Matrix Games Forums

What do you think about advisors ? Which one newbies (me! [:D] ) should we activate to learn the game faster ? thanks

I have always activated the trade advisor, as i have no idea if the trades i make are good or bad, meaning if i get the right price or not. The game does not give any indication wether its a good bargain or not. And to try and understand the reportscreens are just plain impossible.

For my first few games, I did the strategy, and turned on the economic adviser, the trade adviser, the tactical adviser, the development adviser and the diplomatic adviser.

Basically, I then turned off one adviser at a time, as I learned more parts of the game (I think I went in the sequence diplo, eco, development, trade, and finally tactics). Then I turned the trade adviser back on, and thats how I normally play now: just one adviser.

Turned the trade advisor on, but have never seen it work. Is it all behind the scenes?

(playing Spain thru 1st dozen or so turns; can see trades i manually establish)

ORIGINAL: willgamer

Turned the trade advisor on, but have never seen it work. Is it all behind the scenes?

(playing Spain thru 1st dozen or so turns; can see trades i manually establish)

important remark from willgamer ! because I also have the feeling that turning advisors on is not very usefull (bug?)

I tried playing with all of the advisors on when I started. It was not a good thing. I was constantly having money trouble and didn't learn anything about the game. I then read Ralegh's suggestions and started running everything on my own. I still may not be the greatest but I work my way through it and enjoy the game much more.

Much better to do it yourself. Diplomacy is easy. Trade only has one gotcha: don't accept trades from far away over land. The upkeep isn't worth it for unless there is a large chunk of change in the trade. Definitely turn off all military advisors no matter what. They are useless IMO.

Economic advisor would be the most useful if it did things smartly, but it doesn't. Just go through all provinces as per Ralegh's guide and set each to the labor level that provides maximum output of the best commodity. Through the remaining labor into either the second best commodity, or into agriculture if nothing else is useful. Once you get going into the game and have built up stocks of stuff, I'll go into a province where I want a quick development and crank the development allocation up to get the maximum speed. Then I return and set it back to regular production when the development completes. (Note: this is critical for those countries...e.g. Turkey...with no provinces with 5 barracks levels to create Corps. Get one with 5 barracks FAST.)

Make lots of extra food, even if this means lowering levels of other goods. You will need the population to fill your draft requirements.