>>11600It's been a while since I've last played Ostalgie but I've found that the main problems people have when first starting is not prioritizing accumulating research buildings to speed up your science tab of industry, agriculture, and security. That is probably the number one issue you should prioritize, since all advancements there will bring you a lot of bonuses, such as less Westalgia, more money, more people support and party support, more agents, etc.
The second thing you should prioritize is building up agents. That's absolutely necessary if you want to mantain the socialist camp stability high. In that regard Ostalgie can get a bit repetitive since if you're just trying to win without necessarily going for any achievement that requires you to deviate a little from the perfect run the game can become a bit scripted since you'll always pick the same foreign policy events to keep stability and high and possible and more or less also the same internal events.
If you're just playing to win and are trying to get accustomed to the game, as you said with the GDR your best option is building research buildings at the start of the game and building agent buildings when you make the money back. Always pick the option in events that will keep stability high, such as supporting the conservative coup in Vietnam, supporting communists with agents and money in Poland and Hungary, supporting the Soyuz faction in the USSR every year, helping the Sandinistas in the elections, etc etc.
The GDR is a good start since they start out with a lot of money and agent making buildings so just keep trying and you'll eventually win.