[Gandalf Parker]

In most games your big concern is finding out who your neighbor is. In a game this large, you want to work very hard at finding out who your NEIGHBORS neighbor is. Who is on the other side of your worst enemy? Keep in mind the adage "my enemies enemy is my friend". Even if you dont do full alliance it can be important intel to know when someone is attacking him on the far side drawing his big armies away from you.

Also do alot of research into who has what gems, and what commanders. Especially what mages they have. Not with the focus of meeting them in battle, but with the focus of meeting them in the trading market. It might be a factor on whether or not you attack them when you meet them if you feel that they will be powerful trading nations later. Trading mages can be especially powerful for late game.

Consider before you put lots of PD into a province that you plan to build a castle or lab in. You cant remove PD. PD can count against you when you work with allies. It can work against you in lab provinces that you will use for trading mages, or in castles province that you might want to setup to allow an allies army to move safely thru your area and help you out.