Where do newbies go to rant about the game?

[Horst F. JENS]

Even after all those patches, the manual is still handy to quick lookup items or spells.

What i like most on the manual is the nation description that gives the historical/fantasy background from the developers viewpoint for each nation & era.

The manual also provides you with some basic god design/strategy hints for each nation & era. Very worthy read.

Of course the nations introduced with later patches are missing.

[Endoperez]

Originally Posted by Horst F. JENS

The manual also provides you with some basic god design/strategy hints for each nation & era. Very worthy read.

Actually, I think those parts are what can be most easily learned from the forums. There are guides that describe the strategies where manual was right in much more detail, and there are many strategies in the manual that just aren't that good.

Province defense and castle type lists are also very useful.The manual doesn't have the third PD unit from the few nations that get three basic units, though.