Strategy Guide / Tips for New Players

[erik_ironfist]

Tips / Strategy Guide for New Players:

• When the global temperature increases above two degrees, arctic methane will begin escaping from the permafrost, hastening global warming and making it much harder to win the game. Ideally you should try to prevent this from happening, or at least delay it. You will need to research and play "Deploy Sulfate Aerosols" in four or five countries starting around 2045 to have a chance of holding the global temperature below two degrees.
  
• The rainforests in South America and South Asia soak up a bunch of carbon dioxide and need to be protected from desertification. I suggest playing "Protect Land, Soil & Forests" in both territories starting on turn one.
  
• "Cap & Trade Carbon Emissions" is a critical card that you pretty much need to play at some point during every mission in order to be successful. Aim to play this card in every territory starting no later than 2080 -- but the earlier you can start, the better.
  
• At the beginning of the game, China and India are belching out unbelievable amounts of coal smoke, and invariably these two countries will be your worst polluters unless you do something about it. I strongly suggest you play "Coal-Free Industry" in both territories on turn one, and build an Energy Office in both territories on turn one so you're set up to play "Decline Coal Power" on turn two.
  
• As you reduce coal usage across the world, you will need a substitute energy source. I suggest playing "Expand [Natural] Gas Production" in Russia and in the Middle East starting on turn two, to flood the world with cheap natural gas, to ensure that any reductions in coal power get replaced with cheap natural gas.
  
• Cars still run on oil even after you change the mix of electricity, so you need to make sure you don't run out of oil as the world's population continues to grow and develop economically. I suggest playing "Expand Oil Production" in North America and in the Middle East starting on turn 2 or 3, so people's cars won't run out of oil.
  
• Try to build all of the Environment Office improvements in every territory, because the weather will become more severe over time and these improvements will become more and more important for keeping territories happy.
  
• Note that educating the developing world will slow down their population growth while also increasing their GDP (and therefore your tax revenue) so it's generally a good idea to educate the developing world as quickly as possible.

[Delnar_Ersike]

Comments based on my own experiences, observations, and insight into the game's internals:

The rainforests in South America and South Asia soak up a bunch of carbon dioxide and need to be protected from desertification. I suggest playing "Protect Land, Soil & Forests" in both territories starting on turn one.

The forest-saving effects of this card aren't actually the most important; the most important effects are 2-3 hidden effects that dramatically reduce the water use and emissions of your agricultural sector. You should want to play it in as many regions as possible, though South America and Southeast Asia are indeed the two regions where it's most important to play them early.

"Cap & Trade Carbon Emissions" is a critical card that you pretty much need to play at some point during every mission in order to be successful. Aim to play this card in every territory starting no later than 2080 -- but the earlier you can start, the better.

Cap & Trade itself doesn't really do much. Without the Unofficial Patch mod however, it is necessary in order to play two cards that reduce the emisions of your industrial and commercial sectors respectively, which are actually vital. Once those cards' effects have been completed, you can remove Cap & Trade from a region.

Cars still run on oil even after you change the mix of electricity, so you need to make sure you don't run out of oil as the world's population continues to grow and develop economically. I suggest playing "Expand Oil Production" in North America and in the Middle East starting on turn 2 or 3, so people's cars won't run out of oil.

If you aren't playing with the Unofficial Patch, it's incredibly important in the early game to be economical with your offices and not build more than you need to. Since you're already going to be building Energy Offices in the Middle East and in Russia (because of Natural Gas), it's a better idea to also play Expand Oil Production in Russia as well, and let North America do something else with the extra agent-turn that you get from not having to build an Energy Office there.

You also forgot the three most important tips of all IMO:

• Without the Unofficial Patch, Space Solar Array will solve all of your energy problems instantly.You should therefore rush it as quickly as possible; the earliest that you'll be able to build it is 2110, and that's only if you've been pumping money into tech from the very first year.
  
• Pumping money into tech is vital to making sure you can stabilize your situation as quickly as possible. The strategy there is to pick 2-3 regions with HDI > 0.945 and a starting level of 2020 in certain tech categories, pick 1-2 tech categories to constantly fund in those regions (the ones you pick should start at 2020 level at the start of the game), make sure those regions never fall below 0.945 HDI, and then buy up important techs in other regions as these ones unlock them. I usually pick North America, Japan, and Oceania as my tech regions: Oceania gets Biotech (least important tech category), Japan gets Robotics and Energy, and North America gets Information and Materials. Out of all of these tech categories, Information and Materials are the most important overall, though pretty much everything other than Biotech should always be constantly funded.
  
• Without the Unofficial Patch, weather events permanently reduce your regions' production without reducing their emissions per unit of production. This means that you should always play weather protection cards ASAP, otherwise it's extremely easy for a region to enter a death spiral, where they keep producing emissions at the same rate but have absolutely no economic output.

[erik_ironfist]

Good call-outs!

Originally posted by Delnar_Ersike:

The forest-saving effects of this card aren't actually the most important; the most important effects are 2-3 hidden effects that dramatically reduce the water use and emissions of your agricultural sector. You should want to play it in as many regions as possible, though South America and Southeast Asia are indeed the two regions where it's most important to play them early.

Interesting! I didn't know it was worth playing that card in any other regions -- good to know.

Originally posted by Delnar_Ersike:

Cap & Trade itself doesn't really do much. Without the Unofficial Patch mod however, it is necessary in order to play two cards that reduce the emisions of your industrial and commercial sectors respectively, which are actually vital. Once those cards' effects have been completed, you can remove Cap & Trade from a region.

Solid advice.

Originally posted by Delnar_Ersike:

If you aren't playing with the Unofficial Patch, it's incredibly important in the early game to be economical with your offices and not build more than you need to. Since you're already going to be building Energy Offices in the Middle East and in Russia (because of Natural Gas), it's a better idea to also play Expand Oil Production in Russia as well, and let North America do something else with the extra agent-turn that you get from not having to build an Energy Office there.

Fair point, although Russia doesn't have a huge amount of oil deposits and if you expand oil production in Russia instead of North America you will eventually hit a wall when Russia runs out of oil deposits (though if you invest in biofuels and electric cars early enough, this might not be an issue).

Originally posted by Delnar_Ersike:

You also forgot the three most important tips of all IMO: Without the Unofficial Patch, Space Solar Array will solve all of your energy problems instantly.You should therefore rush it as quickly as possible; the earliest that you'll be able to build it is 2110, and that's only if you've been pumping money into tech from the very first year.

True!

Originally posted by Delnar_Ersike:

Pumping money into tech is vital to making sure you can stabilize your situation as quickly as possible. The strategy there is to pick 2-3 regions with HDI > 0.945 and a starting level of 2020 in certain tech categories, pick 1-2 tech categories to constantly fund in those regions (the ones you pick should start at 2020 level at the start of the game), make sure those regions never fall below 0.945 HDI, and then buy up important techs in other regions as these ones unlock them. I usually pick North America, Japan, and Oceania as my tech regions: Oceania gets Biotech (least important tech category), Japan gets Robotics and Energy, and North America gets Information and Materials. Out of all of these tech categories, Information and Materials are the most important overall, though pretty much everything other than Biotech should always be constantly funded.

Personally I do energy and robotics in Japan, infotech and biotech in North America, and materials in Europe. I try to get all research up and running no later than turn 3. I put my GEO headquarters in China, which needs to happen around 2050 so I can pass the global ban on clathrates before clathrate emissions get out of hand.

Originally posted by Delnar_Ersike:

Without the Unofficial Patch, weather events permanently reduce your regions' production without reducing their emissions per unit of production. This means that you should always play weather protection cards ASAP, otherwise it's extremely easy for a region to enter a death spiral, where they keep producing emissions at the same rate but have absolutely no economic output.

Agreed; building all of the environment protection improvements ASAP is critical. Especially because when a region gets hit by a weather event and doesn't have the corresponding environmental protection improvement, you lose a bunch of support from that region.

[kzickas]

I disagree with a lot of the advice given here.

I've never found expanding gas production to be relevant. Remember that expanding production doesn't increase how much is being produced, but how much can be produced. At the start of the game the world is using much less gas than it can produce and I've never experienced much troubled with gas shortages.

Don't use coal-free industry in the early game. Coal-free industry exchanges industry's coal demand with a much greater amount of electricity demand. Unless you can meet that extra electricity demand with clean energy you're going to massively increase emissions.

Using reduce coal power is, as mentioned, important because coal power is the most polluting, but oil power is almost as bad. If you just use reduce coal power most of the electricity generation is going to move to oil instead. Using both reduce coal power and reduce oil power at the same time is much better than using one on its own. By combining both the reduction in each is forced into only gas and nuclear, which produce much fewer emissions. Be careful about running out of uranium though. You probably need to spread 4th generation nuclear to the most nuclear hungry countries and then use the nuclear energy card to actually update the powerplants.

Be careful about using cap and trade because it massively grows the economy of developing countries, which increases water demand and can create devastating water shortages. India, the middle east and northern Africa are especially prone to this.

[erik_ironfist]

Originally posted by kzickas:

Remember that expanding production doesn't increase how much is being produced, but how much can be produced.

You're incorrect about this. The only card I know of that can increase your fossil fuel deposits is "Prospect in Wildlife Reserve". "Expand Natural Gas Production" does exactly what the card says it does!

Originally posted by kzickas:

Don't use coal-free industry in the early game. Coal-free industry exchanges industry's coal demand with a much greater amount of electricity demand. Unless you can meet that extra electricity demand with clean energy you're going to massively increase emissions.

Good point, although if you're simultaneously declining coal and oil power it's probably fine.

Originally posted by kzickas:

Using reduce coal power is, as mentioned, important because coal power is the most polluting, but oil power is almost as bad. If you just use reduce coal power most of the electricity generation is going to move to oil instead. Using both reduce coal power and reduce oil power at the same time is much better than using one on its own. By combining both the reduction in each is forced into only gas and nuclear, which produce much fewer emissions.

This is very good advice. Don't forget that it also pushes energy into renewables, a little bit.

Originally posted by kzickas:

Be careful about running out of uranium though. You probably need to spread 4th generation nuclear to the most nuclear hungry countries and then use the nuclear energy card to actually update the powerplants.

This is exactly why I suggest expanding natural gas production so most countries rely on natural gas as their transition fuel and you don't have to worry about running out of uranium in the mid-game. In fact, in my play-throughs I don't encourage nuclear energy, I don't invest in uranium or helium mining, and I don't pay to unlock nuclear technology -- and I've managed to beat all the missions -- personally I don't think investing in nuclear or fusion is worth it.

Originally posted by kzickas:

Be careful about using cap and trade because it massively grows the economy of developing countries, which increases water demand and can create devastating water shortages. India, the middle east and northern Africa are especially prone to this.

Good advice, I would say that you should not play Cap & Trade until you've built all the Environment Office upgrades in all the developing countries.