First and foremost, play as neutral dd farming credits/points before you start any real CV/BB/SS grind. For sailors ability just search on other post and you will find a lot of answers there. Have fun.

While at it, leave while you can :)

Just a side advise.  

first ... use your yellow crew .. level them all as nuets on the FF until level 24 ...
then take them off and put a new batch on ... do not armor the FF nor do a lot of gun changes

the goal here is to save all your credits and points until you pass 150k in both
once you pass 150k pts/crd then you are 'in trade status' and can recieve cred gifts

after your friend (or otherwise) gives you a big chunk of creds/pts to jumpstart your acct
then you can class your crew and buy ships ... the FF period also lets you watch nations
so when the time comes you should have general idea which nation you want to start with

also keep in mind that you do not have to buy every ship that your BO levels up for ...

ex) : IJN BB line ... kagero > fubuki > simakaze > kuma (kita remodel) ... skip the in-betweens


 also keep in mind that pts are used to roll new crew - class crew levels -  change names - etc ..




for crew you have several options ...


Normal ROLLED crew :

you roll for these by clicking the 'NEW" sailor icon below the sailor wait list box .. lower right
it costs pts to roll .. you need to roll through a lot of dud to cull the gems ... eats up pts fast

the range in stats for normal rolled crew is .. 7-15 for potential ... 7-12 for all others ..
for high pot crew such as BO's and SS 15 is best .. 14 is good *if* with high rep/rest stats

POTential stat is used by sailors that do specialist work not covered by the usual list of jobs
(.. BO's .. sonarmen .. planesmen .. landing marines and airlift forces .. seamen .. medics ..)

the other stats are used by specific sailor classes for their classed job function on ship ..
12 is the best .. 11 is good - especially if its 11/11 in their class ... 
GUNS ... 12/11-10 = main guns .. 8-9-10/12 = aa guns .. 11/11 = good general purpose
ENGR / REPAIR / RESTORE ... try to get at least a 10 in each of the 3 .. 11-11-10 nice enough
you want a 12 in their primary stat and a 11 or 10 in the other two when possible
(if your repairmen have a high enough restore stat = it helps in the long run = kick rest off)
note * the ENGR stat only works when it is on the top support slots .. does not work on board

sonarmen and planesmen for SS crew greatly benefit from having a high rep/res/eng set
so a 14pot with high support rep/res  stats is better than a 15pot with low support stats

NOTE ; .. the aaw (ship auto-machine gun AA) and the AIR(scout) stats are defunct = turned off
so do not worry these two too much .. for AA the RLD gun stat is the most important one





you may also buy ELITE Sailors from the olive ITEM STORE here on site :

elite sailors are 'specialist' sailors in one specific job area .. they have one uber stat ..
for E-pot they are 16pot and 9 in all others .. for E-(type) they are 13 in one stat and 9 all others





if you have done the special events ...

you may also exchange medals for HERO Sailors in the MEDAL STORE here on site :

hero sailors are a straight up solid 14 in ALL stats .. makes uber gun, supp, pilots, seaman
but since they are still 'only a 14' in pot stat .. don't waste them on high pot jobs like a BO





NOTE :
also available in the olive ITEM STORE is a 'premium sailor' thing known as BOOST ..
applying it to a sailor(once only limit) boosts ALL that one sailors stats upwards by 20% ..





finally .. there is the in-game trades option of 'BUYING CREW' for creds (or  sometimes pts)

a word of caution before buying such crew .. cons and scammers are out there ..
be wary of buying someone elses mis-classed mistakes being pawned off .. research first




but do the FF and save all pts / creds until 150k+ trade status then get some seed start up influx before spending anything .... play ... grind 24 then off - new batch - repeat ... build crds/pts

don't spend anything classing nations or rolling crew yet ... wait until AFTER the trade infusion


my brother gave me 10 million to set me up back when he got me into the game ... helped tremedously




so suck it up ... play and learn the angles ... be a tightwad until your fund boost comes in

Well choosing your nation and what ship you are going to play will be a good place to start.

Nations:

USN
Balanced BB with decent firepower, mediocre armor and speed.
Mediocre sub marine with decent offensive and defensive capacity, high dud rate.
Best fighter planes in the game, dive bomber and torpedo bombers are just meh

RN
Offensive BB with high firepower, good armor if you are planning on going armour whore. 
Worst sub in the game period, just don't use RN as your first sub nation.  
Best torpedo bomber in the game, horrible fighters and dive bomber.

IJN
Weakest BB defence, devastating fire power but very slow shell travelling speed.
Sub have high BB destroying potential but lacking in anti submarine capacity.
Mediocre but fast fighters, decent dive and torpedo bombers

RM
Offensive BB with ok defence, above average fire rate but low calibre guns .
Above average sub with both decent offensive and defensive capacity.
Good torpedo bomber, average fighters and dive bombers.

SN
Average defensive BB with good fire power, but slow.
Below average sub, fast torpedo but dud alot.
Best dive bomber in the game, worst torpedo bobmers and meh fighters.

MN
Offensive BB with good speed, above average fire power but bad range.
Fast sub with good overall attributes.
Good dive bomber and torpedo bomber, average fighter planes.

KM 
Defensive BB with good range but low fire power.
Unique sub with proxy torpedo, very low torpedo out put.
Slow but hard hitting fighters, decent dive bombers and bad torpedo bombers. 

Ship classes:
Battleship (BB)- recommended starting nation: RN or USN
BB are something first time NF player will go for since it is cheap for its level and later on you can become a force to be rekoned with. Play it with easy as it is really weak at first when you start off and the payout isn't all that great, but with practice and some observation you will get there. At higher level, you will simply punch holes in the sea.

Carrier (CV) - recommended starting nation: USN, IJN or KM
If you played games like CoH or MoW, then you may like microing planes like you did with small squad of soldiers. Carriers gain alot of money compare to other ship calss of the same teir, do keep in mind though, carriers are very expensive, you might need to loan some money from your friend (NOT RECOMMENDED) for this one.

Submarine (SS)- recommended starting nation: KM, RM or MN
Submarines are pathetic at low level as they run out of air too soon and can't stand toe to toe with stronger subs. However, you can still to alot of damage if you can out wit and out play your opponent, the lowest payout in the ship class of the same teir but also the least crew demanding class out of the three.

I would go first for a  KM Emden and if possible a KM Molke AA ship. Most easy AA nation that doesnt require super crew.

Not only will this will power lvl most off your crew even if you put other nation sailors on it while gaining loads off experts doing so, it also is the best way to learn manual aiming.

When you reached lvl 31 send me a PM  and I will give you some freebees, Have fun!

All of the above answers are pretty accurate. This game has became more and more difficult for a new player to start. EXP gain has increased, while expert gain and credit/point game has not been increased with it. Before it was very likely you would run out of credits&points early and even make a poor base crew on your own. Now it's practically guarenteed. There will be a lot of reptitiveness as your choices will be Blitzkrieg or Great Battle, both team deathmatch. There is a lot of things to learn about to game. There are some guides that will help you in the starting phase but there are no real public end phase strategy guides. It may be free to pay, but has become pay to stay relevent.

Do the "attendance" calender everyday.   By doing so, you will get 1 free olive per day.
Over time, this will add up and you will be able to add vets, boosts, and other items without paying for them.

Although it is a slow process, you will also win items  in drops, win olives in events. So the extra attendance olives will help boost the numbers you win.

There will be times during events when you can "roll" to convert expert sailors to vets.
If a sailor has 30 or less vets, you can very easily convert 40 experts to 40 vets with ease.   Take advantage of this fact.

Finally, don't plan on getting anysort of ground troops of any sort right away.   These are used in Harbor Assaults and the Occupation mode.     You must belong to a fleet to do Harbor Assaults.   Occupation mode is played from time to time, but not that often.   Concentrate on your sailors and worry about ground troops a looooog time from now.

Promote your beginning sailors on time.   Repeat.  Promote your sailors on time.
This will insure they get maximun growth and strength.   Important for down the road.

Be aware that there are "caps".     for example   Accuracy for gunners.   There is a value where no matter how many sailors, experts, or vets that sailor has, you cannot get more gun accuracy out of them.    This will be about lvl 70 so you are a long ways from that.  

Finally, read some the guides.   REPEAT   read some of the guides.   They may be gobble de gook to you at first because you won't understand the terms because you are not familiar with the game.    With experience, you will soon understand what the author is talking about.

and last but not least....HAVE FUN.

Good advice from Dragon boats!

Love the positive feedback here. A lot of great pointers. Hope all new players read this.