[VedalkenBear]

I'd like to second the point regarding the mods. That's a huge part of extending the life of SP. The quality does vary, but that's normal in any human enterprise.

If you play quite a bit of SP, especially on large maps, one incalculably important ability to learn is how to handle large groups of troops. The computer AI generally likes to hire them.

I must disagree with the point about the usefulness of the rulebook. RTFM23 comes to mind regarding it. The most important parts to know early are, IMO, the parts that apply to any nation. They are, in no particular order:

1) Learn the rules of morale. Certain nations have no problem with morale; others have crippling problems with morale.

2) Learn how dominion spreads. This almost follows from 1), since from a morale standpoint, you always want to fight in your own dominion for the morale boost it gives.

3) Learn the scales. Learn them well. Don't concentrate on the actual pretender chassis you take so much as what those scales do, and what they mean. As an example, start a game with any nation and take Turmoil-3. Don't even play a turn. Look at how much money you make (which will be from your capital province of ~30k people). Then exit the game, and take Turmoil-2. Etc. etc., all the way up to Order-3. That gives a much more concrete 'feel' as to what happens with that scale, at least. You can do the same with Sloth vs. Productivity, but for Growth/Death and Luck/Misfortune, there's no 'concrete' way of figuring those out.

4) Learn how to position troops. Experiment. Some are pretty obvious (shield archers with other troops... generally), but there are other issues as well.

A frequent discussion on these forums is what nation to suggest to a beginning player. I prefer to ask the player what kind of nation they want to play, and then suggest from a shorter list. Most people who pick up this game will know enough about the genre (4x TBS) that they'll be able to answer this question.

Anyway, sorry for the longwindedness.