Before i start, here is a couple things i wish to say:

Firstly, english is not my first language, and this guide contains quite a numerous number of errors, so please do ignore them and excuse me, also, please don't comment on my bad grammar, it's rather pointless....

this guide is written for a Very Hard campaign standard, and as such, some things which i say as impossible, or very hard to achieve, or improbable, might change on a lower difficulty setting. this is because, on VH for example, more unrest. amongst other things, in battle, the biggest change, is that the opponent has a higher morale, and yours, lowered (in comparison).

also, some people are against blitz tactics, and as such, i have included very little tactics in this aspect. however, you may use blitz tactics if you so wish, however, i personally find it ruins the fun and the game in doing so. but that latter part is my own personal opinion.

this is a guide, hence, you don't have to follow it by the letter.

also, this is a free material, so you may, if you so wish, use this at your pleasure. however, only use this material if you give me credit, or reference this as my (necronox) material, and not your own. otherwise, it is plagiarism. i would also very much appriaciate letting me know if someone uses my material in a way outside of their own private use. however, this does not apply to referenced material, or links to other people's work, in which case, please view (or ask) them about this and they view before using their work.

i do hope you guys (and girls) respect this guide and me.
Thank you.

Necronox

enjoy

One of you major income through the game will be trade, so, here is a couple tips to get you trade income up

First, the obvious one, trade partners, you need trade partner to trade with, try and get as many trade partners as possible, even if you plan on attacking them later, money is money, it doesn't matter who it comes from. Depending on your difficulty, getting trade partners can be costly too, they sometimes will ask you for money in return, accept, since that small price, is very small compared to a lucrative trade route. which brings us to our next tip

Secondly, trade routes, once you have your trade routes established, you will need a navy and army to protect it, usually, the AI won't raid land trade routes, but they will with the naval ones. You need to carefully balance between have a very small, or non existant navy, which will bring you lots of money since you have little upkeep for boats. but, having a too big navy, will make you go in debts. usually, i find having a couple sixth and fifth (frigates) will do the trick, they take little to upkeep, but can cause serious damage even to larger ships in the right hands.

For countries with colonies, such as the united provinces, great britain, france and spain, a large navy is recommended, also, taking out the pirate faction as early on as possible is a good move, usually 5-7 colonial militia will do the trick.

Thirdly, build trade ports, as many trade ports as possible, even if you don't have any routes to it, they will still bring you income of about 500. however, i usually find having about only one or two military ports is enough. i usually prefer to have one, or two large fleets rather then lots of tiny ships that get constantly destroyed.

Fourthly, trade ships. these are a must, you can rack on the money by the thousand with those. if you have a monopoly over all trade theaters (brazil, cote d'ivoir, madagascar and the indies), you will get lots, however, you will need a small fleet in each of these theaters otherwise enemy ships, especially pirates if you havn't taken them out, will come and destroy you ships. for people as spain, use Galleons, they as powerfull as third rates! if Dutch, use Fluyts, they about a 4th rate. these don't need protection. they can handle themself very well. however. if any other faction, usually having a half a dozen brigs/sloops is a must, it won't stand up to much, but it may be enough to deter enemies, plus, you be easily able to take other faction's trade ships. BE WARNED, pirates start with a decent fleet in cote d'ivoir and indies.

these are divided as such
Brazil = Sugar
Ivory Coast (Cote D'Ivoir) = Ivory (no kidding?)
Madagascar = Ivory
East Indies = Spices

PLEASE NOTE: the Dutch start with a trade fleet in the indies, leave them where they are, otherwise the pirates will destroy you, unless you a good admiral, i recommend you avoid taken them on.

if you open your trade tab in your government window, you will see, at the top: world market. these are the going price of each of these, usually ivory is the most expensive, and can be found in the cote d'ivoir. this is decided upon the avalability of each. hence, when building a new plantation, check this to this what will or will not bring you the most income.

underneath is your supply, it is exactly that, your supply, for example, britain will have supplies for their colonies in america.

then underneath that is exports, or trade routs to other factions. this list what are sold to each of those factions, and how much profit you make.

another way to get your economy up other than trade, is taxes. i recommend lowering taxes. why you may ask? well, simple, with lower taxes (for boths nobles/middles class/aristocrats and lower classes), it will cause towns to grow faster, new towns will emerge sooner, and the GDP of your region will be increase, you may have less income for the first couple dozen turns, but in the ends, you'll be laughing.

When building things, especially if you just started a campaign, i strongly recommend that you that you focus on economy, builds craft workshops in towns, smiths/forgeries or potters, these will give you a set income, such as 125. you will also want to upgrade mines or build them. especially in ceylon, southern india, and guyana. having the dutch guyana with upgrades mines will give you anywhere from 2000 up.

also, upgrade your government buildings ( such as governors mansions, royal palace, house of commons, etc...) these will give you a percentage boost on your income.

also, ROADS, ROADS, ROADS and more ROADS. these are a must, don't ignore them. they increase trade value, and you GDP. plus, they cheap and quickly build. (exept metalled roads)


Your income expense is self explenatory. you want the income side greater then the expense side. apart from that, not much to say.

-----Buildings
-towns
as a sum up, there are four different types of building you can build in towns: School, Church School, Craft Workshop and Coaching Inn.

church school converts the local population to yours, they also provide a happiness bonus for the part of the population that is the same religion as yours, however, if you are protestant, a catholic church will not continue to give happiness to you, it will however, continue to convert the population to catholic. this building spawns priests/missionaries/etc..

Schools, are where new technologies are researched. they also reduce happiness by inceasing clamour for reform. this building spawns gentlemen, who have 3 uses: speed up research, steal technology from rivals/allies, and duel other gentlemen - it is a sort of assassination if you will

Craft workshops can be any of these three: weavers, smiths and potters, potters are only available in the middle-east, afhanistan, persia and northern india. weavers can be build anywhere, smiths can only be build when a mine is present in that same region. these give you a regular income per building

Inns these main purpose is to provide happiness, as a general rule of thumb, one school is one coaching inn in same region, this will, to the post part, cancel out each other's affect on the region's happiness. these building also spawns Rakes, these are you spy and assassins.

-ports

ports are devided into three classes, trade port, fishing port, and shipwirght (military port)

trade port allows region resource to be exported, and trade to happen, each port open up a new trade route if possible. these also boost you town wealth, (GDP basically), and also give you a set income.

fishing port, are exactly that, these boosts you town wealth a little, they also give you a set income, and boost population growth (more food), note: native american tribes cannot acces any other kind of ports exept fishing ports

Shipwrights are where you build war ships, all 'class ships' e.g 1st rate, are build here, at the fourth upgrade level, you will be able to choose between a naval hospital, these can be build much earlier on, since it require a lot less technology research, however, they cannot produce the heavy first rates and other ships the steam drydock can.


in terms of farms, plantations, furs, loggng and mines. these all give you a bonus to region wealth and/or a set income. some, such as farms, will also boost population growth.

in terms of yield, there are 5, in roder from most to least it is: abundant, high, average, low and meagre.

1) if all else fails and you bankrupts, sell provinces, disband units (don't be scared to disband units, and extra 200 bucks is always welcomed), these are extremes, and if you got that far, you've done something wrong or havn't checked you income expense. always try be at least 2000+ in the black, any closer and you're cutting it close.

2) protect you trade ports from raids, station the cheapest unit in the port, the enemy ships won't be able to raid them, so, you will no need to repair it. a damaged port produces NO INCOME.

3) BALANCE. 90% of the game is about balancing, usually between large income and low military force of vice versa. that is up to you to decide, this also includes logic, no points having a full stacked army (20 units) garrisoned in a town not near the border / frontier, that is a waste of money. same with the navy.

4) With technology, again, it's balance, i recommend, especially when you just started, to sacrifice one of your craft shops and industries and replace it with a school or two. technology means a LOT. there are a few things you should research immediately, first,ring Bayonets. physiocracy, and a couple in farming. more food = more people, more people = more people who pay taxes = more money, well that's the logic anywhere., but then, have at least always 1 on military, and if possible have some alternating between enlightenment and economy.

in ETW there are 3 types of government, absolute monarchy, constitutional monarchy, and republic.
these are the pros and cons


Absolute Monarchy:
Repression: 5
Nobility Class Happiness: +2
Lower Class Happiness: -2
Research Rate: -10%
Recruitment Cost For Land Units: -5%
Minister Growth In Home Theatre: -6
Town Wealth Growth: -5


Constitutional Monarchy:
Repression: 3
Nobility Class Happiness: +1
Lower Class Happiness: +1
Effects of Clamour For Reform: -25%
Minister Growth In Home Theatre: +3
Town Wealth Growth: +5

Republic:
Repression: 2
Middle Class Happiness: +1
Lower Class Happiness: +3
Research Rate: +5%
Effects of Clamour For Reform: -80%
Minister Growth In Home Theatre: +10
Town Wealth Growth: +12

note: in absolute monarchy, the minister's post will pass onto his son (which usually has same sort of traits) when he dies.


--------rebellions and revolutions.

rebellions happened outside your capital territory, these will rebel into a new faction (for instance quebec for new france), these are caused by too high unrest, it will take three turns, first turn a strikes and letters, next riots, next rebellion.

Revolution happen inside you capital territory, depending on who is rebelling and what you goverment type, is, it can affect your game, that is, a successfull revolution can change your goverment type:

if lower class rebel, your goverment will change to:

From absolute/constitution
To, republic

if high classes rebel, your government will change to:

from: republic
to: constition
OR
from: constitution
to: absolute.

when a revolution happens, you pick a side, with your own government, or the rebels, whichever side you choose, if you loose to destroy rebels or secure the capital, you will loose the campaign, and it will end there.

units outside your region capital may or may not stay loyal to you, if you want to keep them with the government, move them to region capital.

a successfull revolutions will usually get you massive relations penalty for other factions, exept if they are same government type as you, going to a republic for instance causes -100 in relations.

this one is all about military. first. let's talk units and their pros/cons

Pikeman or other melee:
PRO: good melees, good in the americas against natives.
CONS: no ranged attack, easily killed before reaching target. generally obsolete

Line Infantry
PROS: decent all rounder, good against cavalry when in square formation, ranged attack
CONS: poor melee, inaccurate. slow reload.

Grenadiers
PROS: Good accuracy, good against cavarlry, good in melee, good reload speed, can do platoon firing
CONS: only 80 men per unit, grenadiers count for very little in the autoresolve option for battles

Light Infantry, Skermishers and Rifles/Jagers/Windbushe
PROS: very long range attack, very accurate, fast moving
CONS: not many men per unit, very slow reload, very weak in melee.

ELITE (inc. superior line infantry)
PROS: everything, they elites!
CONS: expensive to build, high upkeep, limited allowed per faction (usually 4 or 6)

light cavalry and Dragoons
PROS: fast moving, good stamina, has long rang attack (for dragoon and similar), good for chasing down enemy, and good against skirmishers/light infantry and to attack artillery
CONS: weak against line, grenadiers, and other cavalry. vulnerable to artillery.

Heavy cavalry
PROS: good melee, good charge, good stamina (some), good against infantry (especially when flanking / rearing attack),
CONS: vulnerable to artillery, expensive.

Howitzers and general artillery (sakers, demi cannons , 12, etc..)
PROS: good vs units, good vs building, very long range attack, has canister shot effectively changing it into a very big shotgun!
CONS: very slow reload, slow moving, cannot run, weak in melee, cannot move (fixed artillery only)
NOTE: have it on high ground for maximum effect (as the line of fire is not disturbed this way, you can hit more people.
NOtE: when possible, shoot along the line, or where lots of men/units are.

Mortars:
PROS: Good vs buildings, good vs units at long range, long range attack
CONS: slow reload, weak vs unit at short range, weak melee cannot move

a good thing about ETW. you can use real life tactics. such as the famous "divide and conquer"

over the years, i have noticed an ongoing debate with platoon firing vs rank.
i have done test (one unit of swedish superior infantry (dlc) against 2 polish line infantry, the swedish one hands down), i support platoon firing, it can do a huge amount of damage, a grenadier regiment with platton firing can easily take down line infantry.

however, it make look useless, and uneffective, but it isn't, it the exact opposite

-------------------Setting up/deployment

Okay, ETW already has presets, to view this clic (when a group is selected) on the little icon that looks like chess pieces. each has it's pros and cons, to figure out at your pleasure

Another thing, i usually put my light infantry infront, and set them to "light infantry behaviour" they will crouch down, when placed infront of line infantry, they will still be able to shoot, aswell as the line infantry, with no, or very little friendly fire.

When defending try to deploy or make your stand on a hill

Try a place you cavalry to the sides of your main battle line, that will enable them to circle around and attack. ps: the AI will nearly always keep their cavalry behind their artillery, they will charge at you if you try and attack artillery, make sure you have enough cavalry to counter them without to much losses. then proceed to destroy artillery. otherwise, place them behind your line, so, when the time comes, they can charge at the enemy line, follow, or following, your line infantry

Again, balance between lots or little of ranks, have only 2 ranks, will allow lots of shots to be fired at once, takes up more space tho.

--------------------------- The battle

okay, this is a guide, you need to find your own pros and cons, mine for instance lies in cavalry and artillery. over half of nearly all my armies and nearly only cavalry and artillery.

First, you plan, when deploying or when the battle just start, pause, and think, where will the enemy attack? how will you counter them? will you flank? etc... this is important, and can save you countless battles and lifes.

if you don't want to, a good tactic is a simple one. here is on i use when i do not know what to do:

1) use artillery against highly concentrated troops, if possible shoot lengthways along their battle line. OR, shoot at cavalry, you can easily route a unit of cavalry with one or two well placed shots. then start to engange enemy general unit AND/OR enemy artillery

2) engage enemy line infantry with own, hold them there as long as possible, try and route them if possible. engage in melee if you start to lose the fire fight.

3) use cavalry to neurtalise enemy artillery, if any, then proceed to their cavalry and general. if any cavalry remains, order them to charge in the rear of the enemy battle line, who is hopefully still engaging your line infantry.

play to your strength! if you have an army heavily oriantated towards artillery, use your infantry and cavalry to protect and suppport them don't try and engage them, or reversly, if your army is heavily orientated towards infantry, CHARGE!


--------siege Battles

Siege battles can be very hard to win if you the one attacking, and defending is usually easy but i shall cover both. ( i am assuming there is a fort here (wooden, simple, star), otherwise, it acts just like a normal battle (sometime the opponent may deploy Chevaux de Frises, or barricades, etc... for that part it's straight forward. if opponent has infantry units under cover of a barricade/trench/wall, order your troops (preferably ones that are good in melee) to charge at them, don't engage in a fire fight with them, you WILL loose, just charge them. or better, use cavalry against them, quickly followed by infantry. (this will result usually result in that AI unit to flee the battle almost directly). if chevaux de frise, use infantry to charge. but better off than any of that, is flanking, flank them, because they can't change the defences they've set up, also, if they have artillery 'boxed' in, go around them, don't stand directly in front of them, they have a very narrow shooting range (left to right) so flanking them is easy.

First, attacking:
Well, first, think about what you have. don't siege a fort or a settlement with defences with an army constituted mainly of cavalry or artillery, as a rule of thumb, 4 units of artillery is plenty in a siege battle, (with mortars you may need more, they are quite inaccurate against walls). having cavalry is, in most cases, a waist of space and time, they can't climb walls, and are only useful if artillery created a breach in wall, but that is limited since the small width of the opening breaks they're formation (and as such their charge), also, the AI will always station at least one unit there ready to fire / fight, so, you charging in a wall of bayonets with cavalry (aka: you'll most likely loose).. therefore i like to structure my army as such:

1 general
~4 artillery (maybe more, depends, quite flexible on this, but definitely less then 7)
2 foot guards in available
~4 grenadiers.
the rest, line infantry

i did not include any light infantry since they are poor in melee, and in a siege battle, that is what counts the most melee. structure your army for melee. i also rarely have cavalry.

When the siefe battle start, use your artillery against their infantry stationed on the walls, this will help you defeat them when you order your troops to climb the walls. and also, create 3 breaches in the walls (one on the side - for flanking by some troops of yours (i usually use foot guards of grenadiers for this)then two in between the entry (gate) and the corner.
(you may want to use max speed for this, as this may take awhile)

then again, see if you cant attack the mass of units at the centre (near the flag) if there is a lot of units there, get as many artillery pieces shooting there. (try shooting land near them, if works since the aiming system is sometimes a bit stupid). otherwise, resume artillery bombing of their troops.

order your troops to start marching near the walls. don't make them run, you want them as fresh as possible when they reach it. now, use about 2 units per breech, (3-4 for the flank breech), first order 4 units total to attack both breeches, (not the side breech), this will hopefully divert their attention, then, send the remainder of your troops scaling the walls, order your flanking force to charge throught the flank breech, and then you have two choices:

A) help out your troops currently fighting on the wall and in the breech.
B) try getting control of the centre.

which one you pick depends on how the battle is going and your play-style. if you are getting beaten and are loosing ground / retreating / fleeing on the walls/breeches, then try and get control of the centre. hopefully you'll be able to take it and defending it without any opponents reaching it within 3 minutes. (sometimes this is easy), HOWEVER, if there is a nice big mass of units there, you may want to start firing at them. if grenadiers, use grenades, this will cause mass damage in a closely packed formation of men!

so really, it's up to you. the rest of the battle is more or less straight forward, win the walls and breeches, then slowly make your way to the centre.

if you are loosing this battle, it's better to order a retreat and save men, that way, you'll be able to besiege them again sooner for less cost. (instead of wasting men, time and money for something which will eventually be useless)

Naval battles can be tricky, there have somewhat little strategy to them, and it boils down to the same thing, the amounts of shots you can pump into them, i tend to prefer the use of 'the line'. that is when ships are following each other, the heaviest up front, that is in order: 1st rate, 2nd rate .... 6th rate, sloops and brigs. each have they pros and cons, first rates have a large broadside, and can decimate smaller ships in just one or two full broadsides. they are however very slow. a frigate has little gun power, but largely makes up for it in terms of speed and handling, and can outrun most ships.

in these naval battles, there is three different types of ammunition:

Round shot: a basic ball, this has the most range and accuracy, it is used mainly to decimate the hull of the ship, in intent to set fire to it, make it surrender or sinking it.
Chain shot: two balls chained together, the purpose of this is to destroy the sails and masts, making the ship slower (and making it, as the saying goes, a sitting duck). this is best used when firing perpendicular to this ship (that is, if your ship is sailing in front (or behind) of the enemy ship, and fires, along the length of the ship). this will cause the most damage. and if you manage to destroy the masts on a ship, this will reduce their morale significantly, and will usually surrender, or surrender soon after. Doing this is sometime a good way of capturing a ship or making it surrender, and also, they won't be able to flee as quickly either. if a ship has been de-mastered, it is at a significant advantage, so much so that if a 1st rate is completely de-mastered, a 6th rate will be able to take it (by attack from behind or in front, perpendicular to it)
Grape shot: if you want, this is a shotgun. just bigger. you use it at close range (usefull just before boarding) to kill the actual men aboard the ship, doesn't damage the ship to, very usefull against single decked ship (such as 5th and 6th rates, sloops, brigs and galleys).

TIP: when you setting up, group your naval units, then tell them where to go, you will notice it will be a lot different that way then when they not grouped. try it out and see which fits you the best

TIP: having more then one 'line' can be usefull, it can also backfire very quickly (friendly fire).

Personally, i do not use the boarding action very often. but that is just me, you may want to experiment with this.

But really, i can't tell you much about naval battles, it is all acquired throught experience, you will eventually know your limitation, and even if you can win the battle before it starts, (for example, a 1st rate against 20 galleys will usually loose)

these are what i consider my main four tactics.

- the good ol' devide and conquer, that can be taken a multitudes of ways, one of which is: devide your enemie's forces, fight lots of little skirmishes, it will take their toll on them.

- the 'brute' tactic, get a large army and just mow down everything, no quarters. loot towns etc.. this effectively destroy's the faction, reduced income in regions that have been looted, and increased unrest. this is also quick, the down side however, it take a long time to recover.

- scorched earth, if you loosing and you cannot seem to win any battles, do what the russians against napoleon, when retreats, destroy everything of yours, and continue retreating, all the opponent will get is a heap of worthless land. then it is a walk in the park to take it back, this is in some way, the opposite of brute force, it take long to recover, but not nearly as long as the brute way.

- the normal way, conquer one region, passify, then move on, VERY SLOW can take dozens of years. and it can result in a stalemate, in other words, two nations, let's say france and austria, are at war, and they keep conquering bavaria from one another, (it's a key region in between, without it, you cannot hope to continue the invasion) and after years, there still doing it. this can be a nasty side effect. it is easy this way however

otherwise, you can take on the peacefull way, buying land, usually, the going price for a province is usually around 100 000, it may sound much, but when you have a little army (which means little expenses due to low upkeep), you can gain up to 10-20k a turn, so, it isn't actually all that much. this is a good way, other nation will not hate you for conquering everything, plus, it's peacefull, you have a lot less rebellions.

Great Britain

as great britain, your strength lies in the navy, without it, you will have very lttle income and next to no trade, therefore, i recommend you have a larger then normal navy, and prioritize tech research on naval.

Great britain also starts of in a very good position in europe, nearly no AI will land on your english shores.

Also, great britain is one of only 2 playable faction that starts as a consitution, the othe being poland-lithuania.

Great britain has an overpowered army, their line infantry is way better then any other faction. hence winning land battles should be easy. (all colonial line infantry have same stats no matter the faction)

recommended play style: navy orientated, aswell as focusing on the americas and india (pick which one, india can be very lucrative, you can have so much money once you own all of it you won't know what to do with it. it is however harder, the maratha are there, and they are expensionists. in otherwords, they will relentlessly attack you.) focusing on europe will be a much more costly affair, much harder and with not nearly as much reward. If focusing on america, conquer the regions france start with in america, and conquer the iroqouis and cherokee, then move onto conquer the carrabean, eventually, you will own a lot of money fairly quickly without much problem. eventually, move into conquering spain's possesions

France

France is a hard faction to start with, but get much easier let on. when you start, within the first 5 turns, nearly half if not more of the world will be at war with you, your armies will be devided and you will be conquere. therefore, a good trick is to ally yourself with as many neighbouring factions, especially in europe, so you can deal with the americas.

here is a list of nation worth allying yourself with (if possible):

-Wurttemberg (this will in most cases stop bavaria from attacking), as well as themselfs.
-Westphalia, same as above, if you enter a war with UP, they will usually help.
-Hanover, they may be far away, but they are an expansionist minor faction and can be a reall pain in the ****
-Savoy/piedmont, same as above, they will attack you early on if left unchecked. and if you get caught by suprise you may even loose your capital!
-Huron-wyandot. this won't be a long lasting alliance, they will usually backstab you, but still, when you are allied with them, you will be fighting the iroquois. then possibly the english
-prussia, they are expantionist with a strong army. Austria will usually declare war on you after the death of Louis XIV, causing a war of succession. having prussia as an ally will help, they will keep the main part of austria's forces occupied.

TIPs:
- choose which theater to focus on, if europe, you will most likely lose most american possessions. in this case, i recommend conquer all, or as much as possible, of italy, this will give you a lunching pad against austria if need be. as well as a lucrative trade post.
-if you focusing on america, there is two tactics i recommend, invading the thirteen colonies, and take over philadephia and boston, this will allow you to recruit a fair bit of troops. the thirteen colonies are easy to conquer too. OR you can try you luck with quebec. in which case you prioriy will be to take out the iroquois, then move onto the huron-wyandot or go towards GB and or the thirteen colonies.

- you can also focus on india, but this is a very costly affair, you will not have the privilage of having a good standing navy like the british will. and therefore, you will be mostly fighting on very little money using Sepoys.

- when starting, try and be peaceful for as long as possible, focusing on building economy, because eventually, the S**T will his the fan, and you will be gaining maybe 200 quids a turn, since you will be fighting on all fronts, in america, in europe, on the sea, etc.. etc..

- try and use you allies to best advantage, spain will usually follow you wherever you go, they also have a good navy. hence there can fight with britain, leaving your navy mostly untouched.

Spain
with spain, your start with a horrible king, hence, try and remove him asap. (make higher classes revolt in spain). this will help a fair bit.

with spain, i recommend moving quickly. you start off sligtly better then most others. hence. try and conquer as many provinces as possible within the first 10 ish turns.

then. again, choose what theater to pick from. europe or america.

if europe, try and consolidate you possesion in belgium and italy. use them to take over UP if possible, savoy, genoa,venice and papal state/italian states. OR, you can backstab france, (you will be hated for it) then revert to first option. eventually france will block you, so backstabbing them is nearly a must.

If america, defeat the peublo that conquer the pirates and carrabean, after that, invade by sea the 13 colonies.

Prussia/Poland lithuania
with each of them, be as swift as possible, dedicate nearly all your resources on war.

i grouped them together since they have very similar goals. conquer each other.

the first thing you want to do, is get austria on your side. this won't last, but it will save you from fighting on two fronts, for hopefully long enough to deal with the polish / prussians

when done and if you still allied with austria build up your economy, and pick which where to go, invade russia, invade central europe, or invade the ottomans.

if not, they invade austria.

PS: another good way to avoid open war with austria is giving them a tribute for 20 turns, if you give them a 1000 tribute for 20 turns, they usually won't attack for that period. and yes,1000 may be a lot of money, but is it a lot less then open war with them!

^ this tip also applies to any other faction. ^

NOTE: Prussia is one of the hardest factions to play as in VH/VH (that is very hard/very hard) since they only start with 2 regions, and no matter who they declare war on, they all have allies.

Austria

With austria, you have two choices. peace then war, or war then peace.

if you pick the first, then, you want to boost your economy as much as possible, lower taxes, build, research, have as small standing army as possible. then, when you are confident. attack, i recommend conquer the ottoman lands, all the way to egypt, this will give you a big income boost. plus the ottomans start with a weak and outdated (or oldfashioned) and somewhat useless army/navy.

if you pick the second one, who in my opinion isn't as good, again, invade the ottomans. at least to instanbul.

Sweden
as sweden, you priority is russia, again, be as swit as possible, conquering norway is easy, and it has a fairly big income too.

personnally, i find sweden very straight forward, you can easily balance between attacking and economy, without dedicated too much on one or the other.

Russia

as russia, your main opponents will be the ottomans and sweden.

but either way, the first thing you have to do, is secure yourself some ports in the baltic and black see, conquer the Crimean Khanate, you start with an army there, it is large enough to conquer them in the hand of a capable general.

then, conquer Iasi, i recommend you don't go any further until the swedish threat is dealth with.

at the seame time, try and conquer Livonia & estonia, and Ingria. then try and conquer finland.

after which, bild forts in northern finland, to stop the swedish from advancing to much. and then focus on you economy, Russia can produce a LOT of money. you just need to build things up. Once you done with that. Slowly move into sweden, you will need more then one full stacked army. in all my campaigns as russia, sweden can usually muster up anywhere from 2 up to 6-7 full stacked armies.
try ally yourself with Dagastan, georgia.

United Provinces

again, this is a hard faction, your priority is to conquer central europe, and if possible france.

Uses your fleet in the indies as extra income, and if possible move them to the Cote D'Ivoir, (ivory coast) but be careful at those pirates!

also, try and conquer the french guyana, it is easy and just 4 colonial militia will do the trick.

keep ceylon how it is, however, move the fleet that spawns right next to it to your merchant fleet, to bolster up it's numbers.

then. conquer Flander ASAP. and in the mean time, try ally yourself with prussia and or denmark.

then, further yourself into westphalia, hanover, bavaria, wurttenberg and alsace.

after that, it's smooth sailing.

Ottomans

the ottoman army you start with, is for all intense and purposes useless, it is weak, with low morale, and mainly constituted on armed peasentry. or a mob.

Your first priority, would be to ally youself with austria and Georgia, especially the latter, at least for the moment being. and spend as much time as possible building up your resourced.

disband your navy too, it is mostly galleys and you will be able to do diddly squat with that. in my personnal opinion, they only good for soaking up cannon fire. and they not even that good at that either! they are however, very good at dying and soaking up your money.

it will take time to build up your economy, the advantage, you start with a lot of regions.

TIP: convert the craft shop in egypt to a school, this will help, and change the church/religious building in mesopotamia to a school too.

TIP: recruit bashi-bazouks. these are the ottoman quivalent of pikemen. but slightly better. they won't stand up to much fire power, but they good in melee! they also cheap to recruit.

Maratha

Personnally, i find maratha the easiest factions to play as (tied with great britain). they have a huge income, and a good army. plus. they majoy enemy, the mughal empire, is very weak in miltary. it takes no time to conquer all of india, than, you will have a ridiculous amount of money.

no real tips on that, it's easy enough. it is however fun. =) especially if you're into total ownage.

With technology, it the same story, balance, with some nations, or your play style, you will want to vary on which technologies your prioritise first. here is a quick list (includes non-playable factions - which may be playable throught mods) (also, when i say land, this includes military and ordanance):

this is only for military orientated technology.

Nations which should prioritize naval:
Great Britain
Barbary State
Pirates
Knights of St John

Nation which should do both
France
Spain
Netherlands / United Provinces
Portugal

Nations which should prioritze land
all others

As a guide (you don't need to do this 'at the letter'), i try to have a minimum of 6 school, all of which should be placed in regions which has the following:
-have a bawdy house, inn, coaching inn, etc...
-in a region where the region's capital have the capabality to build operas/museums/observation, in which recommend building a opera/museum, this will give you more happiness (hence less rebellions later on)
-not have any other school in same region, (perhaps exept england, france and spain, these region have a lot of towns, so you could have 3 bawdy house for 2 schools, plus, being capitals they have 'special building' e.g arc de triomph, bourbon palace, british musem, etc. which also bring extra happiness and/or repression

if you have only 1 school, then prioritize practically only on military, (as to make it easier to get more regions, hence more schools)

this section, will be uniquely dedicated to unrest and it's causes.

--brief overview

There are a mulitude of things which will increase of decrease the happiness of your town, city or capital, here is a list of some that will make your settlement 'happy'

-winning in battles (aka patriotic fervour)
-resistance to opponents (you will notice this in a region (that you own) where an enemy army is in, the region capital will have a resistance to foreign occopation
-people in government, some ministers/kings/queens/presidents accumulate traits that can have a good or bad effect.
-buildings such as church schools and inns,
-'main' buildings, (aka government buildings) will give you a repression bonus, and the ability of town watch (which comes when region is 0 or below in happiness)
-government type,
-certain technologies

and in contrary, a small list of those which decreases your happiness:

-buildings such as a school and industrious buildings.
-people in government, some ministers/kings/queens/presidents accumulate traits that can have a good or bad effect.
-certain technologies
-taxes
-loosing in battle (war weariness)
-towns/ports in same region that have been looted/pillaged/raided

---preventions and after
preventing it, well, honestly there isn't much to it.

the most basic, effective way of dealing with it, is station dragoons (or units that have 'garrison policy bonus' in the 'abilities tab' in that unit info)

otherways include: removing the specific cause of unrest, such as a building, a minister, army/navy looting towns/ports. win battles (and hence stop/refrain/avoid loosing them)

if you fail at preventing it, the region will rebel. in most regions, it will just become .... rebels, where .... is the region name, or previous faction owner, in some cases (such as the 13 colonies, quebec, scotland, ireland, etc...) new nations will arise (america, quebec, etc..), these, unlike the 'rebel nations', are fully fledged nations. and in some cases, (especially with america), making them your protectorate is (sometimes) a good idea (see protectorate section).

if the rebellion occurs in your capital region, it becomes a revolution, where you government will change, if on the loosing side, you WILL loose the game, and also, when you a rebel, and if you fail to capture the region with the same turn, when you 'end turn' your faction (or your previous faction, that is the one you have but your are not a rebel of - if you see what i mean ;) ) will operate as a AI faction, and when you gain control, you might finds a couple things have changed....

also, rebellions, will gain strength the more turns they are in the region, every turn they gain 1 unit. hence, it is generally wise to kill them asap.

Diplomacy in ETW in a crucial element,

depending on which diffuculty you are playing as, it will change how easily the AI factions will accept deals, in vh, for instance, they will usually decline almost all offers unless there is 5000+ in coinage attached to it.

but either way, i recommend making allies, and preferably those which wont attack each other (for instance as france, don't ally yourself with austria, since eventually the inbred king Carlos II will die, hence making a war of succession) for example, some allies i try to get on my side regardless on which faction i am:

the 'buffer nations' as a call them, which includes westphalia, hanover, bavaria, and wurttemburg, having them as allies will create a buffer zone, also, these nations, seem to be the least likely to attack you.

Maratha is also a good one, the orange-fever that spreads from southern india will destroy anything in it's path (once as GB, i focused mainly americas - maratha controlled all russia, ottoman and austrian lands before i noticed), so, allying yourself is a good idea, they probably will backstab you eventually,

Ottomans, the only major nations that doesn't get the 'territorial expansion' other nation will get, so, if your conquer quickly, they might be the only nation left that still is friendly to you.

great britain (unless as france or spain), mainly because having an overpowered, filthy rich and powerfull ally is usefull. xD

Also, you will use diplomacy for trade and peace, and gaining territories, most of these depend on you gameplay and campaign.

the threaten button, will sometimes force the nation to accept the terms, if they don't, they will dislike you (since you threatened to attack if they refused), if you fail to attack them, then the next time you try to threaten somebody, the chances of success will decrease, if not, then it is a good reason to declare war on them. this tool is usefull for getting protectorate or peace when they have only 1-2 regions left (especially when both are besieged)



-------- Making Protectorates

Personally, i love protectorate, as france, i like to get wurttemburg, bavaria, hanover and westphalia as my protectorate.

Protectorate will be loyal to you in most cases, they will enter war with you (not to be confused with against you), if they refuse to do so, it will automatically declare war on their parent nation. you also get 50% of their income, this is shown in the "other" section in your economy report.
you are also granted military access in their lands. the regions they own will be counted as your own in the victory conditions.

they are hard to get, as, unline ntw, you cannot create a new protectorate the moment you capture a town.

this is a step by step guide (not so quick), on how to get one, it should usually work most times:

1) conquer specific region where faction will emerge (you can to this to faction that have not emerged, if you not location, capture and make region revolt.

2) make region revolt, other buildings that give happiness bonus, infact, probably best to just destroy everything (not main government building, this will allow a longer time before settlement surrenders).

3) once region rebelled and new faction emerged, (declare way if not already at war) at besiege city, (don't attack, just besiege them), with a force that is strong enough to win, but not too strong so they won't attack

4), wait patiently until they attack, when they do, fight the battle yourself, and try to kill as many units of that new faction as possible (chase them down if necessary after battle is won - you will be ask on a menu if you want to continue battle or end - choose continue, so you can chase down the remainder), but DO NOT destroy army completely!

5) when out of the battle and back on campaign map, go in diplomacy and ask them to become protectorate (go for peace then new tabs will appear, one of which is protectorate). you may have to throught a bit of money in, and perhaps trade rights.

if they refuse, you may want to break the siege, then besiege town again (this is to renew the surrender cycle)

repeate process 4-5 until faction is your protectorate

The configuration and options (such as graphics and audio, etc..) are self explanatory, there is a couple that might need to be explained:

HDR: increases dynamic ranger between light and dark areas - more-or-less, it means that it makes it look more 'real' by the accurate representation of sunlight, starlight, etc...
Volumetric effects: allows such things and 'sunbeams' or rays, or light going through the environment amongst other. again, makes image look more 'real',
SSAO:, or Screen Space Ambient Occlusion, developed and first used in Crysis, it makesthe light radiate in a more 'realistic' way on the computer screen.
Vertical Synchronisation: slows down game on low-end computers quite significantly in my opinion, and honestly, i see very little change.
Hardware Shadows: increases quality of shadows, this can cause on certain computers a significant drop in fps with this enabled
Distortion effects: well, exactly that, things such as heat haze, (when an explosion of fire, this will create a distortion around it). more realistic.
Depth of Field: will cause a slightly blurring look for things far away - makes it look slightly more 'real'
Anti-Aliasing: well, exactly that. in short, it makes everything smoother, my removing edges and things as such. e.g: a ball, without AA, a close up of a (let say) ping-pong ball will appear to have facets, with AA, it creates a more naturale look my removing those facets and creating a 'rounder wall'
Texture Filtering: does that same job as anti-aliasing in some way, only it deals with frequencies from the texture fill, as anti-aliasing, actually focuses on the 'edges'.
e.g: let borrow from example above, the ping-pong ball, will still have facets, but with an alteration of colors and light, it will create a 'smooth' look to it. and thus, it allows for texture to be applied on more 'things'.

everything else is pretty self explanatory.
----

ETW does support mods: here is a link to some important pages:

• ETW hosted modifications at twcenter.net: click here[www.twcenter.net]
  
• ETW non-hosted mods: click here[www.twcenter.net]
  
• ETW Mod Workshop: click here[www.twcenter.net]
  
• ETW Technical Help: click here[www.twcenter.net]

The Index: click here[www.twcenter.net]

Important Tools:

• PFM click here[www.twcenter.net]
  
• DBeditor click here[www.twcenter.net]
  
• Modmanager click here[www.twcenter.net]
  
• ESFEditor click here[www.twcenter.net]
  

Major Tutorials

• STARTPOS.ESF analysis and modifications. HYBRID startpos.esf here[www.twcenter.net]
  
• How to create a custom unit - a complete guide click here[www.twcenter.net]
  
• Sample Mod Pack for those who want a starting point to mess about. click here[www.twcenter.net]

please note, some mods above or if you make your own, you will need a user.empire_script.txt file. just go to: USER\AppData\Roaming\The Creative Assembly\Empire\scripts (don't know location for win8), if none there, right click, create new text document, open the document and place the following lines : "mod "MODNAME";" where MODNAME is the mod you want to load with ETW, do not include the FIRST and LAST quotation mark. and SAVE AS UNICODE (apart from mod... lines, it should be empty)
Also: if you are using modmanager, you will not need to do what is mentioned above, as it will do it for you.

For example, this is the entire content of my user.empire_script file:
mod "patch_general_andy's_musket_sounds.pack";
mod "mod_BSM_4_Full - IS2.pack";
mod "Imperial Splendour DB.pack";
mod "Imperial Splendour Media.pack";
mod "french_retexture.pack";

All credits for the tools goes to their respectful creator(s), and the credits for the tutorials as linked above also goes to their respectful creator(s)

Thankx to:
LTChambers
Daniu
HusserlTW
Aldgarkalaughskel
juniroxors
for the tools and tutorials (as linked above)

First, i'd like to thank all those who has pointed out errors, or missing content in this guide. SO special thanks to these people:

• Xephone
  
• bassmark1
  
• Kung
  
• /VKS/ PlasmaDavid
  
• moshedz

Apart from that, this guide is entirely my own work. however, i must dish out more credit for people who made the tools for this game, without which, most of this would be unknown.

• LTChambers
  
• Daniu
  
• HusserlTW
  
• Aldgarkalaughskel
  
• juniroxors