Game Theory and Strategy
At the risk of giving away my playstyle, and advantages which I hold, I would like to set down a little bit of knowledge on how the game is run, and how to be successful at it.
First off, I'd like to start by saying that this game revolves around land. With enough land, anything is possible, and without it, one finds it very difficult to move up the ranks. The more land you have, the more money you can make, and the more population you can house. Population is key to both funds generation and army size, and thus should be maximized if possible. Funds, is the basis for all country development, and likewise should be maximized.
Attack
Because the development of your country is directly influenced by the amount of money you make per turn, and more land means more money, your number one goal in the game should be to acquire more land. I like to attack for 5 turns, and use the next 20 to build on my conquored land and then generate funds to boost my army and develop more tech points.
If I feel a retaliation is near, an ambush for the last 8 turns is a good idea, or perhaps CSDS if availible. In this manner, every 25 turns I attack someone as long as all of my land is developed, and my army readiness is at 100%. The more you attack, the more land you get.
Example: Player A and B start of the same. Each makes $100,000 every turn, and with that, can produce 10 units. Player A spends all 100 turns producing units. He has made a total of 1,000 units, and $10M. Player B attacks every 25 turns, gaining land and increasing his funds by $10,000 every attack, but losing 50 units per attack.
He loses 200 units from attacking, thus putting his standard production at 800 units and $10M. However, with the attacks, he gains extra money every turn. His additional production is (95*$10k+70*10K+45*10K+20*10k) $2.12M, allowing production of an additional 212 units.
Player B is much better off for attacking than Player A is for stockpiling units. B also gains more military factories and labs, thereby allowing cheaper tech production and increased military output. Simply put, attacking is better than not attacking.
Invest HEAVILY in tech
Technology is a key component of the game. I recommend investing very heavily in tech points from the start. Initially, you will want to invest in funds, tech development, and housing. This will allow you to gain more tech points each turn. Consider this: A player with no tech advancements in troops, holding 100,000 troops is the same as a player with tech level 10 troops holding 55,555.
If the player with 100,000 troops gets attacked and loses 20,000 troops, his source of power drops considerably. However, if the player with level 10 troops gets attacked, he will lose less troops, and more importantly, it will take less turns to rebuild to his former power because he needs to build less troops. Additionally, his army uses less population, and less food.
Thus, he is able to sustain more power than someone who rushes to build gobs of troops without supporting them via tech levels.
Tech is not good for just military power. You should also boost your economy and build speed. Build speed is an excellent measure of how quickly your country can bounce back from an attack. Every time someone destroys your buildings, or you gain more land, you need to build. The quicker you can build, the more turns you can spend making money or attacking to get more land.
Also, a boost in funds per turn helps very much, and helps more as you gain land. A person making 150% funds/turn with a base of $1M/turn will make an additional $500k/turn. Once that same person attacks enough to make $10M/turn, he makes an additional $5M/turn. Needless to say, funds tech levels are a high priority investment.
Build Smart
Run through the menu tutorial on the build screen. Notice it tells you how many jobs each building uses. Knowing this, a simple spreadsheet will allow you to calculate the needed population for any configuration of buildings. Always attempt to have 100% employment, but make sure to have enough population to fill all of your buildings. A country with 1000 shops and 10 houses does not make nearly as much as a country with 750 shops and 260 houses.
Building proportions should be decided on based on your government and playstyle. Personally, I like to keep my military factories at about 1/6th of my shops. My labs are always in increments of 15, and should be roughly 1/2 of my military factories. Farms, Oil, and housing is then determined by need. I create housing to fill my shops, factories and labs, adding a few additional houses to fill the farms, oil, and hospitals. Farms and Oil are then determined based on population.
Farms are kept at a level where I generate a small surplus every turn, and Oil is kept at a level where I generate enough in the 20 turns it takes to rebuild after attacking that my oil level returns to what it was before I attacked, or possibly a little higher. Hospitals are not super important, although I always add a few for good measure. I like to keep those about 1/4 of my labs.
Budget
The allocation of your budget is determined based on your goal for the turn. If you need quick power, put it 100% into military production, and use the left over funds on the market to buy additional units. While developing superweapons, I like to keep my development budget around 20%. This allows the weapon to grow at a reasonable pace, assuming I have no pressing need for it. I recommend that you figure out how much of your budget is being used to create units.
Generally it will be around 20%. Keep military production here so that you can focus most of your budget elsewhere. War Generals are underpowered at the moment, but still help boost your country. I like to invest a little into them each turn so that even if I'm not being attacked my defense is increasing. Keep this around 5%. That leaves 75% for research and development (remember, invest heavily).
If you are developing a superweapon, that will generally come out of this budget. Tune your budget to your needs, but remember that you want to constantly improve your country's technology.
Alliances
Make sure to join an alliance. Those in an alliance pick on people without alliance defends, and those in a strong alliance can coordinate attacks to deal a lot of damage to enemys. Alliances are also a great source of aid and community. Find a good alliance and stick with it.
In closing, I'd like to thank you for reading a little of what I think of how to play the game. I would like to reiterate as much as possible that land is the most important commodity in the game. I would much rather have more land and a smaller army than have a big army and less land. The more land you have, the more money you make, and the more army and tech you can build or buy. =)
