Guide: Some basic notes on expansion

[momfreeek]

Originally Posted by Admiral_Aorta

Magic becomes immportant almost immediately, and if you fall behind in research you have little chance of doing well later, even if you have extra provinces because you focused on expansion over research.

As a complete noob I was much more effective with land, money & troops than mages and early spells and I've not had a problem catching up with research. I'm still not sure how magic is important that early (I'm not questioning you, just verifying my noobness). Its good to know what is expected in games with more experienced players.