Achievements are not "just" for those who want a sense of direction, so they'll be spread all over the game, not just the tutorial.
Let's just leave the mod discussion for now. We've done it a 100 times already: If we can support mods, we'll do it, but for now no, you'll have skip achievements if you want to play with mods.
As for achievements as a whole. Some people seem to be missing how they work conceptually. It's kind of an abstract concept so if you haven't experienced it it's a bit hard to wrap your brain around it
This is how achievements work:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eG8TmmSLUUo&feature=related
This is from the excellent game Batman Arkham Asylum. There's an achievement in the game called "Catch!" worth 5 points where you have to throw the batarang and guide it back to you. It's not super tricky but it teaches you that you can control the batarang mid air.
once you do that there's a little graphic that pops up and says "Achievement unlocked!: catch! - 5p". This is the ONLY time you'll see the achievement in the game. From now on its permanently associated with your account and added to your point total.
Whenever you log into Paradox Connect you'll be able to view all your achievements.
Achievements in EU DW will work exactly the same.
1: You start the game
2: Once in the game you'll be asked to log in to Paradox Connect. You can chose not to. Otherwise use your forum credentials to do so.
3: Start playing
4: Once condition x has been met there'll be a little sound and a pop up that says "Achievement unlocked - [achievement name] [point]". It'll disappear after a few seconds and you'll never see it again
5: You can then bring up a Paradox connect overlay and view all your achievements and your point total.
6: You can chose to display your point total on the forums so every time you post people will see that you were first to get all the 1000 points available in Divine Wind.
Regarding the mentioned "compromises" in the first post:
Those "compromises" for games like HOI, Vicky, CK, and EU will be more along the lines of not allowing achievements if you have a modded game, and not disallowing modding, right? I used to think that I knew the answer to this, but that post shed a little bit of a shadow on it again...
Yeah exactly, primarily modding and stuff like that.
/s