This is the thread for hints and spoilers. Shoild you care to share the trading stations you have found in the Med and in America, feel free to post them here with the appropriate title. That way, whoever does not want to avail him/herself of the hint does not have the game "spoiled".
Other examples would be where to pick up good tavern missions to get "easy" additions to the fleet. Being faceed with an 80% holk with 65 crew on a 3,000GS escort mission would not qualify for that.
Election dates are as follows:
Lord Mayor elections, sorted by date
Jan 22 Bremen
Feb 16 Oslo
Feb 26 Bruegge
May 11 Bergen
May 18 Ladoga (Captain 3/0/1 spottend on May 21)
May 28 Stettin
June 08 Edinburgh (Captain 3/2/0 spotted on May 13)
June 18 Hamburg
July 01 Danzig (if Edingurgh captain is hired, then the replacement shows here with trade ability of 4)
July 17 Revel
Sept 30 London
Nov 14 Gothenburg
Elderman elections are on July 13th.
It doesn't matter which flag you fly, you will need captains to start building your empire.
Initially only very low loans are available. I didn't find a good one until mid May.
Ships need the necessary materials and, unfortunaltey, those are scarce. Also, keep in mind that winter is not far away and your citizens do want certain goods in larger quantities when daylight is shorter than the night.
Pirates are fairly active. In one testgame they raided Bergen on July 27 but were without luck four days later in Oslo. I took all their ships but, somehow they managed to throw the bullion overboard before my ships took command of their vessels. This particular convoy comprised 2 holks and 2 crayers. It's out of the first pirate nest posted in another message of today (Jan 01, 2007)
Edits
January 2, 2007 Danzig captain added