A few ideas about colonies; some might be good, some might be bad...

When one civ invades another civs core area, instead of its far flung colonies being left independant or having countries ruled by afar (like France in Canada, England in America etc.), how about the invaders keep the colonies of those they conquor?

I know the idea of a colonial war has come up before but what are the reasons it was rejected? It does seem to make a lot of sense to me.

If that's not possible how about if civs got a defensive bonus defending their homeland, or a defensive penalty/smaller bonus than usual, defending their colonies and military acquisitions? This way it would be easier to take colonies than cities in the homeland where people would fight harder to defend their homes.

how about the invaders keep the colonies of those they conquor?

Maybe it is a good idea to keep some of them.

if civs got a defensive bonus defending their homeland

Oh, no. The AI's (Warlords AI's even more) already suck at attacking anything except Independents, we don't want to make the attacking even more hard for them.

Then what about making attacking colonies easier?

I like the idea of colonial aquisition, what about when a civ collapses, its remaining cities get randomly shared between the two independent civs, the barbarians, and any civs that control cities in its core area.

I don't mind flaming_iles's suggestion. Adds some dynamics to the game. Dunno if it's necessary...

Auction off the colonies to the higher bidder. Colonies just don't magically appear in people's possessions.

Make it an option. When the civ collpase you can vote or something for other viable civs. After WW1 Germanies colonies were taken or made mandates, they were not given independance. Wouldn't it be good if there were independant revolutions in South America and Australia around certain years? Nothing serious, perhaps a few independant muskets in the 1800's (for SA.)