Primary objective at the start of a game

Don't bother building stuff in provinces with no resource, the AI does that for you if you don't kill it.

I would say just spam armour while heavily upgrading cities, especially coastal ones. A very important thing is to warmonger. Try to only have a day or two between wars at the most. Attack other people before they attack you and ALWAYS try have one ally.

My first objective is to build a sizable force and try to ally with others as a buffer. I mostly start off at improving Good, Grain and Oil production first to build an army and strike important province that produce resource.

My game plan is always slow but relentless always attacking in full might, though I may lag behind I always have an army with 100% efficiency in reserve.

I tend to be very fluid.

Some games are very active, diplomacy and alliances are a possibility there.

Others, you will find very quiet.

In all games, understanding your country - it's specific strengths and weaknesses, especially with resources is key.

Non-cores do not yield that much resource for what they consume, you will find your core carrying you for much of the game.

I focus on production and research at the start.

building barracks in the 5 factory cities then building infantry in them

Then ether navy or infrastructure depending on what country I am playing.

at the same time moving the units I start with to the borders of an AI country near me so on day 2 or 3 I can war them

I don't build many light tanks. I wait for medium tanks before truly building up my army then it is a steady growth till I can take an inactive player country

the hardest part about army growth is resources so if in income is up early you have a leg up latter.

I do not look for allies till day 3 or latter because so many people do IA