Alright, this is a huge guide that I "borrowed" from another alliance, whoever wrote it put a crapload of work into it so don't let that work go to waste (It even helped me a little).
Starting Off
Alright, let?s assume that you have successfully created your very own nation. Very good. But that?s not going to mean anything if you don?t know what to do next. Here?s what you need to do:
1. Set your nation into War Mode (Option is found in the ?Edit My Nation? screen)
2. Correctly assign the Government and Religion your people want (Specifics farther down)
3. Optimize your Tax Rate (More on that further on)
4. Purchase a few dozen soldiers (50?ll do for a new nation)
5. Set Government Positions (Again, more on that a little later)
6. Collect Taxes/Pay Bills
7. Buy Infrastructure
8. Buy a little land so your people aren?t too angry
9. Buy More infrastructure
If you didn?t notice, Infrastructure is single handedly the most important thing for a new, and even older nation. Dump money into it every day as much as you can, and you?ll see your strength and population count soar.
Desired Government
In your Edit My Nation page, there is a drop down menu for in which you can choose the governing style your nation has. Here?s the trick: unless your people want a Revolutionary Government, always keep your government on Monarchy. Let me explain.
The chart above is provided by the Admin of the game, and it shows the various benefits each governing style has. As you can see, both Monarchy and Revolutionary Government gives you +1 Happiness and -5% Infrastructure costs. These benefits are the best out of the various governments, and outweigh the bonuses from choosing another governing style, even if it?s what your people want. If your people request for Monarchy or Revolutionary Government, then you get both the bonuses provided from simply having that government along with a +1 happiness bonus; all the better.
Please note that Revolutionary, totalitarian, dictatorship, transitional, communism, and maybe a few others hurt your environment as well.
Desired Religion
Just like Government type, having your religion set to what your people want gives you a +1 Happiness bonus. However, unlike government, there are no extra bonuses for certain religions. To figure out exactly what religion the clue provided specifies, use this guide made by Egore.
? None
Perhaps they do not desire a religion
? Mixed
They cannot make up their minds when it comes to religion.
?Baha'i Faith
They desire a modern Middle Eastern religion that focuses on monotheism.
? Buddhism
The majority do not wish to worship a supreme deity.
? Christianity
They desire a religion that worships a divine savior.
? Confucianism
They desire a Far Eastern philosophical religion.
? Hinduism
They believe in reincarnation and Karma and desire a religion that supports this philosophy.
? Islam
They wish to worship a supreme being that they call Allah.
? Jainism
They are primarily non-materialistic and wish for a national religion that supports atheism and that teaches that every single living thing is an individual and eternal soul, called jīva, which is responsible for its own actions.
? Judaism
They are desire a religion that follows divine scriptures.
?Norse
? Shinto
They believe that god is present in all walks of life, both in living and non-living things.
?Sikhism
They believe in reincarnation and the wish to worship a supreme being that they call Allah.
?Taoism
Your citizens want not a single god but instead believe in oneness and freedom from personal desires.
?Voodoo
They believe in the conjuring of dead spirits and desire a national religion that supports this.
Tax Rate
To get the most money from your people when you collect taxes, it is needed to have your tax rate set to the optimum amount for your nation. Changing your tax rate can be done in the Edit My Nation page.
To find your optimum rate, try any and all percentage number out. See which one gives you the highest ?Avg. Individual Income Taxes Paid Per Day?, and keep that one. Pay no attention to how your people act happiness wise due to your tax rate.
Government Positions
This is a pretty basic thing. On the Navbar on the left, there is something called My Government Position. Click that and simply follow this guide (again, made by Egore):
Issue #1 ? Belligerent Nation
For this issue, your response doesn?t have any effect on your nation. If you are not in peace mode (which you shouldn?t be), the first option will be unavailable. Other than that, this one is up to personal preference.
Issue #2 ? Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty
This issue is a little more complicated. If you are not trading for uranium, pick the first option, which will improve your environment. If you are trading for uranium but are using for its economical benefits and not for nuclear weapons, pick the second option, which will result in a hit to your environment and population happiness but will allow you to profit from having high technology levels with uranium. If you plan to purchase nuclear weapons, the third option is for you. However, keep in mind that you?re environment will take a major blow because of this. The bad effects from the second option are doubled if you pick the third. So only select the third option if you are serious about nukes.
Issue #3 ? Drug Traffickers
Choosing the first option will result in a hit on your environment. Either the second or third option is the way to go ? it doesn?t matter which.
Issue #4 ? Rioters
Like the first issue, this one is down to personal preference. It doesn?t matter which option you choose.
Issue #5 ? Immigration
Pick either the second or third option. The first will hurt your environment
Issue #6 ? Freedom of Speech
Again, this is up to personal preference.
Issue #7 ? Disaster Relief
This one is up to you.
Issue #8 ? Inhumane Nation
The final issue is once again up to you. Your choice is irrelevant.
Trading/Resources
If you want to see the list of resources and what each one does, click here
Naturally, some resources are better than others. Here is a rough list of the top resources in order:
1. Fish
2. Wheat
3. Gems
4. Lumber
5. Marble
6. Iron
7. Wine
8. Silver
9. Cattle
10. Sugar
11. Uranium
12. Gold
13. Spices
14. Water
15. Coal
16. Furs
17. Oil
18. Pigs
19. Lead
20. Aluminum
21. Rubber
It is critical you trade with someone from the same team as you are. For every trade you have with someone of the same team, you get +1 Happiness, which is defiantly a bonus. To find what you want, simply type in ?[team color], [resource 1], [resource 2]? into the search bar on the bottom of the page. So if I was on the green team wanting Fish and Wheat, I?d search with ?Green, Fish, Wheat?. Simple, no?
Bonus Resources
These bad boys, which can be listed and described here, are nifty little items to make the normally horrible resources semi-good.
To figure out what Bonus Resources are right for you, simply look at your native resources. If you have pigs natively, get fast food. If you have coal natively, get fine jewelry and steel. If you have both lead and oil natively, get microchips. If you have water and aluminum natively, get beer. Automobiles are never worth it, and construction is always worth it, no matter what resources you have natively.
What to buy?what to buy?
Infrastructure
I cannot stress this enough. Buy infrastructure. Infrastructure brings citizens into your nation, which, in turn raises your tax intake, which, in turn again gives you lots and lots of money. Just pour all your money into this and you?ll be fine. Just don?t forget there are other things you can buy as well.
Land
Land doesn?t do all too much for you or your nation, so you might want to avoid getting this. Once you get into a higher strength without purchasing much land, you can bank in by buying tons of for cheap, raising your strength by a sizeable amount. Try keeping your land at around half your Infrastructure, to keep your environment?s sake.
Military
If you are not planning on war anytime soon, and you want to keep your bills down, try to keep your soldier count at around 20% of your citizen count. You can keep a couple of tanks on hand if you want to be a little more safe incase you?re attacked. Never hold Cruise Missiles if you?re not going to use them immediately. Their upkeep cost is too high. Nukes are entirely up to you; if you want the security, go ahead, but keep in mind it takes a lot of money both to purchase them. You have to change you?re government position to use uranium for nukes instead power, which also lowers your economy. The choice is still yours, though.
Technology
Technology is a pretty important item. It just about controls the battle field if you are in a war. Once you make $5,000, purchase the lowest amount of tech the game allows. Once you make $10,000 a day, buy 1 tech level every day until you reach 10; you?ll get some happiness bonuses for doing so. If you are using Uranium for power, you?ll get money bonuses for every tech level until you reach level 30. It also contributes to strength quite a bit.
Improvements
Improvements are a pretty big thing in the game. You can only get one for every 1,000 citizens you have, so choose wisely. The list of improvements and what they do/cost can be found here.
Your first improvement is a harbor. Don?t buy anything else first. The extra trade slot can advance your economy more than any other improvement can, and it can patch up any weaknesses your nation may have. Please note you can only have 1 harbor and 1 foreign ministry.
You can have a total of 5 of any other improvements, though. There are two improvements that you want to look into. Banks give you +8% income, which is no doubt a good option to look into. However, factories lower Infrastructure cost by 12%. So if you are focusing the majority of your purchases on Infrastructure, it may be better for you to stack up on these.
WAR!
War is a very intricate part of the game. If you want to win, pay attention to this guide. It pretty much guides you through war and tells you exactly what you need to do. Note, this only tells you how to fight offensive wars, meaning you?re the one attacking.
1. First, check if the nation is in your range. An easy way is to go to your enemy?s nation page, and click the Declare War link on top. If it says you re not in the range, than you cannot attack. If it allows you to attack, cool, you?re in their range.
2. See if you have more technology than they do. Technology plays a huge role in war, and you should never go to war against someone who is more advanced technology wise, even if you have a bigger army.
3. Deploy your military. Click the Deploy Military button on the NavBar, and deploy as much military as you can. However, do NOT select any deploying options in red. His will cause riots in your nation, which will extremely hurt your nation.
4. Declare War. Declare war before you strengthen your army. By buying your army before declaring war, you are just about guaranteed to jump out of their strength range, making you unable to go to war with them.
5. Set your DEFCON level to level 1. This makes your military more efficient.
6. Do not attack yet! We still need to strengthen your military
Military
Soldiers: Soldiers are simply put, cheap (and even cheaper in DEFCON 1). You can buy quite a few for very little money, which is good. One soldier = One Military Strength, so 10 soldiers = 10 military strength. You don?t need to worry all too much about this whole Military Strength business. All it does is tell you how much of a chance you have for victory, but your battle page already gives you that info.
Tanks: Tanks are a very important force. They add a heckuva lot of Military Strength, but are more powerful when on defense than offence. When using tanks to attack, one tank = 15 military strength (15 times stronger than a soldier). When used on defense, one tank = 17 military strength (17 times stronger than a soldier). Because of this, the offensive nation (you) should probably have some more tanks than the opposing team.
Cruise Missiles: Cruise missiles are very tactical. When used, they take a blow into the opposing nation?s infrastructure, which I?ve already expressed is very important to have. You can attack 2 per day with them, launching one missile per attack. Cruise Missiles can also destroy defending tanks, which is very critical.
Nukes: Nukes, in short, require no strategy. You simply launch one of them and wave good-bye to the enemy?s nation. In the word of the Admin, here is what they do:
Nuclear weapons completely reduce the number of defending soldiers for a defending nation to zero, cause great amounts of land and infrastructure losses (35% each), and also cause population happiness to plummet for a period of 5 days after a nuclear attack.
I wouldn?t suggest using these unless you really have to. But it is still your decision.
Let?s get back to the guide?
6. On your Battle Page, if it says you have over a 50% chance of victory, now you can click the shiny little Battle Button and begin the war.
Strategic Tips
Declare war as close to the update as possible. If you can wait until the update (Midnight EST, 5am GMT), do so. Attack the two times you are allowed to right before the update, then once the update occurs, you can attack twice more for a super quadruple attack!
Attack with cruise missiles before sending out your ground troops. This way, you can destroy some of the defending takes before your ground forces even arrive. Not to mention take a chunk away from his infrastructure.
Never, and I mean never, attack multiple nations at the same time. Doing this is just about suicide, as it is very, very difficult to spread your military onto two battlefronts efficiently. If you can avoid it, do so.
You are allowed to switch your DEFCON level once per day. If you are not planning on quadruple attacking that night, and you are able to stay up for the update, do the following. Right before the update, switch your DEFCON to level 5. Immediately after the update, collect your taxes/pay bills, then switch your DEFCON back to level 1. This way, you reap all the economic bonuses for having your DEFCON at 5 for tax intake, but you don?t lose any edge of the war, as it is unlikely you?ll be attacked for the 1 minute you are in DEFCON 5.
Misc.
Events
Events for your nation randomly occur right after you collect taxes. They range from things that benefit your nation to events that hurt you. Of course, you want to choose the option that does the most good for your country, or in some cases, the least bad. Sometimes there is not a clear cut answer on which decision is best. Egore is currently working on a guide that tells you which decision is the best. A link to this guide will be posted on a later date.