

Things to improve: navy and the end-of-turn screens (diplomacy/dealbook) Got surprised by Ordune and feared an all-out war with the others. Having more specialists to keep up with the expansion.
Bug or not: couldn't sell free furniture.
First game where I actually got a stockpile of arms ready for upgrading.

The most important thing is industrialization. By that I mean the free resources you get from provinces with lots of upgraded raw materials. You can get loads of free stuff pretty early on this way. Have a province with 4 wood? Simply build a depot that connects the province city, dont even need to connect the resources themselves or upgrade anything. Then build up your furniture factory to a max of 20. There is a low turn limit on the amounts you can get, but soon the free lumber will roll in. This is a crazy bonus, because the free stuff does not detract from your raw materials, it does not require any labour.

And another thing, once the other nations start making alliances, build one ship of the line as soon as possible, or you will be the first target of everyone.

That's good advice. The free items add up. Finally made it on nigh-on impossible.
It took much longer to have some room to improve income/workforce/military, developing the country was postponed due lack of income.
My notes:
No longer declaring war at the start, resources from minors above internal development.
At hard level, the lumber-rich-country-start worked fine and was followed on nigh-on impossible, as you can bid on cotton/wool/coal/iron, delaying the military advance of other major powers.
Early income comes from hardware (keeps selling well with a steady price), subsidies at 25 percent because you may start with a disadvantage. More that 25 percent is not sustainable as you would also lose more than 25 percent income.
Early military comes from ship-of-the-line's and colonies (no resources/income to support them earlier) and they can take a beating.
Beware of starvation or putting specialists in threatened provinces. You could lose your only developer.
Study the information/tactical maps frequently. Usually the enemy tries to sneak trough the backdoor with raiders.
Carefully consider your military before starting a war as they have major forces.
Army layout: 4-6 heavy cavalry (instead of light), 10-25 light artillery as they share the same recruit pool. Have a small scarecrow force for invaders.
Fleet layout: when you have some room to maneuver, built the few necessary ship-of-the line.
Luck factor: colonies never invaded.

Game ended around 1875.

Started with a lumber country Henchlen sharing the island with 2 minors (Pont=cotton, Loke= lumber+iron). Internal metal resources where not accessible for a long time and small.
First mistake was to court the neighbour minor Loke for iron. Major Zimm wanted the iron from Loke badly and decided to invade. Once nearby, the starting army was no match.

Retry 1: only court cotton,wool,coal,iron to get a headstart on those (Kessel, Bruhr, Idolon, Pont) with 25 percent subsidy. No Loke as Zimm would probably invade again.
Got a steady income from one or two hardware pieces (5 coal and iron) whilst building up the industry with lumber (internal) and cotton (from minor Pont). Switching selling items to furniture/cloth when arms were needed.
Income was great, leaving some room to buy embassadies and seal some pacts. The mineral rich Kessel became the first colony, with mineral Bruhr and cotton Pont in the light-green. Idolon was a lost cause.
Grants at a later time saved Pont, whose cotton plantages were bought up by Ordune. Fortunately Patagon or Zimm never decided to invade them.
Declared war on Zimm around the first military upgrade (as Loke became a colony of Zimm): too soon. Zimm had a massive army (all lines were full) against a partial upgraded army.
A few moments later my country was a free lunch.

Retry 2: idem, not starting a war, but got targeted by everyone.

Retry 3: Idem, built a second capital ship and waited a few turns longer before the declaration of war.
In the mean time, most majors declared war to major Deneb. Confident with the distraction, some heavy artillery was left at the colony capitals in preparation in advance of the preemptive war with the great empire Zimm.
Zimm, who had the border minor Loke as colony with vast lumber reserves needed for shipbuilding as well as four other colonies.

It was a time of great distress. After the first battle, the army (colonial and ten-some field artillery) had to lick it wounds whilst permitting Zimm to temporarily seize the main food/resource route.
Losing and reconquest of the food province, every other two quarters, caused the population to die from starvation and my dear developer to vanish. (should have been placed in capital)
A brilliant general timely pressed most of the lumber-workforce into field artillery service and gained battle supremacy before the industry/income halted.

Great Newspaper update after defeating three grand armies of Zimm: Other major powers declaring war on Zimm and not Henchlen. With them harassing Zimms shipping, it was the moment continue to ramp up the war industry, to conquer Loke and try to seize some rich provinces of Zimm before the others did.
Forests turned into more ships, nearing the safe number of twenty for survivability and carrying capacity. Veteran invasion force landed between Patagons and Kems pickings, snatching two rich provinces right before their eyes.
In the calm of the storm, after Zimm was conquered except its capital, Ordune requested an alliance which was gladly accepted. Devron,Patagon,Kem,Ordune had eaten great chunks of the former Deneb (coal rich) and Zimm.
Income balance was still tight, due vast military expenses. Looming great nations looking bored.

After the conquest of Zimm, honored my alliance with Ordune after a war declaration from Kem and Devron. Ordune got their colony whilst suffering from piracy (mainly from its neighbour Kem). Devron was bullied with our modern navy consisting of twenty-some ironclads, greatly hindering Devrons trade.
Quite soon Devron requested peace, which was denied. This woke the sleeping giant Patagon, deciding my country Henchlen, second in ranking, would fill its hunger. Promptly Ordune broke the alliance.
Fearing a war on two fronts, the navy hastily withdrew from the severely crippled Devron. Doubled in force, they steamed for an open sea battle near Patagon City. Ship-of-the-line fleet defended the home front.

A year later, the navy reported they had met their foes and sunk the most of them. Lingering around would wreak havoc on the heavily beaten ships of Henchlen and they were called in for repairs.
The Ship-of-the-line fleet was sent out for Patagons colonies. Sindel, bordering Devron, was a great find as it had lumber,coal,iron (and hidden lots of oilsources). Heavy artillery would work as a scarecrow against Devron.

The world was practically won at this time. The repaired ironclad fleet along with the invasion force went from colony to colony. With a few set-backs as cunning Patagon reconquered provinces with merely an artillery or scout.
Foolish Henchlen would check the strategic information more frequently and have a small defence force ready to scare invaders. Kem snatched a few remote provinces closing a front.

With the advent of large artillery, the invasion of Patagon started. Time was running out as Ordune started to show signs of great stress, losing a province to Kem and suffering heavily from piracy.
At 1876 the grand Council voted Henchlen as Empire of empires.

I love this game but I fail horribly on normal 90% of the time.

I just have no clue how to implement these strategies. I can't afford to build military to avoid being last AND build railroads/depos (and it seems you have to if you want a reliable food supply) AND build embassies AND buy up developer lands AND beat other major powers to colonizing the minors.

It seems every time I manage to buy up land and get a minor into dark green relations, some other major power has beat me to the punch. I get the message "this nation is too far under the sway of another major power for our grants to have any effect" and a couple turns later they become the colony of another major power, completely ruining my expensive developer investments in them.

This despite being the favored trading partner of the minor nation all game and buying up all their offered goods every turn. It seems the AI is just able to use sheer buying power to bribe them into a colony and they can afford to do this with no developments while building a military over triple the size of mine.

I just have no clue how to improve my game. If I spend money on embassies and development, I can't afford to keep up with military. If I keep up in military, my economy falters. Even if I put everything into economy, I still can't outspend the AI.

Advice?

My game started turning around when I improved my trade skills. I did this by getting one item which I could count on for trade--- lots of trees, or cotton/wool, or iron/coal. I use the extra cash to purchase the semi-finished products I needed for faster build-out. I would always try to purchase everything I could from my minor nation trading partners. The advisor will tell you don't need everything the minor is selling. But I figure, if I buy it all then the Minor will have little to sell to my competitor and reduce the chance that the Minor Nation becomes friendly to it (doesn't erase it though.)

I went for 10 highly trained experts for my early workforce, asap.

Don't forget to try to get towns with depots that have productive squares--- they will produce extra semi-finished items (fabric, pig-iron, planks) fairly early.

Keep an eye on the overall status but there are some things to note. The AI will build a lot of regular infantry which makes some of their Army's look tougher than they really are. (Humans tend to go for cannons.) And the work force is actually a better way to determine how strong the other Major Nation's Industry is.

Blockades can be devastating. But your own port needs to be kept clear.

You probably know most of this but I was going over what I started doing right to begin winning.

Hope it helps.

Bob

What was the rule on this again? I could have sworn it was building a depot in the town of a providence that had at least 4 of a certain resource. However last game I built a depot in the town of a province with 4 forest (not scrub) and I never saw any industrialization happen. I put improvements on all 4 forests and still nothing.

The example given is

"A province consisting primarily of forested land, eight forest tiles, includes a town
with an adjacent connected rail depot. When the furniture factory of the Industry
screen reaches capacity four, the town grows and begins to produce one unit of
lumber per turn. Since there are eight forest tiles, the maximum amount of lumber
that could be produced by the town is four per turn, and the town slowly climbs to
this level. This production does not reduce timber production, it is in addition to
the timber already produced in the province. Once maximum lumber production
is attained, the town begins to develop its furniture output and grows again .
Maximum furniture output is two units per turn, or one-half the production of
lumber by that town"

Okay, tried a new game tonight. It's almost 1840 and I look to be in a good position to win it.

I think my 2 big mistakes before was rushing to embassies before I had a good economy instead of rushing to 13-20 expert workers as fast as I could, expanding factories and merchant fleet, putting a 25% subsidy on every minor power to buy out every possible export. My 2nd old mistake was bothering with raiders; no good in peacetime. Ship of the lines are what boosts your military projection more for the cost, and only getting 1 early was important instead of the 4 I used to rush. After that just gradually get one every now and then.

It didn't hurt that 4 spaces from my capital was an iron, coal, and 2 gold all harvestable from the same depot.

One juicy minor I had invested in has a dozen forests, half a dozen coal/iron, and two juicy gems. I saw that another major power had an embassy there (I JUST found out you can view other major power's treaties on the diplomacy screen) with a pact so I plunked down a $1k grant, then eventually a $3k grant until it joined my empire.

What seemed to seal the deal was around 1835 when the entire world declared war on each other. 4 way major power war and me left all alone. Hopefully it'll be over when ironclads hit the scene and I rush order them.


Question: whenever another major power steals a minor from me and turn it into a colony, my investment flags disappear. Now that I have a colony, the major power's investment flags are still there even after I ordered a colony boycott. What's the deal with that? Is he still getting the income? Any way I can get rid of that?

A colony boycott against a major power will remove their purchase flags and allow you to buy the land. (improvements are permanent though)

when you assign a subsidy to a minor nation, hold [ctrl] and you will set the lowest subsidy that will make you the preferred trading partner

Is indeed a nice hint, found out that an extra margin is more succesfull (like 10% when lowest mentions 5%), got too many hostile takeovers. Or you really keep tabs on the dealbook.

yeah, it's possible not to be the favored trading partner when you want to buy things if another major power just increased subsidies or improved relations by selling furniture, cloth or tools or buying food in the same turn

Two things are required by the game code before free resources show up:

- You must have the province town connected by rail to the capital (depot in or adjacent to the tile); and
- The factories (on the industry screen) must be upgraded enough to handle more than the amount of free resources sent.

Upgrade a lumber mill to handle 8 trees, and it should get you started.


http://s1.zetaboards.com/Imperilist/topic/2642424/1/ for more information.

Don't forget to bid on Steel too, not just coal and iron. I guess it's a bit exploit-y, but the AI can offer you steel from the first turn onwards, sometimes I get the Country X is short on steel newspaper article after buying steel. Bidding for steel is crucial
if you want to get town development going faster, and for building a stockpile of arms early for quicker navy building.

I usually play on Nigh on impossible and try to get lumber industry going first, so no trader on first turn. With the bid for steel trick you can get your industry going quickly this way if there's a nearby source of timber. I always use 2 engineers at the beginning, though this way you really need to min max everything to get enough $$ for the depots and infra. If there's not enough money to buy 2 depots at once, the other engy can just lay rail.

I don't sell all furniture/clothing at once, rather have a smaller but steady cashflow every turn at the beginning.