It's all simple when you are in the early ages: Focus on expanding. Your empire will grow faster because of the Expansive trait of Bismarck, which you can use to build granaries and have healthy cities and to train Workers to build improvements.

This is where it all starts to get a little tricky. You can build a lot of troops with the construction of a forge and you can also build a lot of world wonders faster because of Bismarck's Industrious trait. You can start invading other countries when you have adopted the Nationhood civic. In my opinion, Cuirassiers are the best troops for attacking because of their maneuverability. You can also promote your troops to the Drill promotion. Also, if you have settled near jungles, it's not a problem because of the Expansive trait. This means that you can build Forges without concerning yourself about health.

You will start with Assembly Plants and then build Coal Plants in order to render Assembly Plants useful. The Assembly Plant is an amazing building which enables you to construct buildings and units faster. This can give you a significant advantage in training troops and especially, the special unit of the Germans, the Panzer. The Panzer is an amazing unit which can help you destroy even a country that has Tanks. This is due to the Panzers having an advantage against armored units. I would advise you to promote your Panzers to the Drill promotion. You can also use Cavalry to flank enemy cannons. You will also need to bring some Artillery alongside with your Panzers to bombard and damage the enemy troops which your Panzers will finish off. You can also use Bombers or Fighters and even Airships to bombard enemy improvements and attack enemy troops, cities or to damage enemy troops. If you bombard enemy improvements, the enemy is more likely to sign a peace treaty with you. And now the most important unit of the whole game, Infantry. They will protect your Panzers from enemy Anti-Tanks. You can also bring in Machine Guns when invading another country to let your Panzers and your Infantry and your Artillery go to other cities, while they protect that city.

If you still haven't invaded a country, now is the time to do so. Go and invade those countries and have more cities to help you do more research.

Playing as the Germans is the best thing to do so in the game as you can dominate the world easily. This was a basic tutorial on how to play as the Germans in Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword. Thank you for reading this guide and don't forget to rate it!