The manual and tutorial don't cover everything, so here's some FAQs.

Important Overlooked Keyboard Keys:
CTRL = highlights all the things in a room you can interact with
F1 = Market
F2 = Town Hall
F3 = Your first home
F4 = Your first business
Set your own locations to the F1-F12 keys by holding shift and hitting F1-F12

Important Overlooked Mouse Keys:
To select all of an item, double click
To select some of an item, hold down the left mouse button and move it up and down. (This works for selecting money amounts too)

GETTING AP FOR YOUR CHARACTER
1. Extend items at your home that give more AP.
2. Buy walking sticks from the market (cheap) for 1 AP for 3 turns.
3. Buy an endurance potion at the market for an instant 2 AP.
4. Hit level six in your profession (you can get this bonus for each profession at level six).
5. Priests can get AP from confessions (random). (Need a confessional.)
6. Random Events

CART AUTO TRADE ROUTES
They work fine, just a clunky interface and fussy about the order you do things. Here how you do a basic trade route between your business and the market.
1.Click a cart at your business. Click the type of escort you want the cart to have by hitting the bottom left button. Then hit the trade route button
2. Waypoint 1 is already placed on your business by default. Select where you want the 2nd waypoint (the market) and click add waypoint.
3. Now, edit waypoint 2 at the market and select what goods you want it to pick up. To choose how many, you must hold down the left mouse button on the good and move it up and down in the cart.
4. Now go to the first waypoint and click edit waypoint. Drop off the goods you just picked up at the market and unload the same number of goods (hope you took notes).
5. Now select goods to load here to take to the market like you did in step 3.
6. Go pack to waypoint 2 and select the same number of goods to unload.
7. Finally choose the frequency the route will happen under further options.

Your route is all set. The key is you cannot tell the cart what goods to drop off until you have picked them up somewhere. Also, the danger of automatic trading is it does not take into account prices and will buy items regardless of whether they cost $100 dollars more than normal. This can put you in sudden near bankruptcy early in game, so only use this once you have some savings ready to go.

What happens if I tell the cart to pick up ten items, but the cart gets there and nothing is there. --> Then it will pick up nothing and continue to the next point on its route regardless.

What happens if I tell the cart to pick up ten items, but I don't have enough money? -> It will pick up as many as it can and then display a message telling you that you don't have enough money.

CHANGING AN AUTO TRADE ROUTE
1. Select the cart. This can be tricky. You can't change the card while it is on router, so you have to intercept it at one of its stops. You have to grab it before it leaves.
2. Quickly hit further options button. Deactivate route to modify it or delete route to totally get rid of your current route. Now you can make your new route or use the cart manually.

HOW TO GET A BOTTOM TIER OFFICE (after you get you citizen papers, as covered in the tutorial)

The hierarchy ladders of the bottom three offices (servants, bailiffs, and informants) look like this:

A
B
X X

You need an X position to begin your political career. There are appointed by the people in the B position. So get the people in the B positions to like you, and you will likely appoint you. You can tell how much they like you by the bar under their picture.

Once you get an X position, get the people in the A positions to like you, as they appoint the B positions. You don't have to stay in the same group (servants, bailiffs, and informants). (i.e. You can move from an X servant to a B bailiff.)

Finally to get an A position, this is the only true election. Everyone in that particular group will vote and the person with the most votes win the A position. So you need everyone in that group to like you.

Also, when you apply for a position, check the town hall and see who is running against you later. A number of items in the market can dispatch opponents if you think the appointment will be a close call.

HOW TO GET PEOPLE TO LIKE YOU:
1. Expensive way: Bribe them in the backroom of your house. Expect to spend around 4500 dollars for a low-ranked neutral person and more for someone who dislikes you or in a higher office.
2. Cheaper way (wine and dine): Use the feast option in the dining room and use the most expensive food and wine (still much cheaper than bribes). Invite people from the bottom tier offices, particularly people who appoint positions. (Mid and Upper tier offices will hate your feast if you have a cheap home or townhouse. Get a bigger house.)
3. Multi-target Items: Many items target everyone in a particular office tier (like the silver ring) and make them like you.
4. Single-target items: The poem makes people of the opposite sex like you. The bone bracelet makes people of the same sex like you.

WHY TAVERNS ARE SWEET (when they are fully upgraded):
Visit taverns even when you are not a tavern owner.

1. The guy in the dark back corner: this guy will send out spies and report back with dirt on people. Sometimes these people are unimportant, but sometimes they have public offices. If you find someone with dirt on them, do surveillance on them from the telescope in your study. Get enough evidence and enjoy some blackmail or court trial.
2. Gambling! Gambling is a great way to make money. If you have at least three stars in stealth, expect to make 4000-600 on this game a day. The game is 17 and essentially you roll dice and try not to go over 17. You will win more often than you lose, but it takes a little skill. Do it at the very end of the day, because the game will not end the day until you are done gambling, unlike anything else.
3. If you own a tavern, it also gives you random amounts of money from the regulars table (an advanced upgrade), and from patrons.

WHY THIEVES ROCK
This is the only profession that you don't need any raw materials.
1. Train thieves. The better their stealth, the more money they make and less likely they get caught.
2. Pickpocketing is a steady early income, and I don't think you can get caught. Higher stealth thieves and journeymen make more money. So train and promote.
3. Burglary: You must scout houses first, more than once. Around three times usually does the trick. The lower level the house, the easier it is to rob, despite the so-called burglary-proof rating.
4. Kidnapping: This is the real money maker. Kidnap people with a lot of money and ransom them back. You only need to send 1-2 thieves to make a kidnap. What if the person doesn't pay? Just demand payment again. Due to a bug, they will always eventually pay. Get them to pay before the end of day though, or you suffer -2 AP for covering up the kidnap.
5. Kidnapping trick: If someone takes you to trial, kidnap them. If they don't show up to the proceedings, the case gets dropped. :) !!!
6. Attack. From the main room you can attack guard posts. When you have the max number of thieves, trained in combat, and good weapons, take over all the guard posts. This make burglary easier. Good luck with the clunky combat interface.

WHY ALCHEMISTS RULE
1. You make endurance potions. That's +2 AP per turn. Every turn.
2. You don't have to buy raw materials. You send people out to get herbs for free. (Consider playing in London).

WHY CHURCHES RULE:
Visit churches even when not a priest.
1. Have you been naughty? Have you been beating up people and blackmailing? The go buy an indulgence and wash your sins away. That way people can't take you to court.
2. If you are a priest, hold a service every day. This will eventually earn you a lot of money.
3. Priests get money from indulgences purchases and AP from confessions.
4. Priests can lower people's reputation by preaching against them.
5. There generally aren't a lot of churches, so you have control over the market. Don't sell goods until they are really high in value. Then head over and dump everything you have. Expect to sell higher priced good from between 1200-1500.
6. Downside of being a priest: churches are expensive to upgrade. Expect to spend 20,000 on the final upgrade. Also, one game I played paper, which you have to use in every item made, was in very short supply.


More to come later....

Wow great read! I've been wanting to get into this game, but the instructions that come with the game are no where near adequate.

Thanks...it's worth getting into...I've never played a game like this before...going to add the gypsy/circus class soon, which is really overpowered profession from the expansion and a lot of fun to play. (I feel like I bought ten games rolled into one, but that there's no pressure to learn more than one at a time.)

CART PROTECTION (How much do you need?)
1. The closer your business is to the market and the earlier it is in the game, the less protections you will need. Later in the game you will need constant protection from thieves. To be honest, it's a little irritating.
2. Early in the game don't buy any protection. There probably aren't any thieves yet. After the thieves get you once, buy heavy protection for the rest of the game. Light protection is the worst option--you pay for troops that will lose--great deal, eh? Heavy protection has a minimum cost of 100, but will increase with the value of the goods shipped.
3. Combat tips. If you have heavy protection, click on an archer, and have him attack the closest melee guy. Then send the closest melee guy to intercept. Use other troops if needed. You will win the battle. Most times they take one look at your troops and run. Injure them anyway with archers anyway. They will have to recover before hitting the road again.
4. Flee tip. Forgot protection? Sometimes throwing out half the loot will stop them from coming after you. If the cart is worth more to you than the goods, throw out all the stuff and save your cart. If things are too bad, load the autosave. Debt is no fun.

WHY GYPSIES ARE OVERPOWERED
Complicated circus profession takes a lot of micromanagement and is not recommended for a first game, although it is one of the best professions.
1. You can curse in 6-7 flavors. Many are useless, but a few are very worthwhile--setting everyone against a person in a vote, illness, and misfortune, which takes all their starting AP for two years. You will later have to pay an AP fine yourself in a following turn for using a curse.
2. The performance tent. Once this is fully upgrade expect to earn a couple grand every other turn from this great venue. Free money for the rest of the game. You can even watch the show...such as it is.
3. Gambling. There's a gambling card game in the performance tent that is pretty easy to win. Good money maker late in the day, but you may be too busy.
4. Gathering raw materials. There are a number of raw materials you can get for free. It seems you get best returns in Spring and worst in Winter I believe.
5. Begging. Free money, but it takes all day, and the yield is low. Much better things you could be doing with your time. Maybe worth it the first few turns.
6. Blood feuds. Van Upgrade can set two or more people against each other...not confirmed.
7. Deference. Van Upgrade that allows you to use AP to get people to like you.
8. You make crystal balls which prevent bad random events for 4 years. Otherwise, most your goods sell at a good price, but they will only be very occasionally helpful to your player.