Guide to EA C'tis

[Lazy_Perfectionist]

I want to thank you for this guide, since I'm a newbie dedicated right now to EA C'tis. My last five games have been singleplayer medium map C'tis vs Ulm. And I've been losing each time. Regardless, I am lasting a bit longer now.

I've found your guide handy, though I've been experimenting and not perfectly following. If there are no objections to me resurrecting this topic, I'd like to go over some of my games and offer my (admittedly flawed, n00bish) perceptions, and ask for some advise, while trying to contribute something myself. Certainly, my advice might not be as high quality, but giving it will help me see what I'm doing wrong, and maybe right, especially if it gets criticism.

One problem I've had trouble dealing with, especially since I'm not a fan of Order scales, is affording those Tel Cities at 1400 gold apiece. Roughly speaking, what kind of early game expansion strategy would you suggest, and how should I decide when and where to build my first very expensive fortress?

If I build them in a high resource province (typical bottleneck), I get enough production, sure, but I'm still drastically short on cash. If I build it in, say, farmlands, I can imagine it paying for itself in maybe 14 ~ 28 turns.

Is it possible, and profitable, to use those light militia in your outlying provinces simply to raise taxes? When I get back this evening, I'll try and do the math on my questions, and experiment, but I'd love to hear what others have to say.

Thanks.