One piece of golden advice for a newbie

[Skeleton]

What would it be? Just purchased the game after wrestleing with myself and my napoleonic demons since it's release, and while I wait patientley for it to arrive, is there any one piece of advice you would give to a newbie to better enjoy this game or one piece of info to better grasp the mechanics of the game. Anything you, after finding out, said "Wish I would have known that...". Any and all responses would be most welcome, cheers

[sol_invictus]

Definately get warm and cozy with the manual; this game is quite the beast.

[Malagant]

After reading the manual, read Ralegh's work:

Ralegh's Guides

[Treefrog]

Get cozy with manual is true.

Game is like an onion. Once you got a handle on it at one level, on the way to work it sometime suddenly occurs to you there is a rule or combination of rules you missed or didn't fully appreciate which might help you so when you get home you check the rules and see the error of your ways. So you look it up and your play improves; well maybe it improves, but at least you understand the rules better.

Follow Ralegh's guides. Particular newbie challenges are getting enough wool and cotton to actually generate anywhere near the number of textiles the economic advisor is "projecting". You typically don't produce what is projected, but that is especially true of textiles. You also don't produce projected food if your army decides to eat it all from the depots; instead of a population gain you get a population decrease.

One rule that I ignored for 8 game years was the one that generally says if you try to make developments in a province and the number of next development exceeds the road level, the cost is double. I don't even want to think what it cost me to ignore that one.

Conventional wisdom is you gotta manage the economy yourself - the advisors are no good. In managing the key is balance. I work on banks for more money (for support, supply, development and trade [ I love to trade]), farms for wool and food (for textiles, population growth and to feed the army if needs be), barracks (in Normandy, Soissons, Brest-naval and Langedoc) and labor. Don't build too many troops too soon or your popluation will decrease while you're trying to develop you economy. After 7 years I had all 27 French and captured provinces up to court level 5 (no waste) and full population. Although I'm in second place, 200 glory points behind spain, I have a robust economy and seven full corps/armies, morale of 1000, even at difficulty level max. I'm well positioned for the long haul (23 year game entering its 8th year) and Europe is concerned about the rise of Britain (who is third) !!

My suggestion is play a few months, notice how you can improve, then start again. Do this a few times to build your comfort level - then go for whatever scenario floats your boat.

What would really be nice is if you could produce a comprehensive index of the rules and post it for all us lazy folks that just offer advice.[:D]

[Skeleton]

Thanks for the advice, it was as I feared, I am going to have to read the PDF manual. I can't recall where I said this before, but, why, oh, why, can't Matrix give us the option for a printed manual? Charge me whatever, I will be more than happy to pay the extra money just to have a physical, hard copy, real, manual. Enough of my ranting, thank you all for the advice, I shall begin reading Ralegh's tips asap, so that when the game arrives, I am somewhat prepared. Again, thank you.

[sol_invictus]

Just take the disk down to a printer and get a nice bound copy.

[Skeleton]

You my friend, are brilliant. But I think you meant to say, have your wife take the disk, down to the printer, correct? This is how we cavemen behave. I actualley thought of that, but I was not sure if kinkos or the like did that type of thing. You made my day, thanks.

[ktotwf]

One big piece of advice. Napoleon.

[Hard Sarge]

Make sure you check the prices

you order the big old fancy all the works model, it can cost !!!!

[Sarge]

Title all advisors as insurgents !

[Wellesley]

Not necessarily.

Napoleon was killed during the Great Battle of Potsdam in 1797, during which no fewer than 34.568 Prussian and Russian soldiers got whacked. After that, it has been kind of a walk-over for the French without Napoleon. Of course, at one point, all the continent got "alarmed over the Rise of France" and are now united against me (except for Spain, which is my ally).

[Twotribes]

This manual is worse than most, someone decided side by side pages was a smart way to go so you cant just read the damn thing by going down, now you go down sideways up down all the way to other side and down sidesways up again. real piece of work. One quicker way is to click the pages tab and use the left side tab to get the next page quicker.

[Skeleton]

Thanks Twotribes, well I will have a go at it, and this game looks and from what I have read, plays very deep, I don't understand why Matrix or any company would not at least give the consumer the option to spend more money for the game. Makes no sense at all. Well, maybe the powers that be will pick up on the idea and let me pay them five or ten dollars more in the future for a real,living, manual. Take a look at the HTTR manual, a fine piece of work, other titles would be wise to follow their lead. Just my two cents.

[Moltke71]

ORIGINAL: Twotribes

This manual is worse than most, someone decided side by side pages was a smart way to go so you cant just read the damn thing by going down, now you go down sideways up down all the way to other side and down sidesways up again. real piece of work. One quicker way is to click the pages tab and use the left side tab to get the next page quicker.

You can get back to one page by using the page layout option.

If you're willing to spend more money for a print manual, why aren't you willing to have it printed. Cost me $10 for a nice bound job.

[Malagant]

The "someone" that decided side by side pages was a smart way to go was YOU.

This is an Acrobat document. What you're describing is how YOU have the settings in Acrobat reader,. Go to VIEW, PAGE LAYOUT, and select SINGLE PAGE. Problem solved.

ORIGINAL: Twotribes

This manual is worse than most, someone decided side by side pages was a smart way to go so you cant just read the damn thing by going down, now you go down sideways up down all the way to other side and down sidesways up again. real piece of work. One quicker way is to click the pages tab and use the left side tab to get the next page quicker.

[Skeleton]

If the question was posed to me, I am going to have it printed Bismarck, but my question is, why can I not have the option of getting a manual with my game as opposed to me having to go and get one printed? Not the biggest deal in the world, but when you take the time and effort to give the consumer a choice to ddl in about three different options, and charge more for ddl and physical copies, why not tack on another $10 and give me the option to purchase a manual? Just seems logical to me, and I am being serious when I say I would not bat an eye to pay the extra money for a game with printed manual. I do not think I am alone in this feeling. Maybe I am.

[Moltke71]

ORIGINAL: Marcus the leper

If the question was posed to me, I am going to have it printed Bismarck, but my question is, why can I not have the option of getting a manual with my game as opposed to me having to go and get one printed? Not the biggest deal in the world, but when you take the time and effort to give the consumer a choice to ddl in about three different options, and charge more for ddl and physical copies, why not tack on another $10 and give me the option to purchase a manual? Just seems logical to me, and I am being serious when I say I would not bat an eye to pay the extra money for a game with printed manual. I do not think I am alone in this feeling. Maybe I am.

Matrix doesn't know whether you're alone or not either, hence the economics. Matrix has chosewn to hold costs down by not doing print manuals. Let's assume that they offer print manuals as a separate purchase and they run 400. Two hunderd people buy and they have an avoidable loss. On the other hand, you printinng it yourself doesn't cost you any more than buying the manual separately (probably less)and Matrix is out nothing.

Pity Matrix's online deal didn't work out. Now there was a win-win solution.

[Skeleton]

Very good points Bismarck, I see what you are saying. But selfishly, I want a manual with every game. Why can some companies provide them and some not? I believe that the complexity of the majority of Matrix's titles, and the quality of these titles, demands a manual. IMHO, they produce far more complex games, far better games, than any other big publisher. Yet, the majority of their titles do not include a manual. Is this a decesion that Matrix makes or the developers? In regards to the cost of the manual, I do understand that these companies are fighting an uphill battle, and if a pdf file saves them some money, well, who am I to argue. At the end of the day, mine is just a selfish request, and I am much more interested in having a quality game, than I am in driving up someone's bottom line.

[Skeleton]

Well, now I am pissed. Apparentley not all kinkos and not all kinkos store managers are aware of the relationship Matrix has with them. I can't order from Matrix doc center, the women at kinkos acted like I broke wind in the store when I asked about making a copy of my pdf file, my printer is shot, now what???

[Sarge]

Look around for another store that offers the service, I also have run in to this at Kinkos. I run real short on patience dealing with a 18-20 year old trying to play Dick Tracy/Copy Cop but in return refuse to even read the file and the waver of PRINTING of the file.