[tinkthank]

Excuse me for digging this out of the basement, but I wanted to add one thing which may seem obvious.

- hitting the f-1 button will give you a "nation overview", which becomes much less confusing for a newbie when you then hit the "tab" button (which then does not display your troops). This is an invaluable tool once you have more than a dozen provinces or so. Check the columns "taxation" and "unrest", for example: see any problems? Forget where you had those nasty brigands and lowered the tax rate to douse the unrest? F1 will help you. Not sure which provinces have what province defense? F1 lists them all. Which provinces do you still need to search for those desperately needed earth gems? F1 shows you where you searched and which results you got.
Forgot where Dingbat the Commander with the Summer Sword is? Hit "tab" again, and you can find your commanders quickly.
The task of micromanaging your empire becomes *that* much less confusing with f1.
I found this out way too late.