Here’s a collection of orted tips and various pieces of advice that just didn’t fit into Part 1 of the Ministry of Education's official new player guide (well, a rough guide anyway).

Some you may like and some you may not, and some you may do better, while others are just plain obvious. Please share your suggestions in the comments below and check out Part 1 of 7 Top Tips for New Players ~ thanks.
1
--Army pays well, but Navy protects the homeland:
With the addition of coastal regions, any major power can now more easily attack a minor country to take away their resources. Your country needs new players who can increase their Intelligence and help out in defending against such invasions. Focusing on Strength may earn more Gold faster, but fighting in Naval Battles and building Intelligence will help out your team much more. Upgrade Military Academies and fight in naval battles to increase your Navy Rank!
 
--Save up your Energy Drinks and RPGs:
While it is tempting to keep fighting and do bigger damage, it would be wise to save up these rare and powerful supplies for major battles. RPGs are x5 damage based on Strength, so later you will be able to inflict more damage per RPG. However, you have to balance this with your need to earn Gold for upgrades. Wait for the right time to use these supplies for an important battle supporting Canada and you will support the team and earn profitable Medals. Energy Drinks and RPGs are best used with a 20% booster.

--Finish the XII Challenges:
Not only will you gain useful supplies on the way to 100%, but the final reward of 50 Strength is a major gain. Keep in mind Strength, not actually Gold, is your main et. Depending on how close you are to 100%, use Energy Drinks, RPGs, and the weapons you win to finish the challenge if you need a SMALL boost. Keep in mind that the total damage needed will get higher as you increase in strength, rank, and level, making it more costly to reach the final rewards.

--Build Health Kits: (for players over 1 month who produce lots of excess food)
For 1000 Q# Food, you can make one Health Kit that will give you 50 or more energy/kit. These are important for major battles that we have to win. You could try to sell the food (1600 Energy/Gold usually) but the profit is small compared to the tactical benefit of a surge
attack. Producing Q1 Health Kits is doable after 1 month and Q2 should be a possibly in 2 months. Health Kits + Energy Drinks + RPGs + Damage Booster surges can help Canada win key battles. 

--Bonus Tip: If you plan to go all-out and use all your Health Kits, considering activating 2 or more houses because each one will increase the amount of health a Health Kit will restore. When on sale, Field Hospitals also make great investments for maximizing your Health Kit effectiveness.
Edit: Read more about Health Kits with inFidel's article "Strategic Buildings - Cost Guide"

--Use 20% Damage Boosters wisely:
Save your +20% Damage Boosters for when you are at max health (full health + full recovery bar) and can use a hospital. If you can fight near day change,you can use the hospital twice with one 30 minute booster, which can net you about 1500 energy worth of fights with a 20% boost, which is like getting an energy 300 energy in fighting damage. Don’t stockpile dozens of Damage Boosters. They do not stack (only 1 every 30 minutes), so use them steadily to win Medals and keep a small supply ready for any major battles. 

--Use your 500k bombs early:
You will earn TP medals quickly with any powerful bombs you win from weekly/monthly Missions. While it is better to save them for a major battle, as a new player, your priority is to develop your Companies and Strength. A month or two later, you will easily do 500k damage with regular fights so the bombs will have less of an effect. Plus, the TP/TA medals require less damage early on so the bombs earn you more Gold sooner that can be used for upgrades, which in turn lets you rank up faster. Don’t forget to combine Bombs with a 20% Booster.

--Look for Hospitals:
Move to a region in the country where a Hospital has been placed. You can receive up to 250 free health per day by using one. Hospitals only last a month so be aware of when it runs out and if it gets replaced. On the flipside, fighting in a battle against a Defense System can make you lose up to 35% of your damage gains, which is bad when you are a new player trying to level up and win medals. If it is not a must-win battle,
consider dumping your damage somewhere else. 

--Houses Stack into House Packs:
You can activate up to 5 different Q-level houses at the same time, increasing your Energy limit to 1250 (very useful when combined with Health Kits!) and regenerate 10 Energy/5 minutes.  A House Pack (a term you will see on the Black Market/chat area) includes all five Q-level houses but will cost upwards of 30 Gold for 1 week, so you will not be using them (or even 2 or 3 houses) unless you purchase Gold.

--Use the Market as Storage:
You can place an unlimited number items at a high price and later remove them from the Market for your use. This is especially useful if you plan to build Houses, which need more Raw Material than your storage space allows. Storage is (for some strange reason) quite expensive in this game. The Market/Storage trick will let you focus on other upgrades until your companies are better established. 

--Weapon Factories can wait: 
Your upgrades should be in the following order: Q1/Q2 Food Factories, Boot Camp Q2/Q3, Q1 House Factory, Q1/Q2 Health Kits, and then maybe weapon supply. Weapons are costly to produce. Canada has strong food bonuses that will let you produce extra for making Health Kits, so your initial companies are better off being in food production. 

--Buying weapons can also wait:
Until you are well established with Companies and Workout Area upgrades, your fights should focus on earning your Medal rewards. Weapons will eat up those benefits but give only a small reward by comparison. Use your CC to buy food for fights, to exchange for extra Gold for upgrades, or later on, to buy Strength with an Advanced Training area. However, you may need to buy weapons when you are close to finishing the XII Challenge since the rewards can be worth the investment. 

--Play the Seasonal Events wisely:
Check to see how many rewards can be won and what type. Identify a few most valuable ones and STOP when you win them. Save Energy for fights – not winning all the rewards. Keep in mind the rules can change with each event so your strategy needs to adjust, too. These events are designed to suck energy and even Gold out of players, so resist the temptation to win at all costs.

 --Referral links pay well:
Getting a friend to join and reach Level 20 will earn you 5 Gold, plus 10% of any Gold that player wins or buys in the game. An active referral will bring in an easy 2-3 Gold/week or more. You can find your Referral Link by clicking on Store and then the Gold Bonus tab. Once a player joins with your link, you need to check back in to the Gold Bonus tab to collect your rewards. 

--Help others, especially new players:
The game and your country will not grow without player support. Answer a question, give some food or a few guns, and remember that while the game seems pretty simple to you, there are actually a wide range of unwritten rules and unclear game mechanics that will take new players a while to figure out. Believe me, I have asked many questions and am still learning. 


There are many other small tricks and helpful tips out there that other players use to min/max their citizen. Those described above are not perfect and may not suit every player, so feel free to disagree or suggest other ways to get ahead faster. Building stats and accruing wealth are obvious goals for the game but the real challenge comes in when you work others finding ways to increase the overall gains of your country. I leave those tricks up to you to discover.

Suggested reading: 
--Jean Epsilon’s La Theorie de l'Optimisation - an article in French describing how to maximize your investments

--Jean Epsilon’s Trucs et Astuces - a French/English article with various tips and tricks, most notably - always use Energy when moving, not Gold

--Orion Pax’s About Battles for Noobs - gives a basic explanation (with pictures) of what side you are fighting on in different battles.

--Orion Pax’s Company Productivity - very useful tables showing the upgrade cost and productivity/raw material needs of all company types

--eRevollution Blog’s tutorial - http://blog.erevgame.com/

--Kromion’s How to Compare the Prices of Weapons - a basic math formula for finding out the Gold value of weapons across different countries

--Velandor’s Profit Ratios of Companies by Grand Countries - an e-document that will calculate the profitability of a company in several different countries...might not be useful for Canada but is a good example of how to track values

--Mr Gabiru 749’s eRev Tools Updates - provides a very useful tool if you want to calculate how much damage you need for the next medal or how much damage you can put out with according to different weapon types. A must have for any serious player!  http://erevtools.com/tools.php

--Ferdi Carrefour’s Heli Hit Energy Price Calculator  -  a rough Googledoc spreadsheet that helps you add up all the house, health kits, and energy drinks to see how many hits you can put out and the damage that can be done with various weapons.

--pageros’s E-Rev for Noobs - Part 1 - a great quick list of thinks a new player needs to know to get going on the first day, plus many useful links to check out for additional information about the game. 

--Diesel's USA Newbie Guide - a great summary of useful information for players learning the basics of the game, and comes with helpful screenshots, too.