Oct 3rd 2011, 13:05:19
It's not useless. It's helpful if you can think of a strategy to choose. Also, you will find it useful having a look at some the threads in this forum (and in primary thread) which have proven to be popular. A lot of advice is repeated over and over again. What you will not get is a turn by turn set of instructions on what to do.
You have several strats. There are,
Casher - build ent zones, res (at a ratio of about 11:9), cs + ind make up the rest, usually about 5-10% of land being ind at 100% spies. Do not build other types of buildings as your income/turn depends on % of land occupied by enterprise zones. Buy everything you need which will include lots of turrets and food as well as techs. Bus/res tech are very important. Then later when those techs are close to maximum you'll start to need military tech to lower your costs. Governments include, but are not limited to, Republic, Democracy, Theocracy.
Farmer - build farms, construction sites + 5-10% ind at 100% spies (if oil price is high, oil rigs too). Sell food. Profit. Buy lots of agri tech, then bus/res when agri is close to max and then military tech. Buy turrets. Governments include, but are not limited to, Republic, Democracy, Fascism.
Industrialist - build industrial complexes + cs with 5-10% production set to spies (could build oil rigs too). Buy lots of industrial tech, then bus/res when agri is close to max and then military tech. Sell turrets and jets. Governments include Communism... there are few that play this strat (well) using other governments.
Techer - build labs, cs + ind make up the rest, usually about 5-10% of land being ind at 100% spies. Do not build other types of buildings as your tech/turn depends on % of land occupied by labs. Supposedly more difficult to run successfully than the others above. Governments include, but are not limited to, Republic, Democracy, Theocracy.
Do not try to run a country that has a few of each building type - aka Rainbow strat. These types of countries are not efficient.
The earlier you can get your main techs, despite the high prices, is usually considered to be better as you will be able to sell more product (or generate more cash) which enables you to buy more things enabling you to grow quicker.
Choose a strat, choose a government. Decide whether you'll be aggressive and grab land or whether you'll be exploring to get your land.
It's usually not worth bothering with troops or tanks for more than a few thousand units unless you're aggravating someone by grabbing them more than once. Stick to turrets (and jets if you are grabbing).
If you are grabbing, you will find that weapons tech, spy tech and military strategy come in useful in being able to find a good target (victim) and grab as much land as possible with as few military units as necessary.
Constructions sites... getting up to around 60 or so bpt will be ok. Depends on what size your country gets to be able to say whether it's the most efficient or not. The bigger you want to be, the most cs you need.
Have fun.