«

Sounds like you're not doing too badly for a first try; a lot better than I managed way back, at least. Good job going straight for normal difficulty, you can get a monster military-industrial complex going a bit too effortlessly on the easier ones.

Originally Posted by shouldbe Palocles

1. In order to have a decent selection of resources available the empire should be located in the temperate zone of the map. Too close to the top or bottom gives too much tundra and close to the equator, deserts.

Temperate zones tend to do really well on food production for getting your manpower up and running, but keep in mind that some desert resources may turn out to be rather useful for a modernizing Great Power around the turn of the century...

Originally Posted by shouldbe Palocles

4. Surplus in something sellable needs to be made to generate income.

Try to focus on the big bucks here. Although raw material sales can temporarily get you out of an economic death spiral, the extra profit you make by having your industries do their added-value thing is what will keep you afloat. Try to get your provincial towns to chip in whenever it's viable; if you can get a wood-heavy province to make furniture or something you'll be getting nearly free export profits from it. When the world markets get more polarized later on in the game you may have to break out the subsidies to make a sale, though.

Originally Posted by shouldbe Palocles

5. Trade delegations should be made in minor nations who can provide several raw resources (i prefer ones which sell wood, wool or cotton, iron and coal) but this may vary to taste. Trading with several countries each specialised in a different area may also work but i suspect long term political gains will be lower this way.

Trading is great and you should keep doing it. Keep in mind that you won't be able to afford to regularly trade with more than one or two minors once you move up in difficulty, so don't spread yourself too thin. Once you identify the nation you want to jump in bed with, don't be afraid to give them a good deal (25% extra should be viable) to keep the other Great Powers from becoming Most Favoured, and make sure you buy at least 1 of every resource they offer you. 1 sale is 1 diplomatic bonus, no matter how much stuff is actually sold.

Originally Posted by shouldbe Palocles

6. Buy canned food when you can to improve relations with other major nations.

Your workers don't actually like to eat canned food, so try to get as much fresh stuff from your homeland as possible. If you're desperate to play nice with another Great Power, try to see if they're exporting anything you can turn into cannons in the ledger.

Originally Posted by shouldbe Palocles

I've been struggling to collect enough resources, recruit workers, etc but the computer never seems to struggle (except Patagon).

For example, transport is required to get all those resources to the capital for production and i have the highest transport value but the otehr nations have more industry, military, merchant marine, etc.

How can the computer build all those things if they are transporting fewer resources to their capital?

Merchant marine transports resources to the capital as well. Keep tabs on the ledger to see where those guys are getting their stuff from. As for industry, they may just have a lot of upgraded factories, or they are getting a lot of production done in their other cities (I forgot where those goods get counted). Generally, you will be able to see a decent correlation between Industry and Military, though. Those cannons don't make themselves.