How to start a game?

[Severe]

I have never played Forge of Freedom nor Crown of glory and was wondering if ther are any walkthroughs or strategy guides available
that can help a beginner know at least where to start and offer some ideas
for basic strategy in this game. The game does look quite deep and so a bit imtimidating at first. I have not yet purchased it but am looking to do so quite soon and was told that FOF was the way to go because it is a bit more forgiving in it's playability. Thanks

[General Quarters]

At the beginning, I found it hard to figure out how to do things. I would click here and there expecting the usual things to turn up. But this interface is just a bit different.

There were some posts on this forum back when the game first came out that addressed getting started, probably in early December.

It helped me when I skipped the long interface introduction which at that point was too abstract, and went straight to the basic game and then read about interface as needed. I only noticed later that there is a Tutorial, which is really an interface walkthrough. Start there.

I found the concept of containers confusing. It is a generic term that means anything you can put inside something else: you can put a division in a corps and so that is a container, and a corps in an army so that is a container, a division or corps or little army into a city and so that is a container, or on a ship so that is a container.

After the Tutorial, do the basic game. It is not super interesting but it is a great way to get used to the interface and then it is easy to move to intermediate and then advanced.

Early on, players posted some pretty good strategy tips. You should be able to find them.

[Gil R.]

Also, read the AAR's that jchastain and I wrote (found up above), and Hard Sarge's for detailed battle (found inside the AAR's sub-forum). Those can give you a lot of ideas of how to play.

First go through the tutorial, though.

[Severe]

Thanks for the quick feedback guys , I do appreciate it ,and I will take your recommendations. I continue to welcome all  other feedback that maybe offered. Thanks

[Alan_Bernardo]

Once you get FoF, the first thing I'd do is read the manual thoroughly. Going through it twice would not be a bad idea either. After that, read all the AARs that you can.

Once you get into actually playing the game I would go straight to advanced play. If you did a complete read (and maybe a reread) of the manual and read as many AARs as possible, you ought to be very familar with the game.

I'm not sure whether I'd play a complete game; rather, it is oftentimes useful to play a part of a game, setting for yourself small objectives which are not terribly difficult to attain. It might also be helpful, to play both sides, just to see how things progress and how the mechanics work.

After doing all this you'll feel a bit silly about thinking FoF was such a complex game. It does have depth but in the end is not very hard to play. Being an effective player takes more, of course.


Alanb

[ABridgeTooFar]

Read the manual three times.  It is loaded with information and much of it is missed the first time through.

[Feltan]

Read the manual and AAR's, and wait for the patch!

Regards,
Feltan

[Gil R.]

Yes! Read the manual multiple times -- excellent advice. I'd say that the clear majority of the time that a player thinks there's something wrong with the game it's simply a matter of his having missed something in the manual (or not bothered with the manual at all).