1 Getting started
There's a fair bit of disagreement on what exactly the best starting technique is. Here are a few popular techniques.

1) 2 golem start
In this technique, you must first build your temple ( near lots of geysers ) then whilst it is building, you check the map for postable isle's. Once your temple is done, get 2 golems and connect to a couple of nearby geysers and get golems cashin' in. Do the same with your priest if you want. Now bridge like a maniac for the middle. Stop bridging once your cash is about to reach 2k, and build your shops and send the priest up. Tidy up any loose ends on your bridges and get knowledge into production and gen up to the post isle(s). Get your post and a couple of golems to go with it and there ya go.

2) 1 shop rush
This time make sure you build a shop at the same time as your temple ( and you'll probably want wind ) and get 1 golem instead of two. Now do the same as before but get a second golem when you have the cash ( 1 won't be enough ) and get your priest running after he has made 0 1 or 2 crystal runs instead of after you build shops. How many crystals should priesty get before running? That's dependant on personal preference. The advantage of less runs is that your priest reaches post faster. The disadvantage is that your cash will be slower as you've had that x00 less SP, which in turn means golems x seconds later etc. Personally, I would let him make one or two runs if you have a post island nearby, or no runs if you really have to push it to get a post first.

2) What next?
Okay, you're gettin the cash in and you're not sure what to do next. You got lots of choices. Netstorm is all about long-term control, especially if you have several people playing. You want to control as much of the map as possible, as this gives you access to more cash, and good attack routes. Posting up as much of the map as possible is a good start, but a little dangerous at times. Bridge is the most useful way to control the map I find. When you have a border of bridge it takes time to be attacked, your units are protected and you have a much greater accessability to the map. If you were quick enough, then you may be able to attack your opponents posts before there cash supply is running properly, thereby winning the game ( basically ) in a matter of seconds. Make sure you've got plenty of attacking/defending units in production slots.

3 Bridging
Bridge speed is one of the most important aspect of the game in my opinion. Firstly, you gotta use the hotkeys, but I'm sure you all know that by now. You should at least use four of the six hotkeys for a reasonable effect. It's not as hard as it might sound to run out of all six pieces during a game if you really go for it. Try also using ALT to scroll as well, you'll be suprised how much faster it is. How fast are you? Practice on the demos, though the bridge refresh rate makes this a little unrealistic, try to bridge around the enemy isle on the first demo and connect to your isle the other side in about 50 seconds. Do the same thing on the third demo in under 3 mimiutes. If you can do these, you're as fast as you need to be to play well (but getting faster can't hurt). Be careful too, that you don't end up with all the branches on your bridges facing the same way, it can really restrict you later, and its very easy to do this if you're bridging for speed. Practice makes perfect! Webbing is the term I loosely use for any sort of bridging that restricts your opponents construction. It involves basically closely surrounding your enemy's bridge with yours, or filling in any gaps with bridge, thus preventing his construction. It's a great way to defend yourself if you're low on cash, particiularly if you have man-o-war's on the loose. Bridging your opponent off is useful also, genreally followed up by this webbing. When you attack something (eg outpost of isle) it is a good idea to bridge around the side as well, and web off any places you opponent might bridge around to outflank you. It's much easier to defend your attack if they can only attack it from one side. Remember, don't give your opponent a chance to build anything threatening!Loop your bridges to themselves occasionally as it stops them crumbling if left unattended, do this when you have a huge bridge war off the edge of the map, or you've run into an island while bridging off an opponent but can't connect to it. Connect to any big islands around so you can build off them, you should occasionaly connect to opponents bridges and islands as it supplies a route for power, or allows you to build on neutral islands that only they are connected to. Connect to geysers frequently so your golems have something to do, and as you can still build off a geyser you own (if you have a power route) regardless of if you yourself are connected to it. Connecting to an opponents island during an attack can be an incredibly useful move. It allows you to build even when you lose your main connection. This is because you are normally connected to your opponent somewhere, and building units depends on two things. 1 It has to have a power route from one of your posts or temple, regardless of whose territory this goes through. 2 It has to be neutral or owned by you. This can lead to your opponent thinking he's melted your connection, and then you continue building bridges and units, from your bridge which is attached only to his island!

4) Meltdowns
Firslty, why meltdown when you can salvage? If you don't want your opponent to hear you breaking through his lines, salvage a gen or sun bar instead. It only destroys cracked bridge, and it has a smaller range, but your opponent almost certainly won't notice - great for sneak attacks. Other than that, meltdown whenever you can! If your opponent has any bridge that is remotely in your way, get rid of it. Even if he builds it back, he has still spent longer rebuilding than you have destroying, so you have gained, if he doesn't build it back, you bridge through the gap and control more territory- It's a no-lose situation! Meldowns don't seem to be used as much as I think they should. Remember also that everyone can hear a meltdown, and will amost certainly check all their major bridges when they hear one - use this fact to distract your opponents occasionally, just melt empty space and they'll amost certainly waste a few seconds looking around. ( though your allies probably will too....) cunning eh? One last thing. It is sometimes a good idea to try to meltdown your own bridges if they have become almost useless and need to be rebuilt

5) Units
What units do you use for what? Depends largely on personal preferences. Normally you'll want crossbows when fighting for the centre if there are more than two sides competing, because they are so versatile. If there are two teams competing, and you're therefore unlikely to be outflanked, you might prefer ice cannons. Later you'll want arial units, preferably man o wars, as by this time there will be very few areas left to build in, and these can access all sorts of areas other units cannot, and they tend not to be too badly stopped by sun bars either. An expensive alternative to this is thunder cannons. Build them where they can't be easily reached and sit back and watch them clear an area.

Sun Bars
Use them lots!!! it's 200 for a bar, and 400 for two, so maximum cost is 400 for an invulnerable shield that can be quite long. If you have enough bars, you'll also start to notice that you get connections appearing everywhere, quite by accident. There's nothing that will put an opponent off attacking more than a battlefield covered in bars =) When placing bars, try to make sure that at least one end is somewhere safe in your terrirory, or somewhere else that is hard for your opponent to reach. If a bar can be shot at, build more in front of it. It's worth building bars in front of anything, because for 400 you can block it off, and even a single crossbow costs 500. The worst enemy of the sun bar is the man o war. If your opponent pulls them out, you're probably going to want to get some yourself, or use Bulkwarks if you prefer. Do leave some room for your attacking units though.There are plenty of rather sneaky bar tricks around too, I'll leave you to work out these.

6) Endgame
By this time you know who is going to win. Here is where you could ask where you went wrong (if you lost) or be smug (if you won) Once the last island on one of the teams is well under seige and beyond rescue, you should type gg. It doesn't matter how quick you won or lost, or whether the map was good, this is simply good conduct. Here is where you DON'T put your priest in your allys airship and float him to god knows where. Here is where you DON'T start accusing your opponent of being unfeasibly lucky or cheating. Be frirendly and enjoy netstorm the way it was supposed to be.

7) Spells
Spells. Everybody hates them, myself included. Fair enough, they are part of the game, but people consider that there's something a little underhand about using spells. Most players don't use spells because it takes too much time that they would rather spend beating up an outpost or whatever, and I also found this to be the case. If you use spells, expect people to moan at you. Spells are for when you've already lost, if you still wish to stoop that low.